Hashing it out: best practices for avoiding and dealing with hashtag hijacking

“Them chickens jackin’ my style; they try to copy my swagger.” – Black Eyed Peas

Most Twitter users have been exposed to one instance or another of hashtag hijacking: be it a spam tweet making its way onto an event’s Twitter wall, or a critical tweet posted in an otherwise self-congratulatory community stream, hashtag hijacking is now a common practice in the shark-infested waters of social marketing campaigns.

While spambots usually can be managed through careful content curation and reporting mechanisms, sentient users who choose to tweet with a hashtag for purposes other than those intended by the creator—or those who try to shift the conversation onto a different, problematic hashtag—can be trickier to deal with.

Selecting a good hashtag

There are many best practices for selecting a good hashtag to suggest for community use. Keep in mind that often several competing hashtags will emerge, and gradually the community will choose one that seems to work best—a choice often based on character count, attractiveness, popularity, key influencer adoption and ease of identification.

If you are going to pitch a hashtag to the community for use, it is important to consider how your hashtag will be received, especially in choosing the wording.

When Kathryn Marshall of Ethical Oil began tweeting about the new hashtag #oilsandspride, she no doubt intended it to be a vehicle for outreach and promotion through which users could express their support for Canadian oil products.

But Twitter users quickly began associating the hashtag with another well-known context of the word pride. I don’t think that the creators were thinking of jokes about rainbow parade floats or massage parlours in San Francisco when they created the hashtag, but that’s what happened.

This illustrates one of the most important practices in selecting a good hashtag: considering other perspectives. Not everyone thinks of Alberta when they hear “oil” and “pride” together, so it is important to pitch your hashtag to individuals outside your communications or PR team. Alternatively, you could propose a few hashtags to the community of users and see what best attracts the kind of content you are looking to encourage.

To quote Rob Townsend: “Social media campaigns exist in the same reality as every other type of message going out about your brand—so be acutely aware of how your campaigns can be misused.”

Twitter does not exist in a vacuum

Speaking of misuse…

A brand’s social media activities are obviously related to its overall PR presence, and the two are co-dependent. Embarking on a Twitter campaign is not an easy Band-Aid fix for a PR crisis—rather it will simply give those with complaints a larger and faster platform on which to air their grievances, as occurred with Quantas Airways this past November.

At the same time, the brand has the opportunity to expose itself to these complaints and to show the community how it responds, so though fraught with potential risks, incorporating Twitter into a crisis communications plan can be a good way to apologize or to shift public discourse after an embarrassing mistake. Besides, very little is worse than saying nothing at all, as I mentioned in my post on crisis communications last April.

The bottom line is that when dealing with hashtag hijacking, you need to be aware of existing pressures, not only on your own brand but also on the environments in which your brand exists.

Responding to Criticism

There are a variety of approaches to dealing with a hashtag hijacking. In some cases, as with Nickelback’s response to #nickelback insults, it can be effective to respond in a snarky or irreverent fashion, directly addressing the critiques of the hijackers or poking fun.

However, not every brand is free to openly mock their haters. When McDonalds experienced the hijacking of their #McDStories campaign, it would not have been wise to make light of some users’ concerns.

In a situation such as this, McDonalds was presented with a great opportunity to challenge users’ assumptions, showcase less well-known menu options, and confront false allegations—as it did in a lengthy Twitter exchange with PETA.

A hashjacking is not the end of the world for a PR campaign. To return to the #oilsandspride example, we can see that most of the users making gay jokes quickly grew bored and left, whereas the community using the hashtag as intended is steadily growing.

Those who are using the tag to air their ethical and environmental objections the oil sands remain, though, and show no signs of slowing. In a move bearing striking resemblance to the infamous @BPGlobalPR joke account, someone has created @OilSandsPride and @Ethical__Oil (with two underscores versus one), neither of which seems to advance the agenda intended by the hashtag’s creators, shall we say.

This brings us back to selecting a good hashtag in the first place. Not only is it important to consider different connotations of the words used, it is also important to consider accuracy.

