"A lot of people have taken the Brand You idea and twisted it out of shape. 'They' say it's about egocentrism. That's off by 180 degrees as far as I'm concerned. The idea is that in a wildly competitive market, each of us, including Marriott housekeepers, has to be clear about our 'value proposition' and so-called USP. It's a matter of survival, not ego. Others have said Brand You is disloyal, a looking out for #1 attitude that puts the organization 2nd. Again, off by 180 degrees as I see it. I'd rather go to work with a stable of Brand Yous, hell bent on improving and producing Excellence, than with a bunch of 'just passin' the time' folks. Third, some say Brand You is anti-team. Again, all wrong. An effective Brand You is an effective networker (!!), hence more rather than less likely than usual to pay attention to supporting his or her mates."

This is just an "FYI."

"There's less of an easy answer than you'd imagine. I do not rehearse in the formal sense. On the other hand, I come close to staying up all night before a speech going over my slides—over and over and over. Perhaps over 100 times???? Of course I formally modify the slides, to the point of de-emphasizing one word and emphasizing (italics) another. But as I go through the slides I am also sub-consciously, semi-consciously going through phrasing I might use. So in a way it's damn near rehearsal, though you're also right in that the main rehearsal is 3,000 or so speeches over about 31 years."

For my generation—that ripe crop of late-twentysomethings that's neither X nor Y—the term "social networking" is often affiliated with a Twitter tweet or jaunty Facebook update. We've likened our virtual followers and friends to the tangible clients and colleagues who make up our actual reality, hoping that these "friends" will "follow" us to our brands and businesses. Despite the allure of following the latest trend, just as we shouldn't consider flip-flops appropriate office attire, we shouldn't confuse the importance of virtual friends with the value of face-to-face interaction.

As a freelance writer, I've got no choice but to be constantly on the hustle. Every method I can get my hands on to promote myself, whether by blog post or talking up a storm with a stranger, I'll take it. Despite the fact that my office shares space with my bedroom, there's no substitute for presenting my best, polished self in realtime. Social media is the fancy awning that hangs from a building; human interaction is the bricks and mortar.

The need to diffuse ourselves and our brands across a variety of platforms is very real and likewise, the importance of the Internet and social media as vehicles to do so is also very real. But at the end of the day, we're left with the reason why sites like Twitter and Facebook exist: the very real, very tangible people who use them.

And so I ask: is good, old-fashioned "meeting up" the new black?

Teddy Roosevelt said, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

So, how do you know you are caring enough?

Do a self-assessment on your level of caring by thinking through these nine questions:

1. Are you REALLY listening when they are talking OR are you thinking about what you will say next?
2. Do you care for them OR do you care about their opinion of you? (Inspiration from the book Leadership and Self Deception by The Arbinger Institute]
3. Do you usually call them when you want something from them or when you think you can offer something of value to them?
4. Are they in your "network" or are you both in each other's "networks?"
5. Do you leave them impressed with you OR do you make them feel good about themselves?
6. What do you see when you see people? (From a quote submitted by Mike Wagner of White Rabbit Group)
7. If time is money, they are making an investment by spending their time (money) with you. How are you ensuring that they are getting the right return-on-investment for this interaction (ROII)?
8. Are you treating them the way you want them to treat you?
9. Are they REALLY better off because you are in their life?

Your turn now. What question should you ask yourself to see whether you are caring enough?

(As well as a virtuous way to live.)

Three books that you ...
MUST READ.
The first is new:
The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility Is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It, by Christine Pearson and Christine Porath. In his Foreword, my pal, the incomparable Warren Bennis, claims that this book will be shelved next to the likes of Silent Spring and Unsafe at Any Speed—that is, it's a game-changer. I think he has a point. The "best" lawyers routinely lose jury trials to "ordinary" lawyers because the superstars hector witnesses and otherwise come across as bullies. The "best" surgeons, lacking or short on emotional intelligence, are sued every time they pick up a scalpel—and their mediocre counterparts make errors galore, but stay away from the courtroom courtesy great bedside manner. (The stats here are remarkable!) Customers are lost through rudeness—to less effective but more civil competitors. Top employees are lost by the bushel in rude workplaces—even if such workplaces offer great technical opportunities.

