X.commerce Innovate Conference: will you be there?

Carolyn Mellor, who we met at Jono Bacon et al's Community Leadership Summit, is the rockstar behind X.commerce, the PayPal+eBay+Magento commerce platform. At CLS, she told the Causeit team about the upcoming X.commerce Innovate conference coming up October 12/13/14 of this year, which has great tracks and an impressive speaker list.

Check out their innovative use of their conference-promo site crazy-brilliant, too—they've looped in a simple hashtag-scraping tool in a slick interface to prompt conversation and a thumbs-up/down about the emerging ideas of commerce which people are tweeting about.

Plan to see Matt, Jeremy and MJ at Innovate, and check in as we'll likely be blogging and tweeting a lot at the conference. We'll put our intended schedules up as we get a bit closer.

Divisive Language

Of the ten virtuous act spoken of in Buddhism, 
four are verbal: not to lie, not to engage in divisive talk,
not to speak harsh words, and not to engage in frivolous conversation.

 —The 14th Dalai Lama

In business, it's often easy to focus on what we perceive to be broken or wrong. Instead of focusing on what's wrong, try looking at what works and what could work better. From that lens, what might transform in you conversations with other team members? What could you acknowledge them for producing?

There is a value of the Causeit vision which seems quite apropos to His Holiness' comments. In a recent retreat, we declared: 

Our conversations are about works or what doesn't work in servive of profoundly important visions; we don't dwell in the old paradigms of right/wrong, good/bad, blame, fault, guilt or shame.

What could you adopt in your organization to build consensus around a value of generous, compassionate communication that also produces the results you're committed to?

Working with Social Privilege

If you had to go online today to find a photo that represents your company or business team, how easy would it be? Could you simply search for “business” on a stock photo site? How many words would you have to add to find a picture of someone in your profession who resembles you? In what circumstance would it be easier, or harder? Whether it is finding a photo, talking comfortably with co-workers about your personal life, or simply feeling safe or welcome in the neighborhood of your office, the degree of ease or difficulty you experience in any of these scenarios could be the result of social privilege.

The term “social privilege” is used to explain a phenomenon where unearned advantages are awarded to people in a dominant social group. Presumptions of innocence, credibility, or competence are all advantages of social privilege. Though it may seem to be an uncomfortable topic, it is important to realize that privilege has broad-reaching benefitsCauseit had to search for quite some time to find this photo on a popular stock photo site. Why is it so hard to find women of power in images? Look at the photographer's mindset and the buyer's assumptions. and disadvantages for everyone. People in the United States who are identified as being a part of the dominant group of white, male, heterosexuals are still subject to the effects of oppression, even if only because of how narrow thinking can be in places without diverse contributors.

Privilege is not always visible. In addition to race, gender, and sexual orientation there are a number of other assumptions that we may hold in everyday interactions with others.  Our ideas about family structure, class, and mental health may disadvantage or privilege others in our eyes based on what we think we know about them. When privilege is further examined as an intricate web of experiences and interactions, almost everyone can see places in their lives where they feel either accepted or othered as a result of cultural presumptions.

At Causeit we do not see social privilege as good or bad, but we acknowledge that it exists and has real effects on our businesses and our lives. One example of the power of social privilege in business is the archetype of the white, hetero-masculine businessman that still serves as the dominant image of success. Another is the difference in the perception of an assertive woman compared to an assertive man in the workplace. When we examine the expectations we hold for different roles in business, we can start to see how social privilege norms may be affecting our workplace.

At Causeit we believe that social privilege can be shared and exercised for good!  While we can’t choose whether we receive social privilege, we do have a choice of how to use it. We can challenge privilege by recognizing the value of experience and knowledge that is different from our own. We can subvert our own privilege by advocating for a diversity of voices, prioritizing those that are often not heard. We can share privilege by using our influence to empower others in a system where they are disadvantaged. With that said, it is not necessary to try to map out every complexity of social privilege that exists in your life. Instead, try to live and work in a way that acknowledges social privilege by asking yourself what assumptions you hold and where they might be coming from. Questioning ideas we have about the people we interact with is a positive way to make our workplace a more comfortable and more diverse community that is better equipped to take on all obstacles to success.