Your hashtag should further your message as intended. The goal is promoting the interests of Canadian oil, rather than the oil sands themselves. While #oilsandspride is being used to distribute information about jobs, community involvement and the boycotting of conflict crude, the initiative might have made itself less of a target to criticism if it proliferated such messages under a hashtag emphasizing something other than the campaign’s most controversial component, such as #CanOil or #CanadianOil or something similar.

Exploring alternatives

Eventually, a brand may decide to explore the possibility of an alternative hashtag. In this event, it is likely that users are already one step ahead. If a Twitter hashtag has been hijacked for purposes other than those which interested users had been lead to believe, expect them to create their own alternative.

Brands can build on this initiative and embrace a user-created hashtag in the event that their own is—for whatever reason—not working out the way they had planned. This can be a great way to identify your dedicated community of followers, and to reward their involvement.

However, sometimes users will suggest alternative hashtags (or even begin moving tweets away from your hashtag onto another) that are not compatible with your goals. For example, users may be tweeting with a hashtag that has politically sensitive connotations.

In a situation such as this, explaining why you chose the hashtag you did and why you might not embrace the use of the alternative can be helpful. Do not frame this as a criticism of the users: rather emphasize that you wish to be part of the conversation but do not feel comfortable using a particular term.

If your brand cannot publicly address the reasons why you will not support a certain user-suggested hashtag, it is still imperative that you monitor its activity. Replying to user’s posts and employing your own hashtag in the reply can be a useful way to draw attention to your own hashtag, but at the end of the day you cannot force anything.

Users will follow the hashtags that distribute the most timely, valuable and interesting commentary and information. If you want your hashtag to succeed over another, bring your best game to the field.


Image via Vertical Measures

How (and why) to write, work, and think like an advice columnist

It will come as a surprise to no one that I am interested in the craft of writing. A creature of bubbling and widely varied enthusiasms, I love few things so much as I love words.

I am of the opinion that the best things one can do to improve one's writing are reading a lot and writing a lot. And one of the many things I like to read is a good advice column.

I think my favourite thing about advice columns is the hope. It is often a stern, no-nonsense, tough-love kind of hope, but it is still hope. The authoring of an advice column, and the act of reading or writing to an advice columnist —indeed, the very existence of advice columns at all— is a profound demonstration of optimism that I feel is often sorely lacking in the world. It requires the belief that things can improve, that help can be offered and solutions proposed and alternatives explored, that such things as wisdom and caring and counsel are available to us and can have an impact on our lives.

This is my kind of optimism: the kind that doesn’t sugar-coat and doesn’t screw around, but stubbornly refuses to give up on the idea of goodness and potential and things working out, someday, eventually, if we’re willing to try and try and try again.

Any person who believes that reading advice columns is simply a gross form of voyeurism, a reveling in the dysfunctions of others, may be argued against from the basis that such an individual would never bother to read the answers. It would not be necessary to have a columnist at all, rather we could simply publish letters from people airing their troubles and dirty little secrets.

Oh wait: we already have something like that. It’s called PostSecret. And guess what? Even here —where no help is being solicited, where people write in simply for the relief of having shared their secret with someone, however anonymously— even here there is help to be had, in the form of community, resources, and optimism.

Advice columns are so beautifully optimistic. I include those who write letters knowing gosh-darned well how to solve their own damn problems but just need a rhetorical kick in the rear, and those who write letters from the depths of despair: they have summoned the strength to ask for help, and in return they receive acknowledgement and ideas and perspectives, which are among the powerful tools around.

So, this brings me to my first point of advice in how to work like an advice columnist.

Aim high
Reach upwards from the dark pits and reach upwards from the trees and reach upwards from the mountaintops. Believe in the possibility of improvement and tackle the question of how to go about it.

The rest of my advice runs thusly:

Practice active empathy
Every good advice columnist is empathetic. This means really considering other perspectives with an open mind and fighting the impulse to normalize your own desires and experiences at the expense of others. Not only will empathy help you to better understand where others are coming from, it will boost your patience and can lead to the development of better communication skills.

Embrace fallibility
It takes courage to ask for help. One of the defining philosophies of the advice column is that no one is perfect, everyone has problems, we all make mistakes… and that while no single person has all the answers, together we can solve even that which seems insurmountable.

