Tag: “Yes!”

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

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

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

Story + Narrative, The Curious Will Inherit The World1 Comment

I am no longer sure of the question, but I am certain of the answer: YES!

ThisMuchWeKnow

Sometimes, it feels the world is moving in a particular direction. Ideas coalesce, people enter your life, opportunities occur, or mutate. Things happen, if you can be open (enough) to that change, those moments. Via Seth Godin: “I am no longer sure of the question, but I am certain of the answer: YES!” – Leonard Bernstein. Happy New Year everyone! ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading I am no longer sure of the question, but I am certain of the answer: YES!

Story + Narrative, The Curious Will Inherit The World3 Comments

When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Flâneur

ThisMuchWeKnow

How could it be that this word, this idea, this approach to life has passed me by all these years?! Fuck fireman, astronaut or Prime Minister, a flâneur is who I want to be, it’s a flâneur’s life for me. Of course, wikipedia has all the details. It is long, sumptuous, beguiling: a literary type from 19th century France…[i]t carried a set of rich associations: the man of leisure, the idler, the urban explorer, the connoisseur of the street. Susan Sontag describes the photographer / flâneur as an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers … Continue reading When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Flâneur

Personal Branding, Story + Narrative1 Comment

Dissecting Your Personal Brand: Synthesizing Your AwesomeSauce

ThisMuchWeKnow

This is where the hard work begins, and the pay-off too. You have a ton of data, and several interesting ideas to play with. Perhaps your brand has a theme to it. You have a beautiful BrandBoard to share! Now what? Well, now we synthesize. This means distilling down all the brand content into 2-3 core ideas around which you can build a story. Although you brand might skew in a particular direction – mine is a heavily head brand – it does not mean you have no skills in the other Head-Heart-Hand elements. When you meet people, generally you … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: Synthesizing Your AwesomeSauce

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

Personal Branding, Social Business, Story + Narrative, The Curious Will Inherit The World, The Future of Work5 Comments

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

ThisMuchWeKnow

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?

Story + Narrative, The Future of Work3 Comments

Farewell Guru, Hello Awesome.

ThisMuchWeKnow

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.

Social Business, The Future of Work1 Comment

Working Out Loud With Gratitude. #RelentlessHumanity Yo!

ThisMuchWeKnow

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!

Social Business, Story + Narrative1 Comment

“Social” Is Good For Us: It Raises The Bar

ThisMuchWeKnow

This excellent WIRED article is worth revisiting again (yesterday, because it highlighted how 90% of everything is crap.) Enabling an audience, as the internet does for free, with zero barriers to entry, makes us work harder to provide value. When our work is stuck on a hard drive, or scribbled in a journal / notebook, it can languish, unloved, badly crafted. When, instead, we work out loud and share, we work darn hard to ensure there is tangible value to be gleaned from the content. Working out loud makes us better – all of us. As I have written before, … Continue reading “Social” Is Good For Us: It Raises The Bar