By Maggie Mahoney, with contributions by Jessica Long and MJ Petroni

BlogHer BET

Kaplan University's Jacqueline Jones (Executive VP of New Product Development, and a Causeit client) speaks about "managing up" in your organization at BlogHer | bet

I'm here at BlogHer's blogher | bet 2011 conference. It's been great to see the amazing speakers talking about being a woman of power in business, how to "Manage Up" and how to deliver a pitch which is both effective and authentic. Here's the conference concept: 

If you're a woman who has a big idea that involves technology, the Internet or social media, we have an opportunity for you. With the leadership of 50 pioneering entrepreneurs, technologists and business leaders, BlogHer is hosting a special event for women who want to start something. Whether you're considering a start-up of your own, or innovating from inside a company, we invite you to join BlogHer's 2011 Business, Entrepreurism and Technology conference on March 24-25 in Silicon Valley.

Check it out by following @causeit and the hasthag #blogher or #blogherbet on Twitter.

Organize your Workflow: Process Document Tips

At Causeit, we understand how difficult it can be to create sustainability amid the inevitable chaos of running a business. For example, what happens when someone in your company gets sick or needs to leave work for a period of time? Can you still do payroll? Do you have the resources to train a new front-line worker unexpectedly? How can you better manage those one-time processes that never seem to get remembered? Don’t panic! The solution to all your project management breakdowns and confusions is what we like to call a process document! A process doc (we’ve shortened it for efficiency’s sake) is a written resource that explains all the steps in a given project so that you don’t have to.

Writing a process doc does not have to be painful.  In fact, they can prevent unnecessary grief in the future. With a strong template and a commitment to keeping it updated, a process doc can act as a living, breathing contribution to your organization.

Here are some tips for creating a strong process document:

• Document a working process—don’t try to reinvent the wheel. You should not make up a process as you write it. A process doc should be created from an existing way of doing things. Build on what you know so that others can benefit from your experience.

• Strike a balance between too much detail and overly general steps. You should assume the person reading this is smarter than the average monkey, but watch out for shortcuts you might take for granted in your own process.

• Don’t miss a step! Like we said before, it’s easy to skip steps or make logical leaps when you’ve been the person completing the process for the last year. Be nice to the next person, include all the steps.

• Include a trigger. Process docs don’t work when they aren’t used. Think of what event should send us to the document for an answer and make that the first step of the doc (i.e. receive phone order).

• End of your process doc with a clear deliverable. This document is supposed to achieve a clear goal. Be clear about what you want the result of this the process to be.

• Add a timeline. If appropriate (and it usually is), attach dates or times to each step to show when things should be done (i.e. within a day, hour; by the third of every month, etc.)

A process doc can be made for any project or task in order to increase efficiency and flow. Step-by-step instructions are easy to follow even for someone who has never done the job before. A process doc can be a lot of help, but it is only useful if its content is relevant. Remember to keep your process docs up to date. So write it up, review it often, and make your life a little bit easier!  

Happiness is a life skill

"Happiness is the result of inner maturity. It depends on us alone, and requires patient work, carried out from day to day. Happiness must be built, and this requires time and effort. In the long term, happiness and unhappiness are therefore a way of being, or a life skill."

—Matthieu Ricard 

Interconnection

At a fundamental level, as human beings, we are all the same; each one of us aspires to happiness and each one of us does not wish to suffer. This is why, whenever I have the opportunity, I try to draw people's attention to what as members of the human family we have in common and the deeply interconnected nature of our existence and welfare.

—The Dalai Lama

New Vision, New Communities, New Offerings

Matt and I just spent the day in retreat to do what we always ask our clients to do: work on our business, and not just in it. 

Our new vision:

Causeit, Inc. is committed that human beings realize their full potential.

• We cause loving, powerful teams. 
• We work with technology which amplifies and 
extends human capacity.  
• We help humankind experience higher consciousness through awareness of our profound connection with others. 

Through our life-long work, we contribute to a world where people are loving, connected, effective and peaceful.

Our Values

• We are committed to the transformation of the individual in all aspects of their lives. 
• We live lives of service and work with people who contribute to the world. 
• We are committed that our clients and their teams 
are unstoppable. 
• We are committed to individuals being responsible for their lives. 
• Our conversations are about what works or doesn't work in service of world-changing, important visions. We don't dwell in the old paradigms of right/wrong, good/bad, blame, fault, guilt or shame. 
• We know that our clients are able to cause any result they want for themselves, their communities, and the world. 
• We are committed that people know themselves as 
perfect just as they are. 
• We love all people.