Focus on people
The best advice columnists really care for their readers, strangers though they may be. Remembering that behind any piece of work is a human face with a history and passions and family and stress is a valuable perspective to maintain in life.

Be honest
Advice columnists are a great source for tough love when someone really needs it. The value in this is not a willingness to say something unpleasant, but in the willingness to be honest with the best interests of the reader at heart. Voicing an unpopular position is rarely the ideal decision in the short term, but often is best and most beneficial in the long term.

Share your knowledge
An advice columnist is never afraid to share their own experiences and expertise. It is difficult but valuable to own your wisdom and have the guts to assert that you know what you’re talking about – and that assertiveness can be instrumental in having your expertise respected. But even if some choose to disregard your advice, you have at least contributed the most quality input in your repertoire.

Do your research
Remember how I said that no one has all the answers? Effective advice columnists will do a lot of research before replying to a particularly difficult inquiry, and will often refer their readers to other resources. Foster a healthy sense of curiosity and if you don’t know, go find out.

Distinguish fact from opinion
Anecdote is a powerful tool in the advice columnist’s toolbox. It can help reassure an anxious reader that they are normal, and can be a good means of conveying a life lesson in a digestible way. One should never make the mistake, however, of assuming that’s one opinion is universal or that one’s perspectives are shared. Most importantly, don’t conflate that which you think with that which is known and proven to be true. Sometimes this means admitting error, both to yourself and to those around you.

Ask difficult questions
One of the most valuable things an advice columnist can do is ask questions. Questions serve to broaden not only our own horizons but the horizons of others, bringing into focus related matters that previously did not fall within the scope of discussion. Ask tricky questions, challenge boldly, and new solutions will present themselves.

That’s all I have to say about advice columnists for now. Want to learn more or see some great columnists in action? I recommend The Rumpus’s Dear Sugar and Apartment 613’s Dirty Laundress.


(The image at the top of this post, incidentally, is a collection of choice quotes from Sugar’s column that has been made into a poster. You can click the image to embiggen it and read the small print. It is available for purchase online.)

“The butterflies could be made of dark matter”

Life lessons from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, for the workplace and beyond

Image by smokeybacon on DeviantArt

My Twitter followers will know that I am a big fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and regular readers might have begun to suspect that I am of the pony persuasion when I used a picture of Fluttershy in my recent post about apologies.

Bronies, for those who haven’t heard, are adult fans of Lauren Faust’s epic reboot of the Hasbro line. The term can be used to refer to both male and female fans, but some ladies prefer to call themselves pegasistas. Since breaking into the mainstream with an article in Wired, the brony community has been growing and gaining steam, spawning myriad tumblrs, blogs, fan art, fan fiction, and other awesome creative works.

When Hasbro enlisted Lauren Faust – formerly best known as the genius behind Powerpuff Girls – they had little idea how popular the new children’s show would become with girls, boys, parents and even childless adults, but the heart-warming stories, snappy dialogue, and clever soundtrack have converted many to the brony cause. Some – like me – played with My Little Pony toys as children, while others are discovering talking rainbow ponies for the first time. But whether you’re an old fan or new, bronies are equally welcoming.

As with any fandom, Rule 34 applies. The brony community has its shippers, slash (“clopfic”) writers and erotic fan artists, and unfortunately (or fortunately) these deeper waters serve as a first exposure to bronies for many people. In reality, the brony community is best represented at the premiere brony blog, Equestria Daily, or perhaps the imageboard Ponibooru, rather than the prolific – if questionably tasteful – headquarters for all things pony and NSFW: Equestria After Dark.

But even if you’ve never heard of the Wonderbolts, or if you can’t tell a cutie mark from a sonic rainboom, the show presents a number of valuable lessons about working as a team. Heck, you don’t even have to like the show. There really is something for everypony to learn!

Ask for help
Several episodes feature ponies learning to respect their limits and accept assistance when they need it. While most of us have learned the hard way not to bite off more than we can chew, the ponies remind us that it is okay to ask for help if we find that we’re in over our heads, and that an offer of help is often just that: an offer of help, not an insult or an insinuation of incompetence. Remember, you do no one any good if you burn out! (See episodes 4 and 17.)

