tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25820046451194763392024-03-06T02:37:35.068-05:00Rex's Thought SpotPersonal Reflections on Applied Innovation & Collaboration in an Enterprise 2.0 WorldRex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-4276188286382205592010-06-04T00:42:00.019-04:002010-06-06T22:58:47.810-04:00Beyond Serendipity for Enterprise 2.0While reading John Tropea's excellent post on "<em><a href="http://libraryclips.blogsome.com/2010/05/29/enterprise-20-harmonising-formal-processes-and-ad-hoc-work/">harmonising formal processes and ad-hoc work</a></em>", which contains references to some of my favourite E2.0 bloggers like <a href="http://www.duperrin.com/english/2009/05/12/enterprise-20-as-a-part-of-the-global-enterprise/">Bertrand Duperrin</a> & <a href="http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/02/18/andrew-mcafee-at-%20fast-08-a-few-thoughts/">Bill Ives</a>, I was inspired to write something which some of the E2.0 community may find controversial. I believe that the emphasis on serendipity and emergence as cornerstones of enterprise 2.0 actually inhibits the potential of social computing technologies to drive greater value.<br /><br />But Rex, surely you aren't arguing that emergence isn't a defining element of E2.0 are you? After all, according to the father of the E2.0 term, <a href="http://andrewmcafee.org/2006/05/enterprise_20_version_20/">Andrew Mcaffee</a>, Enterprise 2.0 is defined as "<em>the use of <strong>emergent</strong> social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers.</em>" where "<em>Emergent means that the software is <strong>freeform</strong>, and that it contains mechanisms to let the patterns and structure inherent in people’s interactions become visible over time</em>."<br /><br /><br />I would argue that emergence is a benefit, but it's only the first step. Perhaps I should refer to this as Enterprise 2.1 a shift from emergence to social engineering. Social engineering, not in the IT security sense, or Machiavellian sense, but as a means to better focus and harness intellectual capital for specific business purposes. Let me give you an analogy between E1.0, E2.0 and E2.1.<br /><br />Think of ideas and collaboration benefits as pearls.<br /><br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 447px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 178px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479855393436569842" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibFKrAN_etBahwbGUH0zWMohwJYfiyyfbtaA-Xc7FzD8MrJNqOMDuPH78JAFjQwm7IMUt3Yymvw4fi9L2FkExUrY7uVafPskkdwByF7we_G1j-V99LhgqznKnVrzRXTiQJ_svSKc8cBBo/s400/pearlpics.png" /><br />Enterprise 1.0, would suggest that only specialized, trained individuals with the resources knew how to find pearls (i.e. where to dive, specialized equipment, knowledge on how to abstract the pearl from the shelled mollusk, etc.).<br /><br /><br />Enterprise 2.0 suggests that we can simplify and remove some of the "specialization" barriers to enable more people to search for pearls. Perhaps the knowledge is more accessible, the technology becomes simpler and less expensive, etc... This would mean, more people can participate, and we could search more places increasing the likelihood of finding those pearls. People could find pearls in areas never previously considered. This is better but it can be even better.<br /><br />Enterprise 2.1 would suggest that rather than "serendipitously" finding pearls, that we coordinate our efforts to actually create pearl farms. Specifically designed environments optimally enhanced to increase the likelihood for shelled mollusks to produce "prefect" pearls. So rather than "hoping" that pearls will be found, we can learn how pearls are produced and create the right climate and engineer ways to mass produce pearls.<br /><br />But how? Well, there are several aspects to consider and I would suggest starting with the <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/04/four-enterprise-20-success-drivers.html">engagement factors (motivation/desire, opportunity, capability)</a>. Each of the factors needs to be reviewed within context of your organization, and appropriate actions taken to leverage opportunities to improve employee engagement for specific business objectives.<br /><br />In my past, I was involved with a sales department that read a great article on "wikis". They approached me and asked for assistance in building a "Wiki Sales Manual" designed by sales people for sales people. The logic was that the sales team were the closest to the customer, best understood the details of the products & services being sold, and had the breadth of experience to create this living "wiki sales manual". The sales team was frustrated with the marketing team who were a couple steps removed from the end customer and were the ones currently responsible for building theses sales manuals which became obsolete quickly.<br /><br />On the surface, it sounds logical. But when we look at the engagement factors, we quickly see that implementing such a wiki without changing processes and building new processes would lead to failure. In this example, the sales team were compensated in a somewhat competitive mode where the top sales people were rewarded "more". Reputation was an important prestigious thing. The best sales people, liked to be known as "the best sales people". The challenge we have with a "wiki sales manual" would be that people most knowledgeable were actually dis-incented to contribute their expertise. Why contribute to this wiki if it could jeopardize one's reputation and possibly even their salary? Where's the motivation? Strike 1...<br /><br />Every moment spent updating a manual, from the eyes of the sales people was a minute NOT spent selling, and building relations. There was simply no "opportunity" or time to contribute even if they were motivated to do so. Strike 2...<br /><br />And furthermore, the skills of a sales person may not lend itself well to documentation and training. So even if they were motivated and had the opportunity, they may not have had the capability to actually update the wiki. Strike 3...<br /><br />Without social engineering and modifying processes, models, policies and education, the initiative was doomed to fail before it even started.<br /><br />Another example of social engineering is the concept of a <a href="http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/Home/News.asp?id=47657">JAM session</a>. This on-line collaborative event leverages various social media tools for mass collaboration but focuses participants on a specific challenge or issue. Borrowing heavily from <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/06/overclocking-social-computing-chip.html">facilitation techniques</a>, these events are socially engineered to maximize business value.<br /><br />For example techniques such as time-boxing is used to maximize interaction and create sense of urgency, facilitator interjection is used to clarify concepts, drill deeper, enhance participation, and provide focus and pre-event design work around what questions to ask, who to invite, how to ask it, and what to do with the answers are all engineered to improve the quality of collaboration and the speed to which a business can realize value.<br /><br />There seems to be a belief that by just letting all conversation flow in blogs, tweets, forums, wiki's, etc..., that corporations will find great nuggets of insight, that people will connect and come up with great ideas, that agility and holistic understanding will be natural outcomes. Although this may be true, we don't need to leave it at that.<br /><br />Proper social engineering in leveraging social technologies can enable organization to focus the potential of their employees & business partners to drive specific business value of higher quality and in shorter time frames. This requires and understanding the engagement factors (motivation, opportunity, capability) and taking initiative to design and facilitate within the environment.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-85263308110020253152009-12-18T17:43:00.004-05:002009-12-18T17:56:47.154-05:00How Does Change Happen?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX6RrvN8LGXBIfNsZg9CTgkvov5wQy7NiJh2YPWFhS4IOLVD3Wtd1VdU7551pQqjeaxW-U5Rk_5j7aCZ4zFhLEyg4HBGPUy83Db_HxJ7sstypjGojhVXbh9Rbpr30PoiKcTO_SG2GFNLw/s1600-h/change.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5416713742077138338" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 395px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX6RrvN8LGXBIfNsZg9CTgkvov5wQy7NiJh2YPWFhS4IOLVD3Wtd1VdU7551pQqjeaxW-U5Rk_5j7aCZ4zFhLEyg4HBGPUy83Db_HxJ7sstypjGojhVXbh9Rbpr30PoiKcTO_SG2GFNLw/s400/change.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="http://profiles.tigweb.org/jenergy">Jennifer Corriero</a>, co-founder and Executive Director of <a href="http://www.tigweb.org/">TakingITGlobal</a>, a non-profit organization with the aim of fostering cross-cultural dialogue, strengthening the capacity of youth as leaders and increasing awareness and involvement in global issues through the use of technology, recently wrote a poem entitled <a href="http://www.tigblog.org/group/tignews/post/1522371">How Does Change Happen</a>. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>I thought I would share it with you as I felt it reinforces how hard change is, and how we can't really think out of the box because the box is the culmination of our experiences and education.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Enjoy...<br /></div><br /><div><strong>How does change happen?</strong></div><br /><div><strong>By Jennifer Corriero</strong><br /><br />POLICY says the policy maker<br />MARKETS says the business manager<br />MASS MOBILIZATION says the organizer<br /><br />DIALOGUE says the convenor<br />SYSTEMS CHANGE says the academic<br />IMAGINATION says the artist<br /><br />INVENTION says the scientist<br />INNOVATION says the technologist<br />INVESTMENT says the banker<br /><br />DESIGN says the architect<br />ENLIGHTENMENT says the spiritual guide<br />LEGAL FRAMEWORKS says the lawyer<br /><br />CONVICTION says the leader<br />EDUCATION says the teacher<br />REVOLUTION says the activist<br /><br />DATA says the analyst<br />CRISIS says the journalist<br />ACTION says the entrepreneur<br /><br />HOPE says the dreamer<br />NETWORKS says the connector<br />INSPIRATION says the storyteller<br /><br />LOVE says the mother<br />ASPIRATION says the father<br />LAUGHTER says the child<br />POSSIBILITY says the youth<br />REFLECTION says the elder<br /><br />And so we ask ourselves<br />Where we stand, where we shine and where we fly.<br />We ask whether or not<br />we are defined<br />by the roles we take<br />or the collective outcomes that emerge<br />when our efforts and beliefs collide.<br /><br />Is it magic or tragic that we disagree? </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-72185623528046776192009-10-18T20:10:00.015-04:002009-10-27T13:55:45.604-04:00Maximizing Business Value from Enterprise 2.0 through Fun & MotivationWhen discussing E2.0, I often hear "Shouldn't we just implement these social tools and simply let business value "emerge"? My answer is NO, not if you want to maximize <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2008/04/5-social-computing-benefits-that.html">business value</a>.<br /><br />I am a strong believer that organizations, should focus and facilitate the use of these tools in order to maximize organizational benefits. To drive value, I've often referred to the <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2008/04/starbucks-star-struck-with-social.html">engagement factors</a> and in this post I wanted to focus on one of the factors, "<a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/04/four-enterprise-20-success-drivers.html">Motivation</a>".<br /><br />How do we address motivation? Do we adopt the "build it and they will come" approach? No. But what about Wikipedia? it seems like complete "self-organization" has made it successful. But consider that <a href="http://asc-parc.blogspot.com/2007/05/long-tail-and-power-law-graphs-of-user.html">only 1% of the people who visit Wikipedia actually contribute content</a>. That's alright with a population set of the world, but 1% of your company may not be enough and if you have specific objectives you may need to motivate others to participate.<br /><br />So what then? Should we use traditional motivation tactics (i.e. Carrots & Sticks)? For example, should we give bigger monetary bonuses or incentives to those who leverage social computing technologies to solve problems or provide innovative solutions? The answer yet again is surprisingly, NO.<br /><br /><strong>In fact, bigger incentives causes worse results for cognitive tasks</strong>. <a href="http://www.danpink.com/">Dan Pink</a> has an excellent video that summarizes why this is, and has references to research by economists from <a href="http://web.mit.edu/">MIT</a>, <a href="http://www.cmu.edu/index.shtml">Carnegie Mellon</a> and sponsored by the <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/">US Federal Reserve Bank</a> along with research by the <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/">London School of Economics</a> which reviewed 51 studies on pay for performance. The bottom line is that pay for performance has a NEGATIVE impact on even "rudimentary" cognitive tasks.<br /><br /><object height="326" width="401"><param name="movie" value="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="bgColor" value="#ffffff"><param name="flashvars" value="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/DanielPink_2009G-medium.flv&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/DanielPink-2009G.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=400&vh=240&ap=0&ti=618&introDuration=16500&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=2000&adKeys=talk=dan_pink_on_motivation;year=2009;theme=not_business_as_usual;theme=the_creative_spark;theme=speaking_at_tedglobal2009;theme=new_on_ted_com;event=TEDGlobal+2009;&preAdTag=tconf.ted/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;"><br /> <embed src="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf" pluginspace="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="401" height="326" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/DanielPink_2009G-medium.flv&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/DanielPink-2009G.