Personal Branding1 Comment

Personal Branding: Are You A Head, Heart, Or Hand Brand?

ThisMuchWeKnow

When you think about branding, synthesis is critical. You cannot be all things to all (wo)men. You have to choose where your brand stands in the marketplace: niche, low-brow, action, sophisticated, smart, edgy? It cannot be them all. Moreover, there is no wrong place to stand in the marketplace. Just stand somewhere, and sell your wares. [In MarComms, many of us suffer from the curse of the Generalist – where it is impossible to articulate one’s brand in any way other than “I do a bit of everything.”] This plays out when we delve into personal branding. Most people orient … Continue reading Personal Branding: Are You A Head, Heart, Or Hand Brand?

Personal Branding, Story + NarrativeLeave a comment

When People Tell You Who YOU Are, Don’t Believe Them

ThisMuchWeKnow

Who are you? How do you show up at your best? How do you make the big difference? These big questions are important ones, increasingly so in light of the changes that will be wrought on all us knowledge workers in the mid-term. At TMWK, we turn these questions into a quest to uncover and polish your personal brand. Being able to articulate your value will make a difference in how people see you; who wants to work with you; what great projects you will be a part of. How do we do it? By having you distill your crazy-ass … Continue reading When People Tell You Who YOU Are, Don’t Believe Them

The Future of WorkLeave a comment

Large IT projects run 45% > budget; 7% > time; deliver 56% < value than predicted. Why?

ThisMuchWeKnow

According to this McKinsey report for Boards, “On average, large IT projects run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time, while delivering 56 percent less value than predicted.” Yet, another McKinsey report I wrote about yesterday presaged the massive business changes that technology will impart in the next decade. Will all this new technology deliver 56% less value than predicted? Perhaps the issue with the current situation is that there is not enough focus on insights,  rather than technical efficiency. Or perhaps the technology projects are too focused on the technical gains, and not enough on the organizational change impacts of … Continue reading Large IT projects run 45% > budget; 7% > time; deliver 56% < value than predicted. Why?

Social Business, The Future of WorkLeave a comment

5 Technologies Driving Business Change

ThisMuchWeKnow

McKinsey has some great data about enterprise impacts based on social technology. Their 10 IT-enabled business trends report from a few months ago has been on my mind, as it segues with several themes I muse about – the future of work; the social enterprise; personal branding amongst others. What organizations will our leaders – you – be leading in 5 years time? Let’s have a look-see at some of the trends. 1. Joining the social matrix Employees ‘could become up to 25 percent more productive through the use of social technologies.’ I have seen this in my own life … Continue reading 5 Technologies Driving Business Change

The Curious Will Inherit The World, The Future of WorkLeave a comment

Working Out Loud is Preposterous And Profound

ThisMuchWeKnow

Today, it’s all about networks, something you were most likely not taught about in school. This means that most of our education is useless in understanding the world as it currently exists. Yes, useless. The always erudite and coherent Harold Jarche is in a straight-to-the-point mood in this article on the need for network fluency. Yes, we need to build fluency in how networks operate, and our very active role within them, as they usurp organizations and tribes as the most powerful force in our communities and workplaces. However, it is a single sentence within the article that got me … Continue reading Working Out Loud is Preposterous And Profound

The Future of Work1 Comment

#FutureOfWork Words: Swarm, Weak, Sketch, Spontaneity, Patterns, Experiments, Hyper

ThisMuchWeKnow

A fascinating analysis of the future of work over the next decade by Gartner analysts come my way. Read the article here, but I want to highlight two emergent themes. This near future will be full of shadow, a grey zone of uncertainty: work will be spontaneous; sketched, non-routine, in perpetual beta, following patterns and insights, and everywhere / anytime. Secondly, we will be constantly forming, storming, and norming our work networks: we will take advantage of weak links, swarm, move out into our ecosystem, hyperconnect. Are these words and ideas you can subscribe to? Can you grab on to … Continue reading #FutureOfWork Words: Swarm, Weak, Sketch, Spontaneity, Patterns, Experiments, Hyper

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

#RelentlessHumanity: Take 3

ThisMuchWeKnow

I am working out loud on this blog. This means the content and much of the thinking is a work in progress. The work is the learning, and the learning is the work, as Harold Jarche says. One concept I am trying to better articulate for myself is how to have better conversations about the connected enterprise, and the (social) technology that drives us towards the future of work. Currently, these conversations are too technocratic: which service does what, how cool every piece of tech is, how a vendor can deliver a perfect intranet of things, even. Wrong approach. Where … Continue reading #RelentlessHumanity: Take 3

Social Business, The Future of WorkLeave a comment

Hey, Disrupt Happens.

ThisMuchWeKnow

Fortuitously, I have an insider’s view on business disruption as a member of the Change Agents Worldwide (CAWW) collective. It is a hivemind of the great and good of e2.0, social business mavens. How does CAWW go about its own business? With transparency and trust at its heart, with collaboration and cooperation as its cogs and wheels. It disrupts traditional, staid consultancy – all big names with bigger theories, yet bigger prices. Of course, consultants are the people articulating the changes in the enterprise and building out the solutions for the next iteration(s) of our organizations, so surely they are … Continue reading Hey, Disrupt Happens.

The Curious Will Inherit The WorldLeave a comment

Today’s Number Is The Number 4: Watching Kids Learn

ThisMuchWeKnow

Barf alert to all non-parents, but watching my kids move out into the world and learn is the most magical of things, even cooler than the internet of things! After school, Lola was showing me two ways to write the number ‘4’; her new way, like the keyboard 4, “almost an ‘A’ but not quite! Stop short, move across before you get to the bottom.” To top it all off, she made it a gift for me, complete with check mark as official seal of approval. Genius. ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading Today’s Number Is The Number 4: Watching Kids Learn

Story + Narrative, The Curious Will Inherit The World, The Future of WorkLeave a comment

Insight > Efficiency

ThisMuchWeKnow

Following on from yesterday’s post on (traditional) organizational distaste for insight, I see correlation from a Nilofer Merchant post on twitter: https://twitter.com/nilofer/statuses/385479893997219841 Insight is game-changing. It is not about more of / less of the same. It is about a new beginning. ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading Insight > Efficiency

Story + Narrative8 Comments

Organizations Hate Insights

ThisMuchWeKnow

They say that 80% of change projects fail, and by ‘they‘ I mean the bigwig consultants and Dr Google. Ask her*. Let’s worry not about citation. Instead, why the heck do so many change projects fail?! Here’s my process rough draft: Hey, something’s not right. We need to do something! [be more efficient / become more innovative / downsize.] Let’s investigate what we might need to do. Insight! <Light bulb moment from contemplation / investigation> Oh. It really means that? Hmmm. Let’s rethink this into something more palatable / an existing framework. Yes! That makes sense, right? Right? OK, let’s … Continue reading Organizations Hate Insights

The Curious Will Inherit The World, The Future of Work1 Comment

Attitude > Talent. Ready For #TheFutureOfWork

ThisMuchWeKnow

Yesterday, I wrote about the risk knowledge workers have to stay relevant in the face of computerisation. They must invest in new creative and social skills and move up the value chain where computers are yet to tread. What does this embrace of change and constant learning take? Is it talent? Well, talent ain’t no bad thing. But what really counts is attitude. An embrace of change and the opportunity it affords (which might be survival…) will get you far. As usual, Seth Godin has prescient advice: An organization filled with honest, motivated, connected, eager, learning, experimenting, ethical and driven … Continue reading Attitude > Talent. Ready For #TheFutureOfWork