Social Business Digest
by caro
Curated hints on Digital Transformation, Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Social Networks, Social Intranets, Social Collaboration, Knowledge Management, HR 2.0, ... and all the rest
Dr.-Ing. Carsten Rose – Effective: 31.07.2015
Dr.-Ing. Carsten Rose – Effective: 31.07.2015
Archive 07/2015
Gamification - das Spielifizieren infiziert die Unternehmen
31.07.2015
von Jan Pötzscher - Ich habe gestern über die Communardo Academy ein Webinar zum Thema Gamification im Social Business Kontext gehalten. Mich fasziniert dieses Thema schon seit längerem, deshalb halte ich es nur für angemessen, hier auch einmal drüber zu bloggen. Was bedeutet denn Gamification Der Begriff ist wahrlich nicht neu und das Spielen begegnet uns in unglaublich vielen Lebenslagen. Wo wir gehen und stehen, was wir auch tun, wir werden überall spielerisch angeregt, etwas zu tun, woran wir vielleicht vorher gar nicht gedacht haben oder (Achtung!) ...
31.07.2015
von Jan Pötzscher - Ich habe gestern über die Communardo Academy ein Webinar zum Thema Gamification im Social Business Kontext gehalten. Mich fasziniert dieses Thema schon seit längerem, deshalb halte ich es nur für angemessen, hier auch einmal drüber zu bloggen. Was bedeutet denn Gamification Der Begriff ist wahrlich nicht neu und das Spielen begegnet uns in unglaublich vielen Lebenslagen. Wo wir gehen und stehen, was wir auch tun, wir werden überall spielerisch angeregt, etwas zu tun, woran wir vielleicht vorher gar nicht gedacht haben oder (Achtung!) ...
Rewarding performance on the social platform
31.07.2015
One of the key motivations for employees to use the ESN is to achieve recognition for their contribution. Rewarding people for what they do in an appropriate manner and one that they value, is the "engine oil" that lubricates any social machine. We take this for granted in social media and customer communities. A company social platform is no different. It's well known that a simple 'like' from the Chief Exec to a post can galvanize someone's commitment and enthusiasm. So to build a platform that works at scale, it makes sense to find fun and automated ...
31.07.2015
One of the key motivations for employees to use the ESN is to achieve recognition for their contribution. Rewarding people for what they do in an appropriate manner and one that they value, is the "engine oil" that lubricates any social machine. We take this for granted in social media and customer communities. A company social platform is no different. It's well known that a simple 'like' from the Chief Exec to a post can galvanize someone's commitment and enthusiasm. So to build a platform that works at scale, it makes sense to find fun and automated ...
Is yours an email-or-bust organization? It's time to consider fresh options
31.07.2015
With email volume mounting by the day, it's no wonder that some organizations have floated the idea of banning email. One of the most famous ban attempts was from global technology firm Atos, which has been working to eliminate internal company email among employees through a multi-year process (employees still send external emails to people outside the company). Atos now discourages employees from sending or receiving internal emails, moving them to an enterprise social network model instead. Similarly, German car and truck maker Daimler recently launched ...
31.07.2015
With email volume mounting by the day, it's no wonder that some organizations have floated the idea of banning email. One of the most famous ban attempts was from global technology firm Atos, which has been working to eliminate internal company email among employees through a multi-year process (employees still send external emails to people outside the company). Atos now discourages employees from sending or receiving internal emails, moving them to an enterprise social network model instead. Similarly, German car and truck maker Daimler recently launched ...
Social Business Internal and External: Why Both Should Work Together
31.07.2015
For years now companies have been trying to leverage the power of social for business benefits both inside and outside the organization. Internally the key drivers for social are business functions like HR and product development, and the users are employees of the organization. External social business is driven by marketing or sales and reaches out to customers and others who access social media online. These changes have had many positive effects on the world of business - but not all changes have been positive. Learning has been without a doubt ...
31.07.2015
For years now companies have been trying to leverage the power of social for business benefits both inside and outside the organization. Internally the key drivers for social are business functions like HR and product development, and the users are employees of the organization. External social business is driven by marketing or sales and reaches out to customers and others who access social media online. These changes have had many positive effects on the world of business - but not all changes have been positive. Learning has been without a doubt ...
Relearning the Art of Asking Questions
31.07.2015
Proper questioning has become a lost art. The curious four-year-old asks a lot of questions -- incessant streams of "Why?" and "Why not?" might sound familiar -- but as we grow older, our questioning decreases. In a recent poll of more than 200 of our clients, we found that those with children estimated that 70-80% of their kids' dialogues with others were comprised of questions. But those same clients said that only 15-25% of their own interactions consisted of questions. Why the drop off? Think back to your time growing up and in school. Chances are ...
31.07.2015
Proper questioning has become a lost art. The curious four-year-old asks a lot of questions -- incessant streams of "Why?" and "Why not?" might sound familiar -- but as we grow older, our questioning decreases. In a recent poll of more than 200 of our clients, we found that those with children estimated that 70-80% of their kids' dialogues with others were comprised of questions. But those same clients said that only 15-25% of their own interactions consisted of questions. Why the drop off? Think back to your time growing up and in school. Chances are ...
What we can learn from a conference changing its name: a lot
31.07.2015
by Stowe Boyd - The rise of digital transformation, and the decline of social business and enterprise 2.0. I am honored to be in the speaker's roster for the upcoming Enterprise Digital Summit, scheduled for 21-22 October 2015 in London. My keynote is safely entitled Building Blocks of the Organization in the Digital Age, which gives me a great deal of leeway to talk about the future of the organization. But I am not going to dig into my talk, here. I have months to do that. (Although let me say that I will have to explode the premise of the title -- ...
31.07.2015
by Stowe Boyd - The rise of digital transformation, and the decline of social business and enterprise 2.0. I am honored to be in the speaker's roster for the upcoming Enterprise Digital Summit, scheduled for 21-22 October 2015 in London. My keynote is safely entitled Building Blocks of the Organization in the Digital Age, which gives me a great deal of leeway to talk about the future of the organization. But I am not going to dig into my talk, here. I have months to do that. (Although let me say that I will have to explode the premise of the title -- ...
HR hat eine Menge mit der digitalen Transformation zu tun, verdammt nochmal
30.07.2015
Wir haben die Community gefragt, was HR mit der digitalen Transformation zu tun hat, und 36 Antworten erhalten. Der große Zuspruch auf unsere Blogparade hat uns sehr gefreut und darin bestätigt, ein wichtiges Thema aufgegriffen zu haben. HR hat mit der digitalen Transformation zu tun und sollte sich damit auch noch intensiver als bisher beschäftigen. Darin sind sich die Blogger einig. Auch wenn die einzelnen Beiträge der Blogparade zur #ZukunftHR auf ganz unterschiedliche Facetten eingehen. Der Fokus vieler Beiträge ist ein HR-Klassiker: Ist der Personalbereich ...
30.07.2015
Wir haben die Community gefragt, was HR mit der digitalen Transformation zu tun hat, und 36 Antworten erhalten. Der große Zuspruch auf unsere Blogparade hat uns sehr gefreut und darin bestätigt, ein wichtiges Thema aufgegriffen zu haben. HR hat mit der digitalen Transformation zu tun und sollte sich damit auch noch intensiver als bisher beschäftigen. Darin sind sich die Blogger einig. Auch wenn die einzelnen Beiträge der Blogparade zur #ZukunftHR auf ganz unterschiedliche Facetten eingehen. Der Fokus vieler Beiträge ist ein HR-Klassiker: Ist der Personalbereich ...
Personaler 2015: Atemlos im Strudel der Digitalen Transformation?
30.07.2015
Unser täglich Brot bei der Pink University ist es, ganz nah an den aktuellen Entwicklungen und neuen Forschungsergebnissen im Bereich des Digital Corporate Learning und der damit zusammenhängenden Digitalen Transformation zu sein. Wir sind immer ein bisschen atemlos, weil ein Thema das andere jagt, zum Beispiel beschäftigen wir uns aktuell u.a. mit den Themen Learning Analytics, verschiedenen LMS-Kompatibilitäten oder der Frage, wie wir unsere Weiterbildungs-Plattform noch stärker "social" machen können. All diese und viele weitere Fragen sind wichtig, ...
30.07.2015
Unser täglich Brot bei der Pink University ist es, ganz nah an den aktuellen Entwicklungen und neuen Forschungsergebnissen im Bereich des Digital Corporate Learning und der damit zusammenhängenden Digitalen Transformation zu sein. Wir sind immer ein bisschen atemlos, weil ein Thema das andere jagt, zum Beispiel beschäftigen wir uns aktuell u.a. mit den Themen Learning Analytics, verschiedenen LMS-Kompatibilitäten oder der Frage, wie wir unsere Weiterbildungs-Plattform noch stärker "social" machen können. All diese und viele weitere Fragen sind wichtig, ...
How to ensure your social intranet stays successful
30.07.2015
There is really just one secret to intranet success: Build it around the needs of your employees. In this post, Christina Rahtgens & Florian Hoecherl, consultants at Roland Berger and speakers at J. Boye Aarhus 2015 conference, will discuss how to ensure your social intranet stays successful. How to know what your employees need Ask them. It's that simple. And then again... rather try to understand them and their needs. Just as Henry Ford said, "If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse." Of course your employees ...
30.07.2015
There is really just one secret to intranet success: Build it around the needs of your employees. In this post, Christina Rahtgens & Florian Hoecherl, consultants at Roland Berger and speakers at J. Boye Aarhus 2015 conference, will discuss how to ensure your social intranet stays successful. How to know what your employees need Ask them. It's that simple. And then again... rather try to understand them and their needs. Just as Henry Ford said, "If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse." Of course your employees ...
Start Your Collaboration Off on the Right Foot
30.07.2015
Collaboration technology adoption in the enterprise can be a daunting pursuit. Many great tools have been designed to better facilitate team cooperation and productivity, while also contributing to a company's bottom line. A Clinked.com survey found that 75 percent of businesses are using (or planning to use) enterprise collaboration tools. Yet, these tools are not one-size fits all. With the workplace rapidly changing, it can be ever more difficult for businesses to discern precisely which tools would provide the best ROI. Collaboration solution providers ...
30.07.2015
Collaboration technology adoption in the enterprise can be a daunting pursuit. Many great tools have been designed to better facilitate team cooperation and productivity, while also contributing to a company's bottom line. A Clinked.com survey found that 75 percent of businesses are using (or planning to use) enterprise collaboration tools. Yet, these tools are not one-size fits all. With the workplace rapidly changing, it can be ever more difficult for businesses to discern precisely which tools would provide the best ROI. Collaboration solution providers ...
Want to Get Better at Collaboration? Try Suspening Your Ego.
30.07.2015
When Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones got together 45 of America's top musicians to record the charity song "We Are The World", they had to make sure self-pride would be toned down. Artists were greeted by a sign pinned to the door of the recording studio: "Please check your egos at the door. We're here for a better purpose" This incident happened in 1985. Thirty years later, we still need such signs to remind us that we're more powerful as a team than as individuals. Acknowledging other people's input and showing support can help you find resources ...
30.07.2015
When Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones got together 45 of America's top musicians to record the charity song "We Are The World", they had to make sure self-pride would be toned down. Artists were greeted by a sign pinned to the door of the recording studio: "Please check your egos at the door. We're here for a better purpose" This incident happened in 1985. Thirty years later, we still need such signs to remind us that we're more powerful as a team than as individuals. Acknowledging other people's input and showing support can help you find resources ...
5 reasons CEOs should be social leaders
30.07.2015
It's not whether but when should C-suite executives truly embrace the social age. Here are five reasons leaders should be social leaders - writes Scott Guthrie There's much debate about whether C-suite executives should embrace social media or not. Evangelists like president and CEO of Tangerine Bank, Peter Aceto, Zappo's founder, Tony Hsieh and billionaire serial entrepreneur, Richard Branson, see it as the only way to survive in the social age. Yet according to a survey from global PR agency Weber Shandwick only 10% of Fortune 50 CEOs regularly Tweet. ...
30.07.2015
It's not whether but when should C-suite executives truly embrace the social age. Here are five reasons leaders should be social leaders - writes Scott Guthrie There's much debate about whether C-suite executives should embrace social media or not. Evangelists like president and CEO of Tangerine Bank, Peter Aceto, Zappo's founder, Tony Hsieh and billionaire serial entrepreneur, Richard Branson, see it as the only way to survive in the social age. Yet according to a survey from global PR agency Weber Shandwick only 10% of Fortune 50 CEOs regularly Tweet. ...
Sharing: The Art and Science of Social Sharing
30.07.2015
Do you create content for your business? Want to encourage people to share it? [...] In this episode I interview Bryan Kramer, a social strategist and founder of PureMatter, a social media agency. His first book is Human to Human and his newest book is Shareology: How Sharing is Powering the Human Economy. Bryan will explore social sharing and what marketers need to know. You'll discover the different types of people who share, as well as mistakes people make when sharing. [...] Why Bryan wrote Shareology Why people share The art and science behind ...
30.07.2015
Do you create content for your business? Want to encourage people to share it? [...] In this episode I interview Bryan Kramer, a social strategist and founder of PureMatter, a social media agency. His first book is Human to Human and his newest book is Shareology: How Sharing is Powering the Human Economy. Bryan will explore social sharing and what marketers need to know. You'll discover the different types of people who share, as well as mistakes people make when sharing. [...] Why Bryan wrote Shareology Why people share The art and science behind ...
How collaboration ended up in IT, and why it may move
30.07.2015
by Dion Hinchcliffe - While the bring-your-own-X trend has swung back and forth in IT, applications have long been more challenging to lock down than devices. Collaboration is now one of the most significant areas where user-led IT is growing. One of the more interesting aspects of the intersection - and the frequent gap - between IT and business is how often technology inserts itself into activities that used to only involve people. Now, as we'll see, it is increasingly inserting itself directly into the work lives of business users. Due to increasingly ...
30.07.2015
by Dion Hinchcliffe - While the bring-your-own-X trend has swung back and forth in IT, applications have long been more challenging to lock down than devices. Collaboration is now one of the most significant areas where user-led IT is growing. One of the more interesting aspects of the intersection - and the frequent gap - between IT and business is how often technology inserts itself into activities that used to only involve people. Now, as we'll see, it is increasingly inserting itself directly into the work lives of business users. Due to increasingly ...
Jetzt umdenken: Vom (Social) Intranet-Manager zum Digital Transformation Manager!
29.07.2015
von Bjoern Negelmann - Eins ist klar - die aktuelle Sau, "die durch's mediale Dorf getrieben wird", heißt nicht mehr "Social Business" sondern "Digital Transformation"! Nun mag man meinen, dass wird wie bei "Social" auch bald wieder vorbei sein und durch etwas anderes abgelöst. Bezüglich der Begrifflichkeit ist das sicherlich richtig, dennoch bleibt, dass "Social" erwachsen geworden ist und in dem größeren Kontext der "digitalen Transformation" betrachtet werden muss. Wer dies nicht tut, wird die Potenziale von "Social" nur begrenzt heben können. Daher ...
29.07.2015
von Bjoern Negelmann - Eins ist klar - die aktuelle Sau, "die durch's mediale Dorf getrieben wird", heißt nicht mehr "Social Business" sondern "Digital Transformation"! Nun mag man meinen, dass wird wie bei "Social" auch bald wieder vorbei sein und durch etwas anderes abgelöst. Bezüglich der Begrifflichkeit ist das sicherlich richtig, dennoch bleibt, dass "Social" erwachsen geworden ist und in dem größeren Kontext der "digitalen Transformation" betrachtet werden muss. Wer dies nicht tut, wird die Potenziale von "Social" nur begrenzt heben können. Daher ...
Six points to realize that your company is on the wrong digital track
29.07.2015
Isn't that a nice, lurid headline? I am insinuating that you basically do something wrong and then I'm also so bold and tell you how to do it correctly. The lurid lists and articles are wonderful just for this constellation and they work because we always hope to find a little truth in these lists. Now I will also hop on board of this train. BUT - and this is important to me - please view this list as open questions you ask yourself, rather than as a rating of you doing something wrong. The digital pressure The demand of the digital transformation Digital ...
29.07.2015
Isn't that a nice, lurid headline? I am insinuating that you basically do something wrong and then I'm also so bold and tell you how to do it correctly. The lurid lists and articles are wonderful just for this constellation and they work because we always hope to find a little truth in these lists. Now I will also hop on board of this train. BUT - and this is important to me - please view this list as open questions you ask yourself, rather than as a rating of you doing something wrong. The digital pressure The demand of the digital transformation Digital ...
The Collaborative Organization: How to Make Employee Networks Really Work
29.07.2015
The traditional methods for driving operational excellence in global organizations are not enough. The most effective organizations make smart use of employee networks to reduce costs, improve efficiency and spur innovation. As information technology becomes increasingly critical within large, global organizations, chief information officers are being held to ever-higher performance standards. A recent survey of 1,400 CIOs illustrates this mandate, with streamlining business processes, reducing enterprise costs and improving work force effectiveness ...
29.07.2015
The traditional methods for driving operational excellence in global organizations are not enough. The most effective organizations make smart use of employee networks to reduce costs, improve efficiency and spur innovation. As information technology becomes increasingly critical within large, global organizations, chief information officers are being held to ever-higher performance standards. A recent survey of 1,400 CIOs illustrates this mandate, with streamlining business processes, reducing enterprise costs and improving work force effectiveness ...
The only client of an intranet project is the end user
29.07.2015
by Bertrand Duperrin - When a company starts an intranet project a dedicated team is established. Sometimes multidisciplinary, bringing all the stakeholders together, sometimes mainly IT, the stakeholders being represented at the decision level, not at the operational one. Most of times, this team tries to make all the stakeholders share the same vision. Today, an intranet or a digital workplace is not an internal communication tool only anymore. It's a place where people live and work and, in a near future, it will have to materialize on much more ...
29.07.2015
by Bertrand Duperrin - When a company starts an intranet project a dedicated team is established. Sometimes multidisciplinary, bringing all the stakeholders together, sometimes mainly IT, the stakeholders being represented at the decision level, not at the operational one. Most of times, this team tries to make all the stakeholders share the same vision. Today, an intranet or a digital workplace is not an internal communication tool only anymore. It's a place where people live and work and, in a near future, it will have to materialize on much more ...
Using Written Content to Answer B2B Customer Service Requests
29.07.2015
B2B sales teams and customer service representatives can be inundated with repetitive questions from current or prospective clients. Whether they're trying to determine your product's value proposition, have pricing inquiries, need help on how to use your product, or are asking about how you stack-up compared to your competition, these questions can bog down your sales team or even waste their time with unqualified leads. We hear about how important it is to use content to address our customer's needs, audience interests, and client pain points, ...
29.07.2015
B2B sales teams and customer service representatives can be inundated with repetitive questions from current or prospective clients. Whether they're trying to determine your product's value proposition, have pricing inquiries, need help on how to use your product, or are asking about how you stack-up compared to your competition, these questions can bog down your sales team or even waste their time with unqualified leads. We hear about how important it is to use content to address our customer's needs, audience interests, and client pain points, ...
Driving Engagement within Social Learning Communities
29.07.2015
The moment you mention social learning, invariably the L&D community starts thinking of 'Enterprise Social Networks' (ESN). While an ESN, may not be a necessary condition for social learning, it does provide a platform that adds a level of tangibility to social behaviours. An online community also enables participants within a learning journey to work out loud (an important ingredient of social learning). The value proposition of a social learning community is easy to articulate. key drivers being the ability to: Turn learning events into learning ...
29.07.2015
The moment you mention social learning, invariably the L&D community starts thinking of 'Enterprise Social Networks' (ESN). While an ESN, may not be a necessary condition for social learning, it does provide a platform that adds a level of tangibility to social behaviours. An online community also enables participants within a learning journey to work out loud (an important ingredient of social learning). The value proposition of a social learning community is easy to articulate. key drivers being the ability to: Turn learning events into learning ...
Leaders are responsible for bolstering enterprise social network use
29.07.2015
Over the past decade or so, social networking has revolutionized how society communicates. It seems as if almost everyone has a social media presence these days, from friends and family to celebrities and even CEOs of well-known companies. In an article from May of last year, we took a look at how several CEOs used Twitter. [...] According to the latest figures from Twitter, the social network has 288 million monthly active users, while 500 million tweets are sent per day. In December 2014, the last month for which statistics were available, Facebook ...
29.07.2015
Over the past decade or so, social networking has revolutionized how society communicates. It seems as if almost everyone has a social media presence these days, from friends and family to celebrities and even CEOs of well-known companies. In an article from May of last year, we took a look at how several CEOs used Twitter. [...] According to the latest figures from Twitter, the social network has 288 million monthly active users, while 500 million tweets are sent per day. In December 2014, the last month for which statistics were available, Facebook ...
Cultivating future leaders of digital transformation
29.07.2015
Due to the rise of social tools in the workplace, the growing importance of social media and more recently the impact of digital transformation on how organisations are structured and managed, digital skills and knowledge of new ways of working are now at a premium. If anything, there is a shortage of people who combine skills in technology, management, communications and network-centric operations. And yet, in most organisations, those driving digital transformation are not yet recognised or rewarded commensurate with their value to the future of the ...
29.07.2015
Due to the rise of social tools in the workplace, the growing importance of social media and more recently the impact of digital transformation on how organisations are structured and managed, digital skills and knowledge of new ways of working are now at a premium. If anything, there is a shortage of people who combine skills in technology, management, communications and network-centric operations. And yet, in most organisations, those driving digital transformation are not yet recognised or rewarded commensurate with their value to the future of the ...
