(originally published Fall 1998)

Training specialists are offering many innovative techniques to make executives and managers more creative and productive. Participants can climb mountains and cross precipices in outward bound mode - or find themselves performing stand-up comedy in front of their peers. But maybe the training gurus should consider something much more relevant - creatively using and becoming a publisher of information on the World Wide Web.

My son who works for an information service provider would cringe at this suggestion because he reports that executives and middle managers trying to set up accounts are the most difficult customers. They have no patience, refuse to follow directions and are angry that the process has a learning curve. The second call for help usually comes from an executive assistant who has been delegated to solve the problem.

Chances are the executives and managers are part of the Canadian population who depend on information technology at work, but who haven't a computer at home. According to a recent article in The Globe and Mail, Statistics Canada reports that more than 2/3 of Canadian homes don't have a computer.

The article goes on to note that there is little research to confirm whether having a computer at home gives kids an educational advantage. It doesn't comment on the advantages it might offer their parents. While it cites a study which notes that computers in elementary and secondary schools are having an enormous impact, the reporter notes that the benefits are "soft and difficult to confirm" He goes on to say that "students are more likely to want to learn on their own if they have a computer to do it" and "they have a longer attention span, delve more deeply into a subject, and cooperate on projects more readily".

The study also confirms that computers "help ensure a more thorough assimilation of material learned, stimulate development of intellectual skills such as reasoning, problem solving and learning how to learn". Sounds good to me. Why is anybody postponing a decision about the home computer?

Forking over a few thousand bucks for a computer won't make any of us creative any more than paying out a few thousand for a piano will make us musical. For a change though, think of the computer as a learning tool. Ignore the caveats of newspaper columnists, who don't seem to recognize the learning opportunities and are obsessed with whether the Internet will make big bucks. They are missing the point that it's a new way to explore the world and allows every person to communicate with a person in the next room or the next continent using a multimedia environment.

My challenge to any executive or middle manager or trainer is to create and mount his or her own Web site. That includes planning the content, designing the site, putting it on the system and going live. It used to be that a man learned to change his own oil and a woman learned to bake a cake from scratch - but hey, this is the nineties! Climb aboard for a really interesting experience.

Now we have to go through the steps to get there. A Website is a truly whole brained creation and involves both your left and right cortical skills. First you have to understand the media you will be working in. So order up a personal account with an information service provider, familiarize yourself with its workings, and then push the button on your
search engine and bring up a browser like Yahoo, Excite, or Lycos. Visit a few hundred sites before you start to plan your own.

Now what? What are you interested in? What do you want to communicate? What are the burning issues for you personally? If this step is hard, the best planning tool is a Mind Map.

Make an image of your subject in the centre. Write key words on branches extending from your central image, which express aspects of the topic and write other words extending from each of these main branches. You now have a structure for your site. Key words are the life and breath of the Web because they provide the structure others will use to find you.

Now flesh out the content and develop each section like a chapter in a book. Then plan the design. Next do a thorough evaluation, a process Ned Herrmann calls the "four quadrant walk around". First comes analysis. Does your content provide facts and figures a visitor would like to know? Second is process. Is the site well structured and easy to negotiate? Third is expressiveness. Does it sound as though there is a human being communicating who would be interesting to know in real life and who has something worth saying? Fourth is vision. Is there a clear big picture? Is the site future-oriented to show new insights and developments.

You may benefit from developing your site by using VisiMap, a versatile Mind Mapping Tool. (Download a trial version) When you are satisfied with your content, you can use a composing tool like Netscape's Composer or Word to put your site together. You will have to see where illustrations and graphics will enhance the site. You will have to make links and connections and test them. You will quickly discover that many of them don't work properly and you will have to have the patience to keep trying until they do.

I can guarantee that you will have to ask for help in getting your site onto the system of your service provider and you will be relying on someone who knows twice as much as you do about the process and is half to a third of your age.

So what have you done? You've been creative and innovative with something to show for it. You've entered the world of computer based personal communication in a big way. Now that you're launched, it's time to start on the next version. A Website is the quintessential work in progress and it is an unparalleled opportunity for you to keep using your whole brain to communicate with the world. Tell everyone that you are there by encouraging your friends to have a look and issue them the challenge to undertake a similar adventure.