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=400&vh=240&ap=0&ti=618&introDuration=16500&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=2000&adKeys=talk=dan_pink_on_motivation;year=2009;theme=not_business_as_usual;theme=the_creative_spark;theme=speaking_at_tedglobal2009;theme=new_on_ted_com;event=TEDGlobal+2009;"></embed></object><br /><br />Ok, so what then? Dan talks about a framework to address motivation but I wanted to remind you about that one motivator which is <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/12/5-facebook-lessons-to-improve-employee.html">"fun"</a>! Although it's been several several years since I've actually written code, I have to say that there was something fun about being able to solve tough bugs and problems which would motivate me to keep pushing at the resolution. The folks that update Linux aren't doing it for the money, so what motivates them?<br /><br /><strong>Fun, as a design principle shouldn't be overlooked as it impacts the application design from look and feel, through context, content and process.</strong> It also should be addressed when designing events leveraging social computing technologies.<br /><br />In a previous life, I had the opportunity to build a YouTube like environment to address concerns with recruitment and retention. Employees were allowed to do short snippets of why they loved working at their job. The results were amazing, for in a 2 week period the 3000 employees generated ~100 videos that were watched approximately 15,000 times. That's on average 5 videos watched per employee about why people love their jobs. 5 times employees choose to listen to these messages and engage. It was fun.<br /><br />The power of fun is often forgotten. Perhaps it's because people still see work and fun as two separate things. After all, isn't the opposite of work, "play"? To illustrate how "fun" can be used to drive a specific outcome, there is a <a href="http://www.thefuntheory.com/">brilliant campaign underway by Volkswagan</a> that does exactly that. Below is just one of their viral videos. So as you're having fun watching this video, just consider how you might be able to apply to this to your social computing endeavours...<br /><br /><br /><object height="243" width="401"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2lXh2n0aPyw&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2lXh2n0aPyw&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="401" height="243"></embed></object><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-77853930906376500352009-03-06T06:04:00.011-05:002009-03-09T00:24:32.247-04:00E2.0 Evangelism & The Curse of Knowledge<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFfgeyHK0dw9pQUg43yEB0eF3lq-VCm5OU5zfM3ZJV-g9dV7TP8LYb0P0nf0C3ExSiLyzEbwx7Bmr0Iazzb8_Wo4RUXPiT3kNMi-WDmx_PswwmnQ1NArJ9A4EQ09BTw_gMgPuiL8LwI28/s1600-h/badevangelism.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311035211407511170" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 266px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFfgeyHK0dw9pQUg43yEB0eF3lq-VCm5OU5zfM3ZJV-g9dV7TP8LYb0P0nf0C3ExSiLyzEbwx7Bmr0Iazzb8_Wo4RUXPiT3kNMi-WDmx_PswwmnQ1NArJ9A4EQ09BTw_gMgPuiL8LwI28/s400/badevangelism.png" border="0" /></a>Have you ever been in a presentation, where the speaker was obviously an expert but they just couldn't convey their ideas to the audience leaving them confused and uninspired?<br /><div></div><br /><div>In the past, I've written about the <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/05/three-best-practices-that-kill.html">challenges of being an expert</a>. Expertise can limit our ability to be radically creative and open to suggestion causing us to miss opportunities for disruptive innovation. There has been some great research in this area by <a href="http://www.williamrtorbert.com/">William Torbert</a> and David Rooke that looks at "experts" in the context of one of the seven ways people lead. Here is a quotation from their <a href="http://www.iecoaching.com/docs/Seven%20Transformations%20of%20Leadership.pdf">HBR Article, "Seven Transformations of Leadership"</a> </div><div></div><br /><div><em>"Experts are great individual contributors because of their pursuit of continuous improvement, efficiency, and perfection. But as managers, they can be problematic because they are so completely sure they are right. They will frequently treat the opinion of people less expert than themselves with contempt." </em></div><div></div><br /><div>"Expertise" has several implications to the social computing world, including the<a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2008/04/5-social-computing-benefits-that.html"> long-tail value of "non-experts"</a>, <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/05/mesh07-digital-blinders-are-we-inch.html">self-organization</a>, and creating a collaboration culture. In this post however, I thought I'd talk to the specific challenges expertise has on our ability to communicate and inspire.<br /></div><br /><div>The term "<a href="http://www.madetostick.com/blog/category/curse-of-knowledge/">curse of knowledge</a>" is one I borrowed from the Heath brothers, Chip and Dan who put out the very popular book, "<a href="http://www.madetostick.com/">Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die</a>". It's a great book, and quite practical. In their research, they examine why some concepts (even completely false ones) are memorable and others are forgotten (even the best, most innovative ideas). </div><div><br /></div><div>Chip & Dan demonstrate through examples how the more you know, the harder it is to "not know" or remember what it was like to not understand. An experts' communications can become crammed with details that the casual recipient either doesn't understand, doesn't care about, or will soon forget anyways due to information overload. </div><div></div><br /><div>For those trying to promote a culture of collaboration, and the adoption of Enterprise 2.0 technology, we can become victims of our own knowledge. Sometimes this manifests itself as a laundry list of different technologies, often accompanied by a list of technical terms and a series of acronyms. Sometimes we drive into extreme detail on theory and academic research. Sure, to other social computing enthusiasts the <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/09/weak-links-in-your-social-network-are.html">concept of weak ties and centrality in social networks</a> may be fascinating but will this win over the masses? </div><div></div><br /><div>So what would Chip & Dan recommend to E2.0 evangelists looking to create a compelling message that is "sticky"? Well, they summarize the key principles of memorable messages in the acronym SUCCES. </div><div></div><br /><div>Simple — find the core of any idea. Focus on that.<br />Unexpected — grab people's attention by surprising them<br />Concrete — make sure an idea is real and not too theoretical<br />Credibility — give an idea believability allow people to test it themselves.<br />Emotion — help people see the importance of an idea by tapping emotions<br />Stories — Stories are great ways to achieve all above.</div><div></div><br /><div>I try to incorporate these principles when crafting communications, to help inspire folks around the potential of social computing and collaboration. Hopefully it'll help you too. If you have stories that have worked for you I'd love to hear them! </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-13139334969235859432009-03-01T20:30:00.004-05:002009-03-01T20:48:56.186-05:00What I've been up to...It's been quite some time since my last post and for those of you that have been asking, I thought I'd write an update on what I am up to these days. <br /><br />In Mid-January I took on an exciting opportunity as Technical Director - e-Collaboration and Content Management at Research in Motion (RIM). It's simply such a great opportunity to continue my journey into the collaboration space and further extend my work in social computing, along with aspects of content management. <br /><br />I can't go into any details of the specifics but I am extremely excited to get this opportunity. Perhaps in another post, I'll talk a little about how structured and unstructured content can intersect and diverge.<br /><br />Leaving Bell was difficult but I know the collaboration areas are in the hands of some very capable people, and will undoubtedly continue to thrive. <br /><br />Wrapping up my time with Bell, and starting my new role has kept me extremely busy not to mention all the fun winter activites with the family which seem to consume any time I have outside work (my excuse for not keeping up with my blogging). <br /><br />That's it for now. If there are topics you think I should write about please feel free to drop me a line.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-66680494375430342352008-11-17T21:49:00.006-05:002008-11-19T09:03:04.142-05:00Enterprise 2.0 & The Economy<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirS-F_5JnaW1fvAw1tqhzkpwka3Kd9m2Ryqs_FDv26Q623Zjp9c2IXWm5aPI7G0Q_SFRbl3iDblyJvlE40zARmzCq3CEjfLq2c170RPFSC3KkCtnafwwT7rd45vvPKVparVdccqaZKruo/s1600-h/Picture1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269826879489986258" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 311px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirS-F_5JnaW1fvAw1tqhzkpwka3Kd9m2Ryqs_FDv26Q623Zjp9c2IXWm5aPI7G0Q_SFRbl3iDblyJvlE40zARmzCq3CEjfLq2c170RPFSC3KkCtnafwwT7rd45vvPKVparVdccqaZKruo/s400/Picture1.jpg" border="0" /></a>With the economy on everyone’s minds these days, it’s not surprising to see articles looking at the impact the economy has on usage of collaborative technologies (eg. enterprise 2.0).<br /><br />I’ve found several articles interesting but not quite resonating with me. For example a recent <a href="http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2008/11/11/collaboration-in-recessionary-times/trackback/">Wikinomics article</a> by <a title="Posts by Naumi Haque" href="http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/author/nhaque/">Naumi Haque</a> suggests that there are 2 emerging schools of thought on the subject: A) the need for productivity means greater investment in enterprise 2.0 or B) the need to focus on core takes priority over anything else. I actually don’t think it’s one or the other but both. If you could prove productivity/collaborative gains this actually enables greater focus on your core. But since it’s hard to prove, the concept of Risk/Reward needs to be considered.<br /><br />In my opinion, there are 3 main variables that predict adoption of these tools: Corporate Risk Tolerance, Corporate Performance, and Perceived Risk/Benefit of collaborative technology. These variables are depicted in the visual model above.<br /><br />The relationship between corporate performance (which is impacted by the economy) and risk tolerance is illustrated by the “U” curve. Basically, a corporation that is doing very poorly tends to take bigger risks as it becomes “desperate” or believes it has “nothing to lose”. Consider the example of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldcorp">Goldcorp</a> that on the <a href="http://www.madeforone.com/Articles/index.php/technology/book-review-wikinomics/">brink of bankruptcy</a> decided to share it’s “top secret” data to the world in an attempt to crowdsource a solution to their pressing challenge of finding and extracting gold from it’s property. Would Goldcorp have been so eager to do this if it was doing well?<br /><br />At the opposite end of the performance spectrum, those companies that are doing well can “afford” to experiment with new approaches and new opportunities while resting assured that the remainder of the business will still thrive and be able fund these initiatives. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM">IBM</a>’s investment in <a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/SocialComputing/">social computing</a> and it’s <a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/SocialComputing/WorldJam.htm">World Jam</a> for example are things IBM has been able to explore and develop while still maintaining sufficient resources in it’s other core business.<br /><br />According to this model, companies that are doing “OK”, are least likely to accept corporate risk. “Why change if it ain’t broke”, and “we just simply can’t spend resources on things that aren’t proven to provide us a return”. These companies tend to be risk averse to supporting technologies which aren't core.<br /><br />The curve is only part of the picture. The other variable is the concept of perceived risk. Risk in this model is loosely defined as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expected_value">likelihood of an expected benefit</a> versus the expected cost. Costs include implementation but also <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost">opportunity cost</a>, and negative side-effects. For those corporations that view social computing investments as low risk/high reward the decision to implement social media in any economic climate is “obvious”. As perceived risk increases however, it would require the company performance to either increase substantially or decrease substantially relative to the perceived risk they place on collaborative technology.<br /><br />So what does this mean when times are tough? Well, based on this model, I would speculate that corporate performance on average will decline creating a stronger likelihood for adoption of social computing initiatives even at higher perceived risk. Companies that in the past wouldn’t have tried to leverage social computing may actually be willing to “give it a try”. The success/failures of those initiatives will eventually have an impact on perceived risk as stories mount that either prove/disprove the real costs & benefits.<br /><br />It’s a fairly basic exploratory model and I’d be interested to hear your thoughts. Is your organization about to implement enterprise 2.0 applications? Would they fit this model?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-10151741644695899002008-09-26T06:21:00.010-04:002008-10-17T05:53:37.742-04:00Ratings & Enterprise 2.0<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtFjAgjlg9g6vizLWfEemhs2NvArqX8fOG0q7coF0feT3BloaVjg7wQsD_jAumZq-61RWBo99mOXYgM4sY6Yg0EtbD5-PFW8xdc7vVAaNAtZhcRHMSIFI4jIFeq5IVkmY6Qq1d1tixXc4/s1600-h/e2rating.