Category: Business

Beyond Analytics: How Do You Measure Effective Readership?

Measuring True Content Engagement

I received this question this afternoon from an association site I belong to. Below is the answer I responded with on the association site, but I want to make sure anyone can add additional thoughts to this topic, which is why I am also posting it here (similar to the lemonade stand analogy below). How would you have answered the question?

Benchmark Unique Visitors Graph
Unique visitors benchmark data

My Response

Good question, we don’t have a set percentage to gauge success. My benchmark wouldn’t be a traditional benchmark. When news articles or internal announcements get more “hits” we assume it is due to what the article pertains to. We notice that content which isn’t particularly engaging doesn’t get many hits. Anything from C Level Management, or a major announcement tends to get higher viewership. Even every day news items may not pertain to everyone. Furthermore, it just may not interest them. It is one of those instances where “you can lead an employee to the news story, but you can’t make them consume it.”

We may want 100% of our associates reading what we put out, but we are finding that isn’t the case, and we are looking to move to a subscription and “pushed” communications model.

We are playing with a design that has a top portion of the page what has what is considered “pushed” news and a bottom section which contains what each associate has subscribed to. Our philosophy is if they have helped decide what they want to see, they will be more inclined to visit the site, or read the content in the email summary.

The Lemonade Stand Analogy

I’m trying to make it so we think of ourselves as a lemonade stand. We, the Communications Group, push out lots of lemonade. If the lemonade doesn’t have enough sugar in it, nobody will want to drink it. If we put our lemonade on the wrong side of town we make it too tough for them to find us, so we opened several lemonade stands (one on our Intranet and one via email like yourself).

If we sell the lemonade and only focus on how much we sell, as opposed to what people think of it, we won’t grow our lemonade business. Sales and number of product sold is important, but I’d take one customer who pays $1 for my lemonade and gives me feedback to 10 customers who each pay a dollar ($10 total). They drink my lemonade yet don’t give me feedback to improve my product long term.

The lemonade stand that focuses on getting the most customers to its stand may be able to attract lots of customers. But the lemonade stand that focuses on what the customers think of their product will be the stand likely to stay open the longest. And make the most money.

Not sure if that analogy works, but it was fun to try.

My benchmark would be anything that can show you are providing engaging content that inspires enterprise collaboration and knowledge sharing. For instance, an article with 10 replies/comments that is rated highly is of more importance to me from a benchmarking perspective than one that is accessed more often. Great question, that is what I am thinking is the best benchmark, but I’d imagine others may find other analytics more useful.

Quality Over Quantity

Focus on meaningful engagement rather than just pageviews

Two-Way Communication

Encourage feedback and comments to improve content

Personalized Content

Let employees subscribe to what interests them most

Join the Conversation

How would you have answered the question? What metrics do you use to measure content engagement in your organization?

The 22-Minute Meeting

Rethinking Productivity in Corporate Gatherings

THE 22 MINUTE MEETING by Nicole Steinbok, Ep 53

Scott sent this to me a few days ago, and I finally got a chance to watch it tonight. I did enjoy it and am guilty of taking my laptop and phone everywhere I go because most meetings aren’t productive, so I disagree with those two rules. Nicole Steinbeck says: “Meetings can be a huge productivity & time suck. So what if you took out all the stupid, wasteful stuff and left only the useful parts?” Below is a summary of her talk by Scott Berkun (but as he reminds us, all credit goes to Nicole).