Social Leadership: Are We There Yet?
29.07.2015
Over the past few years, the use of social media has ceased to be seen as "cutting edge" or "innovative," and has simply become a core part of how companies communicate and do business. In our recent interview with Mark Babbitt and Ted Coiné, authors of the popular business management book A World Gone Social: How Companies Must Adapt to Survive, they discussed what success looks like for companies today when it comes to social media. You no longer get credit for trying or simply having a presence on a social platform; it's time for companies to ...
29.07.2015
Over the past few years, the use of social media has ceased to be seen as "cutting edge" or "innovative," and has simply become a core part of how companies communicate and do business. In our recent interview with Mark Babbitt and Ted Coiné, authors of the popular business management book A World Gone Social: How Companies Must Adapt to Survive, they discussed what success looks like for companies today when it comes to social media. You no longer get credit for trying or simply having a presence on a social platform; it's time for companies to ...
Is Your Company Prepared for the Future of Work?
29.07.2015
Although most of the people on my immediate team live in another time zone, I feel more connected than ever. Luckily for me, Appirio is a company that embraces a culture where employees can work from anywhere. Thanks to cloud-based tools like Google Hangouts and Salesforce Chatter, I can collaborate with my coworkers instantly -- even from my patio chair on sunny days. As long as enterprise technology is used to its full potential, having remote employees shouldn't feel much different than having them down the hall in a cubicle. (Where you know they're ...
29.07.2015
Although most of the people on my immediate team live in another time zone, I feel more connected than ever. Luckily for me, Appirio is a company that embraces a culture where employees can work from anywhere. Thanks to cloud-based tools like Google Hangouts and Salesforce Chatter, I can collaborate with my coworkers instantly -- even from my patio chair on sunny days. As long as enterprise technology is used to its full potential, having remote employees shouldn't feel much different than having them down the hall in a cubicle. (Where you know they're ...
Are We Too Fixated on Collaboration?
28.07.2015
Solutions, engagement, productivity, collaboration. The marketing language surrounding enterprise IT software comes with its very own jargon, and the word "collaboration" in particular is overused. Office 365's product page talks about helping "collaborate across departments." SharePoint pledges to help potential customers "store, sync and share and easily collaborate," Google Docs promises "real time collaboration," while Salesforce guarantees "employee collaboration." Collaboration can be defined as the action of working with someone to produce something. ...
28.07.2015
Solutions, engagement, productivity, collaboration. The marketing language surrounding enterprise IT software comes with its very own jargon, and the word "collaboration" in particular is overused. Office 365's product page talks about helping "collaborate across departments." SharePoint pledges to help potential customers "store, sync and share and easily collaborate," Google Docs promises "real time collaboration," while Salesforce guarantees "employee collaboration." Collaboration can be defined as the action of working with someone to produce something. ...
How Red Robin Transformed Its Business With Yammer
28.07.2015
Giving a voice to entry-level employees is a powerful new way to improve your business. Here is how one company is doing it. In retail, it's common knowledge that front-line employees understand the customer experience far better than managers sitting in remote corporate offices. So why don't companies pay more attention to their front-line staff? Of course corporate culture plays a role, but a lot has to do with the difficulty of providing employees with a way to be heard. One company that has overcome both these roadblocks and is now reaping ...
28.07.2015
Giving a voice to entry-level employees is a powerful new way to improve your business. Here is how one company is doing it. In retail, it's common knowledge that front-line employees understand the customer experience far better than managers sitting in remote corporate offices. So why don't companies pay more attention to their front-line staff? Of course corporate culture plays a role, but a lot has to do with the difficulty of providing employees with a way to be heard. One company that has overcome both these roadblocks and is now reaping ...
5 Ways To Make Working Remotely Actually Work
28.07.2015
More people are working remotely than ever before. Here's how to do it effectively. Where are you working right now? On your sofa? In a coffee shop with your earbuds in? From your tablet on an outdoor patio? If you work virtually--that is, "telecommute"--you're part of a fast-growing trend in the modern workforce. But like any new working practice, making telecommuting part of your usual routine takes some discipline and diligence. According to research by the financial software company Intuit, nearly a quarter of U.S. workers telecommute ...
28.07.2015
More people are working remotely than ever before. Here's how to do it effectively. Where are you working right now? On your sofa? In a coffee shop with your earbuds in? From your tablet on an outdoor patio? If you work virtually--that is, "telecommute"--you're part of a fast-growing trend in the modern workforce. But like any new working practice, making telecommuting part of your usual routine takes some discipline and diligence. According to research by the financial software company Intuit, nearly a quarter of U.S. workers telecommute ...
Will Your Online Community Still Need a Community Manager Once Members Start Sharing With Each Other?
28.07.2015
From fortune 200 companies to large associations -- we help a variety of different types of organizations plan online customer or member communities. Since building community is still an emerging business strategy, we get a lot of great questions from some very smart business people. Socious online community consultants answer a fair amount of questions about creating a solid online community strategy. However, the majority of the questions that we field focus on the logistics and management of online communities. Common questions involve forecasting ...
28.07.2015
From fortune 200 companies to large associations -- we help a variety of different types of organizations plan online customer or member communities. Since building community is still an emerging business strategy, we get a lot of great questions from some very smart business people. Socious online community consultants answer a fair amount of questions about creating a solid online community strategy. However, the majority of the questions that we field focus on the logistics and management of online communities. Common questions involve forecasting ...
The role of a Digital Champion
28.07.2015
As more businesses move towards a Digital Workplace and new ways of working, the driver behind change is going to be a mix of technology and people. The technology will act as an enabler for better collaboration and a virtual workspace - but it is the culture of a business that will drive the behaviour for adoption. Many businesses will find that new technology will create an initial surge of interest and excitement, but without a clear and robust adoption strategy, usage will drop off if there is no clear value. The deployment of technology has to ...
28.07.2015
As more businesses move towards a Digital Workplace and new ways of working, the driver behind change is going to be a mix of technology and people. The technology will act as an enabler for better collaboration and a virtual workspace - but it is the culture of a business that will drive the behaviour for adoption. Many businesses will find that new technology will create an initial surge of interest and excitement, but without a clear and robust adoption strategy, usage will drop off if there is no clear value. The deployment of technology has to ...
Why do people do work for others?
28.07.2015
by Rawn Shah - It may be stating the obvious but there are some concepts of our humanity that we hold dear only exist because we are social animals. Concepts like success, cooperation, ethics or reputation are expressions of our sociality. All sorts of factors seem to impact any type of interaction: commitments, goods in exchange, moral judgements, the meaning of objects, value assignment, social identity, social class, our sense of time and schedules, media of exchange, etc. These patterns of interaction can vary significantly by culture. So how does ...
28.07.2015
by Rawn Shah - It may be stating the obvious but there are some concepts of our humanity that we hold dear only exist because we are social animals. Concepts like success, cooperation, ethics or reputation are expressions of our sociality. All sorts of factors seem to impact any type of interaction: commitments, goods in exchange, moral judgements, the meaning of objects, value assignment, social identity, social class, our sense of time and schedules, media of exchange, etc. These patterns of interaction can vary significantly by culture. So how does ...
Changing change management
28.07.2015
Research tells us that most change efforts fail. Yet change methodologies are stuck in a predigital era. It's high time to start catching up. Change management as it is traditionally applied is outdated. We know, for example, that 70 percent of change programs fail to achieve their goals, largely due to employee resistance and lack of management support. We also know that when people are truly invested in change it is 30 percent more likely to stick. While companies have been obsessing about how to use digital to improve their customer-facing businesses, ...
28.07.2015
Research tells us that most change efforts fail. Yet change methodologies are stuck in a predigital era. It's high time to start catching up. Change management as it is traditionally applied is outdated. We know, for example, that 70 percent of change programs fail to achieve their goals, largely due to employee resistance and lack of management support. We also know that when people are truly invested in change it is 30 percent more likely to stick. While companies have been obsessing about how to use digital to improve their customer-facing businesses, ...
Your Collaboration Program Didn't Fail. It Just Needs to Evolve
27.07.2015
by Carrie Basham Young - We're all familiar with the Scary Analyst Headline: "Gartner Says 80 Percent of Social Business Efforts Will Not Achieve Intended Benefits Through 2015." Companies across the globe have trembled under the shadow of this warning, wondering if their efforts will be doomed into the darkness of Collaboration Failure. We've now codified best practices and documented every point of potential challenge, from a lack of leadership participation, to ineffective community management, to too much or too little training and unclear governance. ...
27.07.2015
by Carrie Basham Young - We're all familiar with the Scary Analyst Headline: "Gartner Says 80 Percent of Social Business Efforts Will Not Achieve Intended Benefits Through 2015." Companies across the globe have trembled under the shadow of this warning, wondering if their efforts will be doomed into the darkness of Collaboration Failure. We've now codified best practices and documented every point of potential challenge, from a lack of leadership participation, to ineffective community management, to too much or too little training and unclear governance. ...
Future of Work is The Restoration of Authentic Community at Scale
27.07.2015
by Jeremy Scrivens - For years we have talked about customer value and mapped it but now we are switching to the deeper word kindness in business because it is the future currency of "NexGen" Social Business. In the Future of Work people are part of a living ecosystem as a co-caring creative commons, underpinned by a Culture of Kindness which draws young people from the heart to collaborate for social good with their customers as partners doing life together. The heart of social is a community not just a network Social as disruptive Random acts of kindness ...
27.07.2015
by Jeremy Scrivens - For years we have talked about customer value and mapped it but now we are switching to the deeper word kindness in business because it is the future currency of "NexGen" Social Business. In the Future of Work people are part of a living ecosystem as a co-caring creative commons, underpinned by a Culture of Kindness which draws young people from the heart to collaborate for social good with their customers as partners doing life together. The heart of social is a community not just a network Social as disruptive Random acts of kindness ...
Social business: Wat levert het op?
27.07.2015
Er wordt anno 2015 steeds meer geschreven en gesproken over social business. Na de komst van social media als marketing- en communicatiekanaal, werken steeds meer organisaties aan het embedden van het social gedachtengoed binnen hun bedrijfsprocessen en het meer "social" maken van de hele organisatie. Maar wat levert dit eigenlijk op? Belangrijke drijfveer achter deze digitale transformatie is de consument die vandaag de dag andere eisen stelt aan bedrijven en vooral via online kanalen contact zoekt. Buiten de consument hebben ook steeds meer medewerkers ...
27.07.2015
Er wordt anno 2015 steeds meer geschreven en gesproken over social business. Na de komst van social media als marketing- en communicatiekanaal, werken steeds meer organisaties aan het embedden van het social gedachtengoed binnen hun bedrijfsprocessen en het meer "social" maken van de hele organisatie. Maar wat levert dit eigenlijk op? Belangrijke drijfveer achter deze digitale transformatie is de consument die vandaag de dag andere eisen stelt aan bedrijven en vooral via online kanalen contact zoekt. Buiten de consument hebben ook steeds meer medewerkers ...
Knowledge Management Rises From The Dead (Now Powered By Enterprise Social)
27.07.2015
Knowledge Management, like a zombie, is returning from the dead due to the rise of Enterprise Social Networks. In the mid-90s through the early 2000s, all of the rage was Knowledge Management. The dream of pulling together the individual knowledge of workers across an enterprise ruled the day, ruled the pundits, ruled the discussion, rules the purchasing departments. It ended, however, as mostly a lost cause, primarily because of the available tools in the 90s and early 2000s. Despite the efforts of many to keep the dream of Knowledge Management alive, ...
27.07.2015
Knowledge Management, like a zombie, is returning from the dead due to the rise of Enterprise Social Networks. In the mid-90s through the early 2000s, all of the rage was Knowledge Management. The dream of pulling together the individual knowledge of workers across an enterprise ruled the day, ruled the pundits, ruled the discussion, rules the purchasing departments. It ended, however, as mostly a lost cause, primarily because of the available tools in the 90s and early 2000s. Despite the efforts of many to keep the dream of Knowledge Management alive, ...
Why Internal Storytelling Is Key to Your Company's Content Strategy
27.07.2015
What comes to mind when you think of content strategy? If you're like most businesses embracing a content marketing mindset, you understand the value of creating relevant and valuable content for your buyers through every stage of the purchase funnel. You may have a strategy to incentivize referrals and cross-selling opportunities through post-sale content. The more savvy organizations may even be thinking beyond the marketing silo in their content creation efforts. All of this is external storytelling. It's designed as a way to bring your prospects ...
27.07.2015
What comes to mind when you think of content strategy? If you're like most businesses embracing a content marketing mindset, you understand the value of creating relevant and valuable content for your buyers through every stage of the purchase funnel. You may have a strategy to incentivize referrals and cross-selling opportunities through post-sale content. The more savvy organizations may even be thinking beyond the marketing silo in their content creation efforts. All of this is external storytelling. It's designed as a way to bring your prospects ...
Why You Should Help Your Employees Become Influential
27.07.2015
Your marketing department is too small! I don't mean that your staff is not large enough. I mean that your ability to reach your buyer, engage and persuade (find and convert) is limited from your marketing department. There are two reasons for this. First, your B2B buyer is well along the path to vendor selection before willing to speak with you, sign up for a demo, or even attend one of your top of the funnel webinars in their true identity. Secondly, the culture of social media has shifted the way the B2B buyer thinks, behaves and conducts their research. ...
27.07.2015
Your marketing department is too small! I don't mean that your staff is not large enough. I mean that your ability to reach your buyer, engage and persuade (find and convert) is limited from your marketing department. There are two reasons for this. First, your B2B buyer is well along the path to vendor selection before willing to speak with you, sign up for a demo, or even attend one of your top of the funnel webinars in their true identity. Secondly, the culture of social media has shifted the way the B2B buyer thinks, behaves and conducts their research. ...
Arbeitszeiterfassung: Wie das Stempeln Mitarbeiter demotiviert
27.07.2015
Warum Zeiterfassung Nonsens ist. Senden. Und fertig. Jetzt noch die Unterlagen sortieren, und dann ab nach Hause. Vorher noch ein Blick auf die Uhr. Oh nee, noch zu früh. Wenn ich jetzt gehe, gibt's wieder einen Spruch von Martens. Bei dem brennt ja auch noch Licht', denkt er. So studiert Schulze noch einmal das Protokoll vom Meeting gestern. Und er nimmt sich schon mal das Angebot vor, mit dem er eigentlich morgen früh starten wollte. Doch, um jetzt konkret mit Zahlen zu hantieren, ist er eigentlich schon viel zu müde... Merkt Ihr, was hier passiert? ...
27.07.2015
Warum Zeiterfassung Nonsens ist. Senden. Und fertig. Jetzt noch die Unterlagen sortieren, und dann ab nach Hause. Vorher noch ein Blick auf die Uhr. Oh nee, noch zu früh. Wenn ich jetzt gehe, gibt's wieder einen Spruch von Martens. Bei dem brennt ja auch noch Licht', denkt er. So studiert Schulze noch einmal das Protokoll vom Meeting gestern. Und er nimmt sich schon mal das Angebot vor, mit dem er eigentlich morgen früh starten wollte. Doch, um jetzt konkret mit Zahlen zu hantieren, ist er eigentlich schon viel zu müde... Merkt Ihr, was hier passiert? ...
Wissensarbeiter: Was brauchen Sie zur Arbeit?
24.07.2015
"Zweck und Ziel der Organisation ist es, die Stärken der Menschen produktiv zu machen und ihre Schwächen unwesentlich." - Mit diesem Zitat bringt der bekannte Managementlehrer und -berater Peter Drucker die Aufgabe modernen Managements auf den Punkt. Heute besteht die Herausforderung konkret darin, die Stärken von Wissensarbeitern zu erkennen und effektiv zu nutzen. Das klingt zunächst nicht spektakulär, doch in der Praxis zeigt sich, dass viele Unternehmen sich damit schwer tun. Wissensarbeiter befinden sich im Spannungsfeld zwischen neuen Anforderungen ...
24.07.2015
"Zweck und Ziel der Organisation ist es, die Stärken der Menschen produktiv zu machen und ihre Schwächen unwesentlich." - Mit diesem Zitat bringt der bekannte Managementlehrer und -berater Peter Drucker die Aufgabe modernen Managements auf den Punkt. Heute besteht die Herausforderung konkret darin, die Stärken von Wissensarbeitern zu erkennen und effektiv zu nutzen. Das klingt zunächst nicht spektakulär, doch in der Praxis zeigt sich, dass viele Unternehmen sich damit schwer tun. Wissensarbeiter befinden sich im Spannungsfeld zwischen neuen Anforderungen ...
Prioritizing Collaboration: 5 Questions to Ask
24.07.2015
63% of CEOs cite "creating a collaborative environment" as a top factor in drawing the most out of their employees. However, the very word "collaboration" means different things to different people. It could mean simply gathering around a whiteboard to brainstorm ideas; working closely on a document or project with one or more colleagues; meeting online with global stakeholders on video conferences or sharing document revisions through a team workspace or file, sync and share service. And these definitions are just the tip of the iceberg. Regardless ...
24.07.2015
63% of CEOs cite "creating a collaborative environment" as a top factor in drawing the most out of their employees. However, the very word "collaboration" means different things to different people. It could mean simply gathering around a whiteboard to brainstorm ideas; working closely on a document or project with one or more colleagues; meeting online with global stakeholders on video conferences or sharing document revisions through a team workspace or file, sync and share service. And these definitions are just the tip of the iceberg. Regardless ...
Openness is an Employee Engagement Jewel
24.07.2015
To get to the pearl you must open the shell. Build a culture of workforce openness and discover your own gems. Books, eyelids, convenience stores and even web browsers all have one thing in common... For them to function effectively they need to be open. The same is true of the employees in any team, department or organization. Engagement (and all the good stuff that goes with it) thrives in a culture where open communication and workplace relationships are strong. In fact, today's workforce expects nothing less as they are used to posting their life ...
24.07.2015
To get to the pearl you must open the shell. Build a culture of workforce openness and discover your own gems. Books, eyelids, convenience stores and even web browsers all have one thing in common... For them to function effectively they need to be open. The same is true of the employees in any team, department or organization. Engagement (and all the good stuff that goes with it) thrives in a culture where open communication and workplace relationships are strong. In fact, today's workforce expects nothing less as they are used to posting their life ...
6 ways that enterprise social networks are humanizing the workplace
24.07.2015
When was the last time you felt that you - the whole you - showed up to work? We spend more time at work than anywhere else. More time than with our families. Than with our friends. More than we even sleep! Fortunately, this is all set to change. Technology is, rather ironically, making us more human at work. In her research paper 'Organisations in the Digital Age - 10 Key Findings' Jane McConnell calls out 'Digital Humanizes and Energizes Organizations by Making Work Personal' as the number one finding. Over the past seven years an individual's capability ...
24.07.2015
When was the last time you felt that you - the whole you - showed up to work? We spend more time at work than anywhere else. More time than with our families. Than with our friends. More than we even sleep! Fortunately, this is all set to change. Technology is, rather ironically, making us more human at work. In her research paper 'Organisations in the Digital Age - 10 Key Findings' Jane McConnell calls out 'Digital Humanizes and Energizes Organizations by Making Work Personal' as the number one finding. Over the past seven years an individual's capability ...
DevOps director deletes silos with online collaboration tools
24.07.2015
In this Q&A, Robin Gordon of CoreLogic explains how using online collaboration tools empowered her team of more than 300 developers repair broken processes. DevOps managers encounter challenges when a fast-growing IT operation fragments into so many different departments that software delivery and performance lag. CoreLogic, a financial analytics service provider based in Irvine, Calif., faced this very problem just a year ago. Its DevOps team of 300 full-time employees and a few hundred contractors worked in small groups, each with its own set ...
24.07.2015
In this Q&A, Robin Gordon of CoreLogic explains how using online collaboration tools empowered her team of more than 300 developers repair broken processes. DevOps managers encounter challenges when a fast-growing IT operation fragments into so many different departments that software delivery and performance lag. CoreLogic, a financial analytics service provider based in Irvine, Calif., faced this very problem just a year ago. Its DevOps team of 300 full-time employees and a few hundred contractors worked in small groups, each with its own set ...
Is Gamification the Fast Food of Community Engagement?
24.07.2015
In a tweet last week, my old boss at SAP, Mark Yolton, who is now leading Digital at Cisco, challenged the SAP Mentors and me to analyze Cisco's gamification efforts. What they have done looks very promising. Before I get into it, I would like to first share what I learned when I stumbled into gamification years before that term even got popular. In 2004 I felt like the sorcerer's apprentice after I added a point system to the nascent SAP Developer Network, which developed over the years into the SAP Community Network, SCN. The core of the point system ...
24.07.2015
In a tweet last week, my old boss at SAP, Mark Yolton, who is now leading Digital at Cisco, challenged the SAP Mentors and me to analyze Cisco's gamification efforts. What they have done looks very promising. Before I get into it, I would like to first share what I learned when I stumbled into gamification years before that term even got popular. In 2004 I felt like the sorcerer's apprentice after I added a point system to the nascent SAP Developer Network, which developed over the years into the SAP Community Network, SCN. The core of the point system ...
Digital transformation is about making things simpler. Period.
