Our company values are by nature idealistic, intended to help us lift our game and aspire to excellence. However, I just noticed that they also underline our ability to deal with situations when we fail to exceed expectations .
# Integrity: We keep our promises, treat people fairly and value open and honest communication.
Honestly, major fail on our part
Kia Ora
Hey I understand you’re working with Jolyon in Timaru on the time bank and that you guys had a go at using our system the other day while it was way out of whack, which is really unfortunate. I promise it’s not normally so error ridden.
Last Thursday, we finally put the paid work marketplace live. This requires shifting a whole lot of new code from our staging to live website. As you experienced, like Jamie & I did here too, there were some major errors.
While http://worknow.co.nz registered all the changes http://www.worknow.co.nz was still hosting the old website. This lead to a whole raft of problems & a pretty major Fail on our part ~ all due to a very small error on our Domain Name Server(DNS).
Sorry that you guys had such a bad initial experience. I beg your understanding that as volunteers, building this site part-time we had only just begun to pick up on the faults ourselves, when Jolyon got in touch.
We have fixed the DNS issue and all should be back to operating as normal. We are also working to build you your own separate marketplace and if we haven’t completely lost your interest, please take a second look, have a play and yeah make your call now that what we offer, is working.
You guys are welcome to call or email me anytime with questions, feedback or criticism. Appreciate your understanding.
“The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew. Seek, therefore not to find out who you are, seek to determine who you want to be.” ~ Conversations With God
Absolutely! I believe we create our own futures and I live the belief that one of the best ways to determine who we want to be is by focusing on our talents, interests and passion. At the same time though I cherish the fact that life is a process of discovery, discovering truths and purpose, talents and passion, discovering the joy of other people.
Augmented Reality
Over the last couple of weeks I have begun work on a project involving the deployment of an Augmented Reality showcase of Dunedin’s heritage, arts and culture. Our project is inspired by immersive heritage experiences like Museum of London | Street Museum with so much potential for the platform we propose, I feel amazingly blessed to have discovered collaborators to help create and share this vision for our City.
In order to create my own future, I’ve committed to this project the most valuable resources I own, my talent and time, passion and energy. I wholeheartedly believe that this project will serve our City for years to come, providing not only a fun and engaging, compelling and immersive user experience but also establishing an open access platform that many members of our community can contribute to and potentially monetise.
Collaboration & Gratitude
I am inspired and encouraged by the range of support I have discovered in bringing together this collaborative. I see this project as a catalyst for on-going and future collaboration, spanning many of Dunedin’s most talented and creative industry sectors.
Most importantly, Thanks to my Great Omnipotent Deity for blessing me with talented people to work with. Thanks & massive respect to my talented collaborators Stu FlemingTim CalderPierre-Emmanuel de La Bussière and community support from:-
July 2010: Another year older, wiser and closer to living out some childhood dreams
Ever since the Jetson’s introduced me to holograms I’ve looked forward to the day that a similar type of technology would be within my reach. Over the last month several things happened that bring me closer living this dream. It’s exciting times.
Instead of going into the detail about how my life rocks what I would like to say is that the freedom I have gained ~ as an aspiring social entrepreneur ~ to choose how I apply my talent and time to this life, is my pursuit of happiness. I am blessed to have in my life many talented, beautiful people that inspire, challenge, support and love me.
Life is beautiful | live your talent | pursue you dream
I’m not saying that applying your talent to pursue you dreams is easy, where would the fun in that be? And although I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t envy my income at the moment, as cliche as this is, happiness is not something money can buy.
You can choose the work that you want. By creating an online talent profile with us and sharing your talents, your values and your passion with the world you too can begin to discover the beauty of living your dreams.
It had been a while since the game of generation bashing has had a look in but the floor is open again to generational commentary, stereotyping and general whinging following a research report on the values, attitudes, behaviors and demographic characteristics of American Gen Y | Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next
Born 1979 outside or upper end of the generational “age bracket” does nothing to change the fact that I identify most strongly with the Y Generation. While I can see in many friends my age, a stronger tendency to Gen X some of us never had the new generational “stereotypes” to qualify our actions.
Generation Y on Careers
I had to live my “traits” before they became widely touted indicators of our generation. My work career for instance in which I’ve had more than 10 jobs in the last 10 years. Inevitably, there were interviews in which I was asked to justify my job “hopping” to which my response involved learning, challenge, personal circumstance.
