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This is the second post I've guest authors for Mindflash. You can view the first post here... 37signals’ Idealogy Meets Online Training (Part 1): Meetings are Toxic

Excerpt from this most recent post:

 

“Instead of trying to outspend, outsell, or outsponsor competitors, try to out-teach them.”

Think about it this way: There will always be a competitor with more money for advertising, marketing, and expensive client dinners. But if your competitor is in that mindset, what are the chances they are thinking about building their clients by educating them on how to do their jobs better, how to be more organized, or how to save $100 per month by using this special type of light bulb over that one?

In the book Rework, the gents from 37signals give the example of Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary took his small, family-run wine business online and made it a huge success by educating people via Wine Library TV. It was a simple idea: teaching people why this wine goes well with that dish or how this wine is different because the grapes are from Italy. I’m sure Gary never thought that this approach could be so beneficial, but he took his mom-and-pop wine shop from a decent business to a multi-million dollar operation by “out-teaching his competition”. (Check out a few of these videos of Gary!)

 You can read the rest of the post here...

MORE GOOD NEWS:

Mindflash has finally released their new software for online training. Check out the articles from TechCrunch and Venture Beat

• Mindflash kills the training coordinator for small to mid-size businesses
• Mindflash Releases Online Training Software To The Public

This is a blog mini-series that I'm writing for Mindflash about applying 37signals' principles to online training. Check out this clip from the first post:

Part 1: Meetings are toxic

“The worst interruptions of all are meetings.”

Why are meetings toxic? Here are just a few reasons:

• Meetings tend to drift off subject
• Meetings usually have vague agendas
• Meetings interrupt productivity
• People call meeting because they like to hear themselves speak
• One meeting tends to spawn another meeting, which tends to lead into several other follow-up meetings.

If you’ve ever called a meeting to discuss the status of Course X or met with your team of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) you can probably relate to a few of the issues mentioned above. Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. They want to deliver the PowerPoint they spent way too much time designing. Most of all, they want to show their peers how smart and productive they are. The real problem with meetings is people!

Read the full post here...