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250283341477457698" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtFjAgjlg9g6vizLWfEemhs2NvArqX8fOG0q7coF0feT3BloaVjg7wQsD_jAumZq-61RWBo99mOXYgM4sY6Yg0EtbD5-PFW8xdc7vVAaNAtZhcRHMSIFI4jIFeq5IVkmY6Qq1d1tixXc4/s320/e2rating.png" border="0" /></a>Be cautious in rating employee E2.0 contribution.<br /><br /><a href="http://blog.hbs.edu/faculty/amcafee/">Andrew McAfee</a> recently questioned the need and value for <a href="http://blog.hbs.edu/faculty/amcafee/index.php/faculty_amcafee_v3/should_knowledge_workers_have_enterprise_20_ratings/">rating employees and their usage of E2.0 applications</a>. The chart on the left is his example of some of the things he would consider.<br /><br />Although these metrics may be of interest to those managing or designing various E2.0 programs, these statistics can be quite misleading. Specifically, I caution those that want to use these indicators as 1) the sole measure in determining the success of their E2.0 programs and 2) the sole means of ranking the value of a contributor.<br /><br /><br />Success of your E2.0 program can not be based only on adoption/usage percentages. The value of E2.0 includes just giving people an opportunity, enabling self-organization of the most relevant participants, identifying valuable conceptual outliers, reinforcing culture, accessibility for future benefit. These don't show up in adoption rates. I discuss these in greater detail in an earlier post, "<em><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2008/04/5-social-computing-benefits-that.html">5 benefits of social computing that adoption rates don't show</a></em>". Success isn't a simple metric but requires various perspectives well beyond just adoption rates.<br /><br /><br />Without any ratings, how would you know whether to trust the content? Rating a contributor based on activity levels is intended to provide participants with a gauge to the "quality" or "accuracy" of the content. <strong>This is a dangerous and false assumption.</strong> Just because someone may post a lot, or interact a lot, doesn't mean that their content is necessarily of high quality. As an analogy, I spend a long time doing house repairs, not because I am good at but for the exact opposite reason!<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdWOCAJ7uX88MHrMwhZJrgXgSJWM4PkI8UzGg56O_HfK41ZhHfyrvH_bMoIghISvq1WEXHIdZbgizOAWQghucu8nTppMo0Q6MJ0feDZWPblEavveXedQQFOUDfRkxt0U7eOtyCK9UD0g8/s1600-h/longtail2.png"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqHHPGwI0egWdr-TemVcBaep5hAnGPiYCb4GaVj-r3qsjauqu7gGG7bZPzgC0XUPTWli1jiicL4ATu1m7x8wpEFtsXjjGjvyJz0gWGGuo_2y2aKGGiNTnczz_cSzQ7c-VQTBQf3TqaaIE/s1600-h/longtailgeneric_1.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258047532764086034" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqHHPGwI0egWdr-TemVcBaep5hAnGPiYCb4GaVj-r3qsjauqu7gGG7bZPzgC0XUPTWli1jiicL4ATu1m7x8wpEFtsXjjGjvyJz0gWGGuo_2y2aKGGiNTnczz_cSzQ7c-VQTBQf3TqaaIE/s320/longtailgeneric_1.png" border="0" /></a>A heavy focus on individual ratings will also diminish the real value of tapping into the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail">long-tail</a>. <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2008/08/clay-shirky-ted-on-mass-collaboration.html">Clay Shirky</a> gives a good example on how one can completely miss the point. He points to comments made by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer">Steve Ballmer</a> dismissing the open source concept of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux">Linux</a> as not really being true/valuable since the majority of work is really done by a small group of participants. Steve's flaw is that he's associating "value" with "quantity". The question isn't about how much input you provide. Even if you provide only one single piece of contribution, what if that contribution turns out to be a major breakthrough? Or in the software example Clay suggests, what if that one patch provided a fix for a major security hole in the software? What's that worth?<br /><br /><br />My suggestion for those looking at designing E2.0 programs is that ratings are valuable, but they should be at the content level. Individual ratings could be derived (aggregates or averages) from the various ratings of the individual contributions. There is sometimes a desire to use ratings as a means to <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/04/four-enterprise-20-success-drivers.html">motivate employees</a> to contribute. If you focus on "quantity" you are incenting the wrong behaviour, focus instead on "value".<br /><br /><br />One final point. <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/02/enterprise-20-extreme-simplicity.html">SIMPLICITY</a>. Just because we can measure something, doesn't mean we should. From my perspective, having 6 metrics can be confusing and intimidating to participants. I prefer to get it down to a single metric which has intrinsic value. For example, in a recent application we've designed, we allow (and encourage) participant rating on the content by asking, "Did this content help you?". This means the rating is the total number of people helped by the content. It provides meaning to both readers and authors. Do we track other metrics that we don't display? Absolutely. Is this method perfect? No, but it is simple and in my opinion worth the trade-off.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-33394897442428414732008-09-23T23:31:00.006-04:002008-09-23T23:52:36.323-04:00Digital Natives: Whatever Whenever WhereverI found this video reading <a href="http://www.duperrin.com/english/2008/09/22/digital-natives-e-culture-e-students/">Bertrand's fantastic blog</a> and wanted to share it here too. It's about the millennials (aka net-gener's) and learning. I thought it particularly relevant considering some of the "concerns" popping up around the <a href="http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/16-09/st_essay">Internet leading to a dark age</a> or the <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/11/web-20-decline-of-society.html">decline of society</a> as a whole.<br /><br />My personal opinion is that social media can improve learning but it requires engagement vs consumption and thinking vs finding. We can hope our students learn this on their own, or we can teach them how to think and engage. But then again, "hope" is not a strategy.<br /><br />Enjoy the video and let me know what you think.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_A-ZVCjfWf8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_A-ZVCjfWf8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-24537211184346228742008-09-17T06:16:00.013-04:002008-09-21T08:17:54.521-04:00SAP & InnoCentive<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmPyBPjXBdjXp-dYW3Ty2KEWr2pKFRo1gQouxjDFEzSQ5DWuKAyqpEaypi7GZ1YrYrJIMNSJ-p48bf5Xb3FZiPP9510mf8ggVU6PZ7o-H7IJlX1QsPbxj1YSfWSy9FFtNRnmfxBWa0uVc/s1600-h/SAP.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5248445414752873330" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmPyBPjXBdjXp-dYW3Ty2KEWr2pKFRo1gQouxjDFEzSQ5DWuKAyqpEaypi7GZ1YrYrJIMNSJ-p48bf5Xb3FZiPP9510mf8ggVU6PZ7o-H7IJlX1QsPbxj1YSfWSy9FFtNRnmfxBWa0uVc/s320/SAP.jpg" border="0" /></a> Jevon at <a href="http://socialwrite.com/">Socialwrite</a> recently wrote about <a href="http://socialwrite.com/2008/09/09/sap-using-innocentive-to-source-innovation/">SAP's partnership with InnoCentive</a>. My my, how things have changed. It wasn't too long ago that I was sitting down with SAP and listening to their philosophy on <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/02/why-best-practices-can-kill-innovation.html">business practices </a>which was the furthest thing away from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing">crowdsource</a> thinking like <a href="http://www.innocentive.com/">InnoCentive</a>.<br /><br /><p>SAP had traditionally been about "best practices". According to SAP, companies stand to gain from SAP's global customer base and taking what is context for others and making it core for them. For example, what large scale operation would "build" their own inventory management system or human resource management system instead of buying it? You would spend much more effort and dollars to accomplish only a fraction of what a company like SAP has already been able to do. In addition, you benefit from their global R&D and refinement of best practices. </p><p>To fully reap the value of leveraging pre-packaged best practices however often requires you to <a href="http://www.sap.info/archive/sme/int_SME_A_Reality_Check_on_Software_Customization_13.07.2005.html">minimize customization</a>. Over customization would diminish the value of having a set best-practice to start with. Hence companies that just adopt the SAP practices would tend to benefit from higher levels of efficiencies. Or so goes the philosophy...</p><p>As I've written previously, the challenge with this thinking is that it <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/02/why-best-practices-can-kill-innovation.html">limits innovation</a>. Sure, you could argue innovation only matters around what is <a href="http://www.gartner.com/research/fellows/asset_135671_1176.jsp">"core"</a> to your business. But that line of distinction can be a bit fuzzy, and strong delineation could mean missed opportunities of taking what was <a href="http://www.gartner.com/research/fellows/asset_135671_1176.jsp">"context"</a> and transforming into "core". For example, if your core was manufacturing PC's and distribution was really context for you, you may miss out on creating a competitive differentiator by drastically changing the distribution practices. </p><p>For me it's been quite interesting to see how SAP has been on a road to "re-inventing" itself. The focus on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-oriented_architecture">SOA</a> & <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Process_Management">BPM</a> over the last few years and this most recent partnership with InnoCentive to crowdsource innovation could be a sign of things to come for all enterprises. If the world's biggest enterprise software giant whose core is around best-practices is now crowdsourcing for new practices... What are the implications to your organization? <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpahnT6yK-FB5WKbCesFjJzWAD3tVtpGtLus492n-b9yRbHCEWNbSUy8nucCUYaCgF-E-wqRGY9k74p2NnCoY83pUfOJxEj9wNBYN9tZbgwUmlZg_q-mwjArdW5ZB7Eu0IyYw7azpV0NU/s1600-h/longtail2.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5248445524581327602" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpahnT6yK-FB5WKbCesFjJzWAD3tVtpGtLus492n-b9yRbHCEWNbSUy8nucCUYaCgF-E-wqRGY9k74p2NnCoY83pUfOJxEj9wNBYN9tZbgwUmlZg_q-mwjArdW5ZB7Eu0IyYw7azpV0NU/s320/longtail2.png" border="0" /></a></p><p>Or perhaps it's just hoopla and SAP may not really be all that serious around crowdsourcing and is just doing this for appearances. Jevon ends his post by quoting Mark Yolton, Senior VP of the SAP community network, “<em>We will only be posting problems which are not core to our business</em>”. I hope not. As <a href="http://www.shirky.com/">Clay Shirky</a> stated, the old thinking was to focus on 80% gain for 20% effort but the new thinking is, why give up that last 20% of gain? Thoughts?<br /><br /></p><div></div><br /><br /><p></p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-89639192533781003162008-09-16T23:27:00.005-04:002008-09-16T23:48:52.521-04:00Happy Birthday Social Media Today!<a href="http://socialmediatoday.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246827010718416738" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw3-Qr3DpJFPergju2uatPFnNMVBha-X9FkazLgANl2oyd0Jt-4QmG2QUm0pOFr2Ny3vAKzhvFG82HTtESR6BZhvdmpiLSFSUfF059JBHpVe0iWShr8gmsV3USYTFJ1810CtCCGTCT0OA/s400/smt-bday.png" border="0" /></a>Happy First Birthday Social Media Today (SMT)! I'm happy to be considered a featured blogger with SMT. It's an environment that offers such diverse and inspired dialogue on all things social media. <br /><br />One of the things I love about SMT is the quality of the content. It is a moderated environment and Jerry & Robin do a great job on ensuring the most interesting and insightful articles get through. <br /><br />As a blogger, who doesn't subscribe to the "I must blog every day" philosophy, SMT provides a means that I can share my thoughts and not be too concerned about the 'volume' of posts. <br /><br />I absolutely think some of the most insightful minds in Enterprise 2.0 and social computing can be found there. Not only their articles, but their discussions across several topics in the community. <br /><br />If you like this blog, and haven't popped over to SMT, I suggest you take it for a spin. While there, grab a slice of birthday cake too!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-3615553501470989742008-08-16T06:41:00.010-04:002008-08-16T09:57:38.290-04:00Clay Shirky @ TED on Mass CollaborationThis is my favourite video on mass collaboration. <a href="http://www.shirky.com/">Clay</a> effortlessly digs into the theoretical concepts of social computing using practical examples that we can all relate too. He makes a strong argument for the superior benefits of building <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/03/enterprise-20-organizational-structure.html">co-operation into the infrastructure</a> compared to the <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/08/holism-real-enterprise-20-opportunity_28.html">traditional hierarchical institutional approach</a> to collaboration. The old paradigm states "<em>focus on the 20% effort and get 80% of the benefit</em>". The new paradigm states, "<em>Why would you leave behind 20% of benefit?"</em><br /><br />Although this video was only released last month, the presentation was actually done in 2005 at <a href="http://www.ted.com/">TED</a>. As you watch it, it may remind you <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Tapscott">Don Tapscott</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_D._Williams">Anthony Williams</a>' <a href="http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/">Wikinomics</a> book or of the work done by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Coase">Ronald Coase</a> who won a Nobel Prize in Economics (1991) on his work detailed in 1937, <em><a href="http://www.cerna.ensmp.fr/Enseignement/CoursEcoIndus/SupportsdeCours/COASE.pdf">The Nature of the Firm</a></em>. Enjoy...