#FutureOfWork Attack! 35% Of Jobs Have 85% Chance Of Automation. Gulp.

The always excellent Futurist Ross Dawson has more scary, inflammatory, call-to-action content for the average knowledge worker (that’s me, BTW.) His take on The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation? report is high stim. Workers in job sectors that are at high risk to be replaced by computerisation, like services, sales, and office and administrative support, need to reallocate [their energy] to tasks that are non-susceptible to computerisation – i.e., tasks requiring creative and social intelligence. For workers to win the race, however, they will have to acquire creative and social skills.” 35% of such workers have an 85% … Continue reading #FutureOfWork Attack! 35% Of Jobs Have 85% Chance Of Automation. Gulp.

3 Ways Enterprises Need To Up Their Game: Give Choices, Make Changes, Take Leaps

Ten years ago, the enterprise was 5 years ahead of the consumer in its technological service offering and systems set up. Now, the consumer of 5 years ahead of the enterprise. Thank you, Apple et al. It is time for the enterprise to catch up and serve colleagues (as customers / consumers). Let’s see how, by working backwards from outputs to inputs. Consumers demand choice. This means the types of device they use (BYOD); and in how they work: Out loud – sharing their voice Collaboratively – with existing and new (self-formed) teams As a peer leader – subverting hierarchies leveraging their … Continue reading 3 Ways Enterprises Need To Up Their Game: Give Choices, Make Changes, Take Leaps

Curious Kids: The Quiet Moments

My iPhone photo app collates images by date, and calls them Moments. A few days ago I captured Lola in a quiet moment of her own, sitting outside wrapped in a blanket eating a snack, immersed in an imaginary (?) world. “What are you up to, darling?” I enquired. “Nothing.” I left her in peace. ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading Curious Kids: The Quiet Moments

What Does A Friend Look Like In The Age Of Social?

Or, How John Hagel, David Armano, Hugh MacLeod and Harold Jarche Kickstarted Me. Here’s how it began. 2011 Back story: In my MarComms job, I had two projects front of mind – launching an Enterprise Social Network (we were the first company in the world to completely replace our intranet with Yammer) and developing a bunch of infographics on business performance (turning heavy PowerPoint slides into something more digestible). Independently, I was mentoring some young communicators who were trying to work out their pitch and career paths. I spent a lot of time thinking about these topics; with plenty of online … Continue reading What Does A Friend Look Like In The Age Of Social?

Farewell Guru, Hello Awesome.

When someone calls themselves a social media guru / ninja etc. I puke up in my mouth a little. Just sayin’. The great Guru boom is over pic.twitter.com/mmb7dQg0wj — Benedict Evans (@benedictevans) November 27, 2013 So I liked seeing this graphic on the death knell of the guru in job postings. Thank you, and good night, gurus everywhere. But what is this? Instead, the rise of the AWESOME! Oh, dear. As an Englishman, I used to use terms such as brilliant, wonderful, excellent. Now, living in N. America I use awesome, which, as my trusty source reference Urban Dictionary confirms, … Continue reading Farewell Guru, Hello Awesome.

The Intranet of Things? Not Yet

Reading about the internet of things is an interesting exercise in understanding our co-existence with technology and data. We want data to talk to data, chip to chip, thing to thing, so that we, as people, can focus on more value-added functions – creativity, thinking, relationships. What about at work? Intranet vendors offer up all sorts of cure-all solutions: one box that that takes you and your organization from zero to successarama in 100 interconnecting processes and controls. I’m not biting. The intranet of things is way off. It is outside the realm of a single box to do it … Continue reading The Intranet of Things? Not Yet

Working Out Loud With Gratitude. #RelentlessHumanity Yo!

Working out loud (WoL) – sharing your knowledge transparently, moving towards your colleagues and stakeholders, asking for and offering help – is the approach to work that puts people (and networks) before process. I like the tag #RelentlessHumanity to describe this endeavour – enterprise social networking tools are there to push our collective humanity in a way that Facebook et al has done in our private lives. I am always thirsting for the chain reaction BOOM! point where this idea scales in the enterprise. We have to start somewhere. The excellent John Stepper is getting very meta, working out loud about working out … Continue reading Working Out Loud With Gratitude. #RelentlessHumanity Yo!

My Personal Brand: Revisited. Being The Best In The World At *THIS*

It is time to revisit my personal brand.  We have been developing the personal branding system to fully synthesize the input elements and to get to the brand essence. The BrandBoards have been redesigned to better illustrate this. What is that essence? A bit of Head – Heart – Hand. Usually, people have a brand essence clearly in one of the HHH camps. This is good news. Here is where you make the biggest difference; how you show up BIG. Mine, very clearly, is a HEAD brand. I do my best work by thinking; intellectualizing. It does mean I cannot … Continue reading My Personal Brand: Revisited. Being The Best In The World At *THIS*

Everything I Learned About Change, I Learned From Rocky Balboa.

By film number VI, Rocky Balboa made have had some brain damage, but boy can he deliver a punch(line). I go back to this video extract (minus the intro-outro titles) at least once a year – it is the best piece of advice about working on change I have heard. Let me tell you something you already know… It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward…You gotta be prepared to take the hits. Sometimes, when we talk about change, about the future of work, about embedding social inside the enterprise etc. we can get bogged down … Continue reading Everything I Learned About Change, I Learned From Rocky Balboa.

Won’t You Entertain Me?

According to an AdAge article, digital natives switch media venues 27 times an hour during non-working hours. This translates to an attention span of lasting 130 seconds. Yowser! As a digital immigrant, I was thinking how crazy it is to be a digital native and the schizophrenia it must cause – then I read that we ‘immigrants’ change media 17 times an hour. Crikey. Apparently, “What they (natives) are looking for is engaging content, and they dismiss so much stuff.” They are less inclined to adhere to the traditional beginning-middle-end mode of consuming content. They demand more. As communicators, as … Continue reading Won’t You Entertain Me?