Believe in second (and third) chances
One of the things I addressed in my post about trust and accountability is how to rebuild trust after it appears to have been broken. One of the keys is to believe in second chances, and to give colleagues the opportunity to prove their value. Princess Luna is a perfect example: despite beginning the series as arch-villainess Nightmare Moon, she is able to find redemption through the power of friendship and assume a position of leadership. (See episodes 1 and 2.)

Assume good intent
Sometimes people behave in ways that appear to be counterproductive or even malicious, but very often they are trying to do what they think is right – just going about it in an unexpected way. It can be especially tricky for people to adjust to new cultural norms (think openness and sharing versus knowledge is power mindsets), and it is important to ask questions from a position of empathy, and give people a chance to explain their actions. Princess Luna might have seemed scary or domineering when she shouted at the other ponies, but she was just exhibiting what she thought to be an appropriate level of formality. Fortunately, Princess Luna had Twilight Sparkle to explain that shouting isn’t really the best way to go about making new friends. (See episode 30.)

Don’t be afraid to shine
Never hide your talent for the sake of someone else’s ego, but at the same time practice active empathy in all you do. Twilight Sparkle is one especially magical pony, but she hid her skills from her friends for fear that they might envy and resent her talents. She had to learn that there is a difference between living up to your full potential and bragging. (See episode 6.)

Learn from Failure
At the end of almost every episode, the ponies send a letter to their ruler, Princess Celestia, to tell her the latest lesson they have learned on their adventures. If there is one thing that these “friendship reports” prove, it is the educational value of failure. In nearly all cases, the reports detail a pony’s experience royally screwing up – and learning how to avoid making the same error again. In fact, the whole show is framed around the idea of learning from our mistakes.

Embrace Diversity
Each pony is different, with unique talents, personality, and interests. The strength of the friends is derived from this very diversity: the ponies can rely on each other to compensate for weaknesses, inspire growth, and offer alternative perspectives. Encountering differences encourages us to step outside our own comfort zones and find that, through teamwork, we can thrive. (See episodes 1, 2, 7, and 31.)

Stay organized
With a skill set mostly focussed on the use of magic, Twilight Sparkle found herself feeling utterly useless at the traditionally magic-free Winter Wrap-up. However, by putting herself in a situation where her standard skills did not apply, Twilight Sparkle was able to find that she is also a great facilitator, and all the ponies discovered the importance of organization in large-scale collaborative projects. (See episode 11.)

Offer useful criticism
Designer pony Rarity found out the hard way that trying to please everyone can be the quickest way to spoil a project. When offering input or criticism, it is important to consider the perspectives of others and respect the opinions of subject matter experts – they often know what they are talking about. If you’re going to offer criticism, do so in a way that fully explains your point of view and how it might influence the final product. And while providing input is always valuable, never demand a change just so you feel that you’ve contributed. (See episode 14.)

Be Honest
Very often, we think we are doing the right thing by hiding our true sentiments for the sake of manners or a colleague’s feelings. But in the end, as Rarity and Fluttershy discovered after the latter’s failed foray into fashion modelling, it is best to be honest about your feelings and to speak up if something is making you uncomfortable. And if we find ourselves in the position of unlucky confidante, like Twilight Sparkle, encouraging open communication and honesty is always the best approach to conflict. (See episode 20.)

Embrace Talent
No one can be the best at everything, and sometimes we find ourselves faced with an individual with more talent in a certain area. Like Spike’s encounters with Owlicious, it is easy to feel threatened by a skilled and charismatic new colleague or teammate. But rather than fretting about being replaced, the best thing to do is to learn what you can from this new resource, and take the opportunity to explore and flex your other talents – after all, now you’ve got a teammate to help you out with the routine stuff! (See episode 24.)

Don’t Panic
Even the best employees sometimes need help to meet deadlines. Like Twilight Sparkle, many of us can feel tempted to cut corners or be less than honest about our progress when we’re feeling overwhelmed. But rather than allowing fear and stress to compromise our professional integrity, it is best to communicate clearly throughout the process, and never be afraid to discuss it with your superiors or ask a colleague for help if a deadline seems unreasonable. (See episode 29.)

