Where Vision Meets Action

I love this! Watch a group of passionate artists revitalize a gritty Oakland block in 6 weeks.

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POPUPHOOD from Eva Kolenko on Vimeo.

Checking Out Self-Reliance Technologies

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Ever wonder why people wait in line at the grocery store check-out or the public library when self-check-out is available? I’d like to argue that in a digital culture, we get emotional support from live human transactions. The neuroscience proves that the more social our technologies become, the more human contact we‘ll crave: hi-tech/hi-touch. So it’s not about efficiency.

Transacting at check-out is all about having a plush human exchange. This is where brand personality shines. For example, at my library there are a couple of librarians who lavish patrons with eye contact and smiles. People will cue up to have their books checked out by these librarians, while self-check-out is idle nearby.

In grocery stores, self-check-out is a bust. The process is clunky and riddled with errors that cause delays. Invariably the customer is forced to seek help anyway as the robot voice scolds them about unscanned items. It’s a downright punitive customer experience.

The trouble with some self-reliance technologies is that they are replacing something that people value more and more - positive human connections. More importantly, technologies that attempt to fix the problem of lousy customer service using the fig leaf of hip technology is an infuriating idea. When I saw this video about a mobile app for shoppers, I couldn’t help but wonder: what problem is this solving? Efficiency? Self-reliance? User freedom?

Or is it a techno-fix for bad customer service at check-out? The latter doesn’t need an app. It needs leadership.

See for yourself. Would you adopt this mobile app for your shopping trip?

A New Story

Photo by pic fix

It's sunrise in New York. I am writing this from my hotel room, hours before the curtain goes up on TEDx Broadway.

Last night, I snagged last minute tickets to The Book of Mormon. Terrific show! It lived up to every Tony it won.

I couldn't help feeling uplifted by its deeper themes about America: even when the chips are down, even when we are lost and have no idea what to do next, we are always able to tell ourselves a new story. It keeps us hopeful. And hope is always magnetic.

I am thrilled to be a part of TEDx Broadway. And I thank Chris Anderson, curator of the TED Conference, for being hopeful enough about the future of ideas to dedicate a business to it.

And look where that has taken him. And taken all of us.

Wish me luck...oops, I mean "break a leg."

Show Don’t Tell - Communicating for Impact

My children were cursed, they said, with a mother who loves words. I used to fuss at them about their school essays, “Show don’t tell.”

My son is a now a poet. His bio reads: “…and his mother inquired of his second grade teacher: 'How is his prose?'" My face reddens to recall that memory.

Words are powerful when they paint pictures. Take this poem by the talented Matt Rohrer. It reads like Exhibit A from Strunk & White’s Elements of Style under the section: “Show, Don’t Tell” which advises on the use of imagery.

I’m tweeting this to Dan Pink, who is equally afflicted by a language infatuation, although his rapture is signage.