24.07.2015
by Bertrand Duperrin - By the way, what is digital transformation? Search the web, there are as many definitions as there experts and practitioners. Some have technology oriented approach, others an organizational one, others focus on business models. Some focus on the customer, other about the employee. And ask enterprises: there are as many entry points and ways to do things than there are enterprises, cultures, industries and specific situations. It encompasses so many things than an exhaustive definition would be too wide and conceptual. And even ...
24.07.2015
by Bertrand Duperrin - By the way, what is digital transformation? Search the web, there are as many definitions as there experts and practitioners. Some have technology oriented approach, others an organizational one, others focus on business models. Some focus on the customer, other about the employee. And ask enterprises: there are as many entry points and ways to do things than there are enterprises, cultures, industries and specific situations. It encompasses so many things than an exhaustive definition would be too wide and conceptual. And even ...
Revolutionising the performance of the knowledge worker
24.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Peter Drucker famously said that ''to make knowledge work productive will be the great management task of this (20th) century, just as to make manual work productive was the great management task of the last century". To find out how we might do this, let's look at how the productivity of manual work was revolutionised. The 50-fold productivity increase in manual work productivity that Drucker mentioned came through a number of factors The division of manual work into tasks, as in an assembly line process, and the recognition that ...
24.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Peter Drucker famously said that ''to make knowledge work productive will be the great management task of this (20th) century, just as to make manual work productive was the great management task of the last century". To find out how we might do this, let's look at how the productivity of manual work was revolutionised. The 50-fold productivity increase in manual work productivity that Drucker mentioned came through a number of factors The division of manual work into tasks, as in an assembly line process, and the recognition that ...
The Cultural Architect
24.07.2015
In the new world of work, organisations will require a new breed of worker. As new challenges emerge so do fresh opportunities for never before seen roles. These roles will require skills, behaviours and mindsets that have previously been laughed or locked out of the boardroom. These roles will predominantly be filled by people who have ignored, avoided or survived the corporate conditioning. People who have reawakened their creativity, who are driven by a deeper purpose and are seeking meaningful ways to channel their unique essence. Companies would ...
24.07.2015
In the new world of work, organisations will require a new breed of worker. As new challenges emerge so do fresh opportunities for never before seen roles. These roles will require skills, behaviours and mindsets that have previously been laughed or locked out of the boardroom. These roles will predominantly be filled by people who have ignored, avoided or survived the corporate conditioning. People who have reawakened their creativity, who are driven by a deeper purpose and are seeking meaningful ways to channel their unique essence. Companies would ...
Are you nurturing "disruptive talent"?
24.07.2015
Business psychologists of OE Cam, have recently described and discussed the topic of "disruptive talent" in London. "I would define disruptive talent as individuals who think and act differently, innovate, challenge conventional wisdom, spot trends, see commercial opportunities, and tenaciously find ways to achieve success," says Managing Partner of OE Cam, cited by the BBC. Yet, disruptive employees bring also less positive attributes: "Disruptive talent can derail, you need to make sure employees are properly supported, both when they're working ...
24.07.2015
Business psychologists of OE Cam, have recently described and discussed the topic of "disruptive talent" in London. "I would define disruptive talent as individuals who think and act differently, innovate, challenge conventional wisdom, spot trends, see commercial opportunities, and tenaciously find ways to achieve success," says Managing Partner of OE Cam, cited by the BBC. Yet, disruptive employees bring also less positive attributes: "Disruptive talent can derail, you need to make sure employees are properly supported, both when they're working ...
A Little Bit of Collaboration Culture Goes a Long Way
23.07.2015
One of July's themes at CMSWire is "Keys to Successful Enterprise Collaboration." Allow me to recommend a thought-provoking article by Sam Marshall: "Why Collaboration Works for Others, But Not for You." Here I'd like to offer our readership a different and, I think, more basic approach than Sam's. I want to look at some very basic frameworks -- the "people-process-technology" triangle and the "W5H" -- and see how we can apply them to enterprise-wide collaboration. OK, you may ask, beyond going back to these basic levels, where do I depart from ...
23.07.2015
One of July's themes at CMSWire is "Keys to Successful Enterprise Collaboration." Allow me to recommend a thought-provoking article by Sam Marshall: "Why Collaboration Works for Others, But Not for You." Here I'd like to offer our readership a different and, I think, more basic approach than Sam's. I want to look at some very basic frameworks -- the "people-process-technology" triangle and the "W5H" -- and see how we can apply them to enterprise-wide collaboration. OK, you may ask, beyond going back to these basic levels, where do I depart from ...
Social media engagement: building a more collaborative workforce
23.07.2015
Using social media specifically to heighten employee engagement is not as established as its other uses, despite the potential for greater collaboration and ideas sharing, discovers Cath Everett. While organisations have been using social media widely for external marketing and customer service reasons for at least five years now, internal adoption for employee engagement purposes has only really taken off over the last couple, according to experts. The reasons for this slower uptake are in some ways obvious - most companies focus their attention on ...
23.07.2015
Using social media specifically to heighten employee engagement is not as established as its other uses, despite the potential for greater collaboration and ideas sharing, discovers Cath Everett. While organisations have been using social media widely for external marketing and customer service reasons for at least five years now, internal adoption for employee engagement purposes has only really taken off over the last couple, according to experts. The reasons for this slower uptake are in some ways obvious - most companies focus their attention on ...
How All-in-One Collaboration is Powering the Digital Workplace
23.07.2015
Rather than forcing employees to juggle disparate communication tools, businesses are turning to all-in-one collaboration solutions for better efficiency and productivity. Today's hyper-connected workplace is moving faster than ever before. It is truly a digital workplace, where the speed of information -- and how that information gets shared across an organization -- is paramount to that organization's success. Businesses are constantly looking to optimize communication and collaboration. And today, we're seeing an increasing trend towards streamlining ...
23.07.2015
Rather than forcing employees to juggle disparate communication tools, businesses are turning to all-in-one collaboration solutions for better efficiency and productivity. Today's hyper-connected workplace is moving faster than ever before. It is truly a digital workplace, where the speed of information -- and how that information gets shared across an organization -- is paramount to that organization's success. Businesses are constantly looking to optimize communication and collaboration. And today, we're seeing an increasing trend towards streamlining ...
Social business is not a change in IT/platform, it is about building a platform for change - new mindset, interaction, km model
23.07.2015
I just posted a tweet @bonniecheuk sharing my reflection on the change journey my company and my team have been through as we recently launched Jive as a new connected ecosystem that focuses on getting work done. I borrow the tweet to make it the title of my blog here. Whether you call it Social Business, Enterprise 2.0 or use of social media in the extended enterprise, it is now seeded in most enterprises and is considered becoming mainstream. We are finally scratching beyond the surface, and get ready for deeper transformation. What do I mean? Here ...
23.07.2015
I just posted a tweet @bonniecheuk sharing my reflection on the change journey my company and my team have been through as we recently launched Jive as a new connected ecosystem that focuses on getting work done. I borrow the tweet to make it the title of my blog here. Whether you call it Social Business, Enterprise 2.0 or use of social media in the extended enterprise, it is now seeded in most enterprises and is considered becoming mainstream. We are finally scratching beyond the surface, and get ready for deeper transformation. What do I mean? Here ...
How Great Community Professionals Act Like CEOs
23.07.2015
Last week, I attended two conferences: MozCon and Community Leadership Summit (CLS). Within the span of a week, I saw what two very different communities could accomplish when they set out a vision and gathered people in one big room. Roger, Moz's Mascot My very own Roger bobblehead CLS gathers community builders working on open-source projects in a grassroots unconference format. MozCon is a three-day conference in Seattle that hosts almost 1,500 marketers, who come together to learn about SEO and marketing best practices and to celebrate alongside ...
23.07.2015
Last week, I attended two conferences: MozCon and Community Leadership Summit (CLS). Within the span of a week, I saw what two very different communities could accomplish when they set out a vision and gathered people in one big room. Roger, Moz's Mascot My very own Roger bobblehead CLS gathers community builders working on open-source projects in a grassroots unconference format. MozCon is a three-day conference in Seattle that hosts almost 1,500 marketers, who come together to learn about SEO and marketing best practices and to celebrate alongside ...
Let people say dumb things
23.07.2015
There comes a time in every parent's journey when you are no longer considered a credible source. Your opinion on a variety of topics is viewed with skepticism, even when backed up by facts. Statements such as "If you don't do your homework, you will fail your class" -- a statement so reasonable, and obvious, and so demonstrably true that you can hardly believe you must utter it -- are met with apathy or even outright rebellion. I'm learning that in instances such as these, it is sometimes best to simply let the community instruct my child. You want ...
23.07.2015
There comes a time in every parent's journey when you are no longer considered a credible source. Your opinion on a variety of topics is viewed with skepticism, even when backed up by facts. Statements such as "If you don't do your homework, you will fail your class" -- a statement so reasonable, and obvious, and so demonstrably true that you can hardly believe you must utter it -- are met with apathy or even outright rebellion. I'm learning that in instances such as these, it is sometimes best to simply let the community instruct my child. You want ...
Produktionsarbeiterinnen und -arbeiter aller Länder, vernetzt Euch!
22.07.2015
Vor einigen Jahren war ich auf einer Konferenz zu Gast, auf der ein CIO eines großen Industrieunternehmens mit mehr als 10.000 Mitarbeitern einen Vortrag über das Social Intranet gehalten hat. Dabei hob er die Wichtigkeit einer Vernetzung zwischen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern weltweit über mehrere Standorte hinweg hervor und verwies auf die großen Chancen und Optimierungspotenziale. Recht hat er. Das Problem dabei ist, dass unter Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern für ihn lediglich die Wissensarbeiter in den Büros (White Collar Workers) zu verstehen ...
22.07.2015
Vor einigen Jahren war ich auf einer Konferenz zu Gast, auf der ein CIO eines großen Industrieunternehmens mit mehr als 10.000 Mitarbeitern einen Vortrag über das Social Intranet gehalten hat. Dabei hob er die Wichtigkeit einer Vernetzung zwischen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern weltweit über mehrere Standorte hinweg hervor und verwies auf die großen Chancen und Optimierungspotenziale. Recht hat er. Das Problem dabei ist, dass unter Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern für ihn lediglich die Wissensarbeiter in den Büros (White Collar Workers) zu verstehen ...
5 benefits of bringing social collaboration to human resources
22.07.2015
People are an organization's most valuable asset. The HR department is tasked not only with recruiting and hiring top talent, but also keeping them engaged and happy at work so they will stay with the company. And with the Millennial Generation switching jobs every 2 years on average, ensuring employees are happy and engaged is crucial for any organization's success. But according to a 2013 poll by Gallup, just 30 percent of employees in America feel engaged at work. That means a whopping 70 percent of people in the workforce spend most of their time ...
22.07.2015
People are an organization's most valuable asset. The HR department is tasked not only with recruiting and hiring top talent, but also keeping them engaged and happy at work so they will stay with the company. And with the Millennial Generation switching jobs every 2 years on average, ensuring employees are happy and engaged is crucial for any organization's success. But according to a 2013 poll by Gallup, just 30 percent of employees in America feel engaged at work. That means a whopping 70 percent of people in the workforce spend most of their time ...
Digital Leadership? No chance! The majority of executives still leads the old-fashioned way
22.07.2015
by Willms Buhse - As part of our blog series about the digitalization of the working world and its consequences for businesses we now focus on the key part of digital transformation: leadership. Leadership - or management - has two levels of meaning: on the one hand it's about guiding the employees, on the other hand it's about leading the company. In this particular article I refer to both which means, managing the company in the digital age in a way that employees can develop and stay loyal. By the way: we are already in the middle of it! ...
22.07.2015
by Willms Buhse - As part of our blog series about the digitalization of the working world and its consequences for businesses we now focus on the key part of digital transformation: leadership. Leadership - or management - has two levels of meaning: on the one hand it's about guiding the employees, on the other hand it's about leading the company. In this particular article I refer to both which means, managing the company in the digital age in a way that employees can develop and stay loyal. By the way: we are already in the middle of it! ...
Break the Management Spiral
22.07.2015
by Simon Terry - Some days I wonder how much of what we call management theory is piling on new practices to treat the symptoms of the last practice we implemented. Let's break the management spiral. The Management Spiral Let's assume we are a traditional organisation run in line with prevailing management practices. Here's one example of what we might experience: We hire to match fixed definitions of expertise and because we don't help our people to learn & adapt so we don't trust them to deliver alone. Because we don't trust our employees to be ...
22.07.2015
by Simon Terry - Some days I wonder how much of what we call management theory is piling on new practices to treat the symptoms of the last practice we implemented. Let's break the management spiral. The Management Spiral Let's assume we are a traditional organisation run in line with prevailing management practices. Here's one example of what we might experience: We hire to match fixed definitions of expertise and because we don't help our people to learn & adapt so we don't trust them to deliver alone. Because we don't trust our employees to be ...
ISO 9001 revision - what knowledge managers need to know
22.07.2015
For those not familiar with ISO 9001, this is the over-arching international standard for Quality Management. After a four year gestation, an update ...
22.07.2015
For those not familiar with ISO 9001, this is the over-arching international standard for Quality Management. After a four year gestation, an update ...
Connecting and Collecting - two halves of a KM strategy
22.07.2015
by Nick Milton - There are two main mechanisms for supporting the flow of knowledge in an organisation - Connecting the people, or Collecting the content. These are sometimes seen as separate strategies of codification or personalisation, but both are needed as part of any Knowledge Management strategy. Here is an overview of Connection and Collection. Knowledge suppliers and users Communication, conversation, connection Codification, capture, content [...] These two approaches to knowledge transfer are the Connect and Collect approaches. Effective ...
22.07.2015
by Nick Milton - There are two main mechanisms for supporting the flow of knowledge in an organisation - Connecting the people, or Collecting the content. These are sometimes seen as separate strategies of codification or personalisation, but both are needed as part of any Knowledge Management strategy. Here is an overview of Connection and Collection. Knowledge suppliers and users Communication, conversation, connection Codification, capture, content [...] These two approaches to knowledge transfer are the Connect and Collect approaches. Effective ...
Changing an Organization's Culture, Without Resistance or Blame
22.07.2015
One of the biggest challenges a company can face is changing people's behavior -- getting them to collaborate and be humble, for example, or put the company's long-term interests first. Most behavior-change initiatives accomplish little, at best. So when we faced such a challenge at Lear Corporation, a Fortune 200 automotive supplier with 136,000 employees worldwide, we knew the odds were against us. We asked ourselves: What could we do differently? Lear had gone into bankruptcy during the Great Recession. Getting the company back on its feet required ...
22.07.2015
One of the biggest challenges a company can face is changing people's behavior -- getting them to collaborate and be humble, for example, or put the company's long-term interests first. Most behavior-change initiatives accomplish little, at best. So when we faced such a challenge at Lear Corporation, a Fortune 200 automotive supplier with 136,000 employees worldwide, we knew the odds were against us. We asked ourselves: What could we do differently? Lear had gone into bankruptcy during the Great Recession. Getting the company back on its feet required ...
5 Things That Will Help You Create a Deeper Connection With People
22.07.2015
You may be 'rocking' your leadership skills, but are you connecting with others where it really counts? Focus your attention on these five other factors to give yourself an extra edge in depth, connection, and inspiration. You're getting things done, making decisions, moving initiatives forward, people even like working with you-all sorts of good stuff is happening. But are you truly connecting with people? Your answer may be an automatic "Why yes! Of course!" You're a great listener, you care, you make it a point to be the best ...
22.07.2015
You may be 'rocking' your leadership skills, but are you connecting with others where it really counts? Focus your attention on these five other factors to give yourself an extra edge in depth, connection, and inspiration. You're getting things done, making decisions, moving initiatives forward, people even like working with you-all sorts of good stuff is happening. But are you truly connecting with people? Your answer may be an automatic "Why yes! Of course!" You're a great listener, you care, you make it a point to be the best ...
Enterprise 2.0 - Die Angst der Manager
21.07.2015
Die Zukunft ist digital. Das kommt auch immer mehr in deutschen Führungsetagen an. Eine wachsende Anzahl von Publikationen, unzählige Berater, Media- und Internetagenturen und selbsternannte Experten und nicht zuletzt die Visionäre dieser Welt prophezeien den Unternehmen eine digitale Zukunft. Das Unternehmen 1.0 sei gestern, Unternehmen 2.0 von morgen sei schon heute. Doch besonders mittelständische Unternehmen tun sich schwer mit der Digitalisierung. Ein Drittel der Entscheider glaubt sogar, Digitalisierung sei kein relevantes Thema für das eigene ...
21.07.2015
Die Zukunft ist digital. Das kommt auch immer mehr in deutschen Führungsetagen an. Eine wachsende Anzahl von Publikationen, unzählige Berater, Media- und Internetagenturen und selbsternannte Experten und nicht zuletzt die Visionäre dieser Welt prophezeien den Unternehmen eine digitale Zukunft. Das Unternehmen 1.0 sei gestern, Unternehmen 2.0 von morgen sei schon heute. Doch besonders mittelständische Unternehmen tun sich schwer mit der Digitalisierung. Ein Drittel der Entscheider glaubt sogar, Digitalisierung sei kein relevantes Thema für das eigene ...
Why won't people ask questions in the open?
21.07.2015
by Stan Garfield - When someone needs to find the answer to a question, what do they tend to do? Try searching their hard drive, an FAQ database, or the Internet Turn to the person sitting next to them Call or instant message a trusted colleague Send an email to a few people or a distribution list If the first four options don't work, give up The one that would likely work the best, but is not used nearly enough, is Ask in the most relevant community of practice discussion board or enterprise social network (ESN) group It's a paradox that ...
21.07.2015
by Stan Garfield - When someone needs to find the answer to a question, what do they tend to do? Try searching their hard drive, an FAQ database, or the Internet Turn to the person sitting next to them Call or instant message a trusted colleague Send an email to a few people or a distribution list If the first four options don't work, give up The one that would likely work the best, but is not used nearly enough, is Ask in the most relevant community of practice discussion board or enterprise social network (ESN) group It's a paradox that ...
A Guide to Social Collaboration and Learning with James Tyer of Kellogg's
21.07.2015
What is social collaboration and learning? How can organisations benefit from using these? To find out I've had a chat with James Tyer who is the Global Lead of Social Collaboration lead at Kellogg Company. You can listen to the podcast interview on iTunes and SoundCloud. Questions by yours truly, answers by James. You are a Global Lead of Social Collaboration, what does that mean? Why do companies need social collaboration and learning? How do you measure ROI from social collaboration and learning? To implement this in your organisation, where do you ...
21.07.2015
What is social collaboration and learning? How can organisations benefit from using these? To find out I've had a chat with James Tyer who is the Global Lead of Social Collaboration lead at Kellogg Company. You can listen to the podcast interview on iTunes and SoundCloud. Questions by yours truly, answers by James. You are a Global Lead of Social Collaboration, what does that mean? Why do companies need social collaboration and learning? How do you measure ROI from social collaboration and learning? To implement this in your organisation, where do you ...
Online communities learn new practices, report higher ROI
21.07.2015
by Dion Hinchcliffe - The growing trend of supporting the activities and strategic objectives of a business through digital communities continued to mature and gain refinements this year. Better integration across the board and real measures of ROI are a hallmark. In the early days, online communities were typically fairly informal discussion sites created by a groups of enthusiasts on some subject, or they were slightly better-organized forums put together by activists passionate on a topic, often around political issues or an open source software ...
21.07.2015
by Dion Hinchcliffe - The growing trend of supporting the activities and strategic objectives of a business through digital communities continued to mature and gain refinements this year. Better integration across the board and real measures of ROI are a hallmark. In the early days, online communities were typically fairly informal discussion sites created by a groups of enthusiasts on some subject, or they were slightly better-organized forums put together by activists passionate on a topic, often around political issues or an open source software ...
More than just words: why social collaboration needs executives to lead by example
21.07.2015
Senior executive buy-in and commitment is often cited as a vital element in the success of a social collaboration initiative, but I've found that the reasons behind this aren't always comprehensively understood, meaning that often it doesn't quite go far enough to be worthwhile. Of course, any project that requires adoption by multiple departments within a business ideally needs the support of top-level management; without it, you risk your efforts being undermined by corporate politics (particularly where your initiative is seen as simply ...
21.07.2015
Senior executive buy-in and commitment is often cited as a vital element in the success of a social collaboration initiative, but I've found that the reasons behind this aren't always comprehensively understood, meaning that often it doesn't quite go far enough to be worthwhile. Of course, any project that requires adoption by multiple departments within a business ideally needs the support of top-level management; without it, you risk your efforts being undermined by corporate politics (particularly where your initiative is seen as simply ...
Using Recognition to Keep Remote Employees Engaged
21.07.2015
In today's working world, a physical office space is becoming a thing of the past. The number of organizations employing distributed workforces and offering telecommuting options is on the rise. But the downfall of this shift is that managers are struggling to keep their remote employees engaged. Without the daily face-to-face interactions or visibility, it's difficult for leaders to take notice of an employee's efforts. According to TINYpulse's Employee Engagement and Organizational Culture Report, nearly 80% of employees already don't feel valued ...
21.07.2015
In today's working world, a physical office space is becoming a thing of the past. The number of organizations employing distributed workforces and offering telecommuting options is on the rise. But the downfall of this shift is that managers are struggling to keep their remote employees engaged. Without the daily face-to-face interactions or visibility, it's difficult for leaders to take notice of an employee's efforts. According to TINYpulse's Employee Engagement and Organizational Culture Report, nearly 80% of employees already don't feel valued ...
