Category: Story + Narrative

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#SocBiz = I Could Do That + Yeah, But You Didn’t.

ThisMuchWeKnow

I like modern art. I like it because it is open, available, simple, of the people, with zero barriers to entry. It can capture the cultural zeitgeist, it invites people in to nose around, to have an opinion, without judgment. Modern art does not preclude, it is not stuffy, although it can carry the whiff of insider joke, a certain knowingness. I have a piece of modern art on my kitchen wall. How do I know it is modern art? Because it is a dish cloth on which is printed “modern art = I could do that + yeah, but … Continue reading #SocBiz = I Could Do That + Yeah, But You Didn’t.

Story + Narrative1 Comment

On Fire: The Tom Peters School Of Schooling

ThisMuchWeKnow

On fire! I have been closely following @tom_peters recently, and he is on fire. Super direct, brusque, angry, and optimistic. My favourite twitter operative at the moment. Example rant: Why the F do you need to “scale” something? Let’s start by makin’ the damn thing so great it makes you tingle? — Tom Peters (@tom_peters) January 30, 2014 Tweet after tweet after tweet. Visceral, schooling newbies hither and thither. It is an education to read. ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading On Fire: The Tom Peters School Of Schooling

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5 Thinkers To Follow

ThisMuchWeKnow

Here are five great sages to read, follow, engage with around forces at play in our workplaces and society. They have driven so much of my rich learning over the last few years. Harold Jarche The clearest, most direct writer on modern day learning, taking control of our professional lives, emergent network thinking. I am lucky enough to share networks with Harold in the last year, but for several years beforehand I absorbed as much as I could from a distance. Definitely a thought leader in the practitioner world. John Hagel Deep thinking, long-term understanding of where society (especially work) … Continue reading 5 Thinkers To Follow

Social Business, Story + Narrative, The Future of Work1 Comment

I Must (Re)Learn to TRUST

ThisMuchWeKnow

In my recent reading about networks and the future of work, I have seen the word ‘trust’ flash like a lighthouse. Here are just a few quotes I have recently squirreled away. Seth Godin says: “The connection economy isn’t based on steel or rails or buildings. It’s built on trust and hope and passion.” Stowe Boyd talks of the need for ‘swift trust’ in the future of work. Harold Jarche, meanwhile, believes “Connected leadership starts by organizing to embrace networks, manage complexity, and build trust.“ Nilofer Merchant, in a great Wired article, has this to add: “Relationships are to the social … Continue reading I Must (Re)Learn to TRUST

Story + Narrative, The Curious Will Inherit The WorldLeave a comment

Embracing Complexity: Individuals

ThisMuchWeKnow

Nilofer Merchant (in conversation with Carol Dweck) wants to challenge smart and talented leaders, those ‘in the know.’ Here are a few choice quotes: “[W]hat if you don’t [know]”? What changes? The things you know today are not enough. Facts change, new challenges arise, and so you can never think, “I know this” and call it done. The growth mindset then is about your ability to adapt to a world of changing circumstances. You have to be wedded to a definition of success that says we will figure it out, and keep figuring it out.” An embrace of complexity for leaders, … Continue reading Embracing Complexity: Individuals

Social Business, Story + Narrative, The Future of WorkLeave a comment

Embracing Complexity: Enterprise Social Networks

ThisMuchWeKnow

I participated last year as an interviewee in a MSc dissertation on social information theory, and a quote from another participant struck a chord with me. The company asked in an employee survey, “Do you use the Enterprise Social Network platform?” and compared the answers of all questions of the people that answered “Yes” with the answers of those that said “No”. The “Yes” scores were roughly 10% higher in questions like “my ideas are listened to”, “I can communicate across business lines”, “I understand the strategy.” These people have sought active engagement with their workplace, the nuance and disagreements, the … Continue reading Embracing Complexity: Enterprise Social Networks

Social Business, Story + Narrative, The Future of WorkLeave a comment

Embracing Complexity: Office Space

ThisMuchWeKnow

Just as in cities, offices that are complex, alive, interactive are the ones where things happen. This was proven by Thomas Allen. The Allen Curve posits that “interactions between different workers declined exponentially depending on the distance between their offices.” Indeed, “researchers on different floors almost never had anything to do with each other. This effect starts to take place when people are 50 metres or more apart.” Newer office design encourages interaction. Steve Jobs famously (via his biography) decreed that his (Apple, Pixar, NeXT etc.) offices limit the number of toilet blocks and have them in a central place that … Continue reading Embracing Complexity: Office Space

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Embracing Complexity: Cities

ThisMuchWeKnow

I am digging complexity, and see it EVERYWHERE! Let’s start at a macro level, with cities. “Cities are like a star” says Luis Bettencourt, in a video on the SFI Introduction to Complexity MOOC. “The reactor is getting hotter…More mass – reactions at the centre are faster; the start is hotter, everything is faster.” The complex social system cavorts with complexity and trembles on the edge of chaos. Innovation, patents, GDP (as well as crime) all increase at logarithmic scale with city size / density. Visiting a city like New York, or going back home to London, I feel very … Continue reading Embracing Complexity: Cities

Story + Narrative, The Curious Will Inherit The WorldLeave a comment

A Simple Person Embracing Complexity

ThisMuchWeKnow

So I have been reorienting myself around the idea of complexity. By nature, I consider myself a simple soul – simple design, food, routines, lifestyle. Simple can be subtle and sophisticated, but generally not complex. Conversely, I like change, and change tends not to be simple or linear. I had seen my ability as being able to simplify the complexity and disturbance of change. To subvert and avoid. I had it wrong. “I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity” So said Oliver Wendell Holmes. Complexity is … Continue reading A Simple Person Embracing Complexity

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The Community Manager As Maxwell’s Demon

ThisMuchWeKnow

More from my Complexity MOOC: this time a learning from the second law of thermodynamics, about entropy. Entropy is the ‘heat’ or loss created by changing energy state in a system. It can be considered the cost of that transfer. [And apologies for any holes in my understanding. It was not real education; just a MOOC :)] The idea of entropy can be transposed to information management theory, as the unpredictability of the data. Moving data, sharing information, aligning teams and organizations all cause entropy. This is a cost to the system. The second law of thermodynamics shows entropy as a … Continue reading The Community Manager As Maxwell’s Demon

Story + Narrative, The Curious Will Inherit The WorldLeave a comment

TMWK Best Of 2013 0: Teach Me Something I Don’t Know

ThisMuchWeKnow

Dr. Google is disguising more and more the search terms people use to get to content, so as to usurp the SEO work arounds played out on web spiders. Consequently, the search drivers that bring people to the site are more opaque. For some reason, though, Google shares with me that a common search term that arrives people here is “Teach me something I don’t know.” Indeed, this blog post is the number one link on Google for people searching that term. Most excellent. People are curious. They want to learn. They are moving out into the world under their own … Continue reading TMWK Best Of 2013 0: Teach Me Something I Don’t Know

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TMWK Best Of 2013 2: X Is The New Y

ThisMuchWeKnow

Comparing X with Y is a neat neurological trick to remember a new idea / meme. I wrote a whole series of short posts around how language matters in how we relate to work, and each other. It started with a riff on some blog posts by Luis Suarez  and others on the challenges we have working in “Social” business, and how easy it is that the word “Social” take us down a business buy-in cul-de-sac. I suggested instead, “Open” Is The New “Social.” People also liked the post called “Share” Is The New “Save.”. I have used this idea throughout the blog … Continue reading TMWK Best Of 2013 2: X Is The New Y