The humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow posited a “hierarchy of needs” that describes, in pyramid form, a structure of peoples needs, from basic physiological to the peak of self-actualization. Over the course of my career I’ve participated in two distinctly different sorts of organizations: for-profit businesses and non-profit community media/arts organizations, each of whom’s participants exhibit very different behaviors when it comes to motivation towards self-actualization.

I hosted a panel this morning at DMA2010 on “Stay Connected: Social, Widgets, Email and Desktop”; myself moderating and our clients from Aegon, ASPCA and Las Vegas Monrail on the panel. During my introductory segment I had wanted to speak about “human-centric” marketing, and came up with this recent personal example.