How to make knowledge findable
21.07.2015
by Nick Milton - How many times do people miss knowledge because they don't know it exists, or can't find it? My guess is that this happens all the time. Someone creates a great knowledge resource, but others don't know about it, and even if they do suspect it's there and go seeking for it, they can't find it. To avoid playing hide-and-seek with knowledge we, as KM professionals, need to consider four things: We need to make people aware of the sources of knowledge We need to concentrate on Findability We need to ensure knowledge ...
21.07.2015
by Nick Milton - How many times do people miss knowledge because they don't know it exists, or can't find it? My guess is that this happens all the time. Someone creates a great knowledge resource, but others don't know about it, and even if they do suspect it's there and go seeking for it, they can't find it. To avoid playing hide-and-seek with knowledge we, as KM professionals, need to consider four things: We need to make people aware of the sources of knowledge We need to concentrate on Findability We need to ensure knowledge ...
How government should support the knowledge economy
21.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Governments know all about supporting traditional economies. They should use this support as a model for supporting the knowledge economy. However so far they have not realised this fact. The knowledge economy is a focus for many many governments in the developed world. A knowledge economy is one "where distinctive know-how is vital to competitive services and products", and where knowledge is the resource from which economic value is delivered. Governments like the idea of a knowledge economy, because it delivers high value without ...
21.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Governments know all about supporting traditional economies. They should use this support as a model for supporting the knowledge economy. However so far they have not realised this fact. The knowledge economy is a focus for many many governments in the developed world. A knowledge economy is one "where distinctive know-how is vital to competitive services and products", and where knowledge is the resource from which economic value is delivered. Governments like the idea of a knowledge economy, because it delivers high value without ...
The German Workforce Has a Burnout Problem
21.07.2015
Many German employees are feeling burned out, and the problem is costly to the European Union's largest economy. In 2012, the German business publication Manager Magazin reported the number of burnout cases among companies in the DAX, the German stock index covering the 30 most actively traded blue chip companies on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Working with patient data, the European hospital chain Asklepios estimated that, on average, 1,500 to 3,300 workers at each of the 30 DAX companies are treated for the effects of burnout annually. And in ...
21.07.2015
Many German employees are feeling burned out, and the problem is costly to the European Union's largest economy. In 2012, the German business publication Manager Magazin reported the number of burnout cases among companies in the DAX, the German stock index covering the 30 most actively traded blue chip companies on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Working with patient data, the European hospital chain Asklepios estimated that, on average, 1,500 to 3,300 workers at each of the 30 DAX companies are treated for the effects of burnout annually. And in ...
The Legacy Organizations We Designed 100 Years Ago Are Broken
21.07.2015
In the previous post, I outlined a few of the reasons why organizations are forces for evil. With all of those reasons in mind, I'll ask you now to consider that organizations are our only hope, and the forces that act on them are becoming more favorable by the day. Before we get into why this is, we should have a collective understanding of what an organization is. [...] The organizations we have today are broken because of accelerating user choice The organizations we have today are broken because of increased connectivity The organizations we have ...
21.07.2015
In the previous post, I outlined a few of the reasons why organizations are forces for evil. With all of those reasons in mind, I'll ask you now to consider that organizations are our only hope, and the forces that act on them are becoming more favorable by the day. Before we get into why this is, we should have a collective understanding of what an organization is. [...] The organizations we have today are broken because of accelerating user choice The organizations we have today are broken because of increased connectivity The organizations we have ...
Maybe dehumanization of leadership is a real thing, eh?
21.07.2015
Was reading this article just now, which then directed me to this paper on "the dehumanization of leadership." The paper speaks to a "disconnect between leaders, people supposed to follow them, and the institutions they're meant to serve." (I've written a little about this too.) The basic idea is that a senior leader can be instrumental -- which means they chase business goals/deliverables -- or heroic, which means they chase a vision or bigger idea. (You can also be "post-heroic.") If you think that a senior leader can really only be instrumental or ...
21.07.2015
Was reading this article just now, which then directed me to this paper on "the dehumanization of leadership." The paper speaks to a "disconnect between leaders, people supposed to follow them, and the institutions they're meant to serve." (I've written a little about this too.) The basic idea is that a senior leader can be instrumental -- which means they chase business goals/deliverables -- or heroic, which means they chase a vision or bigger idea. (You can also be "post-heroic.") If you think that a senior leader can really only be instrumental or ...
Engineering Serendipity
21.07.2015
I'd like to tell the story of a paradox: How do we bring the right people to the right place at the right time to discover something new, when we don't know who or where or when that is, let alone what it is we're looking for? This is the paradox of innovation: If so many discoveries - from penicillin to plastics - are the product of serendipity, why do we insist breakthroughs can somehow be planned? Why not embrace serendipity instead? Because here's an example of what happens when you don't. [...] The lesson? We still have no idea how to pursue what ...
21.07.2015
I'd like to tell the story of a paradox: How do we bring the right people to the right place at the right time to discover something new, when we don't know who or where or when that is, let alone what it is we're looking for? This is the paradox of innovation: If so many discoveries - from penicillin to plastics - are the product of serendipity, why do we insist breakthroughs can somehow be planned? Why not embrace serendipity instead? Because here's an example of what happens when you don't. [...] The lesson? We still have no idea how to pursue what ...
Social is something you are, not a tool you use
20.07.2015
We've got all the tools implemented, but people don't use them! What's wrong? Unfortunately, this is not too uncommon a statement. Organizations buy and install software for internal collaboration, pay the bill and then pray that staff will find them and use them just because they are there. Sure, some curious enthusiasts may find the new "cool tools" but you will not reach widespread adoption for a very long time unless you supplement the social enablement with changes to the way the organization works and with communication and motivation ...
20.07.2015
We've got all the tools implemented, but people don't use them! What's wrong? Unfortunately, this is not too uncommon a statement. Organizations buy and install software for internal collaboration, pay the bill and then pray that staff will find them and use them just because they are there. Sure, some curious enthusiasts may find the new "cool tools" but you will not reach widespread adoption for a very long time unless you supplement the social enablement with changes to the way the organization works and with communication and motivation ...
How to Improve Your Enterprise Content Collaboration Efforts with Social Intranet Software
20.07.2015
Collaboration is necessary to help any business grow. It's worked in the past, and it will work in the future. Without the help of others within your organization, things won't get done, and you will flounder. This could involve anything from making executive decisions to simple project management. It's especially true for project management tasks such as creating content for blogs, articles, and wikis ... and this is where enterprise content collaboration comes into play. What is Enterprise Content Collaboration? Enterprise Content Collaboration ...
20.07.2015
Collaboration is necessary to help any business grow. It's worked in the past, and it will work in the future. Without the help of others within your organization, things won't get done, and you will flounder. This could involve anything from making executive decisions to simple project management. It's especially true for project management tasks such as creating content for blogs, articles, and wikis ... and this is where enterprise content collaboration comes into play. What is Enterprise Content Collaboration? Enterprise Content Collaboration ...
Why Collaboration Works for Others, But Not for You
20.07.2015
by Sam Marshall - Imagine I told you about a wonderful family vacation I'd just enjoyed. Duly inspired, you book the same hotel, same excursions and visit the same restaurants. But your family finds it a drag. Why? Because your family is different -- maybe they don't like museums, or wanted more nightlife. It's the same with collaboration: for every success story you read, there will be dozens of companies that try the same thing and find it flops. For example, Altimeter Group founder Charlene Li recently reported that only 36 percent of companies said ...
20.07.2015
by Sam Marshall - Imagine I told you about a wonderful family vacation I'd just enjoyed. Duly inspired, you book the same hotel, same excursions and visit the same restaurants. But your family finds it a drag. Why? Because your family is different -- maybe they don't like museums, or wanted more nightlife. It's the same with collaboration: for every success story you read, there will be dozens of companies that try the same thing and find it flops. For example, Altimeter Group founder Charlene Li recently reported that only 36 percent of companies said ...
Communities and Organizational Change: Are You Asking The Right Strategic Questions?
20.07.2015
In my work building employee communities for Walgreens and other organizations I've have had to lead communities through change many times. While experiencing the impact of organizational change I've learned that it's critical to have a change plan for your community. It's also important to not only be reactive to change but you must be proactive too, which means that it's important to think strategically ahead of time about how change can impact your employee communities and internal social media program. Before pivotal moments of change occur it's ...
20.07.2015
In my work building employee communities for Walgreens and other organizations I've have had to lead communities through change many times. While experiencing the impact of organizational change I've learned that it's critical to have a change plan for your community. It's also important to not only be reactive to change but you must be proactive too, which means that it's important to think strategically ahead of time about how change can impact your employee communities and internal social media program. Before pivotal moments of change occur it's ...
Authority is given, respect is earned
20.07.2015
by Eric Lamers - Long before I was in senior management, my only goal was to become the "Boss" of a big company. But on my way up, I realized that being a boss and being a leader are two entirely different things. Bosses tell others what to do and have decision-making responsibilities. Leaders inspire those around them. "Many people think there is power in telling someone what to do. The truth is, finding a way to make something happen and being the person who finds a way to get things done, is where the power is." True leadership has been defined as ...
20.07.2015
by Eric Lamers - Long before I was in senior management, my only goal was to become the "Boss" of a big company. But on my way up, I realized that being a boss and being a leader are two entirely different things. Bosses tell others what to do and have decision-making responsibilities. Leaders inspire those around them. "Many people think there is power in telling someone what to do. The truth is, finding a way to make something happen and being the person who finds a way to get things done, is where the power is." True leadership has been defined as ...
Make Meaningful Work as Important as Results
20.07.2015
How well do you and your leaders balance performance and meaning in your workplace? If the only things that leaders demand are results and performance, players in your organization will do their best to deliver those things. This singular emphasis on results can, however, cause players to operate from an "I win, you lose" philosophy - and act to inhibit others' performance while they maximize their own. When players in your organization understand the context for their work and how their work benefits others in their communities, they have a hard time ...
20.07.2015
How well do you and your leaders balance performance and meaning in your workplace? If the only things that leaders demand are results and performance, players in your organization will do their best to deliver those things. This singular emphasis on results can, however, cause players to operate from an "I win, you lose" philosophy - and act to inhibit others' performance while they maximize their own. When players in your organization understand the context for their work and how their work benefits others in their communities, they have a hard time ...
5 Emotional Mistakes That Destroy Teams
20.07.2015
Teamwork is critical to success, but too many teams become dysfunctional when members don't have proper emotional intelligence. Success in our society is usually credited to the CEO, the president, the general, the hero who grew up an orphan and made it to the top all alone. Teamwork, though, is vastly underrated. If you want your company to be successful, you need to make sure your employees can function well together. Annie McKee, senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of Primal Leadership, writes in Harvard Business Review ...
20.07.2015
Teamwork is critical to success, but too many teams become dysfunctional when members don't have proper emotional intelligence. Success in our society is usually credited to the CEO, the president, the general, the hero who grew up an orphan and made it to the top all alone. Teamwork, though, is vastly underrated. If you want your company to be successful, you need to make sure your employees can function well together. Annie McKee, senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of Primal Leadership, writes in Harvard Business Review ...
Why You Have a Human Problem, Not a Company Problem
20.07.2015
Instead of saying your business can't do something, figure out how to hire someone who can get the job done. As I've been building my agency VaynerMedia over the last four to six years, there is something I often hear from clients, which is this: "Well, you do social, not digital. So we are going to go with _." Another thing we hear a lot? "You don't make commercials, so we're going to go ahead with ." What's even more interesting is when they say "You can't" instead of "You don't." That always makes me chuckle to myself. Why? Because I am flabbergasted ...
20.07.2015
Instead of saying your business can't do something, figure out how to hire someone who can get the job done. As I've been building my agency VaynerMedia over the last four to six years, there is something I often hear from clients, which is this: "Well, you do social, not digital. So we are going to go with _." Another thing we hear a lot? "You don't make commercials, so we're going to go ahead with ." What's even more interesting is when they say "You can't" instead of "You don't." That always makes me chuckle to myself. Why? Because I am flabbergasted ...
The 2020 Workplace
20.07.2015
by Harold Jarche - We cannot look at the 2020 workplace merely from the perspective of what will be different from today, as if these five years will pass in splendid isolation. How we think of work has changed over the millennia and one major factor has been our communications technologies. When communication changes, work does too, as well as our understanding of what is knowledge, and what it means to be knowledgeable. When our various civilizations shifted from a predominantly oral society to the rule of the written word, we saw the rise of kingdoms ...
20.07.2015
by Harold Jarche - We cannot look at the 2020 workplace merely from the perspective of what will be different from today, as if these five years will pass in splendid isolation. How we think of work has changed over the millennia and one major factor has been our communications technologies. When communication changes, work does too, as well as our understanding of what is knowledge, and what it means to be knowledgeable. When our various civilizations shifted from a predominantly oral society to the rule of the written word, we saw the rise of kingdoms ...
The 5 ways collaborating makes your business smarter
17.07.2015
Our experts reveal why collaboration is about more than just software. Over the past 50 years, technology has swept through the office, with computers, email, tablets and phones at the forefront. But while the technology underpinning the way we work has changed, sometimes our methods of working haven't. Many companies remain stuck in old ways of thinking and old workflows, and there's a sense such companies are living on borrowed time: as a more tech-savvy workforce emerges, they need to change to satisfy their employees' needs - or risk losing them. ...
17.07.2015
Our experts reveal why collaboration is about more than just software. Over the past 50 years, technology has swept through the office, with computers, email, tablets and phones at the forefront. But while the technology underpinning the way we work has changed, sometimes our methods of working haven't. Many companies remain stuck in old ways of thinking and old workflows, and there's a sense such companies are living on borrowed time: as a more tech-savvy workforce emerges, they need to change to satisfy their employees' needs - or risk losing them. ...
Big Learning
17.07.2015
by Simon Terry - Organisations need to rethink their approach to learning. It is no longer a function and an oft-neglected subset of the role of HR. Now it is clearer than ever that learning and the realisation of human capability is the function of organisations. Why do we come together? Organisational models are changing. There is much discussion of the potential of new ways of working and organising work. We are thinking about the post-work economy, the Uber-economy, holacracy, responsive organisations, the human-to-human economy or many other forms ...
17.07.2015
by Simon Terry - Organisations need to rethink their approach to learning. It is no longer a function and an oft-neglected subset of the role of HR. Now it is clearer than ever that learning and the realisation of human capability is the function of organisations. Why do we come together? Organisational models are changing. There is much discussion of the potential of new ways of working and organising work. We are thinking about the post-work economy, the Uber-economy, holacracy, responsive organisations, the human-to-human economy or many other forms ...
The KM community of practice should come last, not first
17.07.2015
by Nick Milton - It is tempting, when starting KM in your organisation, to set up a Knowledge Management community of practice as a way to demonstrate the value of communities. I suggest this may be a mistake! Of course knowledge management will need a community of practice, but there are three reasons why a KM CoP is not a good public early stage pilot project. Firstly in the early stages of KM, Knowledge Management is not yet a practice area. There is no large group of people in the organisation who have KM as their main role. They may be interested ...
17.07.2015
by Nick Milton - It is tempting, when starting KM in your organisation, to set up a Knowledge Management community of practice as a way to demonstrate the value of communities. I suggest this may be a mistake! Of course knowledge management will need a community of practice, but there are three reasons why a KM CoP is not a good public early stage pilot project. Firstly in the early stages of KM, Knowledge Management is not yet a practice area. There is no large group of people in the organisation who have KM as their main role. They may be interested ...
Secrets and Lies: An Ever-Present Knowledge Management Threat
17.07.2015
Managing knowledge effectively in today's organizations continues to grow in importance. Our recent research briefing highlights how this can play a key role in fostering innovation. The Conference Board of Canada's Council on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM) continues to investigate major themes in knowledge management (KM), and our most recent meeting featured a presentation from David Zweig from the University of Toronto. Professor Zweig has been studying a field called knowledge hiding for a number of years with some startling results. ...
17.07.2015
Managing knowledge effectively in today's organizations continues to grow in importance. Our recent research briefing highlights how this can play a key role in fostering innovation. The Conference Board of Canada's Council on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM) continues to investigate major themes in knowledge management (KM), and our most recent meeting featured a presentation from David Zweig from the University of Toronto. Professor Zweig has been studying a field called knowledge hiding for a number of years with some startling results. ...
Treat your employees as if they were customers
17.07.2015
by Bertrand Duperrin - One of the main challenges of digital transformation is aligning the internal and the external side, or, to be more specific, to make the one inspire the other and the other support the one. Besides that, facing new employee expectations caused by the evolution and digitization of society, I see many organizations being doubtful about how far they should go and saying "we're sick of employees behaving like customers". If I think some limits should be put to what is nothing else than consumerization of work, I think they're wrong ...
17.07.2015
by Bertrand Duperrin - One of the main challenges of digital transformation is aligning the internal and the external side, or, to be more specific, to make the one inspire the other and the other support the one. Besides that, facing new employee expectations caused by the evolution and digitization of society, I see many organizations being doubtful about how far they should go and saying "we're sick of employees behaving like customers". If I think some limits should be put to what is nothing else than consumerization of work, I think they're wrong ...
Bei Social Intranets geht's ums Ganze
16.07.2015
von Georg Kolb - Weltweit gibt es hohe Erwartungen im Hinblick darauf, was Social Intranets für die Produktivität tun können. Aber es klafft immer noch eine große Lücke zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit, die sich vor allem durch ein Missverständnis der Nutzerperspektive aufgetan hat. Hier geht's darum, wie wir das ändern müssen. Anspruch und Wirklichkeit Im Juli 2012 erhielt Social Software schließlich den Segen der Hohepriester des Managements. Das McKinsey Global Institute versprach, dass Wissensarbeiter in vollständig vernetzten Unternehmen ...
16.07.2015
von Georg Kolb - Weltweit gibt es hohe Erwartungen im Hinblick darauf, was Social Intranets für die Produktivität tun können. Aber es klafft immer noch eine große Lücke zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit, die sich vor allem durch ein Missverständnis der Nutzerperspektive aufgetan hat. Hier geht's darum, wie wir das ändern müssen. Anspruch und Wirklichkeit Im Juli 2012 erhielt Social Software schließlich den Segen der Hohepriester des Managements. Das McKinsey Global Institute versprach, dass Wissensarbeiter in vollständig vernetzten Unternehmen ...
Vier Erfolgsfaktoren von Social Intranets
16.07.2015
von Georg Kolb - 2014 hat das digitale Universum 4,4 Billionen GB erreicht, und es verdoppelt sich alle zwei Jahre, während die menschliche Fähigkeit Informationen zu verarbeiten immer gleich bleibt. Vor diesem Hintergrund hat der Kommunikationswissenschaftler Marty Kaplan aufgezeigt, dass wir in einer Ökonomie der Aufmerksamkeit (attention economy) leben. Das Intranet muss in diesem Umfeld um die Aufmerksamkeit des Nutzers konkurrieren können. Wie können wir das erreichen? Vier Erfolgsfaktoren Die Projekterfahrung hat uns gelehrt, dass es ...
16.07.2015
von Georg Kolb - 2014 hat das digitale Universum 4,4 Billionen GB erreicht, und es verdoppelt sich alle zwei Jahre, während die menschliche Fähigkeit Informationen zu verarbeiten immer gleich bleibt. Vor diesem Hintergrund hat der Kommunikationswissenschaftler Marty Kaplan aufgezeigt, dass wir in einer Ökonomie der Aufmerksamkeit (attention economy) leben. Das Intranet muss in diesem Umfeld um die Aufmerksamkeit des Nutzers konkurrieren können. Wie können wir das erreichen? Vier Erfolgsfaktoren Die Projekterfahrung hat uns gelehrt, dass es ...
Wissensmanagement in Social Enterprises
16.07.2015
Die proaktive Nutzung von Social Media sowie die visuelle Aufbereitung von Daten sind wichtige Tools für das Wissensmanagement von morgen. "Wissen ist Macht" - mit diesem Konzept sind die meisten der heute im Arbeitsleben stehenden Menschen vertraut. Schließlich wurden wir nach diesem Motto erzogen und auch in der Schule entsprechend sozialisiert: Was in Unternehmen heute Collaboration genannt wird und hoch gefragt ist, hieß im Klassenzimmer schlichtweg Abschreiben, war verpönt und wurde bestraft; denn nur, wer mehr weiß als die anderen, bekommt die ...
16.07.2015
Die proaktive Nutzung von Social Media sowie die visuelle Aufbereitung von Daten sind wichtige Tools für das Wissensmanagement von morgen. "Wissen ist Macht" - mit diesem Konzept sind die meisten der heute im Arbeitsleben stehenden Menschen vertraut. Schließlich wurden wir nach diesem Motto erzogen und auch in der Schule entsprechend sozialisiert: Was in Unternehmen heute Collaboration genannt wird und hoch gefragt ist, hieß im Klassenzimmer schlichtweg Abschreiben, war verpönt und wurde bestraft; denn nur, wer mehr weiß als die anderen, bekommt die ...
Working Out Loud: Better For You, Better For The Firm
16.07.2015
"'Working out loud' makes work better for both the individual and the firm. I'm trying to help as many people as possible put the ideas into practice" says John Stepper, Managing Director of a large global bank and author of "Working Out Loud", released in June 2015. Over a series of conversations, Stepper shared his experiences with internal social communications platforms and how organizations, and the people who work for them, are adopting new ways of working. Here is an edited version of those conversations. What are enterprise social collaboration ...
