Luo Yonghao, popular blogger and owner of  Laoluo English Training School, discovered a little over a month ago that he wasn’t the only one having difficulty with the door of his Siemens brand refrigerator. Using the extremely popular Weibo (aka “Chinese Twitter”), he’s found more and more people whose refrigerator doors won’t close properly.

Early on Sunday, November 20, Luo gathered outside the Siemens headquarters in Beijing with 3 of the faulty fridges and a small cluster of protestors and media. They proceeded to smash the fridges with sledgehammers. Now, Luo didn’t want to create a public scene, so he hired someone to clean up afterwards. He was going for media attention more than public disturbance, anyways.

Now, the story is just reaching English media. Luo’s quite a character, and he’s made it his personal mission to seek justice for fellow consumers. He’s demanding that Siemens acknowledge the design flaw, apologize and offer a recall for the affected fridges.

So far Siemens of China has denied that there is a flaw in the design or manufacturing of the fridges. In October, Siemens published an offer to send repair technicians to owner’s homes to fix the faulty doors.

This story is a lot like the antennagate issue that came up with the launch of the iPhone 4 in July 2010. Apple didn’t offer a recall, but gave early purchasers a free case or bumper.

According to communications shared by Luo and reported in English on a Chinese blog (wait for it, this link loads slowly), Siemens’ PR agency spoke with Luo and discussed the issue with him. He made some recommendations for an announcement, which was then heavily spun before being released. Then the agency posted astroturf-style messages online defending Siemens.

This is all entertaining as an outsider, but this is a missed opportunity for a multinational manufacturer with a good international reputation in a gigantic market with the fastest growing economy.

Apple’s uniqueness, excellent customer service and a fantastic product easily overcame antennagate, but can a common fridge do the same?

One thing is for sure, social media is showing its ability to influence consumer behaviour in China, just as it’s shown here.

My father’s father was a jew from Eastern Europe, who managed to make it to Canada before World War II. He came to Canada to make a better life than he could in his home city of Cluj. As far as I know, he was the only one of his family who came before the war.

But his cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles, and friends that he left behind were captured by Nazi Germany and many were thrown into concentration camps. Some of them survived. And the survival of those who experienced the horrors of the camps is owed to the soldiers who risked, and gave, their lives to defend the values we hold dear.

11/11/2011

For most of human history, our day-to-day survival was intimately linked to the world around us. Small changes in weather patterns, over hunting of herds, over-harvesting of wild plants, and poor maintenance of soils, directly impacted the success of nomadic people. To the point where a tribe considered their impact on their surroundings with everything they did.

As humans developed farming technology, keeping of animals, and stationary civilizations, we gained a greater level of control over our success.

To the point where, over generations, we forgot how important it is to consider the impact of our activities on the environment. Technology and the industrial revolution accelerated the damage to environments, and people noticed drastic changes within individual lifetimes and we remembered how intimately we are connection to the environments around us.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is one of the leading environmental organizations in the world today. WWF has launched their Living Planet @ Work community, with major partner Hewlett Packard, to bring workplaces on board with considering the impacts of the decisions made in their offices every day, and placing people and the planet above profits.

Using clear calls to action, checklists, reference materials and whitepapers WWF aims to develop a community of Green Champions in companies around the world. These champions are asked to put green on their company’s agenda and support WWF programs through fundraising.

I’m involved in PWGSC’s “Green Team” in our Ontario Region office, to what extent I’m able. I’ve helped with editing and developing messaging for the team’s events or activities in the office. Most recently, for Waste Reduction Week, where the team aimed to increase awareness around unnecessary printing; asking people in the office to really think about what they print and whether it’s necessary to create paper copies of documents.

Clear goals and calls to action are absolutely key to bringing new people into these types of initiatives. I think WWF has done a great job with Living Planet @ Work.

I joined the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises (OSME). It’s part of PWGSC, so I am still working for the same federal department, but I’m learning a lot of new things. I worked with OSME frequently when I was in the corporate communications group, so I had some familiarity with the group. But government procurement is a whole new beast for me to learn about.

What does OSME do?

OSME is a small group in PWGSC that helps SMEs learn to navigate the Government of Canada’s procurement processes. This is done through seminars (free to attend at 4900 Yonge Street, every Wednesday – register on buyandsell.gc.ca).

OSME also partners with community organizations like municipal economic development groups, chambers of commerce, and others, to bring seminars to communities across Ontario (and other regional offices serve communities across Canada).