In the coming year, stay tuned for great new changes: 

CauseTalks

Causeit will be hosting CauseTalks, a showcase series of powerful, succinct, community-sourced meetups about everything from the architecture of teams to diversity to transformational communication. All that cool stuff we're always telling you about? We'll bring it to our new community space in Southeast Portland and will podcast it (and maybe even vodcast it) for you, as well as provide whitepapers online.

New offerings

Causeit will be unveiling new offerings in the realms of team development, cyborg anthropology, content strategy and community-building. They're top-secret for the time being, but we'll tell you more soon.

Causeit facilitates Historic Mississippi Business Association After Hours event

A little over a month ago, I headed over to the Historic Mississippi Business Association's After Hours event to meet the business owners and facilitate a sharing event. Dubbed "Speed Networking", business owners would have chance to get to know each other better, and then another, and then another, and then another. . .

Personally, I dislike the idea of speed networking, and not because there's a problem in the interaction itself. We have useful interactions all the time in the bus, elevator, across retail counters that are simple, fast, and cursory. Whether asking for directions, gathering more information in order to make a buying decision, or just asking for clarification, these types of interactions have a useful purpose, but one which is not the goal of 'networking'.

I have a problem with how some people relate to 'speed networking'. This is not a sales opportunity. This is not a time to talk about yourself (surprise!). No, you did not learn everything about this person in the 5 minutes you had to speak. If your goal is to 'know' these people after the short interaction you had with each of them, then you're probably falling short. Like any twitter post, speed networking is really just a means to an end. Exchange contact information, find some points of common ground, and… well, by then your time is almost up.

So why did I accept the request to facilitate a speed networking event? So I could change it, of course! Now, don't get me wrong, it's not my style to deliver something other than the agreed-upon outcome, we still came out knowing each other better, and having met new friends. It's the methodology that I changed.

As a group, we all gave our undivided attention to each person as they recounted not only how they got into their business, but how what they were doing aligned with their passions. Community sharing, after all, is a tradition that dates back far beyond most forms of communication technology we use today, and it's lasted this long for a reason. Ask any person present that evening if they remember each other, and I'll bet you'll hear a lot more details than you can recount of your last 'speed networking' event!

In-house, full-time Portland web developer wanted

Spot Color Studio is looking for a full time developer to join our creative agency. Most of our custom-designed sites use CMS, specifically WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. Many include shopping carts, databases and/or animation.

Responsibilities

• Build out sites
• Set up email
• Manage hosting
• Transfer sites
• Perform daily maintenance on existing client sites
• Handle office technology needs

Soft Skills

As a small –but rapidly growing– agency, we wear a lot of hats. The ideal candidate will be flexible, positive, friendly and have an excellent attitude. We pride ourselves on completing work on time, so the ability to manage multiple projects and swiftly shift gears from one client/project to another is essential, so you must be well-organized and detail-oriented…with a great memory!  We’re looking for a:

• Creative thinker who can problem-solve many different website solutions
• Strong communicator who can interact with clients in person, via email or over the phone
• Accurate estimator who can write up specs and provide realistic timeframes

Hard Skills

• Wordpress Skinning, theming, Plug-ins
• PHP, XHTML, SEO, advanced CSS
• LAMP and WIMP
• Bonus points for Drupal, Joomla, SQL, Ruby, coldfusion
• Even more bonus points for fluency in Javascript, AJAX and the DOM

Experience Requirements

• At least 5 years experience
• Comply with best practices
• Have built dynamic websites from scratch, including ecommerce sites
• Be familiar with unit testing and continuous integration
• Be able to meet deadlines
• Work well in a team environment

Pay depends on experience. This is a full time job with benefits and a lot of growth potential. Please email your resume, cover letter and examples of work and salary to jobs@spotcolorstudio.com.

Looking forward to meeting you!

First Round Capital's Fall Party: Who's-Who

Causeit, Inc. had a blast at First Round Capital's [@firstround] Fall Party at 230 5th in NYC. We met a lot of great folks—and enjoyed showing off our project company Fliptography's event entertainment. 

