Links for this week (weekly)

  • “Today, much of the promise and fulfillment of the E2.0 vision is centers around generalized benefits of knowledge sharing and collaboration. We’re talking about implementation of micro-blogs, wikis and enterprise search in corporate life. However, as long as the promise of E2.0 is captured in terms of generalized benefits, it will be viewed as peripheral and discretionary, rather than centrally important to the business. Guess what else – when times are tough, it will be at the front of the line at the CFO’s office, subject to budget cutbacks. So what’s next for E2.0?

    For E2.0 to move into the realm of being business critical, three things have to happen -“

    tags: enterprise2.0 business adoption workflow process knowledge tacitknowledge

    • Instead of pitching E2.0 as a means to improving collaboration and communication, it needs to be viewed as critically enabling specific business workflow patterns within an organization.
    • Move from back-office knowledge sharing to front-office revenue generating.
    • This idea of getting tacit knowledge to work for you cannot be captured by a process-centric view of the organization but rather a people-centric view.
  • “I had the job of closing the event with a wrap-up keynote, the slides for which are embedded below, and my theme was how we move beyond a focus on tool adoption to realise mainstream business value.”

    tags: enterprise2.0 e20s adoption performance productivity processes technology analytics leadership agility maturity customercentricity sense motivation IT businessapplications

    • Too much management thinking in recent times has been focused on influencing behaviour by addressing extrinsic motivation – usually a variant of the basic carrot and stick idea – and not enough on tapping into peoples’ intrinsic motivation to do the right thing and to make sense of the world around them.
    • Social business systems are well placed to strike a balance between human and corporate needs, getting more out of people with lower management overheads, and by increasing the connectivity between people in the workplace, they can make better use of a company’s existing human potential.
    • In business and in public services, there seems to be a realisation that we have gone too far in trying to manage by repeatable process, and this has led to people taking less personal responsibility for outcomes. Also, given that process is often created but rarely revoked, we have seen a gradual accretion of check-box methods that are making business progressively slower, more expensive, and less customer centric
    • It understands that the modern world is about aggregation, feeds and flows rather than managing knowledge objects, and that allowing work to take place in relatively open, collaborative environments is actually more reliable and robust than closed mode
    • Software categories such as CRM, ERP, eDMS, BPM, etc are dominated by expensive, yet ultimately quite inefficient solutions
    • Rather than trying to hold on to one-size-fits-all thinking, enterprise IT functions are gradually starting to adopt ideas about platforms and technology stacks that are already well-established in the more rapidly-evolving consumer IT sector.
    • Social IT strategy

      We need to work with both IT and Lines of Business (LOBs) to create a social layer between the backend enterprise systems that IT guard so carefully and the new world of social apps that the business want to be able to use

    • Ultimately, we believe this will lead to internal enterprise ‘app stores’ where IT manage and provision the underlying operating system and people in the business can choose from a range of small, cheap, simple applications that sit on top and do one thing very well.
    • Most companies have huge amounts of data that could be orchestrated to provide people with a real-time view of the business. Until now, social analytics has been used only for making sense of signals from customers on the social web, but I think this idea will expand to encompass other sources of data about products, services and performance, and has the potential to accelerate business improvement generally.
    • Given what we know about the spread of influence and behaviours in networks, how can we design interventions that change the dynamics in social systems, perhaps to increase flow or stimulate activity? Ideas from behavioural economics and concepts such as ‘nudge‘ give us some starting points here, but a lot of it is common sense social dynamics (a colleague likens it to acupuncture) applied to networks.
    • an social technology and E2.0 tools lead to meaningful change in the structure, culture and practice of business in today’s enterprises? I think the answer is clearly a resounding YES, but it would be a mistake to think this can only be achieved by reforming the existing siloed structures that have been dominant for so long. Instead, I think a smarter approach is to patiently weave new networks and connections aligned to the way work gets done right now
  • “Over the past few years, as organizations deploy social tools, expertise location has become one of the more common solutions associated with “Enterprise 2.0”. The general assumption includes two primary ways of identifying “experts”. The first method assumes that employee use of social tools (e.g., blogs, wikis, micro-blogging, communities) and social applications (e.g., ideation), enables their talent and business insight to be more visible and therefore more discoverable by co-workers. The second method revolves around the employee profile created as part of an enterprise social network site. It is assumed that employees will readily create and maintain rich profiles where they willingly share information about their job history, interests, hobbies, education, and areas of expertise.”

