John Ryan

I've often wondered why people sometimes struggle with decisions as an individual or in groups. Group dynamics are very interesting to me and personal behavior that seems to be fueled by fear or embracing life/opportunity is equally intriguing. Regrettably, you will see in certain groups that people will move in the direction of fear-based living. That being said, this is a short list of behavior terms that psychologists/researchers use to describe what goes on with people when making decisions. It’s part of the research I have done for my book. When you’re having a bad day because someone did something that made no sense or “the group” is being strange, perhaps one of these terms will give you some short-term comfort. Humans seem to do the same things over and over – they just attach different names to it. Adjustment Heuristic – When people tend to rely on specific... (more)

The Value is in Ideas and Distributed Contribution

Control vs. Order No individual wants to believe they are under control, but society needs to have a sense of order which means we exchanged control along the way with our institutions. With that control being exchanged, we gave power and influence to a centralized few. I feel there is a collective yearning to splinter control and to no longer allow for the gross centralization of control. A belief that the risk of that power being used against us in some way goes down dramatically if that power is distributed among the many. A sense of order is more guided by the mores associate... (more)

Five Proven Improvements Your Business Must Make During this Recession

Of course it’s easy to slump in our chair and wish things were as simple as they were two years ago. We reflect on an image of bon vivant behavior and business just seemed to slide under the door. But let’s face it; many businesses became fat and dumb including your customers. Many of them weren’t thinking about being lean, fast and efficient. They were spending more time looking at how to keep the stock price up in an era of financial froth instead of focusing on meeting the needs of their buyers while driving their own long term costs down. The Era of Froth has been transformed... (more)

Micro-Blogging in the Enterprise

Over the next few months I hope to interview carefully chosen executives who I believe will have an impact on how companies optimize revenue. I was lucky enough to come across Socialcast, a young company based in San Francisco, California. I thought Tim Young to be patient, thoughtful and very tuned in to the topics of the day. He certainly has the disposition to be a visionary in this space. Here are the questions I posed to Tim and his answers. If I were an analyst at a major research firm, what category would I place Socialcast? Enterprise Social Messaging What’s the so what of ... (more)

Ulitzer vs. Ning

My original post in late June was based on two weeks of using Ulitzer and Ning.  I've added additional thoughts after two months of use. The obvious point for me is that the sites have two different objectives for the writers.  For Ning, the writer is trying to be involved in a niche social network from scratch.  For example, I have built my own social network for marketers and salespeople called BuyerSteps.  I created BuyerSteps as a way for other professionals to join in a conversation around the 21st century buyer.  So, Ning represents a way to build a community. In the case o... (more)