Etc.

Etc.

You are a damn fool (he said ever so rudely!!) if you don't read-ingest-act on-treat as "strategic" this book.

In the same vein are a pair of books by E.M. Forni:

Choosing Civility: The Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct

The Civility Solution: What to Do When People Are Rude

What can I say?

I was near tears as I read them!

They are so very very very right!

They have such a powerful set of messages ... for you and me!

(Or at least me.)
Herewith some excerpts, starting with Forni's decision to get into the "civility business." Bizarrely, he is a professor of Italian literature at Johns Hopkins, who in 2000 started the Johns Hopkins Civility Project:

"For many years literature was my life ... One day, while lecturing on the Divine Comedy, I looked at my students and realized that I wanted them to be kind human beings more than I wanted them to know about Dante. I told them that if they knew everything about Dante and then went out and treated an elderly lady on the bus unkindly, I'd feel that I had failed as a teacher."—P.M. Forni, Choosing Civility

"The letter from the public relations director of the retirement community was similar to many I had received over the years. It included the date and time of the talk I was soon to give there, directions on how to get to the lecture hall, and other sundry bits of information. As I absentmindedly perused it, the sentence at the very bottom of the sheet caught my attention. It read: 'We will have a glass of water available at the podium.' Of course it is not uncommon for speakers to find a glass of water at the podium—although I have given many a speech without that basic comfort. For the first time, however, a host had taken the trouble of reassuring me in advance that the water would await me at the appointed place and time. An act that many would consider almost negligible was made significant by virtue of being put in writing. Here was someone trying to do all she could to make her guest feel welcome and at ease. The message she conveyed was 'We value you and your presence among us, and we are thinking of all you might possibly need. Rest assured that, as far as we are concerned, you will have the opportunity to perform at your best.' All I had to do, in other words, was relax and enjoy their hospitality. It was thoughtful professionalism at its best."—P.M. Forni, The Civility Solution (from "Eight Rules For a Civil Life," #7: "Pay Attention to the Small Things")

"I denied myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly and of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but that in the present case there 'appeared' or 'seemed to me' some difference, etc. The conversation I engaged in went more pleasantly; the modest way in which I proposed my opinions procured them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevailed with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right."—Benjamin Franklin (in The Civility Solution)

"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness."—Lucius Annaeus Seneca (in Choosing Civility)

"Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind."—Henry James (in Choosing Civility)

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: For thereby some have entertained angels unawares."—Paul of Tarsus (in Choosing Civility)

"I can live for two months on a good compliment."—Mark Twain (in Choosing Civility)

Over to you ...
(This post has been on the front burner for some days—the coincidence of its arrival today, following Congressman Joe Wilson's decidedly uncivil outburst last night in the United States House of Representatives, is just that ... coincidental. But, indeed, powerful illustration of the points made above. Wilson's career may not be over, though a prospective rival raised a lot of money after the "occasion," but at the least any leadership aspirations the Congressman may have had are most likely DOA.)

Many of us have been convinced of the value of physical stretching regimens. But what about the mental equivalent?

We may, especially in Web World, come across "new stuff" in the course of a day. But what about truly weird stuff, genuinely surprising stuff, counterintuitive stuff that we take the time to absorb?

If you go to bed three days in a row without some genuinely new ideas wandering around in your brain—well, I suggest that you let that worry you.

(And then act with some haste upon your very appropriate concern.)

But it can be more fun to apply SDIC to personal events in our own lives, as we did at my reunion. For example, what if we had a different teacher in school who didn't inspire us to dive into mechanical engineering or information technology or political science, which we may still be engaged in ten—or forty—years later? What if we didn't sell ads for our student newspaper, leading us into a career in sales or advertising or publishing? What if we didn't attend that Saturday night mixer (are they still called "mixers"?) and didn't meet our future life partner?

In my case, the simple act of oversleeping what would have been my induction into the U.S. Army as an undergraduate member of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (not to mention my joining a campus rock & roll band that blasted me into the music business) clearly contributed—according to my relatives anyway—to my eventual moral decline. (My becoming a management consultant years later, of course, represents rock bottom.) So ... was there a seemingly insignificant event in your life—perhaps in your school years if you're out of school now—that has since changed EVERYTHING?