<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sPQViNNOAkw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/sPQViNNOAkw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />(<a href="http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/clay_shirky_on_institutions_versus_collaboration.html">link to original TED video</a>)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-52091096266199597502008-07-31T13:35:00.020-04:002008-07-31T15:41:28.848-04:00ID-ah! and The GroundswellOne of my proudest social computing accomplishments is the creation of <a href="http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/01/28/mcmaster-congress-enterprise-20-id-ah-at-bell-systems-and-technology/">ID-ah!</a>(tm), a Bell Canada internal social innovation platform we started in 2005. ID-ah! was featured in the <a href="http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/book.html">Groundswell</a> book by <a href="http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/authors.html">Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff</a>. Ever since Groundswell, I've had people ask me for more details.<br /><br />I am happy to share more details thanks to the folks at <a href="http://www.business-digest.eu/english/">Business Digest</a> that have allowed me to post this <a href="https://share.acrobat.com/adc/document.do?docid=af8307d4-bf6b-4228-8626-826783b1ffd0">interview</a> I did with them last month.<br /><br /><div align="center"><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,115,0" width="365" height="500"> <param name="movie" value="https://share.acrobat.com/adc/flex/mpt.swf" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"/> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/> <param name="flashvars" value="ext=pdf&docId=af8307d4-bf6b-4228-8626-826783b1ffd0"/> <embed src="https://share.acrobat.com/adc/flex/mpt.swf" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="365" height="500" wmode="transparent" allowFullScreen="true" flashvars="ext=pdf&docId=af8307d4-bf6b-4228-8626-826783b1ffd0"> </embed> </object><br /><br /></div><div align="center"><em>A 2008 Business Digest document. Business Digest is a European publisher of contents on management and strategy (</em><a href="http://www.business-digest.eu/"><em>http://www.business-digest.eu/</em></a><em>)</em></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><br /><div align="left">I have to also mention the passionate core team of evangelsits that were right beside me as we made this happen: <em>Carol Ferguson, Kelly Gillis, Melanie Jodouin, Fred Leung, Rishi Luthra, Nicole Marshall, Bob Mersereau, Olimpiu Metiu, Kathleen O'Grady, Michel Sabourin</em></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-29895434898922528122008-07-12T05:35:00.007-04:002008-07-12T06:27:30.530-04:00The Global Collaboration Cue Card Project<a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/726056@N20/pool/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222071366501531858" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwE8DE64U5mkwlhz_mOOvSE5UuDlhhhK4DtoH6S7JCCor4-iaRUs8hnewlFoaMwOKSKUo89zpSZexL3a6YoIQA5nTgLkQ9BsEI5UbClyJGIRVa4ba0R6ne3nRRz3g-kIJbgDaTdDc-JkQ/s320/CCCOMP1.png" border="0" /></a>What does collaboration look like to you?<br /><div></div><br /><div>That's a question my colleague <a href="http://danielroseca.wordpress.com/about/">Dan Rose</a> has started asking participants of his collaborative sessions and his presentations. At the beginning of each session, he provides participants a blank cue card and asks them to illustrate what collaboration is. NO WORDS!</div><div></div><br /><div>"<em>words are in fact models that are loaded with assumptions and values and how communicating with graphics is an effective method for conveying underlying and unspoken meaning</em>."</div><div></div><br /><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/726056@N20/">The pictures</a> have been quite insightful, and Dan has decided to take this further by posting the pictures on Flickr and inviting everyone to join in. What are the common global themes? Are there global differences? </div><div></div><br /><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/726056@N20/pool/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222071600029539090" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidRmTj1N9hWisdOc1PuHVEUgR3IbtDApYFVNm0hXDkt8XdsRb_YK17VB5z_ID2EH-f773A_n3-Dq9KGJVED19Hqwt7LIKHWoFDe7Y72q4tpZSFm-LYKzUnK6WdY8K_FsIRHfCA_5oXpjA/s320/CCCOMP2.png" border="0" /></a>He's named this endeavour, <a href="http://danielroseca.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/introducing-the-global-collaboration-cue-card-project/">"The Global Collaboration Cue Card Project"</a>. With so much talk around collaboration and the various "collaboration" technologies (i.e. social computing), it's nice to have a simple way to remind us what we're really after when we say "collaboration". </div><div></div><br /><div>So enough "words" from me... <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/726056@N20/">Take a look</a> and why not share what collaboration looks like to you. </div><div></div><div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-78935861132586035852008-05-31T21:31:00.012-04:002008-06-06T15:31:53.587-04:00Social Media and The Speed of Trust<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7IYgqkRYVKWoaJH6F9DEDLlimyaxHhgk-MX4apAEenz_H9zYnpxXqkYujL1VSEqaZwlberlaxZyuNDwHar0DMN6gxpcq5txspDZylz8lNdTq-8c1mlJLmIS-XXvOSQj_9_vC0SksiqpU/s1600-h/trust2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206878260293766674" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7IYgqkRYVKWoaJH6F9DEDLlimyaxHhgk-MX4apAEenz_H9zYnpxXqkYujL1VSEqaZwlberlaxZyuNDwHar0DMN6gxpcq5txspDZylz8lNdTq-8c1mlJLmIS-XXvOSQj_9_vC0SksiqpU/s320/trust2.jpg" border="0" /></a> Last month, on separate occasions, I met two friends that I had previously only communicated with via blogs and social networking sites (and maybe the occasional e-mail). Although I knew each of them for some time, it was our first "in-person" meeting.<br /><div></div><br /><div>When we finally met, there was an immediate sense of familiarity. We skipped the usual pleasantries and small talk and jumped right into an open and honest conversation. Thanks to social media I already knew what they looked like, their personality, their interests, their dislikes, their hobbies, their sense of humour, their perspectives, etc.... In fact, I know more about them than some of the people I actually work with on a regular basis. </div><div></div><br /><div>Why do I find that interesting? Why might an organization want to pay attention? </div><div></div><br /><div>Trust! </div><div></div><br /><div>Trust, much like the term "collaboration" is often seen as a fuzzy-wuzzy airy-fairy nice-to-say high-level taken-for-granted leadership concept... </div><div></div><br /><div><em>"But of course I trust my people and they trust me</em>". </div><div></div><br /><div>Do they? Do You? Does it matter? </div><div></div><br /><div>Yes it matters! It matters if you care about the long-term and about maintaining sustainable collaborative benefit. It matters at individual levels as it does at organizational levels. As <a href="http://www.aeispeakers.com/print.php?SpeakerID=462">Stephen M. R. Covey</a> explains in his book, "<em><a href="http://www.speedoftrust.com/">The Speed of Trust</a></em>", those <strong>without trust</strong> can say and do the right things and people will analyze every word, read into each sentence, and spin your message no matter how much effort you put into perfecting your communication. Those <strong>with trust</strong> however, can make mistakes and even say the wrong thing and people will overlook it and still support the individual or organization. </div><div></div><br /><div>Personally, when my team designs collaborative events whether face-to-face or on-line, we spend a good deal of time thinking through the <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/04/four-enterprise-20-success-drivers.html">engagement factors</a>. Trust is one of the key elements in the 'motivation/desire' factor . </div><div></div><br /><div>A lack of trust will cause people to withhold information, to waste effort validating each message instead of integrating, to be less receptive to compromise, and to just be overall less committed, often choosing the least amount of commitment possible. Ultimately this means organizations are, less agile, less innovative, of average performance, and peppered with incomplete analysis. </div><div></div><br /><div>My first visitor, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/bertrandduperrin">Betrand Duperrin</a>, author of, <a href="http://www.duperrin.com/"><em>Bloc Note de Bertrand DUPERRIN</em></a>, was able to fly in from Paris to visit me here in Toronto. He was actually on his way to Montreal, where he was presenting at the <a href="http://www.duperrin.com/english/2008/04/12/lets-meet-at-webcom-montreal-on-may-14th/">Webcom conference</a> on the topic of... you guessed it, social computing. </div><br /><div></div><div>I was able to show Bertrand a couple of our collaboration labs used for face-to-face facilitated sessions. It was a good setting, since, my area of social media focus is on collaboration and borrows greatly from the years of learning & experience our team has gathered from designing and facilitating 1000's of sessions. </div><div></div><br /><div>We discussed several concepts and shared several stories. I learned even more from Bertrand. There was no, "what is the guy trying to sell me", or "what is this guys hidden agenda". It was as natural as if a close work colleague called me up wanting to talk about collaboration. </div><div></div><br /><div><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikedover">Mike Dover</a> who works with <a href="http://www.ngenera.com/">nGenera</a>, and avid <a href="http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/author/mike/">Wikinomics blogger</a>, was the other person I've finally met after years of digital correspondence. I have to say, there really is no excuse for not meeting earlier considering Mike is actually based out of Toronto. </div><div></div><br /><div>We finally met at a conference in which Mike was one an MC and organizer. We talked, joked and shared a table at the conference. He even put me on the spot by unexpectedly (at least for me anyways) introducing me, and my blog to the conference attendees. Again, no "posturing" or "small talk". Just open and honest conversation. </div><div></div><br /><div>How does social media enable trust? Well, Covey talks about <a href="http://astd2006.astd.org/PDF">13 behaviours</a>, several of which tie into social media benefits. Here are 3 additional concepts that I'd like to add specifically for those of you in the social media space. </div><div></div><br /><div><strong>1) <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/03/enterprise-20-organizational-structure.html">Self-Organization</a></strong> - Bertrand, Mike and myself have similar perspectives, and ideas on the power of social computing, and also the limitations of social computing. It's not too surprising that we would eventually meet. The difference though is that commonality and passion around social media, provides a grounds for us to establish a stronger relationship by choice. We choose to engage in these discussions instead of being 'forced' into these discussions because it's our "job". </div><div></div><br /><div><strong>2) The In-Formal</strong> - Mike and I are both <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlvMkvTLO8Y">Guitar Hero III</a> addicts. In fact, it was a <a href="http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2007/11/15/for-those-about-to-pretend-to-rock-we-salute-you-and-offer-a-contest/">blog post</a> of Mike's that got me started. Without social media, I wouldn't have known that about him. Sure, our paths would likely cross professionally, but he wouldn't have sent a solely professional contact an e-mail dedicated to how he mastered another song on GH3. But he might provide that info on a Facebook status. The in-formal knowledge we have of people makes people seem more like... yep, real people! It shows more of their personality and aids in developing trust. </div><div></div><br /><div><strong>3) Interaction</strong> - Social media provides a two-way opportunity to communicate across time and space. An organization that embraces this is demonstrating that they value the thoughts, and ideas of anyone who wants to share them. This "respect" for other's opinions encourages trust because trust is a two-way thing. It's hard to trust someone that chooses not to listen or respond. </div><div></div><br /><div>So, please leave me a comment and perhaps we'll find a way to collaborate. And for those of you who were at Talent 2.0 conference in Toronto... Yes it's true... I am a FAR better Guitar Hero 3 player than Mike. :) </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-66670362978966742192008-04-30T19:32:00.015-04:002008-04-30T23:36:03.134-04:00Starbucks, Star Struck with Social Computing?<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195240506793514642" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-HqxWgcVe-wW34_KyyAZ8FVHBB5SC3bWrmW5NAwkyI0wt6huOyu3f6KE03GuU-m2FQDieLVeITCTcm7p8PsxS2RAlIbPO9D9dhw4A3Rj6bmr3-dolTNK47ieHCV1wvtkBrokMzVhm000/s200/coffee.jpg" border="0" /></a>In many ways, I'm thrilled about "<a href="http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/home/home.jsp">My Starbucks Ideas</a>", which provides Starbucks' customers an opportunity to share ideas on improvements for Starbucks.<br /><br />On the other hand, I wonder if there is an overly optimistic expectation that this approach will deliver amazing breakthrough results. That some folks might be "star struck" with the notion of social computing.<br /><br />And although this endeavour should drive value such as improved customer relations and incremental innovation, there are limitations (opportunities) that could be used to enhance the environment and ultimate results. To explain the potential, I'll use the <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/04/four-enterprise-20-success-drivers.html">engagement model</a>.<br /><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Motivation</strong><br /><br />Unlike other heralded examples of 2.0 style innovation systems (i.e. <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/books/reviews/2007-01-02-wikinomics_x.htm">GoldCorp</a>, <a href="http://www.innocentive.com/">Innocentive</a>), there is no major incentive for someone to provide their ideas to Starbucks. Without any explicit incentives, the motivated respondents will likely be those who are loyal Starbucks enthusiasts. Those willing to go through the effort to establish an ID, and write a description of their idea. Not that they should be ignored, but it does miss out on the opportunities from a more varied set of perspectives that could bring a totally different set of ideas.