Now, in retrospect I can claim this as normal for an entire generation of people. No longer such an outlier, there is some reassurance to the fact that the following opinion is as true to me, as it is Amanda and probably millions more like us.
I don’t think that staying at one company for 20+ years necessarily correlates with building a career. Gen Y’s are more adaptive and willing to jump companies if it means advancing their career and lifestyle goals. I believe that this is a strength of our generation, not a weakness. I would rather change jobs many times to advance my career than allow my career to stagnate due to “corporate loyalty.” ~ Amanda, Tustin, CA : July 8, 2010 4:24 pm
Gen Y on Opportunities
Granted, I can understand that a CV of contract research and 6 – 12 month “career” efforts probably looked disconcerting to potential employers. And probably well it should because each job was for me about discovering something new about what I wanted to do with my life.
In some cases I learnt lessons about what I would do and what I could achieve but in most I learnt more about what I didn’t want. It was a process of discovery that has lead me to the clear realisation that as an employee other people were never going to allow me to challenge the status quo, learn and grow by testing limits. I was not made to fit the “employee” mold, a fact which I believe will prove true of many of our generation.
Being a part of “Gen Y” and soon to be a graduate of business school. I see my generation as one that will not sit in the corporate world to be told what to do when we know it is out dated. We want to be entrepreneurs and create our own opportunities. We will be a generation that wants social responsibility and making our communities better ~ Fletch, Omaha, NE : July 8, 2010 10:00 am
Gen Y Entrepreneurs
Love us or hate us by 2020 we will represent almost 40% of the New Zealand workforce. Maybe it’s time to accept that aspects of our work ethic, our ability to adapt quickly and easily to change for instance, are more suited to modern living.
Our entrepreneurial spirit makes us increasingly willing and able to take risks, our education has armed us with knowledge and insight and today’s technology allows us to connect, share and collaborate in new, more effective ways.
Today we recognise that we always have the option of working for ourselves and at Worknow we encourage this entrepreneurial spirit, the challenge of directing your own future and employing your talent, skills and interests to discover your dream job
“Chose a job you love, and you will never have to Work a day in your life.” Confucius
Ancient wisdom. As true today as it was when Confucius – China’s most famous teacher, philosopher, and political theorist 551-479 BC – wrote it some 2500 years ago.
Here at Worknow we believe you can find a job you love by connecting with work opportunities that match your talents, skills and interests, passion, values and experience.
It’s taken four times longer than first thought and although still under testing and development we now have [ pause for drum roll & trumpeting fanfare to sound in my head ] Version 1.0! of our website live! Basically, this means a couple of new but important features & changes.
New Types of Talent Profiles
People can now register a talent profile as one of different types of entities:-
Individuals: Can post requests and offer services on all work
Business: Can post requests and offer services on all work
Community Group : Can post requests but can not offer services
Charity Organisation: Can post requests but can not offer services
With only a single field now for keywords we hope this change will help people focus keywords around the talents, skills and values relevant to the dream job they want to work toward.
We will work on improving profiles, without adding complexity, in the next round of development.
New Volunteer Marketplace
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Anyone can now request volunteer help.We are working to populate the marketplace with volunteer work opportunities. Please if you know of anyone that needs volunteer help tell them that they can list with us at $0. If you are interested in volunteering or finding volunteers please include “volunteer” in your keywords, for now.
New Workspace Workflow
We’ve implemented a new work flow to make it more clear – for each party to a trade – where progress stands. We’ve integrated a flow chart to highlight which stage the trade is at and applied colour indicators:
Green represents work requiring your attention
Blue suggests it is pending attention from the other party
Dark Grey finished / closed.
A summary of your activity – Number of Trades; Number of Invites: Work Requiring your Attention vs Pending – is visible at all times in the top right corner of the web page : We hope this makes it just all the more easier to respond to work invites, requests and keep everything progressing
Changes to Time Trade
We removed the time offers section because it doubled up on the information required on people’s talent profiles. Basically all your skills and talents, strengths and passion, values, interests and experience need to be listed as keywords on your talent profile because
the keywords on your profile are how we can match you to work opportunities and the “job you love”.
Previous Development Changes
Invite to Trade: Matching talent & work opportunities: Now each time you post a request Worknow can suggest people for you to invite to view your trade by matching keywords on your post with the keywords listed within their talent profile.