If you wait tables, make sure that the customer's experience depends on you, and who you are, and would have been different with another server who served the same meals.

If you are a technology consultant, make sure that your client's experience would be totally different if another consultant were delivering the same advice.

If you are a doctor, make sure that your patient's experience is made special by who you are, and would be different if another doctor delivered the same diagnosis.

Relationship-building encounters don't happen between "waiter and customer," "consultant and client," or "doctor and patient." They happen between human beings. It is, of course, critically important to treat your customer like a full person, and honor what makes her unique. But that is only half the equation. Make sure that you represent yourself in the encounter, not as a representative of your job role, but as you. Interact with your customer in a way that could only be done by you, a way in which another person could not substitute for you without making the experience different.

Early in my days as a consultant I had a breakthrough moment. I realized that I didn't want my clients to think of me as "our marketing consultant, Steve," but as "Steve, our marketing consultant." This is not a subtle distinction. It's the difference between being replaceable, and irreplaceable.

In one sense, being irreplaceable isn't easy. But in another sense it is, because there's no one else on earth like you. Be you. Be irreplaceable.

[See more by Cool Friend Steve Yastrow at www.yastrow.com.]

I have some fear that you'll read this and accuse me of playing "holier than thou"—the good news is that I know you'll let me know if that's the case.

I went to town earlier today to do some errands—including, yes, getting yet another brushcutting tool.

On the way, I was delayed by a crew doing some roadside tree trimming. One lane of VT Route 30 was closed—and there was, naturally, a Flagman at each end of the work area.

As is my habit ("Tom being Tom" is Susan's term for it), I waved to the flagman—not some big full-body "Hiya," just a little flick of the wrist. It ain't a great job, and a dollop of recognition can't hurt—right?

The guy on the front end waved back—a similar flick of the wrist, and perhaps a little nod. But as I approached the other end, I almost cringed. The Flagman there had as sour-grim an expression as I've seen in a long time. Not aggressively, attack-dog sour, just sour-sour. (Presumably you know what I mean.) I waved anyway, but as expected received no response whatsoever.

Maybe Flagman #2 was fired from a two-hundred-thou-a-year job at Lehman. Maybe Wal*Mart laid him off. Maybe his wife is pissed off at him. Maybe he has a nasty head cold. Any of those things is possible, or a hundred others—plus the job's not exactly a major career step.

Or is it?
(More accurately, could it be?)

I use a lot of quotes in my speeches; but the fact is that I commit very few to memory. But one that is etched indelibly into my synapses comes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

I'm sure there are multiple interpretations of this, and for awhile I had a touch of trouble with the quote: Did it mean that our street sweeper should aspire to no more than street sweeping? I decided not necessarily. To my mind, the quote means that whatever you are doing for whatever reason can be (ought to be, per Dr. King) turned to a Work of High Art and Fullblown Commitment.

I remember, on a visit to Rome at Easter a couple of years ago, racing at one point to catch a glimpse of a world-famous (!!-true) cop who stood in the center of a mid-city roundabout directing traffic with the same style-vigor-artistry with which Leonard Bernstein conducted a symphony orchestra or John Madden coached from the football sidelines.

It's a truism, as I see it, that a Flagman's job, per Dr. King and our Grand Roman Traffic-circle Cop, could indeed be turned into High Art. Or at least the work could be performed with a positive-vigorous-engaged attitude.

My sour Flagman made me sad—mostly for him, but it also put a wee dent in my day. These are troubled economic times. Some readers are doubtless doing something "less" than they were a year ago—perhaps both their ego and wallet have been dented.

But no one but no one but no one can rob you of your attitude. It's all yours to shape and put on parade.

Maybe tough times make it tough to sport a grin. But tough times are especially good times (!!!) to Stand Out for your Spirit & Determination & Engagement & Comradeship.

Flagman, 7-11 clerk, or bank teller, there's always a promotion right around the corner—or at least something close to a short-term employment guarantee—if you live by the words of Martin Luther King. And if the great attitude is still not enough, you retain your self-respect—which is no small thing.

