Elicitation with Enthusiasm

I have been using elicitation techniques for many years, but not quite in the military intelligence way, which seems like using the other person in a more negative way. These techniques take advantage of human tendencies to complain, gossip, correct and inform, which certainly works. However, I like to capture the human desire to be happy.

Develop your competitive intelligence skills

Developing Your Competitive Intelligence Skills is an introduction to competitive intelligence, which includes the definition of competitive intelligence, and 5 flavors of competitive intelligence: tactical, strategic, technical, counterintelligence and benchmarking. It also illustrates some analytic tools like SWOT, STEEP, BCG share of market matrix, and Adrian Slywotsky’s radar screen. This is a good introductory presentation for …

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How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes

Ellen Naylor‘s insight: A longer, but insightful read. There are two takeaways I appreciate: Mindfulness thinking and that ability to put distance between the problem you are solving once you feel stumped and can do not more. You might just do something totally unrelated to problem solving which you enjoy and relax. Then when you come …

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City Mayors: Mayors from Europe, The Americas, Asia and Africa

Biographies of mayors from America, Europe, Asia and Africa Ellen Naylor’s insight: and much more… In a range of profiles of mayors from Asia, Africa, Europe and The Americas, City Mayors’ editors and freelance writers examine what makes an outstanding mayor. They also ask city leaders which of their policies and actions have been particularly …

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REPORT: COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE – THE UNTAPPED RESOURCE

Few marketers have a formal competitive review process in place. The extent to which they do competitive analysis typically consists of subscribing to their competitors’ email promotions and newsletters; there is little analysis of their programs. Understanding a competitor’s frequency, use of personalization, and other apparent tactics is a necessary, but often-untapped knowledge resource. Late …

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How to Write, Publish and Market Your Book | Social Media Examiner

Self publishing: Guy Kawasaki’s latest book APE (author, publisher, entrepreneur) shows you how to go from manuscript to book, without giving up control to a publisher. Of course, when you’re Guy Kawasaki with his cache and name recognition, people want to buy what he publishes since he seems to often be ahead of the pack in …

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10 tips for ‘spying’ on your competition – Sales Machine – CBS News

Want to get a leg up on your competitors? Here are 10 tips for gathering intel Read more by Tom Searcy on CBS News’ Sales Machine. 1. Educate yourself about Google Scholar 2. Go where the writers go, the Writers Guild of America 3. Get to know university librarians 4. Run a background check https://www.knowx.com/index.jsp …

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The Enduring Importance of Communication & Curiosity

Short, shallow, frequent bursts of communication via Twitter, Facebook or texting do not develop deep and emotional relationships, whether among friends, parent to child or between business colleagues. I fear that people are losing their ability to hold a conversation in our infected society of social networks, which favors many forms of digital connection with numerous people who are practically strangers, rather than really getting to know fewer people a whole lot better.

Interviewing Versus Elicitation

People often ask me what is the benefit of elicitation versus the standard interview. Actually they share more in common than they differ. Preparation in similar. You want to learn as much about that person as you can before you talk to them. Elicitation is a conversational interview, a planned conversation. Elicitation builds off human tendencies that most people have: a desire for recognition; showing off, curiosity, gossip, complaining, correcting you.

Cooperative Communication: Digital versus Voice

A recent HBR blog post, “Just Call Someone Already,” focused on when to use the phone versus email, often used instead of the phone. I resonated with the author, Dan Pallota in his comment, “Much worse than the inefficiency of using email to set up phone calls are the missed opportunities and unnecessary misunderstandings that come when we use email instead of phone calls.” A best cooperative intelligence practice is to think about how the individual you want to reach likes to be communicated with, even if it’s not your preference. Another cooperative best practice is only send communication to those who will value it.