16.07.2015
"'Working out loud' makes work better for both the individual and the firm. I'm trying to help as many people as possible put the ideas into practice" says John Stepper, Managing Director of a large global bank and author of "Working Out Loud", released in June 2015. Over a series of conversations, Stepper shared his experiences with internal social communications platforms and how organizations, and the people who work for them, are adopting new ways of working. Here is an edited version of those conversations. What are enterprise social collaboration ...
How to implement an Enterprise Social Network
16.07.2015
70% of organisational change projects fail. Fact. Why? Amongst a myriad of things, people simply underestimate how hard it is to change behaviour. And that's exactly how you should approach the deployment of an Enterprise Social Network - as a change project. An Enterprise Social Network (ESN) is essentially a next generation social intranet used by organisations for colleagues (who might not ordinarily be able to collaborate with one another) to share files, information, ideas and best practice in real-time without any boundaries. An ESN can be a scary, ...
16.07.2015
70% of organisational change projects fail. Fact. Why? Amongst a myriad of things, people simply underestimate how hard it is to change behaviour. And that's exactly how you should approach the deployment of an Enterprise Social Network - as a change project. An Enterprise Social Network (ESN) is essentially a next generation social intranet used by organisations for colleagues (who might not ordinarily be able to collaborate with one another) to share files, information, ideas and best practice in real-time without any boundaries. An ESN can be a scary, ...
Best Practices for Change Management in Social Business
16.07.2015
As promised in the first part of our series on adoption and change management, Jive Talks: What's In It For Me? An Adoption St... | Jive Community, this second installment is all about the do's and don'ts of change management. This will not be an exhaustive list, but rather a list of eight items to help you wrap your head around best practices for change management and avoid some of the most common frustrations. Focus on the early adopters, not the resisters Ask why five times Always think about your audience Believe you can never communicate ...
16.07.2015
As promised in the first part of our series on adoption and change management, Jive Talks: What's In It For Me? An Adoption St... | Jive Community, this second installment is all about the do's and don'ts of change management. This will not be an exhaustive list, but rather a list of eight items to help you wrap your head around best practices for change management and avoid some of the most common frustrations. Focus on the early adopters, not the resisters Ask why five times Always think about your audience Believe you can never communicate ...
Five Killers of Corporate Culture
16.07.2015
There are so many awesome articles, graphs, and reports out there that speak to the importance of creating a healthy corporate culture (Quick note: the inaugural issue of our digital magazine is ALL about culture. Check it out here!) For instance, did you know that according to a BambooHR study, the top five reasons employees quit their jobs are that: Their bosses don't trust them They have differing thoughts of work expectations during time off They feel they have difficult coworkers Their bosses blame them for mistakes They feel their work environment ...
16.07.2015
There are so many awesome articles, graphs, and reports out there that speak to the importance of creating a healthy corporate culture (Quick note: the inaugural issue of our digital magazine is ALL about culture. Check it out here!) For instance, did you know that according to a BambooHR study, the top five reasons employees quit their jobs are that: Their bosses don't trust them They have differing thoughts of work expectations during time off They feel they have difficult coworkers Their bosses blame them for mistakes They feel their work environment ...
The actual problem: No one really knows how long things take at work
16.07.2015
I was thinking about this a little yesterday as I drove home (in sheeting rain), so I wanted to write something about it. It's not very scientific or anything -- it's more anecdotal -- but I still find it interesting. Let's start with the basics: At most jobs, people love to classify themselves as busy. It's the currency of the modern business world, honestly. Silos do exist in organizations -- X-people do X-thing, and Y-people do Y-thing. People are inherently different and two people can finish the same exact project in different amounts of time. ...
16.07.2015
I was thinking about this a little yesterday as I drove home (in sheeting rain), so I wanted to write something about it. It's not very scientific or anything -- it's more anecdotal -- but I still find it interesting. Let's start with the basics: At most jobs, people love to classify themselves as busy. It's the currency of the modern business world, honestly. Silos do exist in organizations -- X-people do X-thing, and Y-people do Y-thing. People are inherently different and two people can finish the same exact project in different amounts of time. ...
Eine neue Unternehmenskultur
15.07.2015
Oft ist es schwierig, einen Wandel der Unternehmenskultur herbeizuführen. Ein Umdenken in der Führungsriege und die sozialen Medien können bei der Veränderung unterstützen. Immer, wenn ich mit Mitarbeitern über einen Wandel der Unternehmenskultur sprechen möchte, wird zunächst auf die Geschäftsleitung verwiesen. Es ist kein Zufall, dass die Geschäftsführung das Gleiche über die Mitarbeiter denkt: "Wir müssen den Mitarbeitern Veränderungen aufzwingen." Zweifelsohne müssen Geschäftsführung und Mitarbeiter kooperieren, um einen Wandel der Unternehmenskultur ...
15.07.2015
Oft ist es schwierig, einen Wandel der Unternehmenskultur herbeizuführen. Ein Umdenken in der Führungsriege und die sozialen Medien können bei der Veränderung unterstützen. Immer, wenn ich mit Mitarbeitern über einen Wandel der Unternehmenskultur sprechen möchte, wird zunächst auf die Geschäftsleitung verwiesen. Es ist kein Zufall, dass die Geschäftsführung das Gleiche über die Mitarbeiter denkt: "Wir müssen den Mitarbeitern Veränderungen aufzwingen." Zweifelsohne müssen Geschäftsführung und Mitarbeiter kooperieren, um einen Wandel der Unternehmenskultur ...
Arbeiten in Netzwerkstrukturen - Teil 3: Das macht der Chef
15.07.2015
von Siegfried Lautenbacher - Kollaboratives Arbeiten bedeutet selbstbestimmtes Handeln, eigenständig seine Aufgaben erledigen und Ziele erreichen. Wer braucht da noch einen Chef? Meine Erkenntnis: Das System vernetztes Arbeiten funktioniert anders, aber nicht ohne ihn. Der autoritäre Boss, der trotz aller Widerstände gnadenlos sein Ding durchzieht, steht spätestens seit der Demokratisierung von Führung auf der roten Liste. Und wenn sich die zuvor noch mühseligen Arbeitsabläufe plötzlich wie von selbst zu erledigen und organisieren scheinen, sind die ...
15.07.2015
von Siegfried Lautenbacher - Kollaboratives Arbeiten bedeutet selbstbestimmtes Handeln, eigenständig seine Aufgaben erledigen und Ziele erreichen. Wer braucht da noch einen Chef? Meine Erkenntnis: Das System vernetztes Arbeiten funktioniert anders, aber nicht ohne ihn. Der autoritäre Boss, der trotz aller Widerstände gnadenlos sein Ding durchzieht, steht spätestens seit der Demokratisierung von Führung auf der roten Liste. Und wenn sich die zuvor noch mühseligen Arbeitsabläufe plötzlich wie von selbst zu erledigen und organisieren scheinen, sind die ...
Der Kelch der Arbeitswelt 4.0 geht an keiner Führungskraft vorbei
15.07.2015
von René Sternberg - Gut 30 Führungskräfte aus verschiedenen Branchen und Bereichen stellten sich am 01. Juli 2015 die Frage, wie in der Zukunft die eigene Arbeitswelt aussehen könnte. Dazu begaben sie sich ins imposante BMW-Werk in Leipzig und besuchten u.a. die dortige Fertigung, wo Facharbeiter und Roboter Hand in Hand arbeiten. René Sternberg von HIRSCHTEC diskutierte gemeinsam mit Führungskräften in einem Workshop, welcher von Common Purpose bei BMW organisiert wurde, über das Thema Arbeitswelt 4.0 - Was kommt auf uns zu und wie gestalten wir den ...
15.07.2015
von René Sternberg - Gut 30 Führungskräfte aus verschiedenen Branchen und Bereichen stellten sich am 01. Juli 2015 die Frage, wie in der Zukunft die eigene Arbeitswelt aussehen könnte. Dazu begaben sie sich ins imposante BMW-Werk in Leipzig und besuchten u.a. die dortige Fertigung, wo Facharbeiter und Roboter Hand in Hand arbeiten. René Sternberg von HIRSCHTEC diskutierte gemeinsam mit Führungskräften in einem Workshop, welcher von Common Purpose bei BMW organisiert wurde, über das Thema Arbeitswelt 4.0 - Was kommt auf uns zu und wie gestalten wir den ...
How enterprise social networks help build company culture
15.07.2015
Company culture is all-too-often equated with perks, like in-house single origin coffee or weekly themed happy hours. However, even the most generous perks in the world fall short when employees are disengaged and dissatisfied. For an employee who feels that their voice is not heard or that there is no opportunity for professional growth, free snacks just won't cut it. Cultivating a culture that motivates and engages employees goes deeper than that, and problem areas can be difficult to isolate. Fortunately, most companies already have a powerful tool ...
15.07.2015
Company culture is all-too-often equated with perks, like in-house single origin coffee or weekly themed happy hours. However, even the most generous perks in the world fall short when employees are disengaged and dissatisfied. For an employee who feels that their voice is not heard or that there is no opportunity for professional growth, free snacks just won't cut it. Cultivating a culture that motivates and engages employees goes deeper than that, and problem areas can be difficult to isolate. Fortunately, most companies already have a powerful tool ...
How to create a collaborative workplace
15.07.2015
The way we work today is vastly different from how we did in previous decades. Today's workforce is increasingly diverse, with more women and older workers than ever before, as well as being more globalised and connected. In order to understand how these changes are impacting employee wellbeing and how employers can successfully manage this over the next 15 years, Unum commissioned a report on the Future Workplace. One of the key trends identified in the report - the "Collaborative" workplace - is defined as one in which employees are encouraged to ...
15.07.2015
The way we work today is vastly different from how we did in previous decades. Today's workforce is increasingly diverse, with more women and older workers than ever before, as well as being more globalised and connected. In order to understand how these changes are impacting employee wellbeing and how employers can successfully manage this over the next 15 years, Unum commissioned a report on the Future Workplace. One of the key trends identified in the report - the "Collaborative" workplace - is defined as one in which employees are encouraged to ...
What makes collaboration software into social project management software?
15.07.2015
There is a fundamental difference between PM 2.0 and Social Project management. PM 2.0 was a blanket term used to describe the use of web 2.0 technologies as diverse as blogs and VoIP to help teams collaborate openly online. However, as we've previously argued, PM 2.0 and Social Project Management are fundamentally different. Unfortunately, the software tools industry tends to use the terms interchangeably. In order for collaboration software to function as social project management software, it must have several specific qualities. Integration with ...
15.07.2015
There is a fundamental difference between PM 2.0 and Social Project management. PM 2.0 was a blanket term used to describe the use of web 2.0 technologies as diverse as blogs and VoIP to help teams collaborate openly online. However, as we've previously argued, PM 2.0 and Social Project Management are fundamentally different. Unfortunately, the software tools industry tends to use the terms interchangeably. In order for collaboration software to function as social project management software, it must have several specific qualities. Integration with ...
6 Surprising Insights Of Successful Employee Engagement
15.07.2015
Finally, leaders are now convinced one of their last remaining competitive advantages lies with their people. Businesses have begun to signal to workers that their needs will now be honored on a scale only previously reserved for customers and shareholders. Raising employee engagement has become one of the highest priorities for organizations all around the globe, according to a 2015 Conference Board CEO study. While leaders have come to appreciate the importance of having a fully engaged workforce, they also have a very limited understanding of what ...
15.07.2015
Finally, leaders are now convinced one of their last remaining competitive advantages lies with their people. Businesses have begun to signal to workers that their needs will now be honored on a scale only previously reserved for customers and shareholders. Raising employee engagement has become one of the highest priorities for organizations all around the globe, according to a 2015 Conference Board CEO study. While leaders have come to appreciate the importance of having a fully engaged workforce, they also have a very limited understanding of what ...
Oh no! Avoid sinister underwebs!
15.07.2015
Developing the best governance framework will give the right support to your intranet and organisation. Don't forget your governance needs to help, not hinder, how people use the intranet. That is the best way that your intranet can support your organisation's goals. Governance needs people using your intranet to be confident in the integrity of the information and tools every time they use them. They can always rely on your intranet helping, not hindering, them with their work. Getting the right balance is critical to avoid a sinister underweb. You ...
15.07.2015
Developing the best governance framework will give the right support to your intranet and organisation. Don't forget your governance needs to help, not hinder, how people use the intranet. That is the best way that your intranet can support your organisation's goals. Governance needs people using your intranet to be confident in the integrity of the information and tools every time they use them. They can always rely on your intranet helping, not hindering, them with their work. Getting the right balance is critical to avoid a sinister underweb. You ...
COLK - the Cost of Lost Knowledge
15.07.2015
by Nick Milton - One the enduring challenges in Knowledge Management is defining effective metrics to measure its value. A promising metric which may fill the gap is the Lost Knowledge Frequency (LKF) and it's partner the Cost of Lost Knowledge. Image from wikimedia commons In safety management, they talk about "lost time incidents" (LTI), where through the failure of the safety management system, somebody sustains an injury which causes them to lose time at work, either through treatment or through convalescence. A core safety metric is the LTIFR, ...
15.07.2015
by Nick Milton - One the enduring challenges in Knowledge Management is defining effective metrics to measure its value. A promising metric which may fill the gap is the Lost Knowledge Frequency (LKF) and it's partner the Cost of Lost Knowledge. Image from wikimedia commons In safety management, they talk about "lost time incidents" (LTI), where through the failure of the safety management system, somebody sustains an injury which causes them to lose time at work, either through treatment or through convalescence. A core safety metric is the LTIFR, ...
CEB identifies organisational 'paradoxes' that compromise productivity
15.07.2015
The next big driver of corporate productivity, according to a study from CEB, lies in creating a 'one-company' culture that requires employees to become 'enterprise contributors'. The CEB's study, The Employee Performance Paradox: Balancing Execution with Impact argues that companies stand to boost revenue by $16,400 and profit by $2,500 per employee annually if they implement a one-company culture. "Our study demonstrates conclusively that both revenues and earnings increase when a company shifts its culture to focus on effective collaboration and ...
15.07.2015
The next big driver of corporate productivity, according to a study from CEB, lies in creating a 'one-company' culture that requires employees to become 'enterprise contributors'. The CEB's study, The Employee Performance Paradox: Balancing Execution with Impact argues that companies stand to boost revenue by $16,400 and profit by $2,500 per employee annually if they implement a one-company culture. "Our study demonstrates conclusively that both revenues and earnings increase when a company shifts its culture to focus on effective collaboration and ...
Is it time to join the enterprise social network?
14.07.2015
The enterprise social networking market is not what it once was. A couple of years ago, Richard Edwards, research analyst, Ovum analysed 13 products and identified a common theme of "providing a Facebook for the enterprise." Today, as the genre crosses over from visionary early adopters to the pragmatic early majority, vendors appear to be pointing their products in various different directions. "Consider this question if you are a business leader," Edwards asks. "What percentage of employees are involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their ...
14.07.2015
The enterprise social networking market is not what it once was. A couple of years ago, Richard Edwards, research analyst, Ovum analysed 13 products and identified a common theme of "providing a Facebook for the enterprise." Today, as the genre crosses over from visionary early adopters to the pragmatic early majority, vendors appear to be pointing their products in various different directions. "Consider this question if you are a business leader," Edwards asks. "What percentage of employees are involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their ...
Encouraging Curation and Sharing to Facilitate Discovery
14.07.2015
Abstract Helping users to find information which they didn't know existed is undoubtedly a challenge. Steve Bynghall identifies some of the key tactics which can be used to help make discovery more of a "push" activity and some steps central teams can take to encourage changes in user behaviour. Item In an age of ever-increasing amounts of data and digital activity as a source of commercial advantage, being able to do discovery well in the enterprise is becoming ever-more critical. Highlighting Critical Information Intelligent Software It's ...
14.07.2015
Abstract Helping users to find information which they didn't know existed is undoubtedly a challenge. Steve Bynghall identifies some of the key tactics which can be used to help make discovery more of a "push" activity and some steps central teams can take to encourage changes in user behaviour. Item In an age of ever-increasing amounts of data and digital activity as a source of commercial advantage, being able to do discovery well in the enterprise is becoming ever-more critical. Highlighting Critical Information Intelligent Software It's ...
Changing the Intranets Conversation
14.07.2015
Here we are at the six-month mark of 2015 -- how far have you gotten with your collaboration goals for this year? For the past few months we've been looking at what I call "The New Age of Intranets." Intranets held such promise in the early days of the Internet, but over time they became the butt of many a joke in the enterprise. Mad Men's Don Draper recommends, "If you don't like what people are saying about you -- change the conversation." The same can and should be said about the term "intranet." And as we and fellow Microsoft partners ...
14.07.2015
Here we are at the six-month mark of 2015 -- how far have you gotten with your collaboration goals for this year? For the past few months we've been looking at what I call "The New Age of Intranets." Intranets held such promise in the early days of the Internet, but over time they became the butt of many a joke in the enterprise. Mad Men's Don Draper recommends, "If you don't like what people are saying about you -- change the conversation." The same can and should be said about the term "intranet." And as we and fellow Microsoft partners ...
Untapping Hidden Value: A New Partnership Model for Corporate Knowledge Management and Innovation Functions
14.07.2015
In the current business environment, defined by some as the 'Knowledge Age', leadership interest is increasingly focused on Innovation and Knowledge Management development efforts. To date these functions often operate along parallel, yet discrete, paths. As organizations seek new areas of growth, while further cutting costs there is an increasing need to build more effective partnerships in order to ensure ongoing success and drive additional business value. Our most recent whitepaper, "Untapping Hidden Value," discusses some of the key challenges ...
14.07.2015
In the current business environment, defined by some as the 'Knowledge Age', leadership interest is increasingly focused on Innovation and Knowledge Management development efforts. To date these functions often operate along parallel, yet discrete, paths. As organizations seek new areas of growth, while further cutting costs there is an increasing need to build more effective partnerships in order to ensure ongoing success and drive additional business value. Our most recent whitepaper, "Untapping Hidden Value," discusses some of the key challenges ...
Quantified success stories 89 through 91 - Three more success stories from Fluor
14.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Here are three more quantified KM stories from Fluor, the US-based construction company, taken from a paper called The Institutionalization of Knowledge Management in an Engineering Organization by Amy Javernick Will. Fluor has a history of KM going back over a decade, and their annual Knowvember campaign attracts a host of KM success stories from the use of their KM Framework known as Knowledge Online. Some of these success stories are published , and here are three of them. One award winning story was from a member of the engineering ...
14.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Here are three more quantified KM stories from Fluor, the US-based construction company, taken from a paper called The Institutionalization of Knowledge Management in an Engineering Organization by Amy Javernick Will. Fluor has a history of KM going back over a decade, and their annual Knowvember campaign attracts a host of KM success stories from the use of their KM Framework known as Knowledge Online. Some of these success stories are published , and here are three of them. One award winning story was from a member of the engineering ...
It's My Knowledge
14.07.2015
Organisations' thirst for protecting proprietary knowledge sometimes extends to the desire to retain critical tacit knowledge of its experts. Whence the many discussions about the best methods used to 'capture' knowledge - as if tacit knowledge can truly be captured - and, of course, the challenges of effectively eliciting such knowledge in the first place. A logical question to ask is 'whose knowledge is it?' Opinions differ, depending on one's perspective as, say, an employee or an employer. Three years ago Nick Milton concluded that knowledge does ...
14.07.2015
Organisations' thirst for protecting proprietary knowledge sometimes extends to the desire to retain critical tacit knowledge of its experts. Whence the many discussions about the best methods used to 'capture' knowledge - as if tacit knowledge can truly be captured - and, of course, the challenges of effectively eliciting such knowledge in the first place. A logical question to ask is 'whose knowledge is it?' Opinions differ, depending on one's perspective as, say, an employee or an employer. Three years ago Nick Milton concluded that knowledge does ...
Just Because You're Happy Doesn't Mean You're Not Burned Out
14.07.2015
A new survey report just published by Staples Advantage offers a paradoxical set of findings about US office workers. Overwhelmingly, they are happy. Yet the majority of them feel burned out. How could both things be true? First, a look at the statistics. The good news is that 43% of respondents report being "very happy" at work, and another 43% say they are "somewhat happy." That is a fairly ringing endorsement of office work, especially in a culture where Dilbert comics and The Office have seemed to strike such a chord. The bad news, however, is that ...
14.07.2015
A new survey report just published by Staples Advantage offers a paradoxical set of findings about US office workers. Overwhelmingly, they are happy. Yet the majority of them feel burned out. How could both things be true? First, a look at the statistics. The good news is that 43% of respondents report being "very happy" at work, and another 43% say they are "somewhat happy." That is a fairly ringing endorsement of office work, especially in a culture where Dilbert comics and The Office have seemed to strike such a chord. The bad news, however, is that ...
Digital Leadership: Häuptlinge? Wir brauchen Stürmer!
13.07.2015
von Willms Buhse - In einem Artikel im Handelsblatt wird der Mangel an CDO's, also Chief Digital Officers, beklagt. Es fehle an "digitalen Häuptlingen" mit Einfluss im Unternehmen, um die digitale Transformation voran zu treiben. Das mag sein. Also, dass es zu wenig "digitale Häuptlinge" gibt. Unstrittig ist, dass digitale Prozesse und Innovationen in Deutschland viel zu wenig vorangetrieben werden. Aber das Einsetzen einflussreicher Häuptlinge ist für das Gelingen viel zu kurz gedacht. Wer schon einmal eine Führungskraft für "Digitales" in einem Unternehmen ...