    tags: enterprise2.0 expertslocation experts transparency profile culture incentives privacy time

    • Below are some of the factors strategists should consider as they design and implement expertise location solutions.
    • Scarcity: In many situations – “the expert” is already very busy and/or there are not enough experts to go around.
    • Accessibility: In some situations, the expert cannot be made visible due to policies that prevent communication between different business units,
    • Ownership: Managers of those employees identified as experts are rewarded on meeting/exceeding the goals of this work unit (not responding to ad-hoc requests for assistance from other areas of the organization)
    • Incentives: The way employees are incented to complete a project or other task-at-hand may make that activity a higher priority deliverable than helping colleagues
    • Privacy: Some expertise location tools are designed to analyze people’s behaviors and the information they handle
    • Time: It takes time to participate in social environments.
    • Culture: Employees that actively participate and contribute in ways that are recognized by peers and management alike can improve their internal reputation and career path.
  • “Here are several communication “wingtips” gleaned from my experience as a fighter pilot that can apply to you as a business leader:”

    tags: leadership communication feedback connect connections awareness trust

    • Your wingmen need to hear important news — whether good or bad — from you first. This is also a great time to publicly recognize your top performers.
    • Ask them about their goals and challenges and how you can help. Then solicit feedback on you as a leader. What would they like to see from you?
    • Get your hands dirty with your wingmen. Spend time with them on the job and observe how they do business. Ask questions. Show them your appreciation by connecting with them as people first and employees second.
    • Your aim should be to listen as much as possible in order to build what we call situational awareness — a comprehensive understanding of the mission. The greater your situational awareness, the better your ability to handle contingencies and adapt to change. As the flight lead of your team, it’s very important that you create an environment where others can come to you for help. This inspires a culture of trust which is mission critical in business.
  • “Luis Suarez (IBM) has been working in the areas of Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Online Communities and Social Computing for over a decade now. Here are some of his thoughts on that topic and his appearance at the Enterprise 2. SUMMIT.”

    tags: enterprise2.0 luissuarez culture knowledgework knowledgeworkers implementation adoption sharing

    • Inside IBM we have put together, and shared across openly, such methodology from our internal social software adoption program called BlueIQ and folks can download a free copy of it by going into this URL to find out plenty more about the program I have been part of for the last three years.
    • you would need to have the best of both worlds combined as well; first, a commitment from top executives to support and lead rather actively your Enterprise 2.0 deployment efforts and, secondly, an online community, an army, of social software ambassadors and enthusiasts who will use plenty of grassroot efforts to help execute the various different activities that the internal adoption program may have set up itself to over time.
    • That it all starts with re-thinking the way you work and finding smarter ways of working together, getting your job done, because it’s all about “working smarter and not necessarily harder”. And that small change starts within each and everyone of us. We, knowledge workers, are the gatekeepers.
    • to me, culture is *the* single key and defining factor that will help your Enterprise 2.0 implementation become a success or not. Having the right culture, i.e. one that is open to knowledge sharing and collaboration
  • ““How will we measure success?”

    It’s a question we get a lot as we help clients design social business strategies. In our experience, there are few companies that aren’t trying to connect the dots between their social efforts and results. It’s not 2008 anymore where marketers can secure budget for social initiatives because “everyone else is doing it,” or “but, we’ll be left in dust!” CMOs want to know exactly what return they are getting for their media spend, just as they do after any other media buy.”

    tags: marketing socialmedia measurement ROI indicators success

    • few months ago, McDonald’s announced that they saw a 33% increase in foot traffic in conjunction with their Foursquare Day promotion. Aha! A brand that figured out how to do it! Only, a couple of days later, McDonald’s admitted that what they actually experienced was a 33% increase in Foursquare checkins, not foot traffic. Oops.
    • Determine what success means to you (and be realistic). Figure out what you want the return on your investment to be. Is it sales? You will have a hard time tying a feel-good campaign with no call-to-action to increased sales. Period. So, if sales are your ultimate objective, design your campaign or initiative in a way that makes sense and will help you achieve that goal
    • Choose relevant metrics. Once objectives have been set, determine what can be measured, and eliminate superfluous metrics from your criteria
  • “People who are engaged in profit-orientated businesses are, for the most part, employed to perform specific types of tasks. Whether the task is on a production line or producing invoices, people develop a set of skills and sell those skills to an employer. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that the employees of a company are focused on what they are compensated to produce.”