<br /><br />So in absence of hard incentives what motivates? How about, what's in it for me (wiifm). It should be no surprise that a good number of the most popular ideas will be about giving "me", free stuff . A quick scan of Starbucks' top 10 most popular ideas show that half of these ideas are about giving me free stuff (whether it's coffee, wi-fi, content). Now who wouldn't vote for free coffee and free wi-fi? I like it!<br /><br />Although "<a href="http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free?currentPage=all">freeconomics</a>" has been quite a popular topic recently, ultimately, Starbucks needs to understand how this translates into profit. For example, one of the ideas is about giving away free coffee on your birthday. Would this make you spend more money at Starbucks? Would it really make you more loyal? Of course it's popular (voted on), but how can they use this to drive their longer-term business model?<br /><br />Now what if there was a reward or compensation for an idea that was linked to driving profits? You just might get others motivated to share their insights from a different angle.<br /><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Opportunity</strong><br /><br />On the surface, it appears that customers now have an opportunity to really share their ideas and support their favourite ideas through voting. This is true... to an extent... The opportunity however is only for those that vote favourably on an idea.<br /><br />Consider a scenario in which Idea X has 100 positive votes and Idea Y also has 100 positive votes. You'd think they were equal right? Not necessarily. We haven't give an opportunity to those that would disagree with an idea. Those that are saying, "if you implement that idea, I'd leave Starbucks!". What if Idea X has 100 votes and 0 Negative votes, but Idea Y has 100 votes and 500 negative votes?<br /><br />The current model only gives the opportunity to vote in favour for an idea. Digg style voting could come in handy for Starbucks if they want to understand the potential downside in addition to the potential upside of an idea.<br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>Capability</strong><br /><br />Although there is much to be learned from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds">wisdom of crowds</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prediction_market">prediction markets</a>, can it really be used to identify 'disruptive' concepts? <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_M._Christensen">Clayton Christensen</a>'s work on the <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/chapter/christensen.htm">Innovator's Dilemma</a> explains the challenges organizations face in promoting innovation, indicating that shareholders and customers don't want the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology">disruptive innovation</a>, until it's too late. Christensen's work illustrates how once innovative organizations are "held captive" by their existing customers needs.<br /><br />I recently wrote a <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2008/03/lessons-on-innovation-collaboration.html">post on Steve Jobs & Innovation</a> that quoted Steve Jobs quoting Henry Ford, which I think is useful... <em>'So you can't go out and ask people, you know, what the next big [thing.] There's a great quote by Henry Ford, right? He said, 'If I'd have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me "A faster horse." '</em><br /><br />Also previously posted was a <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-to-benefit-from-not-listenting-to.html">conversation I had with a consultant </a>that had worked with Starbucks. He shared a story about how on the surface Starbucks customers, when asked what they wanted, would reply "faster service, more reasonable (cheaper) prices" but after deeper needs analysis they identified that the real reason customers went to Starbucks wasn't because of faster service, or cheaper prices, it was a luxurious escape they could take in an otherwise hectic day. Reducing costs, rushing the experience, and having a proliferation of stores all went against the "specialness" and "luxurious" concepts.<br /><br />The point here, is that asking customer is good but they may not have the knowledge/capability to give you insight into the next big thing. Digging deeper to uncover needs analysis or root-value analysis can lead to richer and more useful results.<br /><br />So, I am certain I've added a little controversy to the great Starbucks initiative. Like I said earlier, I actually think their initiative is a good one. It's not that I dislike what they're doing, I just think the coffee cup is only half full :)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-91845232883378645302008-04-19T06:17:00.010-04:002008-04-19T16:41:09.724-04:005 Social Computing Benefits that Adoption Rates Don't Show<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8EG0VFQLG0XUBg28UxVJHfqL4BNLbS1yk8dR8N1YmGapRQkqSzqee__DGUGjEtbEofqf1uDgOu2bCTKMygJEl_i9Xb7u7bDTv6nTAS0sCI_LPDsmQ8hw_i4IhSUkOBGANw1Dht6W_Puk/s1600-h/percent.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5191058481160227762" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8EG0VFQLG0XUBg28UxVJHfqL4BNLbS1yk8dR8N1YmGapRQkqSzqee__DGUGjEtbEofqf1uDgOu2bCTKMygJEl_i9Xb7u7bDTv6nTAS0sCI_LPDsmQ8hw_i4IhSUkOBGANw1Dht6W_Puk/s200/percent.jpg" border="0" /></a>Are you are promoting social computing in your organization and being questioned about the low "participation levels" or "adoption rates"? Well, here are 5 points that should help you explain that it's not just about the percentage of people that actively participate.<br /><br /><br /><strong>1. Thanks for Asking</strong><br /><br />Sometimes it's just being asked that matters! Even if people choose not to participate, it's still a choice. Have you noticed the term "employee engagement" showing up everywhere these days? The term happens to be the most common search phrase leading people to <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/">my blog</a>.<br /><br />To engage employees means that you actually need to start by asking for their input. Even if they don't have specific input right now, that's fine. What you don't want to do is incent the wrong behaviours such as "gaming" a system to meet an objective. Providing opportunity is an implicit benefit of social computing. It demonstrates respect for the employees input and leads to a more engaged and committed organization.<br /><br /><br /><strong>2. La crème de la crème </strong><br /><br />A favourite book of mine is, <a href="http://www.jimcollins.com/">"Good to Great" by Jim Collins</a>. In the book, Jim explains that the role of leadership is NOT to motivate. If you have to motivate and convince people to do something, you're already starting in a bad position. Instead, if you have the right people and the right opportunity they will be "self-motivated". The role of leadership then becomes making sure you don't let people become "de-motivated". Jim goes on to explain the importance of making sure you find the right people. But how do you do this?<br /><br />One way is to leverage the power of <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/03/enterprise-20-organizational-structure.html">self-organization</a>. For example, we run <a href="http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/Home/News.asp?id=47657">on-line "jam" sessions</a> and invite 1000's of people to participate. Not everyone will, but those that do tend to be "passionate" and willing to take on accountability. And those concepts that rise to the top tend to be well thought through. The point... Even if you only have 10% participation. It's likely that the 10% you want!<br /><br /><br /><strong>3. Needle in a Haystack</strong><br /><br />Mass collaboration isn't about simple consensus. It also provides greater opportunity to find a few gems by casting a much bigger net. <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/10/60minutes/main4006951.shtml?source=RSSattr=Health_4006951">60 Minutes had a great story on John Kanzius </a>, a retired Radio and TV engineer who's invention may ultimately cure cancer. He has zero medical training and his unorthodox method involves the use of radio waves and nano-particles! He likely would never have been invited to any discussions on the topic. And it is only that his own very unfortunate situation has inspired him to look for an answer. Is there a way to purposefully stimulate more creative ideas?<br /><br />I often hear people ask for "<a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/03/innovation-difference-between.html">out of the box thinking</a>" and if they truly want that, we apply different techniques. One of the techniques is simply to bring in experts in different fields than the topic we're actually working on. Why? To drive a completely different perspective on a given situation. Hopefully leading to a breakthrough. Social computing allows us to invite many many people each with different views and perspectives. Even if you don't have high participation, if you get that one breakthrough idea, it's all worth it!<br /><br /><br /><strong>4. One for All</strong><br /><br />A well designed social computing environment encourages interactive participation of the right people. For all of you "executives" that believe this is something you let "employees" do but aren't actually engaged in yourself, you are missing a huge opportunity. The opportunity to drive "trust" and "confidence" throughout the organization.<br /><br />When I see an executive who "gets it", the effect can be amazing. You can read a conversation that is authentic, public an non-hierarchical. The participants in the conversation see a "real" side of an executive whom they otherwise may never have even met. But what if it's only a handful of people engaged in the discussion? That's fine. Because even if the participation level is low, the folks that read and view the conversation also benefit. The readers will also see an genuine conversation which aids in building trust and confidence in your organization.<br /><br /><br /><strong>5. Back to The Future</strong><br /><br />By the time I write this blog, I hope many people will read it and benefit from it. I also hope many people will discuss it. But realistically, I know that it's value may really be in the future. Unless you need this information now, it may be just an interesting (which I also hope) article. In the future, when someone really needs help in this area, it will be available to them, and perhaps will help them articulate the additional benefits in leveraging social computing.<br /><br />This pertains to your organization as well. Even if you don't have immediate participation, the conversation is not time bound, and employees can still join the conversation even into the future. They can understand the context (how we came to decisions we did) in addition to the ultimate decisions. This depth of understanding helps ensure smarter, better, more complete decisions can be made moving forward.<br /><br />So the next time someone challenges you, that your social computing endeavours just aren't "engaging enough people", you can explain that the full value of social computing and enterprise 2.0 is more than the number of people fully interacting. These 5 real benefits just can't be determined by some magic "participation rate".<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-61514630668800607192008-04-09T16:35:00.005-04:002008-04-09T21:19:26.445-04:00Sun Tzu and the Art of Social Computing<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj0wvxm19OsZbh-q2z0Twau5HnjFNm6BCtEtE-W1CJWfPCnpFfbewXrFC8dek_svkhMKNLXq4Nr-SdAfGh3YxPD-JodL4SkJ3EAKCpK0M2eqcoLNfD1ANFOHpOk73UMYHOGqvnvLDbl8Y/s1600-h/Suntzu2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5187396693265911858" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj0wvxm19OsZbh-q2z0Twau5HnjFNm6BCtEtE-W1CJWfPCnpFfbewXrFC8dek_svkhMKNLXq4Nr-SdAfGh3YxPD-JodL4SkJ3EAKCpK0M2eqcoLNfD1ANFOHpOk73UMYHOGqvnvLDbl8Y/s320/Suntzu2.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu">Sun Tzu</a>, the influential author of, "<a href="http://www.military-quotes.com/downloads/aow.pdf"><em>The Art of War</em></a>", might be the last thing you'd consider relevant to social computing and enterprise 2.0. And although not all of his beliefs can be directly ported, if you think of the "enemy" as, "poor collaboration", "inefficiency", "bureaucracy" or "employee frustration", there are some good insights that can help you achieve success with your enterprise 2.0 / social computing initiatives.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Sun Tzu on Planning & Strategy</strong><br /><br /><em>"Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose. " - Sun Tzu </em><br /><br /><em>"Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory." - Sun Tzu </em><br /><br />When building social computing systems or events, we spend a great deal of effort in the upfront design. Based on our experience, we are well aware that a poorly thought-through social computing environment can <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/05/code-for-enterprise-20-practioners.html">inadvertently do more damage than good</a>.<br /><br />It can waste valuable resources, create false expectations leading to distrust, question your credibility, question the credibility of the tools, and potentially further alienate employees, just to name a few consequences of poor design.<br /><br />If at first you don't succeed...You may not get a second chance....<br /><br />Companies sometimes jump to implementing enterprise 2.0 technology because they have read a good book, or a good article. Perhaps they heard a good success story. Every time I read, "just try it and see what happens", I get shivers. Your circumstances may be completely different then the anecdotal success story that was told. <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2008/03/lessons-on-innovation-collaboration.html">Knowing when "not to do something"</a> is sometimes a more difficult but useful discipline.