The Cube Rules Secret is Out

It should be no surprise that part of blogging is to attend industry conferences about…blogging. I rarely note all of the rarefied goings on at these conferences to my readers as they are usually not about career management, but for this one I’m making an exception. You see, this conference isn’t about blogging; it’s about building Warrior Boot Camp.

No one has heard of Warrior Boot Camp — but it will be vitally important to you, as a member of the 40-million knowledge workers on the planet.

You see, most people come to this blog searching for things critical to survival on Corporate Earth: networking with others, developing personal brands, understanding their manager and management, translating Corporate Speak, wondering how long their position will last, and even the very basic — but critical — job skills of writing goals and performance reviews.

They come to this site because they want to learn about those things they struggle with at work — but there is no one to teach them. Not their manager, nor their coworkers, or their colleges with the fancy business degree offerings. With over thirty years experience in Fortune 100 companies as both a manager and an individual contributor, I’m in a unique position to help people navigate a career in a cube — to help them become the successful Cubicle Warrior.

The conference, SOBCon08 — the Successful and Outstanding Blogger Conference — will help launch Warrior Boot Camp. The objective coming out of the three-day conference on May 4th is simple and daunting: construct an actionable business plan for Warrior Boot Camp that I will begin to execute the minute I get home.

While the presentations about building businesses will be what I’m learning, the lessons from the keynote presenters will also speak directly to you:

• Anita Bruzzese from Gannett USA Today, a good friend, will speak about online reputation management. In today’s global economy, your teammates — and hiring managers — come from across the globe and will learn about you from your online reputation.
• Brian Clark will speak to online business models that work. This addresses how to know and differentiate the right business model for what we do. It is the same in our careers: knowing what our strengths are and how to leverage them to success.
• Lorelle VanFossen presents focusing your business to get noticed — the exact same thing needed to stand out in our own careers.
• Chris Garrett will present the concept that working hard on a blog doesn’t come close to working smart. We’re told all the time that we need to work smarter, but few tell us how. Chris will tell us. In addition, Chris has expert knowledge about how to leverage blogs and online businesses. If I am fortunate to be able to work with him, I’m asking how I can leverage Warrior Boot Camp to maximize the different types of teaching my readers need about career management.
• Chris Brogan will speak on social media choices that produce. LinkedIn? Facebook? Blogs? Social site flavor of the month? Now what? We all need to know what and how social media choices will help us achieve our objectives and build our personal brand.
• David Bullock presents a sales model that converts. We don’t think that our career is about selling — but it is all about selling and producing. How to convert what we do so our managers understand our value on the team is not talked about near enough.
• Liz Strauss will talk about building an irresistible offer. Liz can ask you ten questions and come up with the answer that has evaded you for years. She’s done it with me. Wouldn’t you like to discover what your irresistible offer is for companies you’d like to work with?
• Finally, Wendy Piersall will talk about success management. Wendy, by all measures, is successful in her business; yet she is in the process of turning it all upside down by re-branding everything. Building a business — or changing jobs, companies, and careers — is exciting, stimulating, and frightening all at the same time. How to navigate the shoals should be of interest to all of us.

I’ll be sharing all of these lessons with you after I get back.

At the conference, the business plan for Warrior Boot Camp will be built with the help of my own smaller mastermind group. I’ll help build their plans and they will help build mine. We will all be people we can talk with as we implement these plans after the conference; it is networking extraordinaire. Having expert support from people who are experts in their own right who also helped mold your business plan is a powerful indicator of success.

The skills I’ve developed in Corporate America should come into play at the conference as well. The ability to see the central issue that needs addressing amongst the chatter, noise and interruptions of every day life should be important. Clearly understanding process and how it affects success will be critical as plans are built. Those strengths, combined with a long history of successfully executing change in the workplace, should provide value with my team. I can’t wait.

My desire is to have each of you become a Cubicle Warrior. Warrior Boot Camp is the next level of work to do just that.

Scot