What is this web 2.0 about?

We’ve been kicking the term around the office and most recently I was part of a meeting were we spent some time talking about Web 2.0 and its application to our work and business efforts. Is the internet changing right in front of us again?

Wikipedia.org defines web 2.0 as “a perceived second generation of web development and design, that aims to facilitate communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications; such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies”

Although I couldn’t define it as clearly as the collaborators over at Wikipedia, I do sense a real-change in how we are using the internet. Years ago (and I do mean years ago), I was focused on email addresses and web sites. My first contact with the internet came with the introduction of email addresses at the University and a training on how to search the web using web-crawlers using a now extinct program called Netscape.

Today the internet is quickly becoming about Facebook, Linkedin, blogs and tweets. It is these web-features that are driving web traffic, connections and, most importantly, populating search engine results. To be sure, web sites will continue to be important, but their function is shifting from being the primary internet presence to the place where our blogs, tweets and social profiles lead our customers to for secondary information. Assuming this is true and we are part of the advent of web 2.0, the team here is working hard to understand the implications.

So that is how I ended up here on Blotspot. Others in our office are experiementing with other web-based communities and communication tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I do believe the internet is changing. Right now, right in front of us. I believe that traditional, static web sites will stop being the most important part of the web, replaced with something more dymanic, active and adapative. I don’t know what this will be, but the team here is commmitted to being part of it, whatever it is.

Mark

Our culture

We spent a large part of the day interviewing young, talented professionals who applied for position Lighthouse posted last week. We are seeking a Administrative Coordinator to provide support to our growing portfolio of environmental consulting projects.


I am always impressed how hard it is to suss out how an individual will fit into our culture. At Lighthouse we believe that cultural fit -- how someone will fit into our style, pace and approach-- is the most significant key to hiring the right person. As a shared time management company, our team has to work across many different clients; quickly and seamlessly. It requires constant motion, thoughtful but efficient decision making and an adaptive approach to one's day. Although the person's technical skills are important, for us, more importantly, is trying to decipher how they will (or won't) fit into our culture.


So how do we test some one's cultural fit? In my experience, the most successful approach I've used comes from: Interviewing and Selecting High Performers: Every Manager's Guide to Effective Interviewing Techniques. This concise guide suggests consistent questioning using real scenarios and comparing the characteristics of your high performers to the canidates's performance traits.

Finding out how someone reacts to a particular, known quirk in your office space casts a real light on how someone will react once (if) they get there. We draw our questions from real office situations we know the canidates will face. We probe their answers, trying to understand their approach to the problem and their attitude towards the problem.

The second test, identifying traits that are already proven in your office setting and measuring those against the candidates' traits, is a clarifying process. The premise is that high performers help define the office culture and therefore, their traits can be described and compared to the canidates' traits. It is an illuminating process because it helps us understand our office culture and creates a structured interview approach for finding the right fit.

Regardless of the approach, hiring is never an easy process. And it today's world, every investment mattters.



We'll let you know how we did this time around.

-Mark

Focus or diversify

It is true that Lighthouse balances two seemingly different business foci. This balance is intended and strategically important. Both depend on back-office business services such as administrative support, event management, accounting, communications, logistics and the like. We call this the business spine. By building a consistent and high quality business spine, we are able to service both our trade association partners and our environmental consulting clients using shared capacity. Shared capacity means we can do a lot more for our clients at better rates then most.

It also means we place a high value on learning and efficiency. Knowledge management is a key feature in Lighthouse's network. We realize that only through continuous sharing and learning will our knowledge and skills grow to meet tomorrow’s challenges. Learning also promotes operational efficiencies – creating systems that can be easily replicated across our clients bring faster, bigger and more impactful results.

For example, today we spent another important hour talking about the International Marina and Boatyard Conference, learning from our excellent event in Ft. Lauderdale to evolve how the program will be delivered in Tampa next January. Our team drew from the IMBC experience as well as lessons we've learned by delivering other events; events for other clients spanning many different topical areas. It may not have felt like we were improving our business spine, but we were and we did.

-Mark