The 9 Rules for a 22-Minute Meeting

  1. Schedule a 22-minute meeting — Who decided meetings should be 30 or 60 minutes? What data is this based on? None. 30 and 60 minute meetings leave no time to get between meetings, and assumes, on average, people need an hour to sort things out. Certainly not all meetings can be run in 22 minutes, but many can, so we’d all be better off if the default time were small, not large.
  2. Have a goal based agenda – Having an agenda at all would be a plus in most meetings. Writing it on the whiteboard, earns double pluses, since then everyone has a constant reminder of what the meeting is supposed to achieve.
  3. Send required readings 3 days beforehand – The burden is on the organizer to make this small enough that people actually do it. Never ever allow a meeting to be “lets all read the documents together and penalize anyone diligent enough to do their homework”. (note: I think 24 hours is plenty).
  4. Start on time – How often does this happen? Almost never. Part of the problem is Outlook and all schedule programs don’t have space between meetings. By 2pm, there is a day’s worth of meeting time debt. 22 minutes ensures plenty of travel/buffer time between meetings.
  5. Stand up – Reminds everyone the goal isn’t to elaborate or be supplemental (See Scrum standing meetings). Make your point, make your requests, or keep quiet. If there is a disagreement, say so, but handle resolving it outside the meeting.
  6. No laptops, but presenters and note takes. If you’re promised 22 minutes, and it’s all good stuff, you don’t need a secondary thing to be doing while you pretend to be listening. One person taking notes, and one person presenting if necessary.

    (I disagree with this rule – Jeremy)

  7. No phones, no exceptions – see above.

    (I disagree with this rule – Jeremy)

  8. Focus! Note off-topic comments. If you have an agenda, someone has to police it and this burden is on whoever called the meeting. Tangents are ok, provided they are short. The meeting organizer has to table tangents and arguments that go too far from the agenda.
  9. Send notes ASAP – With 22 minutes, there should be time, post meeting, for the organizer to send out notes and action items before the next meeting begins.

Time Efficiency

Shorter meetings with buffer time between them

Clear Purpose

Goal-based agendas keep everyone on track

Actionable Outcomes

Quick distribution of notes and next steps

Download Nicole’s 22-Minute Meeting Poster

Join the Conversation

Which of these meeting rules do you agree or disagree with? Have you tried shorter meetings in your organization?

The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Daniel Pink’s RSA Animate on the Science of Motivation

RSA ANIMATE: Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

Three Counterintuitive Motivations

I learned three counterintuitive motivations behind our actions:

1

Autonomy

The desire to direct our own lives and work

2

Mastery

The urge to get better at what matters to us

3

Purpose

The yearning to serve something larger than ourselves

A focus on pure profit alone hurts businesses, workers, and consumers.

Understanding Intrinsic Motivation

The Autonomy Factor

Traditional management approaches assume people need to be directed and controlled. Research shows the opposite: people thrive when given freedom over their time, tasks, team, and technique.

Companies like Google, Atlassian, and 3M have implemented “free time” policies where employees can work on self-directed projects, leading to innovations like Gmail, Post-it Notes, and numerous software improvements.

The Mastery Principle

Humans naturally seek to improve and develop skills that matter to them. This explains why people spend countless hours learning musical instruments, perfecting athletic skills, or contributing to open-source projects without financial compensation.

Mastery requires effort, embracing challenges, and viewing failures as learning opportunities rather than deficiencies.

The Purpose-Driven Life

People yearn for meaning in their work beyond profit. Organizations that connect their mission to something greater attract more dedicated team members and often outperform purely profit-driven competitors.

Purpose-driven companies like TOMS Shoes, Patagonia, and others demonstrate that profit and purpose can coexist and even reinforce each other.

When the profit motive becomes unmoored from the purpose motive, bad things happen: poor-quality products, unhappy employees, corporate scandals, and unhappy customers.

Daniel Pink

About Daniel Pink

Daniel H. Pink is the author of several bestselling books about business, work, creativity, and behavior, including “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,” which is the basis for this RSA Animate video.

Pink’s research challenges traditional views about motivation, showing that the carrot-and-stick approach is often ineffective for today’s creative, conceptual work. His insights have influenced organizations worldwide to rethink how they engage and motivate their people.

Learn More

Applying These Principles

For Leaders

Create environments where autonomy thrives, mastery is encouraged, and purpose is clear.

For Teams

Focus on collaborative goals with meaning rather than competitive, profit-only metrics.

For Individuals

Seek roles and projects that offer autonomy, growth potential, and alignment with personal values.

Your Thoughts?

Which of these three motivators—autonomy, mastery, or purpose—resonates most strongly with you? How have you seen these principles applied in your work environment?