Jon Stribling

My own piece of the Internet
 
Jon Stribling

The social era

Collaborating with people through shared purpose creates advantage because it allows everyone to work towards a shared goal. When people know the purpose of an organization, they don’t need to check in or get permission to take the next step, they can just do it. When people know the purpose, they are not waiting to be told what to do. With shared purpose, alignment happens without coordination costs. Shared purpose makes customers and team-members more than transactions and payroll recipients. It allows us to “tear down that wall” between who is “in” or “outside” the firm creating a more permeable …

Working with the wife

I recently built this website for my wife using WordPress.Yes I know, working with family can be hard. I have the scars to prove it but for a custom written theme I think it looks OK. There is still some work to go but let me know what you think. My wife is an artist, a Masters graduate, a former phd student, a singer and a wonderful mother. She wanted her website to reflect her wide interests and love for crazy form – the alphabet, mythical animals, and crazy stuff. It needed to be a base she could build upon …

Noodles for breakfast

When the first British colonialists arrived in Western Australia and saw black swans they thought they were in topsy turvy land. Swans were of course white and only white. A black swan challenged the status quo and excited the dreamy abut other possibilities for this strange land they called Australia. We all grow up with values that are self-evident and so obvious to us that they appear as Truths set in monolithic stone. And then as our brains develop we start to challenge the truths in a orgiastic explosion of adolescent hormones. Then finally as our brains start to decay …

Build your team with blogging

A mate of mine was telling me that he blogs all his meetings to inform his team about what’s happening and what he is promising clients. He works in a large healthcare network with thousands of staff so stakeholder management, transparency, and cost control is very important. He told me that the blogging meant he didn’t have to repeat conversations and everyone was kept informed. I reckon this is a nifty way to use social media tools to manage a team. It’s inexpensive, easy to use, and easily allows for team engagement. Sure Basecamp works great for project management and …

Getting the most out of technology

I spent some time yesterday with a bloke who ran a web design business that has built a great platform covering all the bases for a small business website, from brochure to feature rich online store. I can’t disclose the name of the business but there were a few things that impressed me about their approach and it wasn’t their technology. Don’t get me wrong, their technology is great but it doesn’t set them apart from the multitude of businesses with mature web platforms like Adobe’s Business Catalyst, Yola, Weebly, Wix and BigCommerce. Their tech does all that you would …

What is more important?

Yesterday I went to a Natalie’s Uncle’s funeral in the country. He was a parish priest there for some time and the church was packed with people wanting to celebrate his life and contribution to their lives. The church was so full people were seated outside underneath the palm trees listening to the service via speakers. Princess Diana it wasn’t, but this was clearly the funeral of a loved and respected man. There is nothing like facing up to the inevitability of death to motivate and throw into question. As I ate a sandwich at the wake and looked around …

6,009 reasons why list posts are boring

List posts are everywhere. 7 ways Google+ can help me rank better or will be a critical part off social business or will triumph over twitter and Facebook. Or perhaps you may have seen the 10 best of the 10 best devices from this years CES. Again and again and again. Perhaps you missed the 9 different reasons you should be mating with a goat at the full moon to improve your Google ranking. If you didn’t let me know how it went, I am genuinely interested. List posts bore me beyond belief. They are a lazy way of getting …

Welcome to 2012

Rather than the usual resolution setting on new years eve with a drink in one hand, a cigarette in the other, I have done something a little different this year. I approached my goals for the new year as I would a project or corporate gig. There needed to be clear objectives and clear measures. I asked myself what did I want to achieve for the year? What was important to me? I arrived at four objectives that covered having a loving and rewarding family life, being healthy and vibrant, having a successful career, and having fun. When I take …

Australian fashion brands and sports dominate Facebook

I was talking with a colleague about the BONDS Facebook page today admiring their 600K+ likes when she challenged me to find another Australian brand with a higher number of likes. I’m happy to say that I did. A few things stood out. Australian fashion brands dominated the rankings. Global surfing brands Quiksilver and Billabong led the charge with over 1 million likes, followed by BONDS. The NRL leads the AFL by around 30 thousand likes. Interestingly, the NRL fan site, my-nrl.com, has slightly more likes than the official NRL site. Holden has over 200K followers, no doubt on the back of …

Puffing Billy and what’s wrong with Australian tourism

I had a great day out with the family on the weekend. We took a ride on the wonderfully steam-punk and daggy Puffing Billy train through the Yarra Ranges. It was the first train ride for the kids and they responded well to the chug-a-chug up the hills, the rattling, the smoke, and the intimacy of being able to touch the trees and observe the hills people hanging out their washing or burning off leaves (a favourite hills pass time). As expected the train was packed with tourists all dangling their legs out the windows, determined to get the maximum …