There are so many tools, applications, channels to explore. There are endless opportunities to entertain, to mine a meme, to curate or recast content in a new direction. Much of my time spent on the TMWK blog is behind the … Continue reading Un-shlump The Borfin! Juggle Your Imagination!
John Stepper writes a lot about the act of generosity in working out loud. When you seek to assist your network to get stronger, more resilient, enable breakthroughs – for its own sake! – you will be paid back handsomely. Now, this goes against a lot of late-capitalist thinking about the dog-eat-dog world of globalization. We live in fear – and/or are entrepreneurially energized – that globalization in fact eats the dog, that eats the dog, for breakfast. Stepper says otherwise. Leading with generosity: By framing your posts as contributions you’re more likely to engage other people. You’re not just looking … Continue reading Generosity Is Not Just “Good”, It Has (Increasing) Value
Last year I worked through a few changes in the way people and organizations (co)exist, especially as technology changes our world(view) and networks blow away rigid structures. I called this series X is the new Y. Well, one article I read today really has 9 new Xs, so to speak, all from the genius of Joi Ito, head of MIT Media Lab. (Explanations begin around 16:30 of video) Ito calls them principles of innovation, and they fit perfectly into the x:y perspective. Resilience is the new Strength Pull is the new Push Risk is the new Safety System is the … Continue reading X Is The New Y: Another Take
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
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?
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
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?
Interesting infographic on how and what people read online. The data that most interested me: “73% say they process information more deeply, thoughtfully, when they share it.” So, when you share, you care more – about the info, about the recipients. This is something that has heavily impacted the way I work since beginning to work out loud, socially. I am constantly thinking: “(how) would this be useful for others?” I am curating content for my network (how ever small) – I am putting them first, AND learning more at the same time, by concentrating more on the data efficacy. … Continue reading 73% Say: When I Share, I Care…And I Learn
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”
Squeezing a single reference article really tight, thrice over, another important point made by Hagel (who is Co-Chair of the Deloitte Center for the Edge) is how organizations must support and reorient around those workers who are at, and who push, the edge. This means embracing a kind of cognitive dissonance: look for those who are moving in new directions, maybe even away from the organization, and seeing if that is your new tomorrow too. The edge worker is the future of your organization. No more sucking up to the Big Boss and being a Yes (Wo)Man. No more repeating … Continue reading “The Edge” Is The New “Core”
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”