Its been a fun 7 weeks so far. I’ve been to “exciting” places like Windsor, Peterborough and Oshawa, becoming familiar with how these events are organized and rolled out. I hadn’t posted anything because it began as a 2-month assignment, after which, I didn’t know where I would be. Fortunately, I was extended to help promote the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program, which wraps up in March, 2013.

What is CICP?

The Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program was created to do two things

1. encourage the use of innovative goods and services by government, with the goal being improved efficiencies and/or capabilities.
2. offer an opportunity for companies with a pre-commercial innovative product or service to sell to the government.

It’s the first program of its kind in Canada, and it launched last September. Its different, because every other federal program to encourage research and development has focused on the early R&D stages. CICP helps companies in the final stages of development when they have a field-ready product or service. Government end users work with suppliers to create a test plan and feedback is given throughout the process.

It’s a pilot program, and companies need to submit proposals and be selected based on various criteria. There will be several Calls for Proposal until the pilot ends in March 2013. These are similar to tenders, and are posted on MERX.

OSME is a new challenge, and its a place where I can apply my communications experience in a different context.

How about you, have you started a new project or accepted a new position recently?

In episode 10, Eric and co-host Sean Howard continue a discussion from episode 9 with their first guest Douglas Reid.

In # 10, they talk about how we measure our lives. Is it meaningful to use quantitative measurements, like salary, possessions, job title, number of subordinates on the org chart, or formal education?

They’re all very simple things to measure. But are they really meaningful to anyone outside of the CRA or IRS?

Douglas spoke of two people he recalls fondly.

• One who has a PhD in Biology and did some amazing research,  and then went on to become a fine woodworker and lead a fulfilling life;
• and a former student of his who changed her course of study, traveled, married and settled down to become a potter, and do other things that are meaningful to her, I’m sure.

I’ve considered both fine woodworking and pottery as ways I would like to spend my days.

I’ve also considered finding an apprenticeship to become an electrician – something I strongly considered when I was in high school. And, I could also become a Kung Fu master (do you think I’m joking?)

Right now, I’m doing interesting work that I like, and I enjoy a stable salary and some benefits. In the long term, I want to do different things and listening to Eric and Sean’s podcast may have ratified my thoughts a little bit more. Not that I needed it, but it’s encouraging to hear.

So give Attention Surplus a listen, and it might resonate with you, too.

If I had to pick one session that really got me thinking…

Not even session… expression…

It would be the cultural firewall.

The elephant in the room when we discuss tools and technologies that enable communication and collaboration.

The barriers to collaborative technology are dropping and have little to do with technical know-how in  2011. Where there’s a will there’s a way, and most people are capable of learning.

It’s culture. The absence of willingness to collaborate on a broad scale. And no matter how much a majority of people in large organizations are rapped over the head with benefits to collaboration and open communication, they won’t do it. In some cases it’s perceived risk. In other cases it runs much deeper.

Grudges that co-workers have harbored for well over a decade can be a huge impediment to collaboration; grudges are very common in large organizations.

How can we begin to expect bottom-up collaboration within an organization under these conditions.

Senior managers need to force these changes in practices down to middle managers and to staff. Or, the only people who will leverage the tools that organizations offer are the “intrapreneurs” who gather with like minded colleagues to develop and implement innovative ideas.

Marj Akerley and Ryan Androsoff pointed out this elephant in the room during their Innovation, Culture and Risk session, but addressing it isn’t enough to affect growth.

In some cases the 90-9-1 rule (where 90% lurk, 9% contribute and 1% lead) is acceptable and to be expected. Like the case of the Mozilla browser. In other situations we need to expect better than 9% contribution in our organizations. We need to tear down the cultural firewall one worker at a time.

Intrapreneurs can achieve a lot by working together and sidestepping the non-innovators. But not as much as an entire organization of innovators.

There’s a lot of talk about word-of-mouth, and the internet giving customers a participating role in the lives of their favorite brands.

What about the internet giving ‘hackers’ a role in brands that offend them?

Are these the actions of a Bad World? Or the results of bad PR moves by Sony?

I have some issue with hardware manufacturers taking freedom from consumers to do as they wish with purchased products.

From where I’m sitting, it looks like Sony picked a fight with hacker communities when they went back on their word and told us that the PS3 couldn’t have Linux installed on it. Then Sony took legal action against people who cracked the hardware and software of PS3 systems.