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Sun Tzu on Knowing your Enemy and Yourself</strong><br /><br /><em>"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." - Sun Tzu<br /></em><br />The enemy in this situation is in-effective collaboration. Knowing yourself includes understanding strength and weaknesses of the culture, the organizational processes, and the technology to be deployed.<br /><br />What prevents us from collaborating? Several things. To help understand the challenges we use what we refer to as the "<em>engagement model</em>". This model groups the critical elements of collaboration into 3 categories (motivation, opportunity and capability). I've written a more <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/04/four-enterprise-20-success-drivers.html">detailed analysis</a> of this in the past. In this post, I'll suggest a few questions to consider.<br /><br />Don't assume employees will simply just adopt new technology no matter how "cool" it is. The often talked about "<a href="http://asc-parc.blogspot.com/2007/05/long-tail-and-power-law-graphs-of-user.html">Wikipedia 1%</a>" where only 1% of all Wikipedia users actually create the majority of content may be sufficient if we're talking about the entire global population, but does 1% work for your company?<br /><br />Let's consider the employee's perspective. What's in it for me (WIIFM)? Do I see the benefit? Or do I see this as another management flavour of the day which I've learned to ignore? Do I feel threatened that my "reputation" as the "gatekeeper" or "go to person" will evaporate? Does the existing compensation system (process) actually motivate me to horde information such as in a competitive system?<br /><br />And even if I was motivated. Do I have the <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/04/four-enterprise-20-success-drivers_04.html">opportunity</a> to participate (real or perceived)? Or are the pressures of my job prohibiting my ability to engage in a meaningful way? How are employees being notified about these new tools? Are they aware? Are they aware of why? And what is the informal message I am getting from my immediate boss about these tools? Do they buy in to it?<br /><br />Motivation and opportunity alone are still not enough. Do the employees have the <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/04/four-enterprise-20-success-drivers_03.html">skills</a>? How will they get them? The full value of social computing is only achieved after critical mass of adoption. Mass levels of adoption require removal of as many obstacles as possible. In other words.... <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/02/enterprise-20-extreme-simplicity.html">Simplicity</a> (which is actually pretty hard to design).<br /><br /><em>"There are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army: By commanding the army to advance or to retreat, being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey; This is called hobbling the army. By attempting to govern an army in the same way as he administers a kingdom, being ignorant of the conditions which obtain in an army; This causes restlessness in the soldier's minds. By employing the officers of his army without discrimination, through ignorance of the military principle of adaptation to circumstances. This shakes the confidence of the soldiers." - Sun Tzu<br /></em><br /><br /><strong>Sun Tzu on Aaptability</strong><br /><br /><em>"Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards... Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain. " - Sun Tzu </em><br /><br />You can't plan for everything. Things will evolve, and you will learn, but you can accelerate that learning and stack the odds in your favour. This is not like implementing "SAP" where an employee MUST use the tool to do their job and there is no choice. These enterprise 2.0 technologies are often used (or not) by choice.<br /><br />The power of <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/03/enterprise-20-organizational-structure.html">self-organization</a> and allowing for emergent use can compliment a well thought through plan. Learn from how people self-organize and build upon it. <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3755718939216161559">Guy Kawaski</a> tells a good story about the launch of the Ford Mustang and how the marketers where initially upset because the car was being bought by "the wrong customers". Learn from it and adapt.<br /><br />Even if you choose to ignore the Sun Tzu spin, don't ignore the importance of upfront design. And always keep in mind the bigger picture.<br /><br /><em>"Unhappy is the fate of one who tries to win his battles and succeed in his attacks without cultivating the spirit of enterprise; for the result is waste of time and general stagnation." - Sun Tzu</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-52342997194834724802008-03-21T07:13:00.013-04:002008-03-28T06:18:40.682-04:00Keeping the Faith: The E2.0 Evangelist<a href="http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5180167518108724674" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGua5yYrxt4iUILS7XZ_ChIOF-oS60Qd7h-yCVkyUfFQ0l9gH4FKNk1nLxnn9OlPUdkBsYYTvPcx6foYkHzmZ0-QlbkuhyOaCcD-26AhvFlmz8Qd6Zpddq9298OUJonwmF1JIsKiQfOGA/s400/s_rainbow.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div><em>It's said that when asked if she would join an anti-war protest, Mother Theresa responded that she would rather be pro-peace.</em></div><br /><div></div><div>I was reminded of the Mother Theresa story in a post by <a href="http://theobvious.typepad.com/blog/2008/01/memo-to-self.html">Euan Semple</a> and it was timely for me after a long week. </div><div> </div><div>Many of us who push the concepts of social computing, and enterprise 2.0 are often referred to as "evangelists". From my experience, this is a pretty good way to describe what we do. We spend huge amounts of effort & time bestowing the values of engaging employees, providing them an opportunity to be heard, to really collaborate en mass. </div><br /><div></div><div>And we have to do that without having hard "proof". Belief without proof? Well, I guess that's referred to as faith. Considering the number of blogs I have seen that talk to "trying" to calculate an "ROI" for Enterprise 2.0, I am guessing that several others share this challenge on selling the concepts of social computing in an organization. It's hard, it's really really hard!</div><div></div><br /><div>So why is it so hard? Well, corporations are often geared towards "risk management". When I've had to push concepts of social computing in my professional career, I have on several occasions encounter folks that jump to "risk management". Why not? Haven't we trained people to think this way? </div><div></div><br /><div>Companies often say they want to promote "risk taking" and "innovation" but we don't reward them for that. The truth is that we ask for this, but when we take a risk and it doesn't pay-off, the company often comes down hard on those people. Actions speak louder then corporate messaging. Over time, we train people to be risk averse. You won't get fired for NOT adopting social media in the company. </div><br /><div></div><div>When did all the departments shift from being centres of excellence to becoming "risk management" centres? Human Resources (HR) is about what we shouldn't do. Corporate Communications is about what we shouldn't say, Finance is about what we shouldn't fund. Someone help! We are "risk managing" ourselves to death! </div><br /><div></div><div>Perhaps the pendulum has swung in the wake of the big corporate scandals. Perhaps it's just reinforcing Maslow's hierarchy and we're too busy worrying about survival that we're nowhere close to self-actualization. Whatever the reason, one thing is clear, and that is the challenge ahead of all E2.0 evangelists is enormous. </div><br /><div></div><div>But keep faith my friends! Because in your organization, there will be people that "get it". That will support your concepts. They may not get it yet, but they will. Because what you're evangelizing isn't about a bunch of technology. It never has been. It's about the human potential. About a more efficient and effective way to collaborate. Collaboration is the ENTIRE reason a company exists. That's why we brought people together, because we could do more together. Our perspective needs to change and you need to be that agent of mental change management. In a way, you too are managing risk. The risk that your organization will be irrelevant if doesn't start thinking about what social media means. </div><br /><div></div><div>I'll give you a tip. There is no "one way" to succeed. I've seen top-down, bottom-up, middle-out evangelism that have all been successful. There are several tactics you can use, but I'll save that for another post. For today, I just wanted to remind you that it's worth the effort and you're not alone! Don't give up. </div><br /><div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-47272438413581488852008-03-19T05:25:00.007-04:002008-03-19T05:52:25.474-04:00Simplicity<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqbYNluOZxM8IDT7tst6zPzWp65NSmyfqrVSU3egKq-irUTeJ1YdDQEzFop0to71ZSebieHdUOBBsAdbZfWKQWikZMsEfQMGzG3efH5qvgmFStV4uizIil9K7zshctpHJc5ynvQTzNHYg/s1600-h/simplicity.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179387785168183474" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqbYNluOZxM8IDT7tst6zPzWp65NSmyfqrVSU3egKq-irUTeJ1YdDQEzFop0to71ZSebieHdUOBBsAdbZfWKQWikZMsEfQMGzG3efH5qvgmFStV4uizIil9K7zshctpHJc5ynvQTzNHYg/s400/simplicity.png" border="0" /></a>When chatting about the "<a href="http://blog.hbs.edu/faculty/amcafee/index.php/faculty_amcafee_v3/evangelizing_in_the_empty_quarter/">empty quarter</a>" (those people that are unlikely to adopt social media), I am usually asked what we can do to tap into that group of people. We can't ignore them because they have the richest experience in an organization, and they are closer to retiring with their "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_memory">institutional knowledge</a>". One response is to drive towards "<a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/02/enterprise-20-extreme-simplicity.html">extreme simplicity</a>".<br /><br /><div><div><div></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHgC_UG0pt71z0Uex6XVliru_3RzPzx4pRe6gU-gji1K6BxcOHW3irbQXbf-OjIitquncKygyuA-U6lWVKRoX0i_cLP9X8dddDXM_TOIeoO6QGqjAFC0WWdt3omO9PMMscN5PJpURhmY/s1600-h/simplicity.png"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg4sIuQ_74XOA98Qq_cjVaXrecUKFlhOoaM56HmVP9PyIJ6KdnzbRFlozt-s-Qt-T1QpFhYO4LI6UGNui8qcsXdK-ldWDaFnkZtOY2zvAi9GPT0evG9flfCTj0H-i6oJ-FvGhttKhRLTY/s1600-h/simplicity.png"></a></div><div>Here is a funny comic by <a href="http://stuffthathappens.com/blog/2008/03/05/simplicity/">Eric Burke </a>that purposefully exaggerates this. I realize that several people have criticized this comic as not being more realistic and try to explain the need for complexity but.... It's a comic! It's a fun reminder of a need for simplicity. </div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-77103066386100355902008-03-16T14:57:00.009-04:002008-03-16T17:20:05.594-04:00Lessons on Innovation, Collaboration & Leadership from Steve Jobs<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcTeruRii5IcjwtYyyXf65cq7Sa47mNwA9CIlzZEKJuuWt1FYiU7wNxdda_nSO32SD2QYNjrRrtiFRgMJ0qcg3KJ2va3AISOPYhwwYpURyU34-LK4AZsrk7OBFSHcuIKYGc6RfygAF9mo/s1600-h/apple.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5178421052454363266" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcTeruRii5IcjwtYyyXf65cq7Sa47mNwA9CIlzZEKJuuWt1FYiU7wNxdda_nSO32SD2QYNjrRrtiFRgMJ0qcg3KJ2va3AISOPYhwwYpURyU34-LK4AZsrk7OBFSHcuIKYGc6RfygAF9mo/s320/apple.jpg" border="0" /></a>Fortune put out excerpts from an<a href="http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0803/gallery.jobsqna.fortune/index.html"> interview with Steve Jobs </a>earlier this month. Jobs makes some very candid, and direct points. The whole interview is quite insightful and helps to disprove some of the common misconceptions around what collaboration is all about.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Misconception 1: Collaboration means "wisdom of crowds" is better than "experts". </strong><br /><p>I am not sure why there seems to be an argument in many forums about whether "wisdom of crowds" is better than "experts". Optimal collaboration taps into the masses, but is refined through the experts. It's not one or the other, it's the intelligent collaboration of both.<br /><br /><em>So you can't go out and ask people, you know, what the next big [thing.] There's a great quote by Henry Ford, right? He said, 'If I'd have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me "A faster horse." '</em></p><p>In reference to the debates over embedding a sophisticates OS X in a cell phone Jobs states, <em>"I had to adjudicate it and just say, 'We're going to do it. Let's try.' The smartest software guys were saying they can do it, so let's give them a shot. And they did."<br /></em></p><br /><br /><strong>Misconception 2: Innovation is the result of an individual genius.<br /></strong><br />There have been several noted authors that have proven this to be usually wrong. Read <a href="http://www.andrewhargadon.com/">Andrew Hargadon's</a> work on, "How Breakthroughs Really Happen". For example, the light bulb (the symbol for innovation) wasn't actually created by Edison.<br /><br />In discussing people, Jobs talks to the need for passion in addition to smarts. <em>"They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself."</em><br /><br />To be the best requires individuals to understand broadly and not just their area. <em>"So the way to do that is to have them know everything, not just in their part of the business, but in every part of the business. "<br /></em><br /><br /><strong>Misconception 3: Who cares if it's not perfect. Get your product out and then iterate. </strong><br /><br /><br />There is much to be said about focus and getting it right the first time. I've often heard folks argue that, "Shoot first then aim later. Who cares if the bullets are cheap"... I guess the problem with that approach is that you can kill the wrong thing, and you can't "un-kill" if you made a mistake.<br /><br /><em>"Apple is a $30 billion company, yet we've got less than 30 major products. I don't know if that's ever been done before.... People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are."