Be patient
Due to the unusual and often misunderstood nature of the fandom, bronies – like trekkies and LARPers and otaku and Browncoats and, really, most subspecies of geek – are frequent targets of trolling on YouTube and elsewhere on the Internet. True to the lessons imparted by their beloved television show, however, the bronies’ response is consistently patient and welcoming, as illustrated by their catchphrase: “I’m gonna love and tolerate the shit outta you.” Inspired partly by Fluttershy’s adorable counter-trolling of the villain Discord, the bronies are so maddeningly nice that, eventually, most trolls just give up and go away. But in the event that you encounter blatant hostility, don’t be afraid to draw the line and report it. Remember, patience is a good method for counter-trolling, but harassment is never okay.

Think creatively
Though he likely did not know that he’d spark a trend of fan-made, pony-themed science education videos, one young brony chose to use the show as the topic of his physics presentation, focussing mostly on its various physical impossibilities. Rather than simply relying on conventional assumptions and proofs to argue that, for example, a falling pony cannot be caught by a cloud of butterflies, Beatledude64 takes it one step further and suggests that “the butterflies could be made of dark matter”. Awesome. Hilarious. Yes.

So there you have it. Now you're all set to hit the office, kick ass and take names... pony style!

Suited and Sauve, by Rautakoura on DeviantArt

The Cinderella Complex

How misguided notions of virtue can poison workplace morale – and what you can do about it.

Image by petitetiaras

Meet Cinderella. She’s polite, efficient, and highly skilled at multi-tasking. She gets up early and works hard all day, with little assistance or encouragement from those around her. Her tasks are no source of personal fulfillment, but she knows that someone has to do them. Cinderella is very patient and mature, and despite her frustration, she limits herself to the occasional sarcastic comment about her colleagues.

On the side of her desk, she spends her free time working on a personal project that exhibits her true creativity and skills. This project holds the key to one day landing the position of her dreams, and also allows her to have a little bit of fun. Cinderella’s boss is adamant that this project never cut into her regular duties. With a little help from her friends, Cinderella’s side project takes shape.

But just as things are finally coming together, her jealous colleagues swoop in for a piece of the accomplishments. Suddenly they’re staking a claim on Cinderella’s project, hungry to take credit for her effort. In the end, they end up tearing it to pieces.

Cinderella’s boss – who is apathetic at the best of times – does nothing to prevent this backhanded and petty betrayal. Allowing Cinderella to grow and flourish would just mean she’d have to tackle the daunting task of replacing her and, worse, would no longer get to reap the benefits of Cinderella’s productivity.

But ol’ Cindy is ever the optimist. One of these days things will work out.

(Cue fairy Godmother.)

I imagine that scenario seems familiar to more than a handful of readers. If it isn’t you, it’s a friend or a colleague – somehow it seems like they’re stuck on the hamster wheel of a 1950s animated family film, with no royal ball or prince in sight.

The Ghost of Horatio Alger

Everyone loves an inspiring rags to riches tale. In the late 1800s, Horatio Alger, Jr. published over one hundred stories – mostly focussed on the same idea: that “any poor boy with patience and an unwavering commitment to hard work can become a dazzling success.”

A good work ethic and a positive attitude are valuable skills to have in any job. Unfortunately, North American literary and cultural history is saturated with the idea that with a little luck, this is more or less all it takes. Call it bootstrapping or the myth of the self-made man – in an effort to inspire ambition, inventiveness and optimism, this individualist perspective on success has permeated our cultural consciousness.

Thus we have middle-aged, middle-class accountants like Gene Marks, who write columns for Forbes arguing that poor black children need only study hard and use the Internet in order to go to college and succeed in elevating their station in life. Naturally, obtaining a solid education is invaluable. But Marks fails to take into account that getting good grades is very difficult when you are rarely eating properly, and buying “a cheap computer” with which to browse Project Gutenburg and host Skype study sessions seems laughable in the context of a family who struggles to afford adequate clothing and keep a roof over their heads. And it’s a real challenge for children to get to a library if their neighbourhood is unsafe or quite simply does not have one.

But I digress.