13.07.2015
von Willms Buhse - In einem Artikel im Handelsblatt wird der Mangel an CDO's, also Chief Digital Officers, beklagt. Es fehle an "digitalen Häuptlingen" mit Einfluss im Unternehmen, um die digitale Transformation voran zu treiben. Das mag sein. Also, dass es zu wenig "digitale Häuptlinge" gibt. Unstrittig ist, dass digitale Prozesse und Innovationen in Deutschland viel zu wenig vorangetrieben werden. Aber das Einsetzen einflussreicher Häuptlinge ist für das Gelingen viel zu kurz gedacht. Wer schon einmal eine Führungskraft für "Digitales" in einem Unternehmen ...
Wie funktioniert Arbeit in einer digitalen Welt
13.07.2015
von Harald Schirmer - Als Weiterführung des wertvollen Artikels von Willms Buhse, möchte ich anhand einiger exemplarischer Erlebnisse schildern, wie ich Digitale Transformation erlebe, welche Effekte sichtbar werden und was dafür die Voraussetzung ist. Vielen Dank Willms für Deine Analyse und die Transparenz, es so deutlich anzusprechen. Nur zu oft wird versucht solch große Veränderungen an eine Position zu hängen oder in den engen Grenzen eines Projekts "managen" zu lassen. Wir müssen Veränderung neu denken - Im globalen und komplexen Umfeld reicht ...
13.07.2015
von Harald Schirmer - Als Weiterführung des wertvollen Artikels von Willms Buhse, möchte ich anhand einiger exemplarischer Erlebnisse schildern, wie ich Digitale Transformation erlebe, welche Effekte sichtbar werden und was dafür die Voraussetzung ist. Vielen Dank Willms für Deine Analyse und die Transparenz, es so deutlich anzusprechen. Nur zu oft wird versucht solch große Veränderungen an eine Position zu hängen oder in den engen Grenzen eines Projekts "managen" zu lassen. Wir müssen Veränderung neu denken - Im globalen und komplexen Umfeld reicht ...
Working Out Loud - Methode mit Potential
13.07.2015
von Simon Dückert - Im ständigen Gewitter von Marketingbregriffen und Schlagworten sind selten Ansätze mit echtem Potential für das Wissensmanagement dabei. Doch manchmal gibt es Ausnahmen. Beispiele aus der jüngeren Vergangenheit sind aus meiner Sicht Barcamps, Flipped Classroom, Podcast, MOOCs, Design Thinking und auch Working Out Loud (#WOL). Vor kurzem hatte sich auf Basis des Ansatzes von John Stepper (Deutsche Bank, USA) eine deutschsprachige Community formiert. Um erste Erfahrungen mit der Methode zu sammeln, gingen aus dieser Community drei ...
13.07.2015
von Simon Dückert - Im ständigen Gewitter von Marketingbregriffen und Schlagworten sind selten Ansätze mit echtem Potential für das Wissensmanagement dabei. Doch manchmal gibt es Ausnahmen. Beispiele aus der jüngeren Vergangenheit sind aus meiner Sicht Barcamps, Flipped Classroom, Podcast, MOOCs, Design Thinking und auch Working Out Loud (#WOL). Vor kurzem hatte sich auf Basis des Ansatzes von John Stepper (Deutsche Bank, USA) eine deutschsprachige Community formiert. Um erste Erfahrungen mit der Methode zu sammeln, gingen aus dieser Community drei ...
Are you ready to become a social business?
13.07.2015
If you're thinking about creating your ESN, you may discover a range of useful lessons by talking to your external communications colleagues argues Peter Furtado of simplysucceed. Many internal communicators are stepping up to the mark to move beyond the traditional broadcast nature of the role and taking ownership of internal social communications for their businesses. It can be a big challenge - asking for new skills and a new, higher-profile, more free-wheeling role in the business. Faced with a steep learning curve for implementing, managing and ...
13.07.2015
If you're thinking about creating your ESN, you may discover a range of useful lessons by talking to your external communications colleagues argues Peter Furtado of simplysucceed. Many internal communicators are stepping up to the mark to move beyond the traditional broadcast nature of the role and taking ownership of internal social communications for their businesses. It can be a big challenge - asking for new skills and a new, higher-profile, more free-wheeling role in the business. Faced with a steep learning curve for implementing, managing and ...
KM and Simple Rules
13.07.2015
by Nick Milton - How do Simple Rules help share or prompt knowledge in a complex world? Another excellent blog post from the Farnham Street blog reviews Donald Sull and Kathleen Eisenhardt's book "Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World". This book described the development of what we might call heuristics, or "rules of thumb" as simple ways to guide behaviour. As they define them, simple rules refer to "a handful of guidelines tailored to the user and the task at hand, which balance concrete guidance with the freedom to exercise judgement." ...
13.07.2015
by Nick Milton - How do Simple Rules help share or prompt knowledge in a complex world? Another excellent blog post from the Farnham Street blog reviews Donald Sull and Kathleen Eisenhardt's book "Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World". This book described the development of what we might call heuristics, or "rules of thumb" as simple ways to guide behaviour. As they define them, simple rules refer to "a handful of guidelines tailored to the user and the task at hand, which balance concrete guidance with the freedom to exercise judgement." ...
Yes, But How? Five Choices for Re-Tooling Your Culture
13.07.2015
The symptoms are in plain sight: low morale and engagement; silos preventing collaboration; the rise of troublesome sub-cultures. You know your organization's culture needs work. But, how? Consciously changing - even tweaking - your company culture is hard work. There is no tried-and-true 12-step program. There are, however, choices you can make that will help you repair a damaged culture or sustain and grow a positive one over time. Here are five you can implement now. Decide that your culture is a competitive tool Inspect and act on what you ...
13.07.2015
The symptoms are in plain sight: low morale and engagement; silos preventing collaboration; the rise of troublesome sub-cultures. You know your organization's culture needs work. But, how? Consciously changing - even tweaking - your company culture is hard work. There is no tried-and-true 12-step program. There are, however, choices you can make that will help you repair a damaged culture or sustain and grow a positive one over time. Here are five you can implement now. Decide that your culture is a competitive tool Inspect and act on what you ...
Here's Why You Should Care About Holacracy
13.07.2015
This article is by Adam Pisoni, co-founder and former CTO of Yammer. He is also a founder of Responsive.org, a new movement dedicated to helping companies become more agile, adaptive and empowering. I recently spent a month embedded at a consultancy called Undercurrent, watching how they help organizations become more adaptive and responsive. It's a transformative concept I've been thinking about a lot lately -- including the fact that there isn't a common language to succinctly explain what responsive means in this context. So I'll ...
13.07.2015
This article is by Adam Pisoni, co-founder and former CTO of Yammer. He is also a founder of Responsive.org, a new movement dedicated to helping companies become more agile, adaptive and empowering. I recently spent a month embedded at a consultancy called Undercurrent, watching how they help organizations become more adaptive and responsive. It's a transformative concept I've been thinking about a lot lately -- including the fact that there isn't a common language to succinctly explain what responsive means in this context. So I'll ...
Die digitale Zukunft gehört den Netzwerken (Teil 1)
10.07.2015
Die hierarchische Arbeitsweise, in der alles von oben nach unten durchgebetet wird, ist endgültig passé. Zumindest dann, wenn man die neuesten empirischen Erkenntnisse über vernetztes Arbeiten kennt und als ernstes Unternehmensziel betrachtet. Das beteuern aktuell auch viele Unternehmen. Und schlagen dennoch nur in Tippelschritten ihren Weg Richtung kollaborative Zusammenarbeit ein. Ein guter Anlass für uns, genauer zu analysieren, aus welchen "Unternehmensecken" die wahren Impulse für das Netzwerken mit Produktivitätsgewinn kommen. Wir machen das in ...
10.07.2015
Die hierarchische Arbeitsweise, in der alles von oben nach unten durchgebetet wird, ist endgültig passé. Zumindest dann, wenn man die neuesten empirischen Erkenntnisse über vernetztes Arbeiten kennt und als ernstes Unternehmensziel betrachtet. Das beteuern aktuell auch viele Unternehmen. Und schlagen dennoch nur in Tippelschritten ihren Weg Richtung kollaborative Zusammenarbeit ein. Ein guter Anlass für uns, genauer zu analysieren, aus welchen "Unternehmensecken" die wahren Impulse für das Netzwerken mit Produktivitätsgewinn kommen. Wir machen das in ...
Warum Mitarbeit im Netzwerk zentral ist (Teil 2)
10.07.2015
In diesem Beitrag wenden wir uns dem fürs Netzwerk zentralen Aspekt der Mitarbeiter*innen, vor allem ihrer aktiven Mitarbeit, zu. Denn es ist keine Frage mehr, ob die Mitarbeiter sich vernetzen sollen, sondern nur noch eine Frage, wie eine solche Vernetzung so gestaltet werden kann, dass die Beschäftigten von sich aus aktiv werden. Aus unserer Sicht kommt es beim Vernetzen nämlich zentral auf die aktive und eigenständige Mitarbeit der Mitarbeiter an. Diese muss man dafür aber erst einmal - und vor allem freiwillig - gewinnen. Hinzu kommt, sie zu befähigen. ...
10.07.2015
In diesem Beitrag wenden wir uns dem fürs Netzwerk zentralen Aspekt der Mitarbeiter*innen, vor allem ihrer aktiven Mitarbeit, zu. Denn es ist keine Frage mehr, ob die Mitarbeiter sich vernetzen sollen, sondern nur noch eine Frage, wie eine solche Vernetzung so gestaltet werden kann, dass die Beschäftigten von sich aus aktiv werden. Aus unserer Sicht kommt es beim Vernetzen nämlich zentral auf die aktive und eigenständige Mitarbeit der Mitarbeiter an. Diese muss man dafür aber erst einmal - und vor allem freiwillig - gewinnen. Hinzu kommt, sie zu befähigen. ...
Why you need an enterprise social network
10.07.2015
The enterprise social networking market is not what it once was. Eighteen months ago I analysed 13 products and identified a common theme of "providing a Facebook for the enterprise." Today, as the genre crosses over from visionary early adopters to the pragmatic early majority, vendors appear to be pointing their products in various different directions. Finding the antidote for corporate dissonance and employee disengagement Consider this question if you are a business leader: What percentage of employees are involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed ...
10.07.2015
The enterprise social networking market is not what it once was. Eighteen months ago I analysed 13 products and identified a common theme of "providing a Facebook for the enterprise." Today, as the genre crosses over from visionary early adopters to the pragmatic early majority, vendors appear to be pointing their products in various different directions. Finding the antidote for corporate dissonance and employee disengagement Consider this question if you are a business leader: What percentage of employees are involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed ...
Avoid this rookie mistake with your enterprise social network
10.07.2015
by Gerard Richardson - Many companies haven't a clue when it comes to running a social network inside their business. There is an assumption, because of the prevalence of Twitter, Facebook and the like, that all you need to do is plug one into a company's mainframe and away you go. Plug and pray. All I can say is 'good luck!'. You'd be forgiven for thinking they are the same. Internal social networks have all the same accoutrements you find on external ones, lulling us into a false sense of familiarity. Follow buttons, like buttons, activity streams, ...
10.07.2015
by Gerard Richardson - Many companies haven't a clue when it comes to running a social network inside their business. There is an assumption, because of the prevalence of Twitter, Facebook and the like, that all you need to do is plug one into a company's mainframe and away you go. Plug and pray. All I can say is 'good luck!'. You'd be forgiven for thinking they are the same. Internal social networks have all the same accoutrements you find on external ones, lulling us into a false sense of familiarity. Follow buttons, like buttons, activity streams, ...
Knowledge Management: A 3-Step Primer
10.07.2015
Corporate Knowledge Management is starting to gain popularity as the 'big data' hype wears off and organisations start to focus more on the information that will bring real value. With any luck, the days of chucking a whole load of mess into a magical (and very expensive) big data engine in the hopes of maybe finding something insightful to the business will soon be over. That's not to say it's a bad idea - companies spend huge amounts of money paying workers to become experts in their fields, create documentation, interact with clients and other experts, ...
10.07.2015
Corporate Knowledge Management is starting to gain popularity as the 'big data' hype wears off and organisations start to focus more on the information that will bring real value. With any luck, the days of chucking a whole load of mess into a magical (and very expensive) big data engine in the hopes of maybe finding something insightful to the business will soon be over. That's not to say it's a bad idea - companies spend huge amounts of money paying workers to become experts in their fields, create documentation, interact with clients and other experts, ...
Should KM change the culture, or work with the culture?
10.07.2015
by Nick Milton - If the culture of your organisation makes Knowledge Management difficult, what do you do? Seek to change the culture? Or work your way around the different cultural elements? I was reading a book about legal KM at the weekend, and the author (quite rightly) identified the hourly billing culture of many law firms as being inimical to Knowledge Management, largely because it drives individualism through setting personal targets. The author frequently asserted that "Knowledge Management needs a collaborative culture to be successful" and ...
10.07.2015
by Nick Milton - If the culture of your organisation makes Knowledge Management difficult, what do you do? Seek to change the culture? Or work your way around the different cultural elements? I was reading a book about legal KM at the weekend, and the author (quite rightly) identified the hourly billing culture of many law firms as being inimical to Knowledge Management, largely because it drives individualism through setting personal targets. The author frequently asserted that "Knowledge Management needs a collaborative culture to be successful" and ...
CEO: This job is almost impossible
10.07.2015
by Simon Terry - I am very pleased to be sharing with you today my first post as CEO. Apologies if it seems a little frazzled. I am by the challenges ahead but that's also because I am writing at home surrounded by the turmoil of my young family. I thought I would pass over the usual inspiring memo and start a conversation here in our enterprise social network. I am humbled by the many posts here that saw me selected as your CEO. I now have a great challenge ahead to honour that confidence in my potential as a leader and to use my new position wisely. ...
10.07.2015
by Simon Terry - I am very pleased to be sharing with you today my first post as CEO. Apologies if it seems a little frazzled. I am by the challenges ahead but that's also because I am writing at home surrounded by the turmoil of my young family. I thought I would pass over the usual inspiring memo and start a conversation here in our enterprise social network. I am humbled by the many posts here that saw me selected as your CEO. I now have a great challenge ahead to honour that confidence in my potential as a leader and to use my new position wisely. ...
"Working Out Loud": Using the Tools We Already Have
09.07.2015
by Sahana Chattopadhyay - While the concept of "working out loud" has been gaining popularity, thanks to the work done by thought-leaders like Jane Bozarth (Show Your Work), John Stepper (Working Out Loud), Austin Kleon (Show Your Work) and such, I still encounter bemused looks when I bring up this topic. I wrote about the strategies and benefits of working out loud earlier here and here. In this post, I want to break down the activities based on the tools/platforms we already have at our disposal, and often access on a daily basis. These tools are ...
09.07.2015
by Sahana Chattopadhyay - While the concept of "working out loud" has been gaining popularity, thanks to the work done by thought-leaders like Jane Bozarth (Show Your Work), John Stepper (Working Out Loud), Austin Kleon (Show Your Work) and such, I still encounter bemused looks when I bring up this topic. I wrote about the strategies and benefits of working out loud earlier here and here. In this post, I want to break down the activities based on the tools/platforms we already have at our disposal, and often access on a daily basis. These tools are ...
Two reasons why HR needs to invest in social collaboration
09.07.2015
With its benefits including more effective and streamlined communications throughout the organisation and better connecting staff, it's perhaps not surprising that in many organisations a social collaboration initiative begins in the internal communications department; often it's in conjunction with a need to overhaul or reinvigorate the corporate intranet, or to support efforts to unify a disconnected and siloed organisation, perhaps following one or more acquisitions or mergers. However, the benefits of social collaboration also offer great ...
09.07.2015
With its benefits including more effective and streamlined communications throughout the organisation and better connecting staff, it's perhaps not surprising that in many organisations a social collaboration initiative begins in the internal communications department; often it's in conjunction with a need to overhaul or reinvigorate the corporate intranet, or to support efforts to unify a disconnected and siloed organisation, perhaps following one or more acquisitions or mergers. However, the benefits of social collaboration also offer great ...
Why Every Company Should Manage Knowledge
09.07.2015
What is true competitive advantage? Often we see companies trying to compete on speed, efficiency, price, quality or design, but aren't these competitive advantages that can be quickly eroded? What more in the fast-moving economies that we operate in today. Instead, true competitive advantage is one that is enduring. It shouldn't lie in processes, products or computers, but within people. After all, employees hold the know-how and analytical skills that enable companies to deal expertly with the needs of their customers and with other situations that ...
09.07.2015
What is true competitive advantage? Often we see companies trying to compete on speed, efficiency, price, quality or design, but aren't these competitive advantages that can be quickly eroded? What more in the fast-moving economies that we operate in today. Instead, true competitive advantage is one that is enduring. It shouldn't lie in processes, products or computers, but within people. After all, employees hold the know-how and analytical skills that enable companies to deal expertly with the needs of their customers and with other situations that ...
How to sustain Knowledge Management
09.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Many Knowledge Management initiatives fail to get going. Others succeed initially, yet fail once the KM implementation team is removed. And yet some are sustained for the long term, with KM becoming "part of the way we work". What do these organisations do differently? KM is a major culture change, and culture change is very difficult to do. Organisations will reject anything that is counter cultural - anything that is "at odds with traditional management". Great KM programs often fail when they are not treated as culture change programs, ...
09.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Many Knowledge Management initiatives fail to get going. Others succeed initially, yet fail once the KM implementation team is removed. And yet some are sustained for the long term, with KM becoming "part of the way we work". What do these organisations do differently? KM is a major culture change, and culture change is very difficult to do. Organisations will reject anything that is counter cultural - anything that is "at odds with traditional management". Great KM programs often fail when they are not treated as culture change programs, ...
Organizational Culture in Corrupt Companies
09.07.2015
Fighting corruption has reached new heights on the global agenda, driven by the recognition that corruption fuels inequality, poverty, conflict, terrorism and failures of development. Governments in India, Brazil, the UK, Canada, China and some other countries have followed enforcement of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by promulgating national anti-corruption laws that focus on the bribery of public officials by companies, generally with sweeping extraterritorial authority. The appropriate corporate response, we are told, is to build anti-corruption ...
09.07.2015
Fighting corruption has reached new heights on the global agenda, driven by the recognition that corruption fuels inequality, poverty, conflict, terrorism and failures of development. Governments in India, Brazil, the UK, Canada, China and some other countries have followed enforcement of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by promulgating national anti-corruption laws that focus on the bribery of public officials by companies, generally with sweeping extraterritorial authority. The appropriate corporate response, we are told, is to build anti-corruption ...
Arbeiten in Netzwerkstrukturen - Teil 2: So werden Mitarbeiter überzeugt
08.07.2015
von Siegfried Lautenbacher - "Öffentliches Arbeiten fördert das Mitarbeiter-Engagement", proklamieren die Marktforscher von Gartner. Und meinen damit nichts anderes als gemeinsam teamübergreifend und in möglichst schicken Communities gemeinsam an Projekten zu arbeiten. Was aber, wenn das der betreffende Mitarbeiter anders sieht? Aus unseren Projekten weiß ich, dass meist nicht die Mehrheit der Mitarbeiter aus freien Stücken zum vernetzen Arbeiten und in den offenen Austausch mit Kollegen startet. Der Rest will erst noch überzeugt und dann befähigt werden, ...
08.07.2015
von Siegfried Lautenbacher - "Öffentliches Arbeiten fördert das Mitarbeiter-Engagement", proklamieren die Marktforscher von Gartner. Und meinen damit nichts anderes als gemeinsam teamübergreifend und in möglichst schicken Communities gemeinsam an Projekten zu arbeiten. Was aber, wenn das der betreffende Mitarbeiter anders sieht? Aus unseren Projekten weiß ich, dass meist nicht die Mehrheit der Mitarbeiter aus freien Stücken zum vernetzen Arbeiten und in den offenen Austausch mit Kollegen startet. Der Rest will erst noch überzeugt und dann befähigt werden, ...
SAP Study: Social Collaboration Measurably Improves Business Value and Helps Recover Sunk Costs
08.07.2015
Companies may lose as much as US$ 30,000 per employee per year due to inefficiency, a new study commissioned by SAP SE revealed today, but collaboration technology can enable workers to connect and share information in real-time, driving measurable business results to compensate for this loss. These results and opportunities to improve line of business-specific KPIs were found in an IDC-commissioned study* on the business value of social solutions. According to the research, workers are severely hampered by everyday tasks, including reading and responding ...
08.07.2015
Companies may lose as much as US$ 30,000 per employee per year due to inefficiency, a new study commissioned by SAP SE revealed today, but collaboration technology can enable workers to connect and share information in real-time, driving measurable business results to compensate for this loss. These results and opportunities to improve line of business-specific KPIs were found in an IDC-commissioned study* on the business value of social solutions. According to the research, workers are severely hampered by everyday tasks, including reading and responding ...
Grab the Collaboration Bull by the Horns
08.07.2015
The promises of collaboration entices many organizations, but it's not always the holy grail that it seems. Investments end up simply being written off and the initial enthusiasm fades to just a whimper. Having worked with many organizations to understand why this happens, I've found that there are some key tricks to avoiding this risk, and some really common mistakes that organizations make. Plan For an Initiative, Not a Project Be Clear How Better Collaboration Will Benefit You It makes it easier for people to buy in to your initiative It ...
