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Tara Hunt, on some things that contribute to the intangible aspect of being “on” and having your mojo working:

“1. Have a higher purpose. I know I’ve said this before, but it’s essential to mojo to believe in something beyond your own needs.

2. Don’t be a commodity. Commodities don’t have mojo, they compete on price, efficiency and speed. Mojo is terribly inefficient.

3. Work as a team. If your employees aren’t feelin’ it, your customers won’t either. Treat your employees as members of a team. Reward passion.

4. Be part of the customer community you are serving. Use your own product, interact, use competitive products, work to further the industry you are in.

5. Operate on passion, not ambition. Ambition is great for making barrels of money on undercutting and destroying your competition, climbing to the top of the corporate ladder, etc. It ain’t mojo.

6. Give a damn. This is kind of tied to everything else, but people with mojo never have to have “because it’s the better thing to do” explained to them.

7. Commit to excellence. Obsess over details. Experience. Be bothered by one customer’s bad experience. Work hard to do better.

8. Get slow. Ever notice how people with mojo never seem to be rushed or distressed? They seem reflective, introspective, they take their time. Think slow food, slow marketing, etc.

9. Believe in your gut. Stop thinking 100% with your head. Fritz Lang once said, ‘The mediator between head and hands must be the heart!’”

Nice list, Miss Rogue. (Although I do think #5 can be an “and,” not just an “or”…it’s possible to have both passion and ambition simultaneously.)

Microsoft’s Treb Gatte (blog#1 and blog#2-with-a-much-better-name) writes in…

“My personal friend, Dr. Amy Randel, is a Management Science professor at San Diego State University and is conducting research on creativity and drivers of creativity. She is looking for volunteer pairs in the technology industry to fill out a survey in January. Please note, a co-worker will also need to fill out a survey. I volunteered to help spread the word as I see this as an interesting study.

Creativity has not been well studied so you will be greatly expanding what is known about creativity and its contribution in the workplace.

If you are interested in this voluntary exercise, please send an email to the following address: workstylestudy@yahoo.com A email will be sent to you with the survey link information. This process is being done to validate who is filling in the survey.

Here’s the study overview from Amy.

‘We are conducting a study on types of creativity and drivers of creativity, including motivation and personality. As part of this study, we are looking for participants to complete an anonymous 20-30 minute on-line survey and to have a co-worker complete a short 5 minute on-line survey.

Participants can receive a summary of results (with confidentiality protected) upon request. Participants in this study also will receive the benefit of participating in research on creativity. As recent articles in Business Week and Fortune have described, creativity is an essential ingredient in the global economy. This study will contribute to the small, but building body of research on creativity in the workplace.

The two primary professors working on this study are Amy Randel, Ph.D. (San Diego State University) and Kim Jaussi, Ph.D. (SUNY Binghamton). Both professors regularly publish studies based on survey research in companies.

Data collection for this study is expected in Spring of 2007.

Amy’s bio can be found here: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~cba/facdev/randel.html. Kim’s bio is here: http://som.binghamton.edu/faculty/jaussi.htm‘”

Treb, happy to help out.

Bonus create-ivity link: You Keep Using That Word…I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

United Airlines (via Joseph Jaffe):

“United – The Thinking Airline – has decided to drop snacks on flights less than 2 hours (which PS equals about 5 hours when you factor in travel and wait time)

According to the geniuses at United, they figure this move will save them $650,000 this year. I guarantee you they’ll LOSE more than $650,000 with passengers that choose alternative airlines in the process.”

American Airlines (via Mary Trigiani):

“Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, is a heavy piece of melodramatic fiction. Or so I thought. Then I was stranded two weeks ago in O’Hare Airport. I realized about six hours into my 18-hour ordeal that one of the themes of the book — the decline of the railroad industry — was coming to life before my very eyes. Only this time, it was an airline.”

On the other hand, Shel Holtz calls Southwest one of his favorites.

Is it just me, or does the whole “X is the New Y!” mindset inevitably lead down a path of perpetual trend-chasing and keeping-up-with-the-Jonesesism?

David Armano, on how to connect: “Know something about me—find some common ground and strike up a conversation. Just like in life, chances are I’ll be receptive and we’ll end up talking.”

Hugh McLeod hits two out of the park. Read ’em both.

On Blogging (excerpt): “If your goal is to have a large, influential online readership, I’d say give yourself five years. That’s how long it took Om Malik. Some do it in less, of course, but they seem to be quite exceptional.”

On Being An Entrepreneur (excerpt): “Write the following on a piece of paper, have it framed, and stick it on your office wall: ‘Have you hugged your customer today?'”

Great stuff.

Patrick Gregston: “Put VRM on your watch list.”

The nice folks at TypePad had some very nice things to say, and featured this blog as their “Blog of the Day.” Thanks, y’all!

“Featured Typepad Blog:
The Social Customer Manifesto

Christopher Carfi is the CEO of Cerado and he’s looking out for customers, and not just his own. He’s interested in the technology and trends that are turning customers into marketers and putting them on the front line between businesses and potential new customers. His site, the Social Customer Manifesto, offers a simple list of customer desires — from "I want to do business with companies that act in a transparent and ethical manner" to (my personal favorite) "I don’t want to do business with idiots." Indeed, if Carfi’s manifesto were to become the expected baseline for business in the 21st century, the consumer world would certainly be a much, much better place. And Carfi knows that it won’t be easy. He spends a lot of time posting about the victories and setbacks for like-minded customers and the smart businesses that are courting them. So if you’re a business blogger looking for smart talk or a fed-up consumer looking for a sympathetic ear, take a minute to read the manifesto. It just might change your outlook.”

Thanks, SixApart. You’re too kind.

David Wallace, the Lifekludger, asks:

“Is the ‘multi-touch’ screen dependent on using an actual human finger to ‘touch’ it? Will my mouthstick work the ‘multi-touch’ or a pen, or a plastic stick…? Is it a ‘multi’ touch display in terms of ‘multiple ways’ of touching or merely ‘multiple finger’ touch?

Did anyone at Apple actually think of people who don’t have full use of their fingers? I truly hope so.

Anyone at Apple listening? Want someone whose fingers don’t work to test it for you?”

O black-turtleneck-sweatered one, are you listening?

Take three things:

• An image file
• A short sound clip
• A line of text

Put them all together. Shaken, not stirred.

What you have is You’re The Man Now, Dog!, a great example of co-creation. (The name of the site comes from the Sean Connery line here.) From the site:

YTMND, an acronym for “You’re The Man Now, Dog!”, is a website community that centers around the creation of YTMNDs, which are pages featuring a juxtaposition of a single image, optionally animated or tiled, along with large zooming text and a looping sound file. YTMND is also the general term used to describe any such site.

That’s what it is. Here’s why it is:

“YTMND is a site created for the purpose of furthering the creativity of its users. It stems from an idea that, using sound, and image, and some text, the users can convey a point, funny, political, or otherwise, to the general media.”

Simple. And spot-on.

Bonus link: Axl Rose meets Finding Nemo (yes, you read that correctly)