Technology Editor at Elearning! Magazine

I’ve been settling into a new way of work – busy collaborating with awesome folks like David Mallon at Bersin & Associates, doing some technology stuff in my community (our pool has a blog!), joining alliances with other consultants and  consulting groups, and doing occasional workshops. Other than the work for my community pool, all this work has been through a series of small serendipities.

It’s been interesting to look at this series of opportunities as if I’m trying on clothes for fit. When opportunities arise I’m thinking…is this an “I *guess* I can do that if I have to” (not a good fit) opportunity? Is it an “I like to do that” (pretty good fit) opportunity? Is it an “I love that” (perfect fit) opportunity? I don’t think there are many people (aside from the independently wealthy) that don’t have some sort of mix. Hopefully there’s more “perfect fit” work than anything else.

I don’t think we have much control of the mix when you work for someone else the man. Maybe you do. I never did. I NEED control of the mix. Life’s too short. After thinking about an opportunity that recently surfaced, I’ve decided my mix will now include freelancing as the new Technology Editor at Elearning! Magazine, part of the B2B Media Company.

In The Power of Pull, a book I’ve been reading, it says in the chapter titled The Individual’s Path to Pull…

“We can also be on the lookout for “editors” who have a talent for searching out new edges and providing early perspectives on why these edges might be gaining importance….When it comes to the written word, this new generation of editors won’t just edit content developed by their own publications, they’ll focus on curating  a much broader range of third-part content available throughout the Internet. Some of these editors will likely focus on tracking the emergence of promising new edges, searching out the most promising content from the edges to help their audience sort out the signal from the noise. In this case, our serendipitous encounters will be with content that provides early visibility into the innovation opportunities arising on emerging edges. One role of this new generation of editors will be to help us to see relationships between new stories from the edge and our own passions and interests.”

That, for me, is “perfect fit” work. That’s the type of “editing” I’m hoping to do. It’ll be nice to focus on an area I’m passionate about.

Another important factor in making decisions about which opportunities to work on is collaborating with people you actually like and trust. Sounds simple but unfortunately, not always the case. You don’t realize you were being interviewed by Beelzebub until it’s too late.

A perfect coworker I like and trust is someone like my former colleague Gary Woodill. We all need “Gary’s” in our daily work. Working with people you like and who are compassionate and actually give a damn about you should be a given. If you’ve got a Gary, thank him.

I really like the folks at Elearning! Magazine. I’ve done a summit event with them (along with Gary Woodill), co-wrote an article for them with Venkatesh Rao, and met with them during a past trip to California. Connecting with them most recently was yet another serendipitous encounter. The type of thing that can only come up when you’re connecting, sharing, and networking.

So fresh back from vacation in a couple of weeks, I’ll be Janet! Clarey, Technology Editor at Elearning! Magazine. Yes, my name now includes an exclamation point.

Photo credit: Stephen Coles (Try it On)

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