Today I was at Starbucks, Amazon and Microsoft giving talks. Interesting to see the different corporate cultures as reflected in their office environments. At Starbucks they've got cubes, but with coffee kiosks and seating areas where employees gather casually - pretty cool. They also have the Creativity Lab, a tricked out conference room for brainstorming.
Amazon's environs are super sparse, a cultural nod to the fact that Jeff Bezos furnished the original offices with used pieces and did all the handiwork himself.
Tomorrow is Facebook, where I'm told everyone is skating around on 2-wheeled skateboards. (Maybe I'll get a lesson...) I also know that they've named all the conference rooms in the new HQ after mashups of video games and condiments (e.g. 'Donkey Kong Chutney').
I'm so looking forward to my round table there, in part because I know that principles of authenticity and empathy are deeply rooted in their company culture. Last year while I was researching Who's Got Your Back Tim Kendall, the director of monetization, said this:
“One of our stated corporate values is to ‘practice empathy....That’s all about creating mutual understanding and respect among teams and individuals. We expend effort and energy trying to understand someone else’s job, it’s challenges, to then take the next step of seeing how a person or team can help that other person do their job better.”
How is your workplace culture and values codified in the office itself - layout, common areas, art, etc.? How would you like it to be?
Judith A. Fike, MBA, Regional Director of Corporate Education sent this description of the final moments of the Pitt event, which Keith's mom attended with her card club (her version of a Lifeline Group):
"As the evening closed, the crowd of friends dwindled to the point that Keith and his family were remaining and at that moment, Keith sat with his feet on the table, leaning back in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head watching his family and last parting friends take pictures and chat with friends on the phone. Keith seemed very relaxed and exuded joy and contentment with the remaining folks, so Jim Hutcherson and I quietly exited the room. I felt that I had had the opportunity to observe a most intimate family moment and it was remarkable."
Keith's been talking about his mom at the events. Here's the passage from Who's Got Your Back:
I remembered my mother’s card club back in Latrobe. It was originally made up of eight women meeting regularly every month; for the past forty-three years they have shared their dreams for their families, their joys and struggles in their marriages, their frustration in making ends meet. When I called Mom to ask her about her group, she told me they were just talking about how angry they were over the growing size of the empty space at the center of a roll of toilet paper—not exactly what I was expecting!
Of course, they did much more for each other than commiserate over the price of paper goods. The ladies helped each other through cancer, heart disease, and the deaths of two members, “Aunt” Rita and “Aunt” Ruth, giving and receiving love and support from each other around the card table. I can’t tell you how glad I am Mom has had such a group over the years, especially since my father passed away.
At the dinner in Chicago last night, the last song the group sang was American Pie, the salute to the passing of Buddy Holly in a tragic plane crash -- "the day the music died." Directly after the dinner, we left to board .... a very, very small plane to NYC... like Buddy Holly size, and not too shiny either. As my colleague Jeff said, "They had to change the rubber band and feed the monkey before we could take off."
Fortunately I was so tired that I fell asleep immediately anyway. Apparently we made it.
Who’s Got Your Back has been chosen as the New York Times #1 Bestseller!
I am so excited to receive this news. I’m so thrilled not because it’s my book that’s selling, but because people are making a choice – as individuals – to choose prosperity. We’re choosing to more forward, not backward. And it’s this positive influence that Who’s Got Your Back is having on people’s lives that warms my heart today.
So, thank you.
Thank you for choosing to have the Candor and Authenticity to create real relationships, not ones based on politics and politeness.
Thank you for choosing to hold each other accountable. We need to be there for each other. We must be there for each other to make sure we keep moving forward and not backward.
Thank you for all the little choices that you’re making that will soon turn into one big choice.
Thank you for letting down your guard and inviting people into your life. We can’t be afraid to share our dreams and claim them as our own anymore.
I leave you with a question: What is a choice you are going to make in order to be prosperous today? I suggest you choose to pick up the phone and invite an old friend to a long slow dinner. Share your dreams and aspirations. Always look forward, not backward. Reach out to one person today and make a difference in your life. And in theirs.
Who’s Got Your Back?
Tuesday night, Keith and I took a train from Washington, DC to New York. It was after a long day, and the train offered some relative sanctuary to the constant commotion of the tour.