The bastids can't steal your attitude!
(No matter how hard they may advertently or inadvertently try.)
Your attitude is all yours!
Are you Flagman #2?
Or Dr. King's street sweeper?

[Above, my new Corona Ratchet Action Bypass Lopper RL3560. Below, feeding time in the Peacable Kingdom, West Tinmouth VT.]

Sleep in tomorrow.
Unplug.
Take a walk in the woods.
Don't try to figure out a damn thing.
Breathe.
Make a whistle from an acorn top.
Say, "You are very lucky. Be at peace." At least a dozen times.
Be invisible.
Be of open heart.
Catch a fish.
Or not.
Repeat weekly.

Presumably the two lists could be used together. I think so. Don't know what Tom A's view is—or yours.

Get up earlier.
Go to bed later.
Work harder.
Finish what you start.
Learn one new thing.
Renew one contact.
Ask, "How can I help you?" at least once.
Make yourself visible.
Be of good cheer.

Catch a break.
Or not.

Repeat tomorrow.

I am constantly asked for "strategies/'secrets' for surviving the recession." I try to appear wise and informed—and parade original, sophisticated thoughts. But if you want to know what's going through my head, read the list below:

You work longer.
You work harder.
You may well work for less; and, if so, you adapt to the untoward circumstances with a smile—even if it kills you inside.
You volunteer to do more.
You always bring a good attitude to work.
You fake it if your good attitude flags.
You literally practice your "game face" in the mirror in the morning, and in the loo mid-morning.
You shrug off shit that flows downhill in your direction—buy a shovel or a "pre-worn" raincoat on eBay.
You get there earlier.
You leave later.
You forget about "the good old days"—nostalgia is for wimps.
You buck yourself up with the thought that "this too shall pass"—but then remind yourself that it might not pass anytime soon, so you re-dedicate yourself to making the absolute best of what you have now.
You eschew all forms of personal excess.
You simplify.
You sweat the details as you never have before.
You sweat the details as you never have before.
You sweat the details as you never have before.
You raise to the sky the standards of excellence by which you evaluate your own performance.
You thank others by the truckload if good things happen—and take the heat yourself if bad things happen.
You behave kindly, but you don't sugarcoat or hide the truth—humans are startlingly resilient.
You treat small successes as if they were Superbowl victories—and celebrate and commend accordingly.
You shrug off the losses (ignoring what's going on inside your tummy), and get back on the horse and try again.
You avoid negative people to the extent you can—pollution kills.
You eventually read the gloom-sprayers the riot act.
You learn new tricks of your trade.
You network like a demon.
You help others with their issues.
You give new meaning to the word "thoughtful."
You redouble, re-triple your efforts to "walk in your customer's shoes." (Especially if the shoes smell.)
You mind your manners—and accept others' lack of manners in the face of their strains.
You are kind to all mankind.
You leave the blame game at the office door.
You become a paragon of accountability.
And then you pray.

[This post sent to you from the business lounge aboard the M/S Star, en route Tallinn to Helsinki—and fully wired, or, rather, wireless, at Sea, crossing the Gulf of Finland. Photo above.]

[The list is also available in PowerPoint.—CM]

I think he's done a fine job on following through with the utterly amazing corporate culture revolution that Carly Fiorina launched. She transformed HP from hyper-nerdy-nerds-making-stuff-for-nerds to super-cool and consumer friendly, too, then iced the change with the successful Compaq merger—about the only one of those big suckers in recent (or not so recent) memory that has worked out more or less as intended.

But the above is not the point of the post. The point is an off-to-the-side remark by P&G CEO A.G. Lafley concerning Mr. Hurd: "When we meet there's no chitchat or warm-up. It's right to business."

So my question du jour: Is numbers-obsessed-no-chitchat the guaranteed way to run a business successfully?

I am well aware of the problems with a numbers obsession—I've devoted the last 30 years of my life to questioning obsessive numbers-come-first-and-last management. But this adds a new dimension: Is civility, too, a sin, comparable to focusing on more than the numbers?

(Related query, does Mr Hurd ask his kids about grades first, then, and only after getting the numeric answer to the grades query, ask how their day went? Just wondering.)