Our first sampling of the many interesting companies we met:

Socialbomb

Socialbomb provides an API for the social web, and helps companies engage their audience, advocate their brand, and measure their social success. Read more on their site.

Knewco

Knewco's KnowNow! is a Content Discovery bubble that delivers semantically relevant links from your website to your readers, along with rich related content, video, and shopping choices, all without leaving the page.

CJ Jouhal

CJ is a bright and engaging entrepreneur and technology strategist. He works with companies needing direction and expertise when selecting technology solutions. Are you an e-commerce-dependent business but know little (or care little) about e-commerce? CJ can help you. Find out more at jouhal.net

Tag Man

The crew from Tag Man was there for the event—all the way from the UK—and excitedly explaining their tag-consolidation software. If you create dynamic, data-driven and higlhy-analyzed sites needing a container supertag to decrease load times while increasing efficiency and reliability, check them out. If not, you'll probably end up using a site powered by their software without knowing it. 

We're running a million miles an hour today with all of the great contacts we made, so we'll add more to the post later!

Anti-trust settlement could pave the way for more accurate, yet more confusing credit card fees.

Back in 2008 the Justice department began to probe both Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc over policies intended to prevent "steering", the act of influencing customers to use cards that have low interchange fees so as to reduce the cost of taking those cards to the business. This could be in the form of incentives or discounts which the Justice Dept argues "impose a competitive straitjacket on merchants, restricting decisions by them to offer discounts, benefits and choices to customers that many merchants would otherwise be free to offer," Currently, this is illegal. In fact, I had a friend send me this picture just the other day.

How one business deals with credit cards.

As you can see, some businesses are pretty aggressive in steering their clients, sometimes to the point of completely disincentiving the use of cards. Most businesses don't realize this, but Visa and Mastercard have put a lot of money into making sure that this is illegal, until the settlement just days ago, which has yet to be approved by a court before going into effect.

Before this settlement, cards were a form of legal tender in the USA. That means you can't reject them for any reason in your business. If someone wants to pay with a card, it's as good as cash. What's the downside? As a consumer, you were well within your legal right to say, "I refuse to pay your fee or meet your minimum credit card limit just to use my card."

With the settlement of this lawsuit, now businesses can disincentivize you from using a credit card. "The settlement this past week means that about 4 million merchants nationwide that accept only Visa and MasterCard are now free to steer customers to different credit cards or forms of payment by offering discounts, rebates or other special treatment, the Justice Department said." That means now it's legal to charge you .25 to use your card, or have a minimum charge before they accept cards. Good or bad? You can weigh in by commenting below.

This lawsuit is just the beginning of a long conversation into how non-cash payments will function in relation to businesses. Many businesses feel oppressed by credit card fees. My heart sinks everytime I hear a business owner say, "I might as well give this pack of gum (or other small ticket item) away if someone wants to buy it with a card, it's cheaper!" If that's the case, they're actually not setup correctly.

Visa and Mastercard have programs specifically for businesses with average tickets of less than $15 just for this reason. If your business is not making money due to accepting credit cards, it's time to find a new merchant processor. Would you stay with your insurance agent if they had the wrong limits on your home or auto? The sad part is, many people don't realize where they stand in relation to these issues. Stay educated, or find someone you trust who can manage it for you. It will improve your bottomline!

Other links for news on this topic:

http://usat.ly/cBmQk9http://bit.ly/bTtxpXhttp://bit.ly/9XvgmYhttp://bit.ly/cQDzBG

http://bit.ly/bgzLtvhttp://reut.rs/c7ORYg

Matt Koren is the President of Priority Payments Northwest, a Merchant Services Provider located in Portland, OR. He runs his company in addition to his management consulting practice as an Associate with Causeit, Inc. You can contact him by filling out the Contact Us page, or by calling 503-493-7332.

Job Opening: Development Project Manager for Design Firm

One of our clients, a web & graphic design firm, has recently opened a Development Project Manager position. E-mail devpm2010@causeit.org with your resume and a cover letter, along with links to at least 3-5 sites you have project-managed with a basic explanation of what you did on the project.

This position is hiring very soon, so don't hesitate to send your information over.