At the moment, the Horatio Alger Myth is most frequently discussed in the context of the Occupy protests, and the deterioration of social mobility in the United States. But that’s a different matter, and the concept comes into play in myriad other contexts – one of which is the office.

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

When the concept of a virtuous employee is equated to one that works hard and maintains a positive attitude, the Cinderellas of our offices are setting themselves up for burnout. They maintain a high level of productivity, playing by the rules and swallowing their objections when undermined or mistreated – all in anticipation of a reward, raise or promotion that never seems to come.

So what would have happened to Cinderella, if that invitation to the ball never arrived, or if the fairy godmother never showed up?

Like so many employees, she is headed for a burnout, burdened by the notion that hard work plus optimism equals reward and success. She might stay motivated for a while by maintaining a process-focussed sense of ownership and connecting with like-minded communities, but through little fault of her own, Cinderella is neither healthy nor sustainable as an employee as long as she exists in a flawed system that does not consistently reward the virtues it advocates.

This is why it is of utmost importance that we continue to have conversations that promote new virtues, identify relevant skill sets, and teach us how to work differently as opposed to simply working harder. We need to empower Cinderella to speak up and suggest new ways of working, and to reward her not only when she optimizes the process for making breakfast, but also when she demonstrates methods to completely redesign the distribution of tasks for increased overall productivity.

We need to allow Cinderella to raise concerns and not, through fear or subtle persuasion, try to silence anyone.


Of Mice and Fairy Godmothers

But apart from keeping these conversations going, what else can we do?

Well, if you ever happen to find yourself in the rare position of Fairy Godmother – act. If it is in your power to solve someone’s problem, enable them to take a prudent risk, hire them for a dream job you know they’re qualified for, or help them achieve their goals... do it. Very infrequently are we able to enact solutions to others' problems, but it does happen. Assume authority and turn some mice into horses, damnit.

Speaking of mice: Cinderella wouldn’t get very far without the support and aid of her friends and allies. More often than not (even when we are Cinderellas ourselves), we have the opportunity to help someone out, even if it is only in a small way. It could be something as simple as stitching the hem of a dress, or something as pivotal as delivering a key or helping pull a carriage.

The mice are never the star of the show. They don’t get to marry Prince Charming and they don’t get the credit. But they help Cinderella because she deserves it and because they can. Mice aren’t after the credit. So maybe you’re no super-powered fairy, but if you can sew on a button or help someone out when they are overworked – do it! Provide a listening ear or a helping hand, and Cinderella will get you out of a mousetrap when you really need her. And who knows? Maybe one day she’ll take you away to the royal castle.

Either way, you'll have gained a career-long friend and ally.

Reimagining the Boardroom, Part 2: Cubicles and Sleep-pods

Back in 2009, I wrote a little rant about how many office buildings are squandering the potential of their physical spaces, with a focus on boardrooms:

"Important decisions are made in our boardrooms. So why aren’t they tailored to maximize their effectiveness? In a building with ten boardrooms, why do they all look the same?"

So my latest question is this: if most office buildings have outdoor space that is — officially or unofficially — allocated for workers to take smoke breaks, why are there no nap rooms? Naps aren't just for children. Catching a 20-minute power nap on your lunch hour is proven to improve morale and productivity. Google has sleep pods at their offices for this precise reason. My idea is to replace one boardroom in every office building with a nap room featuring capsule hotel-style sleeping pods that employees can book or drop in to see if there's an opening when they're feeling a little drowsy come lunch hour.

I realize that not all physical spaces can be tailored to suit the preferences of all individuals. Some people like offices with doors, while others prefer open concept offices or bustling coffee shops, while others (like me) are actually rather fond of cubicles.

Maru knows that working in a box is where it's at.

Sitting in a cubicle, I feel like a bee happily camped in its own private hexagon in the honeycomb. I am content with the much-maligned cubicle (even when I worked in a cube that was basically a storage closet) because when I worked in an office with a big desk and a door, I felt very isolated. But when I worked in an open-concept office, I sometimes found the environment distracting. I like the cubicle because it offers a compromise. I'm an extrovert and I find feeling the presence of other individuals — the clatter of fingers on keyboards and the snippets of conversations in hallways — very invigorating and oddly comforting. And when I don't want to listen to the muted bubbling of lifenoise, I can throw on some headphones.