Invite to Trade: You can also invite people you know to view your trade by creating a simple email invite. We’d like to invite you today to start trading & earn time credits simply by signing in and responding to our request for people to help test the trade functionality
Group Marketplace: We’ve established Groups functionality to enable existing communities to self organise and build community specific marketplaces. At this stage groups are created on request by providing a group name and contact email to renee@worknow.co.nz
Trade Status: We’re testing a new format for the Workspace to make it easier to understand trade status and actions pending on open trades. And we’ve updated the my posts page to provide a little more detail on the trades you have posted.
Worknow Start Up Tips & Tools
This is a copy of the email sent to member following the recent development update. I use and would highly recommend Mailchimp At start up stage Mailchimp provides all the email capabilities and performance measures you’ll need free of change when you have < 500 subscribers and send < 3000 emails. Brilliant!
It’s taken us a year, and four times longer than originally planned (luckily there was that recession) but we now have V1.0 of the online community marketplace live!
Now that our design and development team have provided a marketplace the job becomes mine to find the people and groups that will benefit from our work and talent matching tools.
I hope, in collaboration with others to encourage more young people to volunteer
As life would have it, we live in a university town that is full of talented people pondering their future and with the support of brilliant teams like OUSA & Ignite perhaps the challenge to attract young volunteers will be shared.
If you are interested in volunteer work experience please create your talent profile today. N.B: we match you with all forms of work or potential new teams based on the keywords you include in your profile so list talents, interests, skills and passion because it’s time to start creating you dream job.
I found Sir Ken Robinson’s Ted talk immensely inspiring and encouraging but it leads me to wonder why did it take me so long (15yrs) to choose my passion and talent over my need for achievement?
…we make very poor use of our talents…I meet all kinds of people who don’t think they are really good at anything…who don’t enjoy what they do they, they simply go through their lives getting on with it, they get no great pleasure from what they do, they endure it rather than enjoy it… but I also meet people who LOVE what they do…it isn’t what they do, it is who they are…their most authentic self… Sir Ken Robinson”
My talents and aspirations didn’t align because I was self centered and vain. Now, I was blessed to be raised in a family that nurtured my talents, surrounded by people that assured me that I could do anything I wanted. The education system, with which I am now thoroughly disenchanted was – up until I was about 15 years old – an environment in which I thrived upon learning and the ongoing recognition of academic, sporting and cultural achievement.
Yet for a long time now I have not lived up to the potential, that others saw in me. Despite the fact that I studied, worked and strived to become a better person, I was so self centered and focused on my own goals and achievements that I could not see opportunities to do what I most aspired to – help people and effect change – passing me by.
Over the last year, working as an aspiring social entrepreneur, I’ve recognised that I had things round the wrong way. Even as lately as January 2009, I thought that if I could make myself “a better person” then I could help others. Yet it now seems so apparent that only by helping others first will I ever be the person I aspire to.
The How: Helping Others Employ Their Talents
Using social networking to create a community in which people can feel OK about promoting and sharing their talents
“…natural talents: human resources are like natural resources, they are often buried deep. You have to go looking for them, they’re not just lying around on the surface you have to create the circumstances where they show themselves…” Sir Ken Robinson
This is not going to be an easy cause to gather people to and therein lies the challenge: to effect the national mind set.
We kiwi’s are not known for our self promotion, why would we when tall poppy syndrome is so alive and well in this country, ready to cut back down to size those that are too confident, too successful or aspire to lofty goals. One way I have found to overcome this barrier of talking about talents and strengths is simply to ask:
what are your interests?
what do you like to do?
what are you passionate about?
what interests would you want to share with other people?
By creating a talent profile and sharing you passion, talents, interests and values with the world we can match you with opportunities to LOVE what you.
A recent study by researchers from the University of Konstanz (Germany) has found that volunteering can offer mental health benefits and may even help people to perform better in their paid work role.
Research was conducted via a 2-week diary study, with 105 employees to provide data for a total of 476 days. Research then examined relationships between the amount of time spent on volunteer work activities during leisure time, psychological non-work experiences in the evening, and work outcomes during the following working day.
Results confirmed the hypothesized positive relationships between the amount of time spent on volunteer work activities and psychological detachment from work, mastery experiences, and need satisfaction in the evening.
Positive relationships between the amount of time spent on volunteer work activities and psychological detachment from work and mastery experiences in the evening suggest volunteer work’s potential to provide a break from paid work and to offer opportunities for recovery experiences.
