It is a topic that will not go away for me. I keep kicking out against the cult of ‘we.’ [For the record, I have to keep stating that I have nothing against the power of us, the team, the … Continue reading Everyone Should Say “I Am…” More. Here’s Why.
Your personal brand begins with reflection. You sense ideas of your brilliance. Now, you need to make them come alive. If you are an “analytical” accountant, well, so is every other accountant. So exactly what was your process or insight that allowed you to do that great work? Dig around for words, dig around for stories, especially. Share those stories. Others may not remember your direct strengths, but they will relay a good story about you. These stories are data points. They weave together to build your narrative, and as John Hagel so eloquently explains, your personal narrative is never finished, … Continue reading Personal Branding: Solidify Through Stories
My partner Lori is a saint, natch. Though she has every right to do so, daily, she rarely complains. Woe be hers, rarely. However, when she does, I ALWAYS have an answer at hand. Isn’t she the lucky one?! In recent times, lifelong learner that I am, I have tried to bite my tongue. When someone is offloading, they rarely need or want the answer. They want someone to listen, to comfort, to ask a good clarifying question. Not my number one strength. As a worker and colleague, same goes. Answers are easy. Everyone has an answer. But who has … Continue reading Questions Are MUCH More Important Than Answers. Damn It!
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
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?
Network theory is nothing new. What makes it so prescient and important for every worker today is how it gives us an opportunity to create / control our own future. Net work (sic) is the outcome of socializing and belonging. This @gapingvoid cartoon is probably the one that has had the most influence on my career. Reading it was an ‘Aha!’ moment – I need to work out loud, reach out to like-minded souls, participate and ask for help. It is not all up to me – it is up to the network. Net work embraces wirearchy. Net work is … Continue reading #WorkHacks – Net Work
Some years ago, during an internal project to define and develop the company as a learning organization I came up with this definition: We learn to learn together, to get the results we want together (after Senge). Whereas the project sponsor wanted something tangible and process-led, I pushed back. Learning and understanding is co-created and evolved and iterated. It is in flux, it is a flow. I wish, at the time, I had heard of Harald Jarche. His work, amongst many others, has influenced my own in recent years and would have helped greatly wrangling that ‘learning organization’ project to … Continue reading Redundancy And Repetition Are Good For You: Take 1 – How We Learn
This is an article you must read, if you want to understand social business. No, not understand it, I mean “get it”; feel the quality; live and breathe the future of work. Work is human; and it is humane. Technology may be the backbone of organizational change, it may be a driver, but technology is not the THING. People are the THING. How we commune, orchestrate, succeed – these are human endeavours. Stowe Boyd and Megan Murray both understand this; they live it and breathe. Theirs is a quite lovely and human exchange. I like to think of myself as being relentlessly … Continue reading The ONE Thing You Need To Prosper In #SocBiz? Relentless Humanity
Manifesto: a new idea with prescriptive notions for carrying out change. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Manifesto 1 – Cluetrain. Manifesto 2 – Cult of Done. Manifesto 3 – Passionate Creative Worker. These are indeed exciting times, full of promise and potential. Let’s seize the day. Let us indeed. I am positive by nature; and it is encouraging to meet ideas and prognostications that are uplifting in intent, rather than system collapsing / replacing. So this is an easy Manifesto, one for everyone, from a favourite writer of mine, John Hagel. Introducing the Manifesto, Hagel wrote how “we are struck by the potential that each individual has … Continue reading 4 Manifestos To Live By… #3 – Passionate Creative Worker
“One needs hustle in order to flow, however too much hustle can really cramp the style of the flow. But a flow without hustle reaps no reward.” -Urban Dictionary definition I am in the middle of reading The Power of Pull by John Hagel et al. It is a book I have had for a while, waiting for the right moment to read. It’s now. However, I was first impacted by it much earlier. Thomas Friedman reviewed it in the New York Times (12-Oct, 2011), and the idea of f-l-o-w hooked me. From the Friedman article: “…the Big Shift also unleashes … Continue reading Hustle and Flow: Pt 1 (Flow)
This Much We Know 