So there I am, sitting with laptop out and my phone to my ear, when, out of the corner of my eye, I notice Keith giving me the "ssshhhhh" sign with his finger. Apparently I'm a loudtalker.
Well Keith, being the natural host, decides he's going to buy the guy in front of me a drink for putting up with my yabbering. He takes off for the Cafe Car to grab some wine a beer for our new friend. About 10 minutes later, he returns frantic and in complete disarray, but smiling from ear to ear. I was puzzled to say the least.
Then he told me what happened. Hooooly cow! I mean, you can't script something like this! This is seriously right out of the movies. Or, a Heineken commercial.
I just can't believe I almost killed my boss in my second week by talking too loud!
Today a high school student introduced me to an audience hosted by Darcars at the Bullis School:
"Mr. Ferrazzi, my friends and I are strong believers in social bonding. Given that you're the world's most connected person, do you think you could connect us with the Jonas brothers?
Great Event. An audience of people in a difficult industry righr now (automobile) showing such positivity. If any one who was there is reading, let me know what you thought!
Not much else to say except a big THANK YOU to everyone who's bought WGYB!!! Now waiting with baited breath to see how we do on NY TImes bestseller, out this week.
I’d like to introduce the leaders of the Greenlight Community: Jorge Colon and Maxine Karchie. Last night Jorge and I hung out together in Florida - thanks Jorge! What’s especially cool about these two, besides the fact that the City Groups across the country have arisen thanks to their volunteer leadership – is that they’ve become lifeline relationships for each other, despite the fact that Maxine’s in Canada and Jorge’s in Miami.
Before getting involved at GC.com, Maxine had never really socialized or networked online. “I‘ve never been a Facebooker. I would email occasionally, but I wasn’t one of those people who went online,” says Maxine. That all changed when Maxine met me at an event asked what she could do for the movement. I told her to get her butt on GC.com!
Jorge was a Never Eat Alone fan, and his initial purpose in joining Greenlight Community was purely professional. He was getting ready to launch the Online Bar Association, to build professional community among lawyers who practice independently and online – and needed to take a pulse on everything else already out there. “But Greenlight sucked me right in. I had to keep putting off my OBA Launch because I got so active in organizing the Greenlighters!”
Maxine and Jorge, along with two other leaders, Seb Zar Bourcheix and Tami Conner Chester, and several other community ambassadors, started working together to help Greenlighters connect offline, through philanthropy, in-person City Group meetings, and ultimately an annual international event, still in the offing.
“We are now literally like four wheels in a car,” says Jorge. “We’ve become our own version of the lifeline relationships Keith talks about in Who’s Got Your Back. Each of us has our own distinct abilities, direction, and way of doing things, but we’re all necessary for the movement to continue to move forward. We need all four tires.”
Says Maxine, "When I wasn’t feeling well after a recent surgery, they were there for me – I was surrounded by flowers. We were Skyping from my bed!”
Their experience organizing the GC has propelled Maxine and Jorge to step up in their local commitment to community service. Jorge served as PR spokesman and coordinator for a statewide interfaith “Day of Service" this spring, which resulted in 4000 man-hours of volunteer work across 21 projects.
Maxine worked with a gaggle of Alberta-based Greenlighters to launch a gala called Dine for the Cure to raise funds for the the Alberta Cancer Foundation. (Please help by donating: dine4cure.ca!)
Maxine’s mission was personal: “I’m a cancer survivor. I’ve been cancer-free for 10 years. But my dad died of cancer, my best friend and cousin just died of cancer, and my aunt died this past fall. I wanted to do something to fight.”
Her event was capped by a Chinese lion dance, traditionally used to bless the new year. During the dance, dancers shredded heads of lettuce and threw them into the crowd. According to tradition, those it lands on are considered doubly blessed. Says Maxine, “We felt it was a good way to bless everybody who took part – it wasn’t religious, but spiritual in some way. I was sitting next to my son, and we both ended up with lettuce in our hair. Between that and the power of the event, I’ve never felt more blessed.”
At the dinner in Chicago last night, the last song the group sang was American Pie, the salute to the passing of Buddy Holly in a tragic plane crash -- "the day the music died." Directly after the dinner, we left to board .... a very, very small plane to NYC... like Buddy Holly size, and not too shiny either. As my colleague Jeff said, "They had to change the rubber band and feed the monkey before we could take off."
I’d like to introduce the leaders of the 
