Education Current Events

5 Ways to Encourage “Sharing” to Create a Workplace of Choice

Share your toys! This was a message many traditionalist parents shared with their toddlers and somehow it goes from that to ‘play to win’ and ‘knock out your competition’.

Although Zoomers have been slogging away in work environments where ‘play to win’ and ‘knock out your competition’ were solid goals in the eighties and nineties they do not hold a lot of allure for the Gen Y’s entering the workforce.

Gen Y’s expect sharing when they get to their workplace and they are not motivated by knocking someone else down so that they can win. They are more motivated by group focus on a goal, group achievement with individual recognition of outstanding efforts. They realize that competition exists but they see it more as co-opetition where we cooperate with our competitors while gaining market share.

Even though Gen Y has grown up on video games and they fight and compete their way to win the game they get points for helping others and for saving the world.

All generations benefit from ‘sharing in the workplace’ specifically when it comes to the sharing of knowledge. Here is a list of sharing that goes a long way to create a happy workplace:

Sharing knowledge- generously downloading what you know to everyone on your team in order to help them do their jobs better and to gain skills

Sharing resources- cross-departmental sharing of what they have available to them such as technology, people, solutions and ideas

Sharing people- cross training and cross sharing people keeps the company dynamic and evolving and continues the learning curve for all three of the generations

Sharing clients- often a client who buys from one department is a great client for another department think Nike (basketball, soccer etc.) or Best Buy

Sharing updates- using social media such as Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn to share what is going within the company as a constant connection tool to potential buyers and happy customers

Some questions to ask yourself in regards to sharing in your workplace are:

What could we share more often that would increase camaraderie and team within our culture?

What resources are we hoarding? (For example does one department have access to information and resources that would significantly help another?)

What can we do to share our people? How can we formalize cross training and cross department learning?

Are we sharing positive messages via social media about our company?

Sharing isn’t a concept anymore it is something that is required to live in order to create workplaces where all of the generations want to work and want to share.

School

How to Create New Information Products

Have you ever wondered how to quickly create an information product that yields a massive return on investment?
Information products are knowledge-based products that include books, reports, articles, etc. In the Internet context, this can be e-books and some audio or video formats. They are often referred to as ‘digital goods’ of ‘knowledge-based goods’.
It can be a very profitable pursuit. If you have a very compelling or in-demand topic for an information product, it is a start of a possible money-making machine. However, finding time and motivation to create such product may prove to be difficult.
The worst mistake is making products that people will never want. You just wasted your time and effort. It is very important to carefully plan and by carefully examining the market. Market research is the first thing you should do. Understanding the trends and desires of the public will help you decide which direction to go in.
Sometimes however, trial and error is the better approach in this endeavor. Experience is still the best teacher. It can give you a better understanding of the buying public. Some products may bomb and others may surprise you. But the most important is to stay keen and observant. The more you get a feel for the inclinations of the market; the more you can create effective information products.
Considering all of these, it is essential to have a specific target of buyers in mind. Ask yourself if these people are willing to spend money for your prospective product. Then inquire into how much are they willing to spend. Can they afford high-end products? Or will low-end mass-distributed products do the trick?
Focus on your niche. It is the most critical part of the process. It will help you concentrate and focus if you have a goal in mind.
The next thing to do is to make the product. You can employ professional help with the technical stuff. If you want to produce e-books you can hire a proofreader or get help from a capable family member or a friend. You can even use ghost writers if you want to.
Upon completion of your prototype information products, you should test it before investing large amounts of money into the project. Give it to family and friends for feedback or you can provide samples for individuals that are pre-selected to test your products in a particular demographic. The feedback and reactions you get help to give you an indication to the probable success or failure of your product.
Fine tune your information product if you deem it to be necessary. Now, if you are happy with the feedback and satisfied with the product, prepare a platform in which you can sell or provide the product to the public. The trend nowadays, is through the Internet Online selling or distributing is the way to go right now.
Most likely, you already have a website with a relevant content to your product. If you don’t have one, create a site for your product. Let the site become a marketing vehicle for your information product. Technical stuff like SEO and link building for web traffic must be implemented. More visitors equates to better chances of selling the product you have created.
Creating and selling information products is a continuous process. Be vigilant about the market’s drifts and desires.