I take issue with Apple’s control over iOS devices, and I take issue with Amazon’s control over Kindle devices. That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about the openness of PCs and PC gaming.

But, I also believe people should pay for games they enjoy, and developers should make reasonable efforts to protect their properties from theft. Reasonable, being the key word.

With some exception, piracy has been shown to do little damage to game and music sales. In some cases, piracy has benefited the bottom line of some games – like Minecraft.

There’s the old saying “let sleeping dogs lie.” Sony picked a fight with a sleeping dog, and now the brand is getting bitten hard. To make matters worse, they’re flip-flopping on their messaging. Their CEO is blaming the cruelness of the world, where some hostile people have taken offense to Sony’s hostility.

Now the biggest losers are Sony and their loyal customers, who’s account data are being stolen. It’s time for Howard Stringer to own up to Sony’s failures. They need to issue apologies to their loyal customers and developers. They have some relationships to rebuild. While they’re at it, maybe they should open the system up to Linux installs again.

I sure hope Sony does something right and the attacks stop, so I can enjoy my PS3 and the PSN without concern for my account information.

Here in Canada, the Harper government is planning to cut 80,000 public service jobs. Most of these jobs will come from the huge number of public servants who will retire in the next 4 years. Another portion will be from contract employees, and non-permanent “term” employees (like myself, no word on the future of my place in government). However, not replacing the retirees, and cutting contract employees, will leave major holes.

The people who are in the more junior positions can leverage their savvy to be more efficient. Technology will be the route.

• No budget for consultants? Leverage civic engagement and public consultation.
• Can’t afford to spend on public notices with newspapers? Use blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, etc.
• Enterprise software too expensive? Look into adapting community driven, open source solutions.

These are three examples of many possibilities. Let’s get thinking about it!

These can exist in ANY workplace, no matter what the industry, the environment and the level. People are people, and if the conditions are right, they will create a bitter, distasteful workplace stew and just let it simmer. New employees will just be added to the pot as old ones leave.

If you’re discontent with your work environment, read this over twice. Mull it over. Chew on it for a bit. Think about the reasons you’re not happy at work, and if any of these 10 are behind your stress. Then make yourself part of the solution. ‘Cause otherwise, you’re part of the problem.

I just finished reading The High Road, Terry Fallis’ second novel. In the sequel to The Best Laid Plans Angus doesn’t run for candidacy by chance. Excited by the new life he’s found in public service, he runs willingly for the C-P seat in the House of Commons.

Terry’s first novel, The Best Laid Plans, won the Canada Reads 2011 title last month. The stories are satire of party politics in Canada. I hope they find a place in Canadian high school curriculums soon. Terry writes with a very light, accessible style.

Angus McLintock stumbles into politics with Daniel Addison, his new friend and campaign manager, in an absurd tale of an honest, intellectual engineering professor who steps up to wrestle with sharks.

In the second novel Angus chooses the proverbial high road when faced by a rough-and-tumble political opponent, and tries to rise above the negative smear campaign that is led against him.

It’s a feel-good story where smart men stick to their principles in a world where winning is a higher priority than doing what is right for the country. Reading The High Road was as insightful as it was funny; and it’s really funny! Though I found fewer laugh-out-loud moments than in The Best Laid Plans.

One character that definitely plays a larger role in the second novel is Angus’ beard. I think it deserves to be recognized as a sentient being, based on its many descriptions. It certainly had a mind of its own. Of course, Daniel, Lindsay, Muriel and the two Petes are all back for this one.

Both novels feature themes of trust and loyalty.

I found the coining of “The Angus Effect” to be funny because it really just means trust. But in politics, trustworthiness was so badly missing that nobody could remember another politician as trustworthy as Angus. So a new term had to be made up to describe  the trust citizens have in him.

Angus follows as strong a moral compas as any one, always considering the interest of Canada over those of himself and the C-P riding he aims to represent. He is fiercely loyal to Canada, his friends and his constituents; and in that order. Most importantly, Angus will choose what is right over what is popular.

You’ll find yourself wanting to live in a world where every politician is like Angus McLintock. And if citizens of democratic countries made the time to really think about the people they elect to lead our country – not only who they are, but the problems they create and overcome as flawed human beings – we would all be better for it.

Nowhere in these stories is Angus shown to be perfect. But he’s the best sort of leader you can find.