But I also recognize that not everyone feels this way, and with good reason.

Cubicle farms are sometimes located in buildings with poor ventilation and other health hazards. But for the time being I'm going to focus on what I think cubicle farms should look like. I think that the cultural perceptions of cubicles have both informed and influenced the way we react emotionally to them and to how they are built. Films — from The Matrix to Office Space — portray the endless rows of cubicles as suffocating and soul-crushing labyrinths. And I think this is both encouraged by and contributes to the all-too-common problem of office depression.

With winter approaching and Seasonal Affective Disorder symptoms looming on the horizon for many people, I think we should start sharing tips for how we can adapt our environments in order to maximize morale and productivity.

Let's assume that you are not like me and that you find cubicles stifling. And let's assume that you don't have the option to work elsewhere. (But maybe you do?) What can we do to improve them? I really enjoyed this article about boosting productivity with stylish cubicle decor: making your cube your own instead of tacking up a family portrait as if you're in prison or something.

Personalization is obviously of the utmost importance, in addition to colour (grey rooms have been shown to stress people out). Check out this interior design blog for more tips.

So go ahead: pimp your cube! Need inspiration? Check out these 15 crazy examples.

Quick hit: writing for mobile

There are plenty of resources online that can help you learn effective web writing techniques. However, the conscientious writer must also keep in mind that many readers are consuming content while on the go.

That is to say: whether it's an email to your boss's Blackberry or a blog post published during people's morning commutes, we must remember that many readers are viewing text on an itty-bitty screen.

Obviously, design and layout concerns are of the utmost importance when it comes to mobile usability -- things like avoiding large images, tables, and uncommon fonts. But what about the writing? Look below for my top tips!

1. Remember the small screen. Simply remembering your mobile readers is a great first step. Think about how your writing looks scaled down. Try drafting on your own mobile phone, if you have one.

2. Divide text into smaller sections. Paragraphs should be as short as possible, as they will appear much longer when condensed on a small screen.

3. Put your most important information first. This is a standard web writing best practice. Are you writing for a business? List your hours and phone number prominently. Keep your writing brief, if you can. Make sure that your title is descriptive so readers can quickly determine if they are in the right place.

4. Fatten your hyperlinks. While excessive hyperlinking should generally be avoided, if you include a link, make sure it is long (that is to say, several words) and easy to tap accurately without zooming in. For the same reason, do not put hyperlinks too close together.

5. Use short sentences. Fragments are okay. On a small screen, run-on sentences are even more difficult to follow than usual.

6. Avoid columns of text (and images). A top centred image is better than a right- or left-aligned one. To use my two most recent posts as examples: my post about mistakes demonstrates better mobile layout than does my post about failure and accountability.

7. Write customized, concise URLs. Copying or typing in long URLs is a pain on most mobile platforms. Make it easy!

8. Use sub-headings and logically-ordered lists. Not only will sub-headings make your content more attractive to search engines, they will make it easier for mobile readers to digest your content.

Do you have any additional best practices to share? Hit up the comments!

How to admit that you were wrong (and change for the better)

Fluttershy image by 305Nat on DeviantArt. Character developed by Lauren Faust.

In my previous post, I talked about failure and accountability — how working together means holding yourself accountable for how you support your coworkers and how you regard and respond to mistakes made within a team. As a follow-up to that, today I will discuss some of the ways we can address our own mistakes, and start contributing to that lovely collaborative climate I talked about.

First, we’ve got to free ourselves from the need to be right all the time.

“I used to think being ‘right’ was a big deal,” Johnathan Morrow wrote. “I had to say the right thing, dress the right way, know the right people, read the right books, live in the right neighborhood, go to the right school. It wasn’t because I wanted to, exactly, but because I thought it was a prerequisite for success.”

But the fact is — as we discussed — that being right all the time isn’t half so conducive to success as is failing safely and learning from it. And one of the biggest ways we do this every day is through the seemingly simply process of changing our minds.

Changing your mind: it’s a pretty powerful concept if you take a moment to think about it.