(NB: I had the privilege of "wandering around" with Sam Walton on a few occasions. When talking to a store manager, he invariably began with queries about wife and kids—and to my amazement he usually remembered something or other about a spouse or a child.)

I thought it would help to highlight what is NOT a personal brand. Here is a quick (partial) list:

1. It's NOT what you say about yourself.

In simple terms, what you say about yourself falls under the category of "freedom of speech." You can say whatever you want. Does not mean a thing. Your personal brand is an assessment the marketplace makes about who you are and what you bring to the marketplace.

2. It's NOT an extension of your employer's brand.

Unless you are self-employed, it is hard to extend your employer's brand to make it look like your personal brand.

3. It's NOT your presence in the social media.

Yes, social media can amplify your personal brand, but the presence itself cannot be a substitute for a personal brand. There are a few exceptions here, as some people have built a brand as social media experts and they live in the social media (for obvious reasons).

It is also NOT how "popular" you are in the social media. You can be entertaining (and funny) and become popular, but that does not automatically grant you authority unless humor is part of your offer to the marketplace.

4. It's NOT something that you can ASK for.

People give it to you when you deserve it.

5. It's NOT something that you are entitled to.

It does not come with a job position or a title. A job or title might help with your personal brand, but it can't be proxy for your personal brand.

6. It's NOT a perk.

It is not something a company can decide to give you as an "extra" because you did a good job.

7. It's NOT about the power alone.

While it provides you the power, a "personal brand" is mostly about giving. Power and influence are mostly the side benefits of your personal brand.

Here is something to think about:

What is it you are giving to the world that is so valuable that the world will reward you back with a powerful personal brand?

8. It's NOT a gift that someone can give you.

Someone cannot give you a gift of a "Personal Brand," but they can give you a gift to amplify an "already powerful" personal brand. A well-deserved link, an endorsement, a testimonial, etc., are all gifts that can amplify a personal brand.

9. It's NOT permanent.

It's not something that you can get and keep it for life. You have to work hard to get a powerful personal brand. But that's only the first step. You have to continue to work hard to keep that powerful personal brand and grow it.

[Cool Friend Raj Setty works with like-minded entrepreneurs to bring good ideas to life and spread their adoption. You can learn more about him at www.rajeshsetty.com or follow him on his blog, Life Beyond Code, or on Twitter @UpbeatNow.]

If year-end is good for reflection, this year-end has got to be one of the most poignant in a long time, as we watch and wonder and slide between the chaos (Wall Street, Detroit, our 401Ks) and the promise (an Obama & crew heading towards 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and clean green technologies poking through the haze of unconsciousness thanks to Thomas Friedman and others.)

Each time my own heart breaks a little for every laid-off worker, every ravaged "everyman and everywoman" whose non-Wall Street career adds up to a whole lotta loss despite loyalty and hard work, the next thing I know my neural networks careen toward the idea that Tom dropped like a big stone in our cultural pond, in August 1997, with the now-famous Tide "kapow-take-that!" Fast Company cover story "The Brand Called You." A year or so later, I was challenged to the hilt myself, collaborating on three books and educational programs with Tom, and his inner circle of creatives, three great little lists of 50 calls to action: The Project50, The Professional Service Firm50, and The BrandYou50.

Tom called these three topics "The Work Matters" movement, and we, like elves before Christmas, had an incredible sense of urgency about getting these ideas out to the world because dot-com mania and outsourcing were making it clear that white collar jobs were going to decline and anxiety was beginning to twist in the air. In retrospect, perhaps we—the collective we—weren't ... anxious enough.

Perhaps the idea that you too could be your own box of Tide, ready to be grabbed off the shelf (which would in fact make you one of the best loved, most valuable franchises on the planet), of branding yourself—like most big ideas—was a bit hard to swallow at first. Perhaps just a little too ahead of its time. Tom claims he always wants to be five minutes ahead—but this idea of "being a brand" and all the self-focus (aka self-care) was extremely ahead and is still not well embraced ... particularly in many leadership suites where individual brands were viewed as big recruiting targets and a pain in the ass.