</em><br /><br /><em>"At Pixar when we were making Toy Story, there came a time when we were forced to admit that the story wasn't great. It just wasn't great. We stopped production for five months.... And if they hadn't had the courage to stop, there would have never been a Toy Story the way it is, and there probably would have never been a Pixar.we never expected to have another one. But you know what? There's been one on every film. It's been that way with [almost] every major project at Apple, too.... Take the iPhone. We had a different enclosure design for this iPhone until way too close to the introduction to ever change it. And I came in one Monday morning, I said, 'I just don't love this. I can't convince myself to fall in love with this. And this is the most important product we've ever done.' "And we pushed the reset button. "</em><br /><br />The article has many more insights and worth the read.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-76828828356503534222008-02-03T14:34:00.018-05:002008-03-01T08:31:22.299-05:00Video Games + Social Computing?<div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu9pY0qEwrbtbMHlvnowi4l143OQtg45WM6oz7z8xHf3vISOn8WvgRiUYHzHhk_k2cGZDjpokicct65hDE6_XKwk-bO4dQMhKXUqjm3kaWk26h774k25bfYUCkRcOOYHaLB3h9fSw4ieI/s1600-h/vg-wii.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172755074014298290" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu9pY0qEwrbtbMHlvnowi4l143OQtg45WM6oz7z8xHf3vISOn8WvgRiUYHzHhk_k2cGZDjpokicct65hDE6_XKwk-bO4dQMhKXUqjm3kaWk26h774k25bfYUCkRcOOYHaLB3h9fSw4ieI/s200/vg-wii.jpg" border="0" /></a>I admit, one reason I've written fewer posts recently is because I am the new owner of a Wii. Each time I turn it on, I feel a "pang" of guilt, knowing full well, that there is always house stuff to do, great articles to read, blog posts to complete....<br /></div><div></div><div><br /><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8sVteCPA-vimH8MnjpO0ZXcmv9IZvYepf0h5vcEbNNR8I3qkY7Yrj_fztcP4M9gIGzgi7oXeK1VFb-TH-70Az2YuW10-suah-WeFlTkEUjoChzGp6_1gfaxukEzNJRoL3BE6lQlP6i2I/s1600-h/vg-discover.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172755598000308418" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8sVteCPA-vimH8MnjpO0ZXcmv9IZvYepf0h5vcEbNNR8I3qkY7Yrj_fztcP4M9gIGzgi7oXeK1VFb-TH-70Az2YuW10-suah-WeFlTkEUjoChzGp6_1gfaxukEzNJRoL3BE6lQlP6i2I/s200/vg-discover.jpg" border="0" /></a>But thanks to an interesting article in Discover Magazine titled, "<a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2007/brain/video-games/article_view">This is Your Brain on Video Games: Gaming sharpens thinking, social skills, and perception</a>", I have been able to partially justify my addiction. It turns out that the hours spent playing these games is really an intellectual investment in myself. Yay!<br /><br /><em>"they now recognize the cognitive benefits of playing video games: pattern recognition, system thinking, even patience. Lurking in this research is the idea that gaming can exercise the mind the way physical activity exercises the body: It may be addictive because it’s challenging." </em></div><div><em></em></div><div><br /></div><div><em>"</em><em>The findings contradict nearly all the preconceived ideas about the impact of games. The gaming population turned out to be consistently more social, more confident, and more comfortable solving problems creatively. They also showed no evidence of reduced attention spans compared with nongamers. "</em></div><div><em></em></div><div><br /></div><div>The article is full of interesting references to various scientific studies, and examples of the application of video games into the real-world. I can't do it justice in this post, so suggest you take a read.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I do want to highlight a couple points that have implications in the world of social computing and Enterprise 2.0</div><div></div><div><br /></div><div><strong>1. Focus</strong></div><div></div><div><em></em></div><div><br /></div><div>You've likely read articles that talk about the lack of focus in today's youth. For example, they are unable to read a whole article, never mind an entire book. That they are constantly in the need for "multi-tasking" but is that really just another way of saying they can't focus? Well have you ever tried to pull them away from a video game?</div><div></div><div><br /></div><div>The article provides examples of how several subjects were able to withstand high-levels of discomfort and distraction for hours playing a video game simulation. Now think about an E2.0 work environment where we ask for collective input from our employees. Perhaps we ask a sales person to update the sales manual, or a service rep to provide their thoughts on how to provide awesome customer experience through a blog. </div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Unless you are one of a very few companies that actually provides time for employees and have changed your compensation model to allow for this activity, it is likely, these requests are additional "volunteer" work that people just can't find the time to do because they are too busy or become distracted by the barrage of e-mails, phone calls, etc... </div><div></div><div><br /></div><div>In a world of Blackberrys, it's pretty easy to get distracted. Using game design may help ensure focus on the social applications we build, or simply how we work. Have you been to a presentation that you just couldn't focus on and perhaps once or twice you peaked at your Blackberry? The next two points can provide some clues as to how to do this. </div><div></div><div><br /><br /></div><div><strong>2. Optimal Learning and the "</strong><a href="http://thcrawford.blogspot.com/2006/12/adaptive-simulations.html"><strong>Regime of Competence</strong></a><strong>"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm81ySSDu0RvVi-B9tcDfb48e_XCIFyOSbUUQCVGoVKzylXSBZnXiMJaE61mnwl4Gjx9YrLwpFB9WR8tqb2bGKp1ZSs-zEQDZMKcdHvhTUGzofCHFLh9Tk9QEb3lHB27bc45yiHaJ-4EM/s1600-h/AdaptiveSimulations.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172757015339516162" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm81ySSDu0RvVi-B9tcDfb48e_XCIFyOSbUUQCVGoVKzylXSBZnXiMJaE61mnwl4Gjx9YrLwpFB9WR8tqb2bGKp1ZSs-zEQDZMKcdHvhTUGzofCHFLh9Tk9QEb3lHB27bc45yiHaJ-4EM/s320/AdaptiveSimulations.jpg" border="0" /></a></strong></div><div><br /></div><div>This concept talks about finding the sweet spot to learning. Basically, the challenge can't be too hard where it's frustrating nor should it be too easy where it is dismissed. If you create a packaged application that is designed for the masses, you will undoubtedly have some people that will dismiss/ignore the application and others that will be frustrated by it. </div><div></div><div><br /></div><div>Video Games however, stagger difficulty on a progressive basis, that finds the "sweet spot" (or as psychologists refer to it, a regime of competence). Similarly in any social application you deploy consider offering a basic "level" which anyone can get started, but then increasing the challenge level after they successfully master a level. </div><div> </div><div> </div><div>The concept of raising the challenge progressively ensures that people develop and enhance skills always in the sweet spot. If it's too easy, people dismiss it and if it's too hard people give up. </div><div></div><div><br /></div><div><em>"In October 2006 the<a href="http://www.fas.org/"> Federation of American Scientists (FAS)</a> endorsed video games as a potential means for teaching 'higher-order thinking skills, such as strategic thinking, interpretive analysis, problem solving, plan formulation and execution, and adaptation to rapid change.'" </em></div><div></div><div><br /><br /></div><div><strong>3. Reinforcement & Motivation Theory</strong></div><div><br /></div><div>That which gets rewarded gets repeated. Video game designers knows this really well. So much is written on motivation theory, so let me just provide a couple of "video game" concepts that work.</div><ul><li><em>Relative ranking</em>: With online gaming, you can see how good you really are relative to other players in the world. You can also see it based on various other dimensions (i.e. Geography, Level, etc.). Vroom's infamous Expectancy Theory talks to the valence concept which is the value held to the reward. The value to an extent is relative (i.e. If I achieve a score of 10,000 I might be pretty happy, but if I find out that score is in the bottom 5% I am not going to be as thrilled). Competition helps ensure we don't become satisfied with a certain level of performance but strive to do better and better with a known achievable benchmark. </li><br /><li><em>Badges:</em> After achieving a special feat you are awarded badges. This is an emblem to show others or for personal fulfillment of accomplishment. What makes this effective is knowing they you have achieved a certain level of distinction which can be proudly shown to others. </li><br /><li><em>Progression levels:</em> If you have completed 37/40 levels, the desire to just complete it after you've spent so much effort is there. In fact, smart design may actually skew the level so it is non-linear. In other words, level 1-30 may really have been very easy but 31-38 hard and 39-40 extremely hard. Gamers only see that they are "so close" when really the design was intentionally done to get them to that level. </li></ul><p> </p><ul><li><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2sGpymQ2xx8OhuCNnHUIfPuMxWNPNxLzZpLXurEneYW7uLhbZq6YiaQF8g_MZx-fJSR2zU6T6LiA0JFNmPUjF1ShTO-ip1LVDJJpPCd1NqfINKZd-QJKng3t3JSWTOOaJNTtGL5w1t5I/s1600-h/vg-slot-sevensandstripes.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172756323849781458" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2sGpymQ2xx8OhuCNnHUIfPuMxWNPNxLzZpLXurEneYW7uLhbZq6YiaQF8g_MZx-fJSR2zU6T6LiA0JFNmPUjF1ShTO-ip1LVDJJpPCd1NqfINKZd-QJKng3t3JSWTOOaJNTtGL5w1t5I/s200/vg-slot-sevensandstripes.jpg" border="0" /></a><em>Unlocking Surprises:</em> Often games will provide a "surprise" that you can accidentally find. This seemingly "random" reward is a powerful motivating factor. Think of the power of slot machines as an example. Several studies have examined various reinforcement schedules and have found the the most "addictive" of these is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement">Variable Ratio</a>. Variable ratio has the highest rate of responding and the greatest resistance to extinction compared to other reinforcement schedules. </li></ul><p>I can now go back to my parents and explain that I really wasn't wasting my life away playing all those video games. If <a href="http://gameslearningsociety.org/people_geej.php">James Gee</a>, a professor at the University of Wisconsin is correct, we can expect the video game generation well prepared for a 2.0 world</p><p><em><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS4HwbxCvwE0ZoBb8ipK7UzFatf272sTRb8Mt4r0C4xkwFlCO8hS9I4OJr70hA-wzef2x4TLdJmM5BF_LcBhkDZ0QU2io3cR4BbQDhvrzBup_SwqODYy5xJ-kROVqQI-kiz8XXx-qfwgs/s1600-h/vg-sims.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172756534303178978" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS4HwbxCvwE0ZoBb8ipK7UzFatf272sTRb8Mt4r0C4xkwFlCO8hS9I4OJr70hA-wzef2x4TLdJmM5BF_LcBhkDZ0QU2io3cR4BbQDhvrzBup_SwqODYy5xJ-kROVqQI-kiz8XXx-qfwgs/s200/vg-sims.jpg" border="0" /></a>"They’re going to think well about systems; they’re going to be good at exploring; they’re going to be good at reconceptualizing their goals based on their experience; they’re not going to judge people’s intelligence just by how fast and efficient they are; and they’re going to think nonlaterally. In our current world with its complex systems that are quite dangerous, those are damn good ways to think.”</em><br /><br /></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Fy17OF3Zgd9X7Q07LDvFblMC1KYeBMG5FU3zCdZIZXYnSZnvjb4gZ0d8tSnjNWNONKgHNzW6GudHnmK45yzhSdgzLFgX5Y20Ar2zhrgx8w-61L5rslnBX3MsD9IS_05RnyGrdxYljMM/s1600-h/vg-gh3pic.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172756779116314866" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Fy17OF3Zgd9X7Q07LDvFblMC1KYeBMG5FU3zCdZIZXYnSZnvjb4gZ0d8tSnjNWNONKgHNzW6GudHnmK45yzhSdgzLFgX5Y20Ar2zhrgx8w-61L5rslnBX3MsD9IS_05RnyGrdxYljMM/s200/vg-gh3pic.jpg" border="0" /></a>Now if you don't mind.... "Scuse me while I kiss the Sky" on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Hero_III:_Legends_of_Rock">Guitar Hero III</a></p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-26077607147430904142008-02-02T05:26:00.000-05:002008-02-02T06:43:01.069-05:00Getting over the "Blog" stereotype<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Ttk9XUpO49VYfMwshCCRgYcsayj5dBUGk9M_ErzoOcQVfnwoE-7VazEYXJZmbjdYUFnWCbaxGt5AgaQMv2XEEfZZW6X1Ag31eIB4rKW6w5rVjPg4MvP1oDFNuFIzAsNxDiUeHu24BNo/s1600-h/Rick_Mercer-cbc-061.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5162343072452249922" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 158px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 164px" height="164" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Ttk9XUpO49VYfMwshCCRgYcsayj5dBUGk9M_ErzoOcQVfnwoE-7VazEYXJZmbjdYUFnWCbaxGt5AgaQMv2XEEfZZW6X1Ag31eIB4rKW6w5rVjPg4MvP1oDFNuFIzAsNxDiUeHu24BNo/s200/Rick_Mercer-cbc-061.jpg" width="164" border="0" /></a>It's been awhile since my last post. I do have several "partially" written pieces (well atleast in my head anyways). I've simply been just too busy to get them out. However, a January 15th episode on the <a href="http://www.rickmercer.com/">Rick Mercer Report</a> put a smile on my face and reminded me of a recent article in CIO Magazine. <div><div><div><div><div></div><br /><div>The sketch is called "<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/mercerreport/backissues.php?season=5">The Last Guy to Get his Blog</a>" (click on "episode 11"). In this 1 minute video, Rick pokes fun at blogging and bloggers by portraying the stereotype of blogs. For example, the opening scene shows "Roger" typing in the following blog post...</div><div></div><br /><div><em>"My last deodorant stick just ran out. I will buy a new one. Mood: Reflective." </em></div><div></div><br /><div>This humourous skit captures the essence of why so many companies fear blogging. Corporations often see a blog as an un-productive waste of time. "<em>Why would I give employees more time to be unproductive</em>?". Is there any truth to this stereotype? I would say on the Internet, you are absolutely likely to find several blogs that seem to lack "substance" (if we were to be judgmental). To flip Technorati's slogan around, I guess we could say:</div><div></div><br /><div align="center">"<em>With over 100 Million blogs on the Internet... Some of them must be pointless..."