“Social” Is A Human Right! “I should be able to… Describe myself, share information about myself with others in the organization, Share my information and my ideas openly, React to ideas of other people openly, Participate openly in developing new ideas and innovations.” – Manifesto for “self expression” inside organizations Continue reading “Social” Is A Human Right!
Social = Relationships = Trust “… when we embed this new social language — words such as collaboration and purpose and community — into our discussions, value creation will flow. Relationships are to the social era, what efficiency was to the industrial era. And we all remember what relationships are built on, don’t we? Trust. After decades of building business on capital, oil, land and silicon, trust will be our foundation for what we create next.” – Nilofer Merchant via Wired ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading Social = Relationships = Trust
I gave a presentation today in Norway on how to use an ESN Enterprise Social Network – in our case Yammer – for business. We call it Yammer 3.0: Yammer for Work. We share with our colleagues how ESNs are great ways to: Encourage Sharing Capture Knowledge Enable Action Empower People – From Altimeter Group report on ESNs Feedback was positive, that yes, there is more that can be done. Sharing is good for you. Today’s Seth Godin blog has the same point from the other angle – that hoarding is bad. ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading Sharing Is Good For You
Once, many, many years ago, aged 13 or so, I was called out as High Potential (Hi-Po) at my local school. I was put in some kind of brainiac class and given challenging mental gymnastics to solve. I am not sure for what end the class was conceived. I remember enjoying it, but probably its main outcome was that I thought I was more special than I was. It took a few years for the arrogance to wear off – when I flunked my A level exams aged 18 and, instead of going to Cambridge to prepare myself for running … Continue reading “Everybody” Is The New “High Potential”
Another distinction made by John Hagel in his conversation with Stowe Boyd (after “Learning” Is The New “Efficiency”) is a change of perspective away from individuals adapting to the organization’s requirements, to the organizational requirement to adapt to the (learning) demands of the individual. “…if you take scalable learning as the key rationale for institutions to exist, then the individual becomes front and center…you can’t learn without individuals taking initiative and you can’t predict the learning that happens through serendipity, or unexpected experiments.” In the last post I said, Making organizations about learning (and therefore about people) rather than process … Continue reading The “Individual” Is The New “Institution”
Excellent input, as usual from John Hagel, in conversation with the “Socialogist” Stowe Boyd. What is the need of the modern organization? Recently, the push for efficiency at scale has driven organizations and markets (and their value). Now, however, perhaps because of the overall success of this drive, efficiency is, incrementally, increasingly difficult. We need a new organizational motivator. How about learning at scale instead? My own definition of a learning organization (after Peter Senge) is: We learn to learn together, in order to obtain the results we want together. Making organizations about learning (and therefore about people) rather than … Continue reading “Learning” Is The New “Efficiency”
Continuing the recent “X” Is The New “Y” theme, I liked this very rich write up from McKinsey on the culture of organizations and how cooperative behaviour (or lack thereof) impacts results. It documents some excellent data and research. Organizations that give more than they take are the highest performing. In giver cultures, employees are: helping others, sharing knowledge, offering mentoring, and making connections without expecting anything in return. Meanwhile, in taker cultures, the norm is to get as much as possible from others while contributing less in return. Employees help only when they expect the personal benefits to exceed the … Continue reading “Giving” Is The New “Taking”
One final A –> B vernacular twist, again via Luis Suarez… Whenever we drive “social” adoption, we are trying to get others to learn something new. Learning, for adults, is complex. Many adults really don’t like learning new things. It is asking a lot. However, when we ask people to adapt, it is different. Still not easy per se, adaptation implies people have the wherewithal to get ‘er done. It is effort that is required, not learning from scratch. I like that. Ain’t Anti-Social Asking others to adopt social implies they might be anti-social. But we can all adapt social, … Continue reading “Adapt” Is The New “Adopt.”
As we drive change in our organizations and embrace the future of work – one that is hyperconnected, iterative, conversational, Cluetrained – we butt heads with those who think differently. Where we desire hyperconnection, they prefer walled gardens. Where we embrace iteration, they follow linearity. Where we converse, they broadcast. Where we jump on the back of the Cluetrain as it rumbles through town, they line up at the airport for the F W Taylor Scientific Management jumbo jet. Among many points of contention with the others, “Social” is often where we come to blows. For while social implies to … Continue reading “Open” Is The New “Social.”
Media may be the new Brand, but it doesn’t mean everyone gets it. Maybe times have changed, but here is a 6-7 word sentence that has failed more often than it has succeeded: “I need budget / resources for social media.” For some corporate executives it is hard to imagine two more frivolous words / concepts. Social + media = fail. One way to build muscle and confidence, and circumvent denigration of the MarComms work at hand, in conversation with executives is to reframe it more centrally to the business mandate. One small, meaningful move is to stop talking about social media … Continue reading “Social Business” Is The New “Social Media”
The future of work demands an embrace of flow. I have defined flow before as “part stepping forward (‘engendering an approach’) and part moving where the network suggests, pulsing through the wirearchy.” [John Hagel is a go-to resource for more in-depth … Continue reading “Share” Is The New “Save.”
I was hiring recently for a social business intern. This is what I shared with the co-op faculty and student base after the fact… *********************** Where I work, we have a rolling intern position for a smart, dynamic, activated student to help us with MarComms projects covering social business (social media metrics, channel management and maintenance, research), design (websites, infographics, branding), creative work (video editing, writing), small-scale communications project management. The reason we turn to an intern is the hope / expectation that their ongoing experience in the social domain as a digital native can stimulate our approach to work. … Continue reading Diary of a Reflective Employer…
This Much We Know 