Posts from — July 2007

The picture in MM’s site heading is one we took of Antony Gormley’s installation  Another Place, at Crosby near Liverpool.  Yet another ‘inspired’ community placing of a work of art.

The sea around Crosby is wild and dangerous; where industry meet nature; not a place for bathing.  As the tide ebbs from the shore it reveals another, and then another,  and then, look, yet another figure on the beach, gazing out to sea at the passing ships plying their trade from Liverpool; yet in an environment where nature is still very much king.  

There are 100 figures in total covering just over a mile and a half (3km) of the shoreline - all totally covered by crashing waves at high tide.  The artist describes it as a ‘middle aged man, no hero,  trying to stand and breathe as time, tide and trade pass around him.  

It’s relevance to us was the mix of industry with nature,  the power of the whole group,  and the ever changing experience generated by the transient elements of the environment.

But we also liked the fact that even on a grey, wet, November Sunday it had the power to bring out a wide range of people - old, young, families, couples - from art lover, to hot dog connoisseur.   All mingling,  all exploring,  all fascinated by the experience.

Social bookmarking sounds dull, conjuring up images of people passing a book around and leaving a cornucopia of personal bookmarks in it - why would you do it? But I’ve been enlightened - I’ve discovered www.de.licio.us the social bookmarking site and eureka I realise I’ve been missing a trick in my research - a big trick. 

Social bookmarking allows you to mark a website,  or specific content, that you find useful.  OK, so you can do that in favourites on your browser - but when you do it on a community site you share that information with others,  and they share it with you.   Imagine, when you are trying to find information on, say, a ’broken ankle’ that you don’t have to trawl page after page of Google,  you just find sites that others have thought worthwhile - providing they are not internet trolls of course. 

When you bookmark a site you index it with your own tags; so instead of putting an hotel site in your travel folder, and getting cross when you look for it in your hotel folder, you could tag it with Greece, culture, recommendation, hotel or however else you might want to find it again. 

This is useful  because it allows people to share knowledge, find experts, discover new information, and keep a record of corporate knowledge - when an employee leaves all the work they put into the corporate knowledge bank stays.  (The forward thinking should have their own intranet facility rather than share publicly available sites as they may not want to share with competitiors what they are working on .)

Social bookmarking is still in its infancy, but knowledge sharing, helping others build skills and generating insight is both a vital ingredient of community building,  and an important competitive business weapon of the future.  I believe you will hear a lot more of it.

Modbury,  near Plymouth in Devon,  has an inspiring story of community spirit to tell - and better still they have put their ‘how to’ story on the web, for anyone who wants to copy them.

This year,  urged on by Rebecca Hosking, a local resident, the town’s shopkeepers banded together to make the town a plastic shopping bag free zone - the first in the UK.  From the 1st May 2007 no trader there will issue a plastic bag to shoppers - instead they will encourage all shoppers to either bring their own bag, buy a reuseable bag,  or issue a disposable paper or cornstarch bag.  

You may or may not agree with the campaign itself; the real inspiring part of story to me is in the way Rebecca has got all the traders to work together on a common cause.  A cause that has led to an increase in community spirit that they are now hoping to use on other community projects. 

It is often said in change management, that you can build collaboration by finding a common cause.   Modbury is a very good example of how to do it.

Packaging!   I hate it.  The residual mound of throw away cardboard, ribbon, and other bits can quite spoil a shopping trip.  I have a hoard of beautiful designer carrier bags - which might become antiques!!  A bathroom cupboard full of pretty pots and bottles I cannot bear to consign to the bin -which might just be useful for travel.  And a larder stocked with jars that might by handy for, well,  something.

I regularly ask shops to keep shoe boxes,  take back hangers to the dry cleaners,  buy loose vegetables,  and constantly forgo plastic carriers.  I recently asked Marks & Spencers for a brown paper bag.  The lady on the till asked another; they concluded they had ‘a bag for life’,  but not a paper bag.  However,  the idea was a good one and they would pass it on in the staff suggestion scheme. 

A Channel 4 programme this week by Mark Constantine, founder of cosmetic store Lush, took up the overpackaging cause together with the Women’s Institute , who have it high on their campaign agenda.    Three interesting facts emerged.

1.  You can complain to local Trading Standards organizations about overpackaging - they will then take it up with the relevant company.

2.  Many companies don’t think customers are ready for ‘naked’ goods,  and so don’t innovate ways of reducing packaging. 

3.  Packaging can bump up the price of goods threefold - you are literally throwing money in the bin.

I cannot be the only package hater !  I don’t particularly want to complain to Trading Standards - smacks of big brother.  So maybe  companies should do a syndicted consumer research study on packaging and innovate a little less waste!  I suspect a tipping point is gathering momentum - particularly in the light of issues with rubbish collections!!!