08.07.2015
The promises of collaboration entices many organizations, but it's not always the holy grail that it seems. Investments end up simply being written off and the initial enthusiasm fades to just a whimper. Having worked with many organizations to understand why this happens, I've found that there are some key tricks to avoiding this risk, and some really common mistakes that organizations make. Plan For an Initiative, Not a Project Be Clear How Better Collaboration Will Benefit You It makes it easier for people to buy in to your initiative It ...
Enterprise Social Network Tradeoffs
08.07.2015
by Stan Garfield - When starting an Enterprise Social Network (ESN), it's important to explain to targeted users Why should they use the ESN: What are the advantages and benefits? When to use the ESN: What is does better than other ways of working How should they use the ESN: Train them on using the ESN effectively Numerous tradeoffs must be made when selecting and implementing ESNs. Here are ten categories to consider. There are no right or wrong choices. Each organization needs to choose according to their culture and requirements. Size Small vs. ...
08.07.2015
by Stan Garfield - When starting an Enterprise Social Network (ESN), it's important to explain to targeted users Why should they use the ESN: What are the advantages and benefits? When to use the ESN: What is does better than other ways of working How should they use the ESN: Train them on using the ESN effectively Numerous tradeoffs must be made when selecting and implementing ESNs. Here are ten categories to consider. There are no right or wrong choices. Each organization needs to choose according to their culture and requirements. Size Small vs. ...
Myths of the 21st century organization and the sad truth about enterprise collaboration
08.07.2015
There have been 2 milestones in my story with online collaboration tools. First, at the turn of the century, these have helped me to get out of a very tricky professional situation. Then I was fascinated by the geek culture after I joined an innovative start-up in 2004, where everybody would use such tools while collaborating in a very efficient way. And I kept on telling myself : why on earth isn't everyone working like this ? This is fun, exciting, engaging I need to tell the world this is the way to go. I have been a very active supporter of these ...
08.07.2015
There have been 2 milestones in my story with online collaboration tools. First, at the turn of the century, these have helped me to get out of a very tricky professional situation. Then I was fascinated by the geek culture after I joined an innovative start-up in 2004, where everybody would use such tools while collaborating in a very efficient way. And I kept on telling myself : why on earth isn't everyone working like this ? This is fun, exciting, engaging I need to tell the world this is the way to go. I have been a very active supporter of these ...
Intranet news: still relevant in the age of social?
08.07.2015
As we have written about a lot lately, the goals and motivations for your company intranet are changing. One traditional function, company news, may be in for an overhaul. Social activity feeds, for many organizations, have become the centerpiece of the modern intranet. Their conversational nature and instantly consumable short format coupled with their capacity for immediacy, personal and contextual relevance cements their position as one of the more significant innovations to hit the intranet in years. Does the pervasiveness of the activity feed mean ...
08.07.2015
As we have written about a lot lately, the goals and motivations for your company intranet are changing. One traditional function, company news, may be in for an overhaul. Social activity feeds, for many organizations, have become the centerpiece of the modern intranet. Their conversational nature and instantly consumable short format coupled with their capacity for immediacy, personal and contextual relevance cements their position as one of the more significant innovations to hit the intranet in years. Does the pervasiveness of the activity feed mean ...
What the Best Social Media Community Managers Actually Do in Their Jobs
08.07.2015
Searching for someone to run your social media efforts can be both an eye-opening and frustrating experience. It might seem that, of the applicants who can boast any goal or metric from their job, the one thing they point to doing is "driving engagement." While engagement metrics can be tied back to a business' bottom line, more often than not, social media marketers aren't moving the metrics CEOs care about. Years after the very first "Can we measure the ROI of social media?" blog post, the role of the social media community manager hasn't ...
08.07.2015
Searching for someone to run your social media efforts can be both an eye-opening and frustrating experience. It might seem that, of the applicants who can boast any goal or metric from their job, the one thing they point to doing is "driving engagement." While engagement metrics can be tied back to a business' bottom line, more often than not, social media marketers aren't moving the metrics CEOs care about. Years after the very first "Can we measure the ROI of social media?" blog post, the role of the social media community manager hasn't ...
"Management ist tot"
07.07.2015
Für Niels Pfläging ist die klassische Unternehmensführung ein Relikt aus grauer Vorzeit und untauglich für unsere komplexe Welt. Seine These ist aufsehenerregend und er vertritt sie mit Leidenschaft. Die ist in annähernd jedem seiner Sätze herauszuhören. "Können Sie noch folgen?", fragt Niels Pfläging zwischendurch, wohl in Sorge, dass sein Enthusiasmus seiner Stimme voraus ist. Herr Pfläging, Sie sagen, dass Komplexität Management den Garaus macht. Wie ist das zu verstehen - erfordern nicht gerade komplexe Systeme Management? Was genau ist passiert? ...
07.07.2015
Für Niels Pfläging ist die klassische Unternehmensführung ein Relikt aus grauer Vorzeit und untauglich für unsere komplexe Welt. Seine These ist aufsehenerregend und er vertritt sie mit Leidenschaft. Die ist in annähernd jedem seiner Sätze herauszuhören. "Können Sie noch folgen?", fragt Niels Pfläging zwischendurch, wohl in Sorge, dass sein Enthusiasmus seiner Stimme voraus ist. Herr Pfläging, Sie sagen, dass Komplexität Management den Garaus macht. Wie ist das zu verstehen - erfordern nicht gerade komplexe Systeme Management? Was genau ist passiert? ...
Social Media trifft Mitarbeiter - Enterprise 2.0 Interview
07.07.2015
Fast jedes Unternehmen nutzt heutzutage Social Media als Bestandteil des Marketing-Mixes. Während die Kommunikation der Unternehmen nach außen über die sozialen Netzwerke immer selbstverständlicher wird, hinkt die Nutzung modernster Web 2.0 Technologien bei der internen Kommunikation oftmals hinterher. Im Rahmen unsere Weiterbildungen zum Social Media Manager (IHK) ist deshalb dieser Bereich, bekannt unter den Fachbergriffen Enterprise 2.0 oder Social Business, immer ein Schwerpunktthema. Thomas Dörmann, technischer Architekt für Customer Service bei ...
07.07.2015
Fast jedes Unternehmen nutzt heutzutage Social Media als Bestandteil des Marketing-Mixes. Während die Kommunikation der Unternehmen nach außen über die sozialen Netzwerke immer selbstverständlicher wird, hinkt die Nutzung modernster Web 2.0 Technologien bei der internen Kommunikation oftmals hinterher. Im Rahmen unsere Weiterbildungen zum Social Media Manager (IHK) ist deshalb dieser Bereich, bekannt unter den Fachbergriffen Enterprise 2.0 oder Social Business, immer ein Schwerpunktthema. Thomas Dörmann, technischer Architekt für Customer Service bei ...
Top 5 Reasons Why Collaboration on Intranets Fail
07.07.2015
Today, we have more ways to communicate with each other than at any other time in history. I personally receive daily phone calls, text messages, tweets, blog post updates, emails, Facebook status updates and a post card every six months from my dentist. Why then, with so many options, is organizational collaboration still so difficult to get right? Aren't intranets supposed to fix this? This might sound strange coming from me, the Product Manager at Intranet Connections, but technology alone is not the answer. Intranet Connections provides a plethora ...
07.07.2015
Today, we have more ways to communicate with each other than at any other time in history. I personally receive daily phone calls, text messages, tweets, blog post updates, emails, Facebook status updates and a post card every six months from my dentist. Why then, with so many options, is organizational collaboration still so difficult to get right? Aren't intranets supposed to fix this? This might sound strange coming from me, the Product Manager at Intranet Connections, but technology alone is not the answer. Intranet Connections provides a plethora ...
Collaborating Online Is Sometimes Better than Face-to-Face
07.07.2015
If you're embracing online collaboration as a necessary evil -- the only way to work with an increasingly dispersed team of global or remote workers, for example -- then you're doing it wrong. Online collaboration is not a second-best substitute for face-to-face work: It's a complement with its own perks and benefits. Yes, knitting your team together with online communication tools like Yammer and Slack can help you mitigate the disruptive impact of people working from home instead of at the office. Yes, team-oriented project management tools like Basecamp ...
07.07.2015
If you're embracing online collaboration as a necessary evil -- the only way to work with an increasingly dispersed team of global or remote workers, for example -- then you're doing it wrong. Online collaboration is not a second-best substitute for face-to-face work: It's a complement with its own perks and benefits. Yes, knitting your team together with online communication tools like Yammer and Slack can help you mitigate the disruptive impact of people working from home instead of at the office. Yes, team-oriented project management tools like Basecamp ...
8 ways to transfer knowledge to another team
07.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Imagine you have identified some lessons or new knowledge within a work team. How do you pass them on? There are 8 different contexts which determine how you might approach this. I am a great believer in tailoring your approach to circumstances, and the circumstances you need to consider are as follows: Who needs the knowledge? The same team as generated it, or a different team? When do they need it? Now, or at some undetermined time in the future? Where are they? Near enough to sit down with, or somewhere remote? So we have three variables, ...
07.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Imagine you have identified some lessons or new knowledge within a work team. How do you pass them on? There are 8 different contexts which determine how you might approach this. I am a great believer in tailoring your approach to circumstances, and the circumstances you need to consider are as follows: Who needs the knowledge? The same team as generated it, or a different team? When do they need it? Now, or at some undetermined time in the future? Where are they? Near enough to sit down with, or somewhere remote? So we have three variables, ...
Why It's Everyone's Job to Be a Thought Leader
07.07.2015
What does your brand really say? Does your audience turn to you for expert insight on the issues that affect them? In other words, are you merely a participant in conversations -- or do you drive the conversations? Being a thought leader -- an organization or individual looked upon as an expert in their field, and that strongly influences others' perspectives -- builds recognition for your business and attracts new customers. But how does your organization become known as a thought leader? Certainly, it boosts your profile when your employees and executives ...
07.07.2015
What does your brand really say? Does your audience turn to you for expert insight on the issues that affect them? In other words, are you merely a participant in conversations -- or do you drive the conversations? Being a thought leader -- an organization or individual looked upon as an expert in their field, and that strongly influences others' perspectives -- builds recognition for your business and attracts new customers. But how does your organization become known as a thought leader? Certainly, it boosts your profile when your employees and executives ...
Industrie 4.0: Arbeiten zwischen Technologie und Teamwork
06.07.2015
Die Digitalisierung verlangt Unternehmen Einiges ab. Ohne ein gut funktionierendes Team lässt sich das unbekannte Terrain nur schwer erobern. Doch echte Teams sind selten. Wie Sie eine starke Mannschaft aufbauen. Industrie 4.0, die Informatisierung der Produktion, die nächste industrielle Revolution im Zeichen des Digital Age ist angesagt. Deutschlands führende Unternehmen, Forschungs- und Zukunftsinstitutionen sind involviert. Und zwei Bedingungen werden immer deutlicher. Erstens: Warten hilft nicht. Wir müssen uns mit unseren Teams auf den Weg machen, ...
06.07.2015
Die Digitalisierung verlangt Unternehmen Einiges ab. Ohne ein gut funktionierendes Team lässt sich das unbekannte Terrain nur schwer erobern. Doch echte Teams sind selten. Wie Sie eine starke Mannschaft aufbauen. Industrie 4.0, die Informatisierung der Produktion, die nächste industrielle Revolution im Zeichen des Digital Age ist angesagt. Deutschlands führende Unternehmen, Forschungs- und Zukunftsinstitutionen sind involviert. Und zwei Bedingungen werden immer deutlicher. Erstens: Warten hilft nicht. Wir müssen uns mit unseren Teams auf den Weg machen, ...
Intranet oder Intranets? Gute Frage!
06.07.2015
"Das ist die Inventarliste unserer internen Anwendungen, die wir unseren Mitarbeitern zur Verfügung stellen", präsentiert der Ansprechpartner meines Kunden mit einem gewissen Stolz. Oder war es Ehrfurcht in seinen Augen? Ich versuche Ruhe auszustrahlen und schaue mir die Einträge an - eine beträchtliche Liste. In Projekten zum Thema Intranet oder Mitarbeiterportale lernt man als Berater viele Anwendungen in den Unternehmen kennen. Und ja, es sind jedes Mal tatsächlich neue Anwendungen dabei, die ich noch nicht kannte. Da stellt sich oft die Frage, ob ...
06.07.2015
"Das ist die Inventarliste unserer internen Anwendungen, die wir unseren Mitarbeitern zur Verfügung stellen", präsentiert der Ansprechpartner meines Kunden mit einem gewissen Stolz. Oder war es Ehrfurcht in seinen Augen? Ich versuche Ruhe auszustrahlen und schaue mir die Einträge an - eine beträchtliche Liste. In Projekten zum Thema Intranet oder Mitarbeiterportale lernt man als Berater viele Anwendungen in den Unternehmen kennen. Und ja, es sind jedes Mal tatsächlich neue Anwendungen dabei, die ich noch nicht kannte. Da stellt sich oft die Frage, ob ...
Social Technology, Community Management & Organizational Development
06.07.2015
by Sahana Chattopadhyay - I have been reading a spate of articles and posts related to the need for a change in the way organizations function. The diagram below by Dion Hinchcliffe is a succinct illustration of how digital technology has been and will continue to play a key role in bringing about this change. [ diagram ommited ] The diagram traces the evolution of different social technology and their potential to enforce and enable a deep change in how organizations function and their structure. With digital technology growing exponentially, the speed ...
06.07.2015
by Sahana Chattopadhyay - I have been reading a spate of articles and posts related to the need for a change in the way organizations function. The diagram below by Dion Hinchcliffe is a succinct illustration of how digital technology has been and will continue to play a key role in bringing about this change. [ diagram ommited ] The diagram traces the evolution of different social technology and their potential to enforce and enable a deep change in how organizations function and their structure. With digital technology growing exponentially, the speed ...
How to build a successful intranet
06.07.2015
Is your organization's intranet an unqualified success? If so, congratulations - you're likely in the minority. For the rest of us, we may often see glimpses of success, but continue to confront obstacles, or take missteps, or simply lose our way. I've worked on intranets since before the term was even coined (around 1995), and I've made plenty of mistakes. However, I've also stumbled into a few triumphs, and learned some important lessons along the way. To me, these are the 10 fundamental activities that lead to a successful intranet: Respect your ...
06.07.2015
Is your organization's intranet an unqualified success? If so, congratulations - you're likely in the minority. For the rest of us, we may often see glimpses of success, but continue to confront obstacles, or take missteps, or simply lose our way. I've worked on intranets since before the term was even coined (around 1995), and I've made plenty of mistakes. However, I've also stumbled into a few triumphs, and learned some important lessons along the way. To me, these are the 10 fundamental activities that lead to a successful intranet: Respect your ...
Why Collaboration Fails
06.07.2015
by Sameer Patel - It's no secret that in aggregate, the adoption of social collaboration in the enterprise has been extremely challenging. Back in 2012, Forrester Research did a study that showed that 77 percent of employees never use their enterprise social network and only 3 percent use it once each day. You won't meet anyone who thinks it a bad idea to collaborate. But the fundamental problem is this: Missing the Mark At an operational level, "better collaboration" is not a KPI for any executive that drives the top line or bottom line. Better ...
06.07.2015
by Sameer Patel - It's no secret that in aggregate, the adoption of social collaboration in the enterprise has been extremely challenging. Back in 2012, Forrester Research did a study that showed that 77 percent of employees never use their enterprise social network and only 3 percent use it once each day. You won't meet anyone who thinks it a bad idea to collaborate. But the fundamental problem is this: Missing the Mark At an operational level, "better collaboration" is not a KPI for any executive that drives the top line or bottom line. Better ...
I Can't Kill Email.
06.07.2015
How I learned to take responsibility for that. I broke the cycle, just not the platform... According to research conducted by the Radicati Group, in 2015 over 196.4 billion emails are sent per day across the world, with around 60% of these being business emails. Therein lies the issue. Towards the end of 2014 I declared that Email Must Die. I was determined that 2015 would be the year in which I completely gave up email, but from the start it became clear that this wasn't going to be so simple. A month into the experiment, I updated that I'd managed ...
06.07.2015
How I learned to take responsibility for that. I broke the cycle, just not the platform... According to research conducted by the Radicati Group, in 2015 over 196.4 billion emails are sent per day across the world, with around 60% of these being business emails. Therein lies the issue. Towards the end of 2014 I declared that Email Must Die. I was determined that 2015 would be the year in which I completely gave up email, but from the start it became clear that this wasn't going to be so simple. A month into the experiment, I updated that I'd managed ...
Four Steps for Building a Successful Enterprise Metadata Catalog
06.07.2015
With the fast-growing interest in data lakes -- a storage solution that allows structured and semi-structured data to live in the same place -- attention is turning toward metadata as a way to organize large amounts of diverse enterprise data. Metadata is an ambiguous and generic term, but it most commonly refers to attribute names, data types, relationships, basic data quality metrics, usage stats and access controls. Metadata is literally data about data and thus is often left unwritten -- stored only in the heads of those in the know. Capturing and ...
06.07.2015
With the fast-growing interest in data lakes -- a storage solution that allows structured and semi-structured data to live in the same place -- attention is turning toward metadata as a way to organize large amounts of diverse enterprise data. Metadata is an ambiguous and generic term, but it most commonly refers to attribute names, data types, relationships, basic data quality metrics, usage stats and access controls. Metadata is literally data about data and thus is often left unwritten -- stored only in the heads of those in the know. Capturing and ...
You need change. Don't settle for less.
06.07.2015
by Simon Terry - Changing structure is just rearranging deck chairs. You don't need a new system. You don't need a new process. More rules won't fix what your current rules can't fix. You don't need more expertise because most of the potential you have goes wasted now. More data will mean more confusion not less. You won't become more effective by being more efficient. There are no transactional fixes. If you could flick a switch to create transformational change, everyone would. There is no proxy for the hard work of change. To create transformational ...
06.07.2015
by Simon Terry - Changing structure is just rearranging deck chairs. You don't need a new system. You don't need a new process. More rules won't fix what your current rules can't fix. You don't need more expertise because most of the potential you have goes wasted now. More data will mean more confusion not less. You won't become more effective by being more efficient. There are no transactional fixes. If you could flick a switch to create transformational change, everyone would. There is no proxy for the hard work of change. To create transformational ...
Sechs Punkte an denen Sie erkennen, dass Ihr Unternehmen auf dem digitalen Holzweg ist
03.07.2015
von Sebastian Thielke - Ist das nicht eine schöne, reißerische Überschrift? Ich unterstelle Ihnen, das Sie grundsätzlich was falsch machen und dann bin ich auch noch so dreist und sage Ihnen, wie es richtig geht. Gerade für diese Konstellation sind die reißerischen Listen und Artikel wunderbar und sie funktionieren, weil wir uns immer wieder erhoffen eine kleine Wahrheit in diesen Aufzählungen zu finden. Auch ich schwinge mich mal auf diesen Zug. ABER und das ist mir wichtig, sehen Sie diese Liste hier eher als offene Fragestellungen, die Sie an sich ...
03.07.2015
von Sebastian Thielke - Ist das nicht eine schöne, reißerische Überschrift? Ich unterstelle Ihnen, das Sie grundsätzlich was falsch machen und dann bin ich auch noch so dreist und sage Ihnen, wie es richtig geht. Gerade für diese Konstellation sind die reißerischen Listen und Artikel wunderbar und sie funktionieren, weil wir uns immer wieder erhoffen eine kleine Wahrheit in diesen Aufzählungen zu finden. Auch ich schwinge mich mal auf diesen Zug. ABER und das ist mir wichtig, sehen Sie diese Liste hier eher als offene Fragestellungen, die Sie an sich ...
Building the Business Case for an Enterprise Social Network Initiative
03.07.2015
For organizations that are just starting to approach Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs), it's often required to build a business case for the new initiative. Though the process can be daunting, it can be managed. One major concern is how to develop a realistic ROI for an ESN project. I'll walk you through a process (just one of many available) for developing a business case for an ESN and help you develop a realistic ROI for your project. Your company may have a standardized methodology for developing a business case or you may rely on an open ...
03.07.2015
For organizations that are just starting to approach Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs), it's often required to build a business case for the new initiative. Though the process can be daunting, it can be managed. One major concern is how to develop a realistic ROI for an ESN project. I'll walk you through a process (just one of many available) for developing a business case for an ESN and help you develop a realistic ROI for your project. Your company may have a standardized methodology for developing a business case or you may rely on an open ...
Boosting Employee Engagement With The Personal Social Dashboard
03.07.2015
by Walter Adamson - How to boost employee collaboration and engagement through enterprise social networks is the missing link in most organisations. The Personal Social Dashboard enables individuals to understand and boost their own social reputation and performance. Personal Social Dashboard When Ed Brill flashed up his Personal Social Dashboard at Inform 2015 it caught people's attention if for no other reason than it had a particular parameter called Social Eminence which rated Ed at 100%! Brilliant, but what did it mean? It turns out that it ...
03.07.2015
by Walter Adamson - How to boost employee collaboration and engagement through enterprise social networks is the missing link in most organisations. The Personal Social Dashboard enables individuals to understand and boost their own social reputation and performance. Personal Social Dashboard When Ed Brill flashed up his Personal Social Dashboard at Inform 2015 it caught people's attention if for no other reason than it had a particular parameter called Social Eminence which rated Ed at 100%! Brilliant, but what did it mean? It turns out that it ...