Changes of mind often manifest as subtle, gradual shifts in opinion. It’s not until you look back on something you did or wrote a few years ago and think, “My goodness! Did I, really?” that you realize your mind has changed. It happens as gradually as a rough stone is worn smooth, tumbling in the surf and sand of a beach.

However, occasionally, changing your mind is less like erosion than it is akin to a landslide: troubled first by a few trickling pebbles of doubt, we shortly find ourselves gobsmacked at the revelation of our own error.

This is not a pleasant experience, and so it makes sense that the mind is capable of executing astonishingly acrobatic rationalizations and leaps in logic in order to avoid it.

Everyone makes mistakes, big and small. In fact, as I argued previously, being wrong is essential. But rather than fixate on the little whoopsie-daisies, let’s focus on the big whomp-whomps: regardless of whether we meant to, what happens when we realize that we did something that was patently unwise, or believed something that was provably false? What happens when we really screw up?

When we realize we were wrong

Good for us! Recognizing an error or inconsistency in one’s own actions or thinking is no mean feat, considering how very predisposed humans generally are towards avoiding such realizations.

First of all, we will award ourselves a cookie to munch on while we discuss next steps, because I like cookies.

Cookie photo by roboppy on Flickr (Creative Commons)

Now let’s get down to business! Being wrong isn’t all that bad if we handle it well.

Acknowledge the error. Say “oops”. Say it aloud. Shout it, even. Do not self-immolate or indulge in excessive guilt-wallowing, but own your error and embrace it as the means through which you desire to improve yourself. As the Japanese saying goes: “tsuyoku naritai!”

Consider the factors that led your error. Now I’m not talking about shifting the blame, here. I am talking about an honest reflection on the complete context. Chances are good that if you have discovered one erroneous belief, there are others that are connected or contributed to it. Ideas are like that. Take into account the entire scope of the problem.

Decide how your actions should change. Make some decisions about how you should change your habits or workflow in light of your error. Formulate your plan with an eye to rectification and prevention of future errors, if you can. Map out some steps you can take to improve things — and actually follow through.

Resist the urge to cover your tracks. Naturally, we want to distance ourselves from the erroneous opinion or mistake. But in the case of a significant error, one of the worst things we can do is attempt to retcon the past into alignment with the present. I have made this mistake before: simply revising a statement without indicating that the content had been changed. While in most cases this is a fairly innocent impulse undertaken in the interest of quality and accuracy, some people may interpret it as an attempt to destroy the evidence or deny the error. If you wish, you may choose to go back and update or append previously published materials to reflect your change in opinion.

Depending on the nature of the error, it may not be necessary to make any kind of announcement or public acknowledgement. This is entirely up to the individual.

However, we should also consider the possibility that other people have noticed our error but said nothing. Naturally, there is no way to know for sure without asking, and not all cases demand this. But if we do decide that it is in our best interests to publicly acknowledge the error, we should treat it similarly to when…

When someone else points out that we are wrong

Don’t be dismissive or defensive. Take some time to think about feedback and formulate your response. I am often guilty of trying to fall back on my good intentions, but it’s important that we prioritize the outcomes — we’ll tend to our battered self-esteem in a moment.

Take responsibility. Feel free to share your side of the story, but do not attempt to deflect blame onto another person, or derail the discussion onto a tangential issue at the expense of your critic’s concerns. The best way to take responsibility is simply to say so, or offer a sincere apology. Taking responsibility doesn’t mean shouldering all the blame — it means empowering yourself to enact positive change on a situation in which you play a part.

Formulate and share your commitment to a proactive response. See “decide how your actions should change” above.

Look at the big picture. Remember that your mistake is just one data point along the entire plot of your reputation. Concentrate more on how you handle the situation than on your own embarrassment. To quote Julia Galef: “If people learn that you're willing to concede a point if it's warranted, then on those occasions when you don't concede, they'll be more likely to take your objections seriously rather than dismissing them as obstinacy.” You may have permanently altered your relationship with someone by making your mistake, but you have the power to continue impacting that relationship with positive change.

How do you deal with it when you find yourself in error? On the other side of the climbing rope, what can your colleagues do to support you when you mess up? Share your ideas on Twitter or in the comments!