    tags: pay reward compensation creativity innovation evaluation KPI behaviors alignment strategy sense

    • If people are not compensated or rewarded in some way to be creative, to produce changes that delight a customer, and to find new opportunity areas, why would anyone expect them to do so?
    • Performance management should be focused on setting goals that are aligned with business strategy,
    • Most people are compensated based on their ability to achieve a predetermined set of goals and objectives. Managers review employee performance based on their ability to meet the goals.
    • It doesn’t make much sense to tell people to be creative, to discover opportunities, to increase customer value when these same people are being paid to deliver completely different things
  • “Recently, I posted a response to all the wonderful comments and contributions that you all made to my last post on “Why Companies Shouldn’t Build Online Communities“. As I plan to delve further into this idea of “Social Teams”, I thought I’d re-post that reply as a post in its own right so as to make it easier for people to find and read – so here goes:”

    tags: teams communities value valuecreation serendipity ROI intellectualcapital

    • It’s not unlike advocating participating in the lottery as your prime way of getting rich – sure, it’s possible that you could hit the jackpot if you take part, but only a fool would rely on that as their sole chance at fame and fortune.
    • Likewise, whilst there is definitely a place for serendipity in an organization (more on that in a future post) – it would be a foolish management team that would rely on its occurrence to generate value for the company.
    • Having said that, my core belief is still that people function and perform better with a degree of organization when compared to loose collective
  • “As far as I know, the phrase “Social Business Imperative” comes from the CEO of Jive Software, Tony Zingale (you can see a great slide deck of his on this topic here). But the idea certainly seems to also underpin any number of Jive competitor products – Moxie Spaces, SocialText, Cisco, Leverage Software, etc., etc. The idea of the social business is gaining attention and software makers are fighting to corner the market on the idea for their own product. So it’s an imperative to them.”

    tags: socialbusiness Jive budgets IT enterprise2.0 silos integration performance businessperformance sharepoint dashboards sharepointpalooza integratedbusiness

    • First: The Social Business Imperative

      I’m hearing this concept and even this specific phrase more and more.

      As far as I know, the phrase “Social Business Imperative” comes from the CEO of Jive Software, Tony Zingale (you can see a great slide deck of his on this topic here). But the idea certainly seems to also underpin any number of Jive competitor products – Moxie Spaces, SocialText, Cisco, Leverage Software, etc., etc. The idea of the social business is gaining attention and software makers are fighting to corner the market on the idea for their own product. So it’s an imperative to them.

    • We can expect more spending on IT, but companies are still going to have to be very precise about how they prioritize projects.
    • That’s great. But you know what people were excited about at the SharePoint Palooza sessions I listened to? Dashboards.

      People wanted to see how do you take scattered data from different parts of the organization and tie them into a single view that tells, at a glance, the story of how the company is performing right now?

    • It’s purely observational, but based on what I saw piquing peoples’ interests, I just didn’t come away feeling like “social business” was as much of an imperative as “integrated business”.
    • All Social Businesses Are Enterprise 2.0 Businesses, But Not All Enterprise 2.0 Businesses Are Social Businesses.
  • “Perhaps one of the most well-intentioned yet misunderstood categorizations I’ve seen made by a variety of sources has been a segmentation model which draws sharp distinctions between “teams”, “communities”, and “social networks” – essentially treating them as separate entities. “