Just think, if the brand-centric idea of doing work so well, so remarkably, so worth noticing, had become inherited wisdom, if it had become a survival strategy that any self-respecting job holder-careerist, blue, white, or green collar had to hold on to ... this season's sheer human greed and destruction would be a little easier to swallow. Because we'd all just pick up our tools, our resumes, our reputations built on our WORK, and move to the next team, job, town, or wherever, that we were "in demand." Come to think of it, it's not a bad idea now, today, circa 2009, to try on that remarkable thinking for size.

Maybe the most profound learning I had through that whole wonderful project was that we are all, already, walking brands. We just have to polish them so that we can see them shine. So read the book, take it to heart, or just check out Tom's challenge from the article:

The real action is at the other end: the main chance is becoming a free agent in an economy of free agents, looking to have the best season you can imagine in your field, looking to do your best work and chalk up a remarkable track record, and looking to establish your own micro equivalent of the Nike swoosh. Because if you do, you'll not only reach out toward every opportunity within arm's (or laptop's) length, you'll not only make a noteworthy contribution to your team's success—you'll also put yourself in a great bargaining position for next season's free-agency market." (Tom Peters, "The Brand Called You," Fast Company, August 1997)

At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, "Yes, but I have something he will never have ... enough."

—John Bogle, Enough. The Measures of Money, Business, and Life. (Bogle is founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group.)

Yes, you can get away with "no progress during a recession" by blaming the recession, but really, if things are not going well, you should blame yourself for the way you behaved leading up to the recession.

"Gradually ... then suddenly" is the phenomenon that will explain a lot of mess we are in today. We are trying to find instant solutions to problems that we have created over years.

If you are a knowledge worker, there is a big dilemma today. If you are engaged in a craft that can be "well defined" chances are that sooner than later your job will be outsourced. Not to another location in the U.S., but to another country. Hard work won't help. Why? Because technology really makes it easy for commodity skills to be leveraged from a remote location without a large overhead. An overseas worker may match you on your commodity skills, but you can't work for the same wages.

So what should one do?

First is to realize that general job skills (like technology skills) provide only an entry ticket. You can't thrive (or even survive for long) with just those skills. You need skills beyond that. Skills such as building a personal brand, building long-term relationships, learning how to learn, etc.

This Thanksgiving I wanted to do something to help.

Looking back, I recall that this was exactly the topic of my book Beyond Code (foreword by my hero Tom Peters), which was published in late 2005. The book did very well both here in the U.S. and in India. I had spent ten years researching and writing the book. One simple plan was to give this book away for FREE—no strings attached. Kenzi Sugihara from Select Books (the publisher) was in full support.

So, as of yesterday, the complete version of Beyond Code is free. You can download the book with no strings attached. Here is the link.

Finally, here is a thing about life:
Something that has been built over a long period of time can be destroyed almost instantly. However, the opposite is not true—something that has been destroyed over a long period cannot be restored instantly.

I wish you the very best for this holiday season

(Cool Friend Rajesh Setty is intimately involved in working with like-minded entrepreneurs to bring good ideas to life and spread their adoption. You can learn more about him at www.rajeshsetty.com.)

Brilliant, Dave!
Let's heed his words—and turn them into deeds!
Now!

When folks bitch about government in a seminar, my automatic response is, "So why don't you run for the school board?" (Or whatever.) This particular path is, of course, harder in Milwaukee than in Tinmouth VT. But there are always numerous things, many quite small and achievable, of abiding local significance to get involved in. The world is, in fact, not all that flat—and Local Engagement is, was, and will be forevermore the Centerpiece of democratic government.

For those who made new friends while doing campaign work, in particular—take advantage of these new civic-minded colleagues more or less immediately. How, now, immediately, can we begin to harness this outpouring of civic virtue into the service of pressing local, typically non-partisan needs? For those who were engaged in Internet politics during the campaign, how might we convert these amazing, mostly new in many cases, networks into vehicles to promote the common good in a way that bears little or no relationship to national party concerns?

Almost 50% of us will be licking our wounds tomorrow morning. Fair enough. But how about, on Thursday, or at the weekend, beginning—no kidding, tiny steps—to harness our newfound activism for the local public good?