I aspire to one day be in the position of Mr Bill Payne – being able to invest time and money in talented, entrepreneurial teams – but I’ve got a long way to go and in the meantime I will glean as much learning and insight as I can from the experts in order to execute the plans we have for Worknow.
Mr Payne’s insights into the world of new venture financing are summarized in the presentation he offered The Capital Food Chain but in addition to taking notes it is necessary to reflect upon the knowledge imparted. Therefore, the following are some of the key points I took from Mr Bill Payne’s talk, which I feel are important to the new venture journey.
People: the management team is the number ONE factor influencing the angel’s investment decision.
People make or break a company. We were advised the primary difference between company’s that succeed vs. those new ventures that fail is simply the people and their ability to execute on plans.
“Better to invest in and A team with a C idea than a B team with an A idea”
Failure to execute was seen as the number one reason that companies fail and for this reason – People – the management team is the number one factor influencing the angel’s investment decision.
Important characteristics of the entrepreneurial individual / teams
Integrity
Industry Experience
Experience working together
Willingness to “let go” of control in the best interests of the company
Passion
Commitment
On the Investment process
If you don’t need money then don’t waste your time seeking investment. Bootstrap as far as you can. You’re better investing time executing on your plans than pursuing investors. That said…
Absolutely the best way to connect new venture teams with potential investors is to network. Talking to and learning from people is key to finding the best investors
Even before you need investment seek to learn from those with the knowledge, experience and connections to help, mentor and advise. Join entrepreneurial communities or clubs. Attend events, seminars and lectures.
Look for “smart money”: Experienced people offering both time and cash.
Be prepared to pitch your idea with the view to attracting interest
Mr Payne advised that there are four key communication tools that those seeking investment will require:-
1. Elevator Pitch [60 seconds]
2. Executive Summary [2 - 4 Pages]
3. Presentation [10 slides / 20 minutes / 30 font size]
4. Business Plan [Due Diligence]
People often make the mistake of focusing too much on the product or service offering. They key is to ensure each form of communication provides a balance between product or service offering / opportunity / differentiation.
Five Mistakes to Avoid
For more information including the five biggest mistakes to avoid when seeking investment check out the full presentation The Capital Food Chain
Worknow & The Distiller
We hope that the tools we provide may help connect talented entrepreneurs with those seeking to invest in New Zealand’s next generation of start up teams. Thanks again Otago University, this time the Masters of Entrepreneurship – for inviting The Distiller Crew to attend.
It’s great to see that our Gen Y entrepreneurial spirit is being noticed in industry and investment circles. Another positive to hear talk of increased funding for young entrepreneurs.
I support the belief that failure offers a wealth of positive learning outcomes. I believe in collaboration, building shared intelligence and I recognise that we will always have much to learn.
Indeed, I welcome support for environments that nurture entrepreneurship, that offer networking and growth opportunities and increase resourcing options for young entrepreneurs.
“The industry knows where the opportunities are, and these young guys have the capability and capacity. We need to go to a forum where we can bring these elements together and allow the market to decide where the solutions are and where the investments happen…If government doesn’t do it, if the software industry doesn’t do it, if the investment industry doesn’t do it, it’s going to happen generationally…within the next 20 years as these kids grow from college to business, they are naturally going to get entrepreneurial understanding and experience. We can either do nothing and wait for that to happen or we can interject and start to facilitate a sort of collaboration, ” Source CIO
20 years vs 2012
Fortunately, NZ will not have to wait 2 years let alone 20 to begin seeing the value contributed by it’s next generation of entrepreneurs.
I am a member of a brilliant web start up community called the Distiller. We thrive on collaboration and continually seek ways to connect with industry.
We would welcome government, business, community and industry investors to “interject” but – so you know – the collaboration you speak of facilitating, the forums for connecting that you suggest, we are working on this already, perhaps even ahead of you on this one. Investment welcome:-) watch this space….
Gen Y Entrepreneurs
Love us or hate us by 2020 we will represent almost 40% of the New Zealand workforce. Maybe it’s time to accept that aspects of our work ethic, our ability to adapt quickly and easily to change for instance, are more suited to modern living.
Our entrepreneurial spirit makes us increasingly willing and able to take risks, our education has armed us with knowledge and insight and today’s technology allows us to connect, share and collaborate in new, more effective ways.
Today we recognise that we always have the option of working for ourselves and at Worknow we encourage this entrepreneurial spirit, the challenge of directing your own future and employing your talent, skills and interests to discover your dream job