---

Growing creative agency is looking to hire a full time project manager to manage all aspects of our development department.

As Project Manager you are responsible for defining the project scope, developing estimates & plans, contract negotiations, delivering project documentation, vendor selection process, and ensuring activities occur according to plan. The Project Manager will interact with the creative team, developers, and clients on an ongoing basis.

Responsibilities:

• Act as project manager for multi-varied website projects; write functional specs, create project plans, calendars, lead kick-off meetings and manage budgets
• Provide strong vendor management skills to ensure that multiple vendors work together and provide quality deliverables on-time and on-budget
• Work effectively with other departments ensuring a smooth and productive flow of work
• Manage and orchestrate quality assurance
• Communicate regularly with clients: gather information from them, show progress, suggest enhancements or items that will make their site function better and get them more traffic
• Play an active role in re-evaluating current processes and recommend and implement improvements

Requirements:

• 5 years of Website / Development & Project Management experience for a creative agency or web firm
• 3 to 5 years of managing websites on various CMS platforms, ability to manage an e-commerce
• implementation from start to finish
• Excellent communication both verbal and written
• Ability to explain technical specs to clients in a way they can understand, and be able to train clients on their CMS system
• A development background would be extremely helpful. You won’t be doing any programming, but being able to explain the steps to the client, write up the specs, estimate correctly, and manage all aspects of multiple websites with various degrees of complexity is required
• Knowledge of SEO and Social Media
• Have basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator

job openings: fliptography

A Causeit, Inc. project company, Fliptography, LLC, is hiring flipbook-makers and shift leads. Fliptography's mission is to create joy and create jobs—which they do by making awesome instant flipbooks live at events. Like a photo booth (but with video), the Fliptography crew records a short seven-second clip of guests at an event, and then quickly constructs a paper flipbook as a great memento and party favor. Fliptography staff work in Portland, Central Oregon, Seattle and the Bay Area. Our team is full of interesting folk, such as students, part-time small business owners and/or non-profit staff committed to having fun with a great time.

Pay ranges from $12 to $15 per hour, and work is generally part-time. Applicants' exact availability can vary from week to week, as long as evenings and weekends are generally available. A brief cover letter and resume can be sent to jobs2010 [at] fliptography [dot] net. Customer service experience is a plus. No specific photography experience is required. Diverse applicants of all backgrounds and groups are strongly encouraged to apply, including women, people of LGBTQ communities, people of color, and more. 

Job Opening: Operations Assistant/Project Management Rockstar for Public Speaker and Brand Innovator

One of Causeit, Inc.'s clients is in need of an amazing operations assistant/rockstar. You would work closely with Causeit's amazing team (in our Southeast Portland, Oregon office) to remotely support one of our clients in building their business.  Our client creates innovative, participatory brands for major companies and organizations. If you are interested in being on the leading edge of social media, online interaction, and brands which have more value than just hawking wares, this might be the job for you. You should possess the following:

• Strong written and verbal communication skills (no surprise there)
• A knack for merging the inspirations & stream-of-thought of an innovative professional into the systems of a well-oiled business
• A working knowledge of marketing and branding, especially as it relates to interactive/social media
• Experience creating order out of chaos through use of powerful collaborative tools such as Google Docs, Remember the Milk, Batchbook, Freshbooks and online project management systems
• "Natural" fluency with technology
• Daytime availability (morning to mid-afternoon)

Contact pmrockstar at causeit dot org for more info.

Job opening: Senior Account Executive for Northwest Technology Firm

One of Causeit, Inc.'s recruitment contacts, Janet Brumbaugh and Associates, is seeking a Senior Account Executive for an award-winning Pacific Northwest technology firm.  This is a great opportunity at a “family-focused” technology company that’s at the cutting edge of the blossoming field of cloud computing as well as being a leader in developing green solutions.  The position is a “hunter” type sales role which will primarily entail developing new accounts in the medium to large market, making presentations to “C” level clients.  The successful candidate should have several years of sales experience in the telecommunications/internet or IT related industry.  This company offers a highly competitive compensation package, including excellent benefits. 

Please contact Janet Brumbaugh and Associates directly at (503) 697-7992 or janetbrumbaugh at comcast dot net. We’re moving quickly to find the right person!