Five reasons people share content
03.07.2015
What makes people share content? I'm not the only person to ponder this question. The New York Times conducted a study 'The Psychology of Sharing: Why People Share Online' with a group of self-proclaimed heavy online sharers, who revealed what motivates them to share with others. 85 per cent say reading other people's responses helps them understand and process information and events 73 per cent say they process information more deeply, thoroughly and thoughtfully when they share it So we could conclude that as humans the act of sharing helps us to ...
03.07.2015
What makes people share content? I'm not the only person to ponder this question. The New York Times conducted a study 'The Psychology of Sharing: Why People Share Online' with a group of self-proclaimed heavy online sharers, who revealed what motivates them to share with others. 85 per cent say reading other people's responses helps them understand and process information and events 73 per cent say they process information more deeply, thoroughly and thoughtfully when they share it So we could conclude that as humans the act of sharing helps us to ...
The Truth About Blogging
03.07.2015
Blogging is something most people never try. Of the people who do give it a go, I suspect most of them believe no-one reads their musings. Background I'm certainly one of those people. I've never obsessed about my personal blog's traffic, never tried boosting readership, or advertising anything on it. I blogged whenever I felt like I had something to share, something I believed to be of value to my imaginary readers. I have promoted some of my posts by sharing it to my Twitter followers, or if appropriate - to my Linkedin / G+ or even Facebook connections. ...
03.07.2015
Blogging is something most people never try. Of the people who do give it a go, I suspect most of them believe no-one reads their musings. Background I'm certainly one of those people. I've never obsessed about my personal blog's traffic, never tried boosting readership, or advertising anything on it. I blogged whenever I felt like I had something to share, something I believed to be of value to my imaginary readers. I have promoted some of my posts by sharing it to my Twitter followers, or if appropriate - to my Linkedin / G+ or even Facebook connections. ...
The digital faulting - The human resource and the digital
03.07.2015
by Sebastian Thielke - A rift is either the fault created though tectonic plates or by erosion during the ice-age, or it has artificially been dug out by humans. But by nature it is always the degree of rejection between two connections - the two sides of the rift. What used to be one is being separated by the rift. We are creating more and more of these rifts in the digital transformation, in handling new technologies, and in recreating the workplace. But we, as the drivers and designers of the transformation hold the shovels, earth and materials to ...
03.07.2015
by Sebastian Thielke - A rift is either the fault created though tectonic plates or by erosion during the ice-age, or it has artificially been dug out by humans. But by nature it is always the degree of rejection between two connections - the two sides of the rift. What used to be one is being separated by the rift. We are creating more and more of these rifts in the digital transformation, in handling new technologies, and in recreating the workplace. But we, as the drivers and designers of the transformation hold the shovels, earth and materials to ...
Das digitale Unternehmen: Der Arbeitsplatz der Zukunft
02.07.2015
"Sag den Menschen nie, wie sie Dinge tun sollen. Sag ihnen, was zu tun ist, und sie werden dich mit ihrem Einfallsreichtum überraschen." - George S. Patton Das Gartner CIO & IT Executive Summit 2015 in München hatte ein Hauptthema und eine klare Aussage: Das Digital Business kommt und keiner kann es sich leisten zu warten. Diese Aussage wurde untermauert von vielen Vorträgen unserer Analysten, von Vordenkern wie Magnus Lindkvist sowie von Unternehmen, die sich bereits auf dem Weg gemacht haben. Obwohl die Entwicklung noch in den Kinderschuhen steckt, ...
02.07.2015
"Sag den Menschen nie, wie sie Dinge tun sollen. Sag ihnen, was zu tun ist, und sie werden dich mit ihrem Einfallsreichtum überraschen." - George S. Patton Das Gartner CIO & IT Executive Summit 2015 in München hatte ein Hauptthema und eine klare Aussage: Das Digital Business kommt und keiner kann es sich leisten zu warten. Diese Aussage wurde untermauert von vielen Vorträgen unserer Analysten, von Vordenkern wie Magnus Lindkvist sowie von Unternehmen, die sich bereits auf dem Weg gemacht haben. Obwohl die Entwicklung noch in den Kinderschuhen steckt, ...
Beim Social Intranet müssen Führungskräfte mit gutem Beispiel vorangehen
02.07.2015
von Stephan Grabmeier - Heute möchte ich ein Buch vorstellen, in dem ich mit einem Beitrag zu Social Forecasting am Beispiel der Telekom Prognosenmärkte als Autor vertreten bin: "Willkommen in der neuen Arbeitswelt. So erwecken Sie ein Social Intranet zum Leben". Eine der Herausgeberinnen, Steffi Gröscho, kenne ich schon länger. Uns verbindet eine enge Netzwerkfreundschaft und die Leidenschaft für die gleichen Themen. Was mir besonders gut an dem Buch gefällt: Neben meinem eigenen Beitrag sind zwei weitere Kunden von mir, die Axel Springer AG und pfm ...
02.07.2015
von Stephan Grabmeier - Heute möchte ich ein Buch vorstellen, in dem ich mit einem Beitrag zu Social Forecasting am Beispiel der Telekom Prognosenmärkte als Autor vertreten bin: "Willkommen in der neuen Arbeitswelt. So erwecken Sie ein Social Intranet zum Leben". Eine der Herausgeberinnen, Steffi Gröscho, kenne ich schon länger. Uns verbindet eine enge Netzwerkfreundschaft und die Leidenschaft für die gleichen Themen. Was mir besonders gut an dem Buch gefällt: Neben meinem eigenen Beitrag sind zwei weitere Kunden von mir, die Axel Springer AG und pfm ...
A Day in the Life of a Connected Workplace
02.07.2015
Bob arrives at work, grabs his cup of coffee and opens up his laptop. He logs onto the company employee portal and starts going through his notifications on his homepage. Bob notices that a few of his colleagues have left comments on the Proposal document he shared yesterday. He reads Ron's great suggestion to include some key stats from the recent Employee Survey in the Proposal. Bob figures John from HR should have this information. So he goes to the People Directory, searches John's name and clicks on his social profile. Bob makes a quick post on ...
02.07.2015
Bob arrives at work, grabs his cup of coffee and opens up his laptop. He logs onto the company employee portal and starts going through his notifications on his homepage. Bob notices that a few of his colleagues have left comments on the Proposal document he shared yesterday. He reads Ron's great suggestion to include some key stats from the recent Employee Survey in the Proposal. Bob figures John from HR should have this information. So he goes to the People Directory, searches John's name and clicks on his social profile. Bob makes a quick post on ...
The Networked Corporation - Leadership, Management and Organization
02.07.2015
by Sebastian Thielke - We are all feeling the change. Co-workers are networking within the company, realizing the togetherness as a free and efficient part of the daily work. The company becoming more agile, innovative and most of all more flexible with its processes and projects. Not to forget the Corporate Management, which has to face new challenges. Does all of this mean - radically speaking - that all managers are no longer managers, and that Corporate Management is handing over all Leadership to everyone? No, primarily it means to liberate from ...
02.07.2015
by Sebastian Thielke - We are all feeling the change. Co-workers are networking within the company, realizing the togetherness as a free and efficient part of the daily work. The company becoming more agile, innovative and most of all more flexible with its processes and projects. Not to forget the Corporate Management, which has to face new challenges. Does all of this mean - radically speaking - that all managers are no longer managers, and that Corporate Management is handing over all Leadership to everyone? No, primarily it means to liberate from ...
Collaboration is a collective activity (and why you should care)
02.07.2015
by Bertrand Duperrin - The same thing happens in nearly every workplace : a satisfactory level of collaboration and networking has not ben reached despite of the new tools and adoption plans. Of course, things have improved over time but it's "a little better", sometimes even "less terrible" but we're far from the optimum, from the ideal state of collaboration. Collaboration requires three things: willing, being able to and knowing how to. I'd add a fourth one: having to. The "will" is not the point of this post. The "being able to" is partly addressed ...
02.07.2015
by Bertrand Duperrin - The same thing happens in nearly every workplace : a satisfactory level of collaboration and networking has not ben reached despite of the new tools and adoption plans. Of course, things have improved over time but it's "a little better", sometimes even "less terrible" but we're far from the optimum, from the ideal state of collaboration. Collaboration requires three things: willing, being able to and knowing how to. I'd add a fourth one: having to. The "will" is not the point of this post. The "being able to" is partly addressed ...
Realizing Collaboration's Potential
02.07.2015
For the last 20 years, IT has offered new methods of collaboration and communication. Though the results have not been stellar, investment in collaboration remains high. Today we see knowledge workers provisioning their own tools. The truth is that with the proliferation of workplace collaboration tools like instant messaging, internal social networks, document collaboration, video conferencing and web conferencing, workers have a lot of choice as well as control over the collaboration tools that they use to get their work done. If they do not see the ...
02.07.2015
For the last 20 years, IT has offered new methods of collaboration and communication. Though the results have not been stellar, investment in collaboration remains high. Today we see knowledge workers provisioning their own tools. The truth is that with the proliferation of workplace collaboration tools like instant messaging, internal social networks, document collaboration, video conferencing and web conferencing, workers have a lot of choice as well as control over the collaboration tools that they use to get their work done. If they do not see the ...
Create a space - #RebelJam15 reflection
02.07.2015
by Simon Terry - Moderating the Asia Pacific part of RebelJam15 yesterday was a joy. The event, a 24 hour series of talks was a global celebration of those rebels making work better, changing their organisations and grappling with how to create a more human future of work. Part of the magic of Rebel Jam was that the event was a space for a conversation. Speakers volunteered themselves. They chose to step into the space and share something of themselves to advise or educate others. The contributions were diverse and remarkable. The future of work needs ...
02.07.2015
by Simon Terry - Moderating the Asia Pacific part of RebelJam15 yesterday was a joy. The event, a 24 hour series of talks was a global celebration of those rebels making work better, changing their organisations and grappling with how to create a more human future of work. Part of the magic of Rebel Jam was that the event was a space for a conversation. Speakers volunteered themselves. They chose to step into the space and share something of themselves to advise or educate others. The contributions were diverse and remarkable. The future of work needs ...
8 reasons why 'messy' social networks beat intranets. Hands down.
02.07.2015
by Gerard Richardson - Life is messy. The world of work is messy. Platforms are messy. Despite this, we try and categorise everything. Ambiguity is bad, order and structure are good. Interesting then, and hardly surprising, that companies often have lofty ambitions to categorise their information. Every company wants to be more efficient, of course they do, creating what Bill Gates called in his 1990's book (Business @ the Speed of Thought) 'a world-class digital nervous system...so that information can easily flow through their companies for maximum ...
02.07.2015
by Gerard Richardson - Life is messy. The world of work is messy. Platforms are messy. Despite this, we try and categorise everything. Ambiguity is bad, order and structure are good. Interesting then, and hardly surprising, that companies often have lofty ambitions to categorise their information. Every company wants to be more efficient, of course they do, creating what Bill Gates called in his 1990's book (Business @ the Speed of Thought) 'a world-class digital nervous system...so that information can easily flow through their companies for maximum ...
How to run a webjam
02.07.2015
by Gerard Richardson - Running a webjam for your organisation can be a game changer. They can literally be the catalyst to your social network's success. In this post we'll deep dive into what you need to do to make them successful. We'll focus on internal (aka inside the organisation) webjams as opposed to external ones. Strap yourself in, this one goes deep... First off, what is a webjam? Webjams are virtual 'gatherings' and to a large extent are platform agnostic. I have predominantly used Yammer to run mine, but there's no reason why IBM Connections, ...
02.07.2015
by Gerard Richardson - Running a webjam for your organisation can be a game changer. They can literally be the catalyst to your social network's success. In this post we'll deep dive into what you need to do to make them successful. We'll focus on internal (aka inside the organisation) webjams as opposed to external ones. Strap yourself in, this one goes deep... First off, what is a webjam? Webjams are virtual 'gatherings' and to a large extent are platform agnostic. I have predominantly used Yammer to run mine, but there's no reason why IBM Connections, ...
WOL concerns, blow-by-(glass)blow counters
02.07.2015
by Benjamin D Carmel - I had the pleasure of being able to share some ideas and practices about Working Out Loud/Showing Your Work (WOL) the other day with a group of Pacific Northwest educators. I wanted to share my main idea with which I framed my talk, and a few really good questions that the teachers had about what I was pitching. We're all professionals and craftspeople (of a sort) What about others "stealing" ideas and/or not assigning credit? How do we reconcile sharing with copyright and IP? How to overcome feelings of bragging? [...] ...
02.07.2015
by Benjamin D Carmel - I had the pleasure of being able to share some ideas and practices about Working Out Loud/Showing Your Work (WOL) the other day with a group of Pacific Northwest educators. I wanted to share my main idea with which I framed my talk, and a few really good questions that the teachers had about what I was pitching. We're all professionals and craftspeople (of a sort) What about others "stealing" ideas and/or not assigning credit? How do we reconcile sharing with copyright and IP? How to overcome feelings of bragging? [...] ...
Peter Senge on KM and org learning
02.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a seminar with Peter Senge at the World Bank. Here are some of the things he said about KM and organisational learning: No organisation is a learning organisation, but every organisation must learn or die. Knowledge is the capacity for effective action Learning is a process that enhances the learners capacity to produce desirable outcomes. All learning occurs in a social context. In any learning process you can be 100% sure that you will fail Learning is a process of disciplined mistake-making ...
02.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a seminar with Peter Senge at the World Bank. Here are some of the things he said about KM and organisational learning: No organisation is a learning organisation, but every organisation must learn or die. Knowledge is the capacity for effective action Learning is a process that enhances the learners capacity to produce desirable outcomes. All learning occurs in a social context. In any learning process you can be 100% sure that you will fail Learning is a process of disciplined mistake-making ...
Combining Virtual and Face-to-Face Work
02.07.2015
Many companies feel they face a conundrum when it comes to determining remote work policies. Perhaps the most common misconception about adopting virtual work is that it is an all-or-nothing proposition, such that once we have networking tools in place, there is no need to come together -- or conversely that we have to be in the office all the time. But this paradigm often forces knowledge workers to choose between two strong drives: the need for autonomy and the need for a purpose that inspires and unites them. It is neither wise nor effective to turn ...
02.07.2015
Many companies feel they face a conundrum when it comes to determining remote work policies. Perhaps the most common misconception about adopting virtual work is that it is an all-or-nothing proposition, such that once we have networking tools in place, there is no need to come together -- or conversely that we have to be in the office all the time. But this paradigm often forces knowledge workers to choose between two strong drives: the need for autonomy and the need for a purpose that inspires and unites them. It is neither wise nor effective to turn ...
The Social-Network Illusion That Tricks Your Mind
02.07.2015
Network scientists have discovered how social networks can create the illusion that something is common when it is actually rare. One of the curious things about social networks is the way that some messages, pictures, or ideas can spread like wildfire while others that seem just as catchy or interesting barely register at all. The content itself cannot be the source of this difference. Instead, there must be some property of the network that changes to allow some ideas to spread but not others. Today, we get an insight into why this happens thanks ...
02.07.2015
Network scientists have discovered how social networks can create the illusion that something is common when it is actually rare. One of the curious things about social networks is the way that some messages, pictures, or ideas can spread like wildfire while others that seem just as catchy or interesting barely register at all. The content itself cannot be the source of this difference. Instead, there must be some property of the network that changes to allow some ideas to spread but not others. Today, we get an insight into why this happens thanks ...
Collaborating Well in Large Global Teams
01.07.2015
Professional service firms seeking to help companies navigate the demands of globalization face a tough challenge because advisers with the specialized expertise needed to address sophisticated issues are most often distributed throughout the firm and around the globe. This makes collaboration difficult. Global collaboration creates significant coordination costs: incompatible schedules can lead to project delays, cross-cultural or linguistic misunderstandings can create non-billable rework, and technology failures can cause missed deadlines. No cross-border ...
01.07.2015
Professional service firms seeking to help companies navigate the demands of globalization face a tough challenge because advisers with the specialized expertise needed to address sophisticated issues are most often distributed throughout the firm and around the globe. This makes collaboration difficult. Global collaboration creates significant coordination costs: incompatible schedules can lead to project delays, cross-cultural or linguistic misunderstandings can create non-billable rework, and technology failures can cause missed deadlines. No cross-border ...
5 Insights from Psychology to Build Thriving Intranet Communities
01.07.2015
If your community is struggling, it's probably not because of the lack of support or bad technology. It's more likely you're not taking a community-led approach. Community building isn't new. It's been around for centuries as a discipline and longer as a concept. What is new is taking the traditional community approach to build successful communities internally as well as externally. We've studied several hundred internal communities. Many are struggling. They take an approach which is diametrically opposite how communities develop. Here are five insights ...
01.07.2015
If your community is struggling, it's probably not because of the lack of support or bad technology. It's more likely you're not taking a community-led approach. Community building isn't new. It's been around for centuries as a discipline and longer as a concept. What is new is taking the traditional community approach to build successful communities internally as well as externally. We've studied several hundred internal communities. Many are struggling. They take an approach which is diametrically opposite how communities develop. Here are five insights ...
The power of conversation (and how to find a mastermind)
01.07.2015
Have you ever noticed that when you're feeling frustrated, lost, confused or scared, your first reaction is to go to a friend or family member to talk about whatever it is that's bothering you? I do it all the time, which is why I know how integral surrounding yourself with the right people is: if you're trying to have conversations about fear with someone who can't necessarily appreciate or relate to what it is you're going through, then that conversation probably isn't going to go very far. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people Joining (or ...
01.07.2015
Have you ever noticed that when you're feeling frustrated, lost, confused or scared, your first reaction is to go to a friend or family member to talk about whatever it is that's bothering you? I do it all the time, which is why I know how integral surrounding yourself with the right people is: if you're trying to have conversations about fear with someone who can't necessarily appreciate or relate to what it is you're going through, then that conversation probably isn't going to go very far. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people Joining (or ...
Tips for starting a KM or ESN program
01.07.2015
by Stan Garfield - Tips for starting a Knowledge Management or Enterprise Social Networking program: Identify the top 3 objectives for your program (using these 15 benefits) and focus on meeting the biggest needs of your organization Determine who will participate in the program, which basic processes will be required, and how tools should support the people and processes by answering these 9 questions. Articulate the end-state vision: what does it look like when it is working? Establish a vision for how knowledge management should work and relentlessly ...
01.07.2015
by Stan Garfield - Tips for starting a Knowledge Management or Enterprise Social Networking program: Identify the top 3 objectives for your program (using these 15 benefits) and focus on meeting the biggest needs of your organization Determine who will participate in the program, which basic processes will be required, and how tools should support the people and processes by answering these 9 questions. Articulate the end-state vision: what does it look like when it is working? Establish a vision for how knowledge management should work and relentlessly ...
The expert - dumber than the crowd?
01.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Yesterday brought another fascinating blog post from the Farnham Street blog, entitled "The Expert Squeeze". The premise of the blog post, based on the book Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition by Michael Mauboussin, was that "as networks harness the wisdom of crowds, the ability of experts to add value in their predictions is steadily declining. This is the expert squeeze". The blog uses the diagram above to show that where prediction is needed, the Expert is often beaten by expert systems, and never better than a ...
01.07.2015
by Nick Milton - Yesterday brought another fascinating blog post from the Farnham Street blog, entitled "The Expert Squeeze". The premise of the blog post, based on the book Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition by Michael Mauboussin, was that "as networks harness the wisdom of crowds, the ability of experts to add value in their predictions is steadily declining. This is the expert squeeze". The blog uses the diagram above to show that where prediction is needed, the Expert is often beaten by expert systems, and never better than a ...
Let's talk about the digital transformation of work!
01.07.2015
by Bjoern Negelmann - English version of German post: "Lassen Sie uns über die digitale Transformation der Arbeit diskutieren!" The discussion about the state of the digital transformation is globally en vogue - but recently some forethinkers in the US has brought up some critics about the process of the transformation. The "Open Letter on the Digital Economy" that was signed by some leading heads from Silicon Valley and the academic field emphasizes the "digital revolution" as a fundamental transformation of the economic system and criticized several ...
01.07.2015
by Bjoern Negelmann - English version of German post: "Lassen Sie uns über die digitale Transformation der Arbeit diskutieren!" The discussion about the state of the digital transformation is globally en vogue - but recently some forethinkers in the US has brought up some critics about the process of the transformation. The "Open Letter on the Digital Economy" that was signed by some leading heads from Silicon Valley and the academic field emphasizes the "digital revolution" as a fundamental transformation of the economic system and criticized several ...
Why digital transformation is so difficult to achieve
01.07.2015
Concept of minimum viable product can really help scale the digital business, and speed and flexibility matter above all else. A Zen master received a professor who wanted to learn about Zen. The master served tea, and poured the visitor's cup full. And then he kept pouring more. Finally, the professor couldn't stop himself: "It's already full -- more will not go in!" The master replied, "Like this cup, you are already full of your opinions and ideas. How can you learn anything new unless you empty your cup?" We are all trying to learn new things with ...
01.07.2015
Concept of minimum viable product can really help scale the digital business, and speed and flexibility matter above all else. A Zen master received a professor who wanted to learn about Zen. The master served tea, and poured the visitor's cup full. And then he kept pouring more. Finally, the professor couldn't stop himself: "It's already full -- more will not go in!" The master replied, "Like this cup, you are already full of your opinions and ideas. How can you learn anything new unless you empty your cup?" We are all trying to learn new things with ...