</em></div><div></div><br /><div>But if we separate "content" from "capability", we can argue that the capability, the ability for anyone to easily collaborate with their peers, their organization or the world in ways or scales previously impossible should have the potential of driving valuable business benefit. Where people get hung up on is the "content". </div><div></div><br /><div>This is exactly why I can't over stress that <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/05/social-networking-in-enterprise-is-not.html">enterprise 2.0 is not the same as web 2.0</a>. In the company, you can shape, motivate and inspire conversations geared towards the business priorities. People SHOULD be held accountable for their comments.</div><div></div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI34hN047DYDyN58nOfZsxQgNoxuceFwcUiQxtgaXyjGDtVXyJiocsGvymvf5VQ9Dpzknaru2DT47KEwqqRMUtB6vCXN1wSchDCg_l35bneWqHC-fxAawRb4RU6tG4qLXxZzEcqJ0tfLA/s1600-h/cio-logo.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5162341594983500034" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI34hN047DYDyN58nOfZsxQgNoxuceFwcUiQxtgaXyjGDtVXyJiocsGvymvf5VQ9Dpzknaru2DT47KEwqqRMUtB6vCXN1wSchDCg_l35bneWqHC-fxAawRb4RU6tG4qLXxZzEcqJ0tfLA/s200/cio-logo.gif" border="0" /></a>One way to help your organization get over the "stereotype of blogs" is to not call it a blog. A recent CIO Magazine article, "<a href="http://www.cio.com/article/163250">How to use Enterprise blogs to streamline Project Management</a>" talks about the approach we applied in Bell Canada. I tend not post too much detail on my work at Bell Canada for various reasons (including it would appear biased), however if you read the article it will give you some insight on approaches to leveraging blogs. <a href="http://www.ddmcd.com/managing-technology/">Dennis McDonald</a>, author of one of the blogs I frequently visit, also provides some good advice in the article. </div><div></div><br /><div>I'm so glad that my blog is always 100% full of relevant, useful, brilliant, not-to-mention insightful information... ;)<br /></div><br /><div>Oh Yeah, here's a picture of the Pizza that I am eating right now...<br /></div><div></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5162342797574342962" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk4n-6ie9D2fTGuJBI8pom4jO7ZXskX5K9JKsCqB30w4gpzpISyi_ResnyvV-EIloB77x-WoCCqKtG50nzRSjmi6qsCZB5onaLuBPCdB1P39CDLlxmZ-a9Sr0Fn2RzOra8XsuOg3NEdog/s320/Pizza.jpg" border="0" /> </div></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-64731223649514781572007-12-06T15:38:00.000-05:002007-12-20T19:07:51.582-05:00Tech Bubble 2.0?Bob sent me this catchy video that pokes fun of the Web 2.0 craze. It's a good reality check on the 2.0 hype. Is there something real? Sure there is. Is it everything? No.<br /><br />I thought it was also interesting that this was posted on YouTube, picked up by some prominent blogs, posted on Facebook, popped up on my news feed, added to del.icio.is and now posted on my blog... Anyways... Enjoy...<br /><br /><object width="425" height="373"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/I6IQ_FOCE6I&rel=1&border=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/I6IQ_FOCE6I&rel=1&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="373"></embed></object><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-89571225815450279092007-12-03T18:02:00.000-05:002007-12-06T17:33:39.625-05:005 Facebook Lessons to Improve Employee Engagement in Your CompanySo perhaps your company isn't sold on this whole Myspace/Facebook thing. Perhaps they've dismissed it as a fad for young people, much like how the Internet had been dismissed when it first exploded over a decade ago. You may even be hearing the familiar concerns around "lost productivity" and "control of content" that you heard during the explosion of the Web.<br /><br />Few today would argue that the Internet is a fad or that it's not important to an organization. But the Internet from 10 years ago is not today's Internet. Today's internet is all about collaboration. Sure there is a lot of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi4fzvQ6I-o">over-inflated hype</a> in web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 but there are underlying truths you can benefit from.<br /><br />Today, according to Forrester, over 60% of Internet traffic is considered User Generated Content (UGC). This is not a "revolutionary" event. It didn't happen overnight. It's simply an alternative means to communicate and collaborate that can be more efficient in some situations. IS it Facebook? No! I sure hope not! But the underlying concepts that Facebook and similar environments have created can teach us several lessons in employee engagement. Lessons that will help your company be successful.<br /><br />These concepts can be applied to your corporate applications or portals. In fact they can be applied outside of technology into your processes and meetings to drive employee engagement and collaboration. In this post, I've listed 5 Facebook lessons for your corporate consideration.<br /><br /><br /><strong>1. PERSONALIZATION<br /></strong><br />No two Facebook profiles will be exactly the same. This is because your profile is unique just like you are. In Facebook, the <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/10/you-are-centre-of-universe.html">world revolves around you</a>. It's your friends, your applications, your feeds, your notes, your wall, your profile that everyone else connects to. This level of personalization isn't just an "ego fix" (although that's part of it). It drives efficiency. With all the websites on the Internet, you are never going to see them all, nor would you want to. We often hear about how the Millennials spend so much time on the Internet, which there is some truth to, BUT it's only on a few select sites. These sites cater to the individual needs giving them ONLY what they need (and perhaps a few ads!).<br /><br />Can you see how an employee might benefit from having everything at their finger tips? And don't forget the "human" piece. Companies often say, "you matter" but then only communicate in a "mass communication" or "form letters" that treats you like everyone else. Extreme personalization caters to the individual.<br /><br /><br /><strong>2. AGILITY </strong><br /><br />In a <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/09/4-tips-to-harnessing-informal-learning.html">previous blog</a>, I commented on a Forrester finding that showed only 10% of the knowledge you need, as an information worker, is actually acquired through formal training. The 90% is actually sourced ad-hoc and developed via collaboration. The speed of commerce is simply too fast, to formally learn things. <strong>And the cost to deeply understand is often outweighed by the realities that knowledge has a shelf life!</strong> Agility in how we get information, how we share information, how we add applications, are all concepts that your teenager understands and employees could benefit from. Are the Millennials different than every other generation in regards to agility? I don't think so. I think the difference is we've been told over-and-over that it just takes time. So we accept it. Even though it's not true.<br /><br /><br /><strong>3. FUN<br /></strong><br />Can work be fun?! Absolutely. Unfortunately, we've taken the fun out of work often because on misconceptions around productivity. <em>"Don't waste time chatting! Get back to work!" </em>I find it funny (funny peculiar) how we as Enterprise 2.0 practitioners are asked to justify ROI for social media but nobody asks us to show them the ROI on taking that client to the hockey game or what's the ROI of that golf game? We know people collaborate best because of relationships. Not just business clients. ALL people. Yes, even our employees! If you treat employees as machines <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/03/balance-between-efficiency-creativity.html">don't expect any breakthroughs or creative thoughts</a>. Machines are not capable of that.<br /><br /><br /><strong>4. TRUST<br /></strong><br />Surprise! You are more likely to believe your friends than you are corporate advertising. Forrester also did some recent surveys that show Trust in Corporate Advertising is at an all-time low! Adding <em>social </em>elements to applications, processes, meetings, improves relationships and ultimately trust. <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/06/getting-started-with-enterprise-20-now.html">Trust is accelerated by the informal</a>. By the, "<em>So how did your daughter do in that soccer game?</em>".<br /><br />Can you create ways for employees to converse amongst themselves around business messages and still yield productivity results and maintain focus of the message? Yes! In fact, I would argue, you'd be surprised that the employees might even know the message better than the executives if given a chance.<br /><br /><br /><strong>5. COLLABORATION<br /></strong><br />Facebook would be pretty boring if you were the only face on it. The ability to connect with people, and provide opportunities for self-organization are core. In a past post, I talked about the engagement factors (<a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/04/four-enterprise-20-success-drivers.html">motivation</a>, <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/04/four-enterprise-20-success-drivers_04.html">opportunity</a>, <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/04/four-enterprise-20-success-drivers_03.html">capability</a>) and Facebook gets it. It's fun and respects the individual. It feeds our ego centric curiosity and we're motivated for more. It's open to anybody. You can leverage "spare moments of time" to update your status and read your aggregated news feed. You have the opportunity. And it's simple! You don't spend time reading the manual to use Facebook. Everyone has the capability.<br /><br />Ultimately, this allows people to interact and collaborate. In a corporate setting, I would suggest you add some direction to the area you need to focus on, but maintain the elements for engagement.<br /><br />Theses are my 5 key lessons from Facebook. If you want to read more about lessons from Facebook, take a look at this good post by Derek Abdinor, "<a href="http://www.corporatewebsite.com/articles/corporate_marketing/facebook:_10_lessons_for_the_enterprise">Facebook: 10 lessons for the Enterprise</a>".<br /><br />I know we apply these when designing social applications. What other lessons can you think of that can be applied to a corporate setting?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2582004645119476339.post-6616765063358780162007-11-27T21:13:00.000-05:002007-11-28T23:34:12.047-05:00Is CNN manipulating the YouTube Presidential debate?Should CNN by using editorial control in selecting YouTube questions for the US Presidential debate? That's the topic in a recent Wired article titled, <a href="http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/11/cnn_debate"><em>CNN-YouTube Debate Producer Doubts the Wisdom of the Crowd</em></a>.<br /><br /><br />Wired provides arguments on both sides of the debate. I suspect most 2.0 enthusiasts will disagree with me on this, but I think CNN should have some editorial control. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Surowiecki">Surowiecki</a>'s "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds">wisdom of crowds</a>" is a powerful concept, BUT it only works when the crowd is aligned on the objective. Unfortunately, people have other agendas and motivations then those that the may have posed the initial question. This is an important lesson learned from <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/07/swarm-theory-social-computing.html">swarm theory</a>.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiTCMErTrikLmPL2hSnySnhAXOVdwwU1TAQXj4LdSP248B_AjstMcHsCMViPFQzV-55ewTlBAyYGd49FMwnK1j8v_cPAoWkc_Hu7_GS1mVi_bnQL4O-D2Fc-A3EHhPQCbRX-hkokPTtIo/s1600-h/David_Bohrman_250x.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5138113669282519442" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiTCMErTrikLmPL2hSnySnhAXOVdwwU1TAQXj4LdSP248B_AjstMcHsCMViPFQzV-55ewTlBAyYGd49FMwnK1j8v_cPAoWkc_Hu7_GS1mVi_bnQL4O-D2Fc-A3EHhPQCbRX-hkokPTtIo/s200/David_Bohrman_250x.jpg" border="0" /></a>Applied to the CNN debate, CNN may be looking for the most thought-provoking intellectually stimulating questions but the respondents may have a different agenda. They may be looking for the most entertaining and humorous questions. Unfortunately, these 2 different objectives may not align. The Wired article quotes the CNN SVP David Bohrman (<em>pictured here with political director Sam Feist</em>) stating that the previous debates most viewed questions were 1) Whether Arnold Schwarzenegger was a cyborg sent to save the planet Earth? and 2) Will you a convene a national meeting on UFOs?<br /><br /><br />There are several examples of "hijacking" including the piece I wrote about on the <a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/06/6-suggestions-on-how-to-ask-right.html">CBC's Great Canadian Wish</a>, that seem to lend it's support to CNN.<br /><br /><br />The challenge though becomes how much editorial control should CNN have? According to the Huffington Post's Marty Kaplan, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/the-cnnrubetube-debate_b_74003.html">CNN is going beyond filtering the "jokes" and is stacking the debate by purposefully rejecting several 'authentic' videos</a>. CNN defends themselves by stating that these questions were "planted" and "manipulated" and don't really represent what the voting population really want to see.<br /><br /><br />Personally, I don't see a "perfect" process that would properly seek out the wisdom of crowds via social media to help the rest of the nation make the best decisions.<br /><br /><br />How would you propose CNN handle this?<br /><br />Or do you think social media isn't appropriate at all?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142924417990264322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vWCIwH9lHKo/R19WgoD-BgI/AAAAAAAAAL8/DNu6AyG_V_s/s200/feedburn.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div></div></div>Rex Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00481083728218703345noreply@blogger.com0