    tags: teams communities socialnetworks

    • . Formal connections between team members are shaped by a variety of factors such as: reporting chains, roles, and deliverables.
    • A social network is simply a collection of actors (in this case, teammates) where one or more relations connect some actors to each other. Relations (or ties) are a type of contact or association. Using this definition, teams are clearly an example of a social network based on formal and informal ties that connect team members
    • However, not all relations between team members are shaped by the formality of “work”. Colleagues connect to each other for a variety of reasons: friendship – mentoring – advice – expertise – office gossip and so on.
    • We tend to think of communities as a group structure that is loosely coupled. In general, community membership is voluntary – people are typically not forced to join or contribute as they do in their normal routine. Management typically does not expect communities to produce a “work product” on a regular basis.
    • As stated above, a social network is simply a collection of actors (in this case, community members) where one or more relations connect some actors to each other. Relations (or ties) are a type of contact or association. Using this definition, communities are also a type of social network.
    • When it comes to enterprise social networking (often packaged in the E2.0 argument), we need to move beyond the “why’ and understand more about the “how”. Answering the “why” question (e.g., social networking improves expertise location, talent management, learning, etc) is the proverbial tip o
  • “C’est notamment le cas avec Badgeville qui permet à des éditeurs de sites Internet de développer, piloter et mesurer l’engagement des utilisateurs au travers d’un système de récompense en fonction ce cet engagement.

    A la lumière de cette description, on peut effectivement imaginer de nombreuses déclinaisons au sein de l’entreprise dont je vois 2 objectifs :”

    tags: badges rewards foursquare badgeville engagement collaboration identification

    • Là où les FAQ et autres aides en ligne ne suscitent plus vraiment d’intérêt chez les utilisateurs, un parcours d’initiation et de montée en compétences balisés de récompenses pourrait apporter un aspect ludique intéressant.
  • “That stated, the following thoughts entitled “Waiting for Superexecutive” is a call to action for executives to get on the Enterprise 2.0 bus inside of their organizations, if they haven’t done so already. Although I am focusing the opportunities listed below on the tools of Enterprise 2.0, the pro’s and con’s associated with each indicate how culture, engagement and business results could be impacted.”

    tags: enterprise2.0 culture businessresults leadership

  • “Lorsqu’un salarié utilise son BlackBerry en dehors du bureau, il effectue des heures supplémentaires et doit être rémunéré en conséquence ! C’est ce que martèle, depuis quelques semaines, le sergent Jeffrey Allen à un tribunal américain. En mai, ce policier a porté plainte contre son employeur, la ville de Chicago, réclamant le paiement de plus de 500 heures de travail effectuées, depuis 2007, via son BlackBerry. “

    tags: worktime workload extrahours worklifebalance blackberry

    • une plainte déposée par des commerciaux de T-Mobile, a été réglée à l’amiable. S’estimant contraints de consulter, sans cesse, leur BlackBerry, les collaborateurs de cet opérateur de télécoms ont obtenu un supplément de rémunération.
    • ‘avocat s’appuie sur la législation du Fair Labor Standards Act, voté en 1938. Selon cette loi, tout travail réalisé au-delà des 40 heures hebdomadaires en vigueur aux Etats-Unis doit être payé en heures supplémentaires. Certains cadres supérieurs et des intellectuels, dont les heures de travail ne sont pas comptabilisées, échappent à la règle.
    • Howard Lavin, du cabinet Stroock & Lavan, à New York, conseille à ses clients de distribuer un BlackBerry aux salariés qui en ont vraiment besoin. Et, il recommande de noter les heures passées au téléphone… pour les payer en heures supplémentaires
  • “Je fais écho à l’article de Cédric avec le témoignage de British Telecom dont j’ai eu la chance d’interviewer la responsable social media (Bian Salins – @B1an). Leur approche des médias sociaux est particulièrement intéressante, car ils font preuve de beaucoup de maturité sur le sujet :”

    tags: britishtelecom socialmedia customercare conversations communitymanagement ROI ROO customers twitter facebook casestudies

    • Ils ne sont pas présents sur Facebook car ils ont préféré privilégier les médias où se trouvaient les conversations les plus intéressantes (Twitter avec @BTCare et les forums de spécialistes ainsi que BTCare Community Forums) ;
    • Ils n’ont pas recrutés de community manager mais ont préférés faire évoluer des postes en interne (les collaborateurs du service client sont souvent impliqués de façon ponctuelle pour absorber les pics d’activité) ;
    • Si les clients sont au coeur de votre stratégie et de vos préoccupations, vous ne pouvez pas vous tromper (une réflexion utile pour ceux qui résonnent encore en termes d’audience ou de pages vues) ;

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Head of People and Business Delivery @Emakina / Former consulting director / Crossroads of people, business and technology / Speaker / Compulsive traveler
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