E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez

A World Without Email – Year 2, Week 37 (Oh, the Irony of Things)

Oh, the irony of things… That is just probably a good title for the blog post I am just about to put together. I know, and I realise, this entry may sound a bit too strange, but as you may be able to see later on, it’s probably the best way to describe what happened last week. Yes, indeed, here I am again, putting together this article with some further insights on last week’s progress report on living "A World Without Email". Quite surprising, I tell you!

I know by now you may be wondering what exactly happened. Intriguing, eh? I know. Not to worry. Done on purpose, although I can imagine how, probably, the embedded weekly progress report screen shot I will be sharing shortly may be able to clarify some of the stuff that took place and which took me by surprise a little bit as well! So I guess I better share that particular snapshot, so you get to see what I mean:

Whoahhh! My goodness! How did that happen? I mean, how can it be that for the last few weeks I’ve had a steady count of incoming emails to say between 18 to 25 and, just last week, that all went away and jumped, sky high, into the total number of 35 emails in a single week! Ouch!! That hurts!

Now, I do realise that most of you folks would probably think that 35 emails a week is not too bad; and I would probably agree with you on that about 21 months ago. However, today I don’t think it is that good. That’s right. After nearly 2 year’s having giving up on corporate email at work, it is interesting to see how sometimes that number of the emails received during the week comes pretty close to the number of emails I used to get right at the beginning on a daily basis. Plenty of progress, you would probably be saying, but for someone like myself who wants to receive less and less emails by the month that sounds like trouble ahead.

And, believe it or not, I am the one who is creating that trouble. And that’s what I mean with… the irony of things. The reason why last week I got those 35 emails was no other than myself falling back into the trap of engaging back with fellow colleagues using … email! Yikes! How could I have I done that? I mean, I should know this. I have lived through this for a good number of years. I know exactly what the reaction is going to be, and how to avoid it, yet I didn’t. The golden rule of email struck again in full force: the more email you reply to, the more email you will get back!

That’s just exactly what happened last week! Those two days you can see on the snapshot where I got 10 emails a day were actually due to three different email exchanges, where, instead of me using social software tools to engage, I gave in, oh my goodness!!, and replied back through … email. Geez!

I don’t think I have learned the lesson, have I? After 21 months, the temptation is just so… tempting, that I can’t help myself. And what happens next? People don’t leave their comfort zone, because that’s where they live in, so they bring me back into *their* own comfort zone and I am back to square one.

Oh the irony all things… it seems that if I don’t keep actively fighting my way through reducing my incoming count off emails, no-one will; with the ultimate result that if I don’t continue to put a stop to that I know I will go back to what I was over 21 months ago. And there’s no way I will be doing that. Like I have said a few times already, I have already seen the light, I have seen (And experienced!) what it is like being back in control of your own productivity (While still helping others), and, like I said, there’s no way I’m going back.

So, I guess folks should have enjoyed that moment of weakness, because it is now over. Today I got things back on track and things are looking good again. You see? It is not the first time, nor the second one (If I recall correctly) and perhaps not the last one either. But there is one thing for sure. These moments of weakness help me understand how, if I don’t get actively involved, it is going to be very hard to make it happen. Thus, here I am again putting up some fight and ensure that I can keep consistently reducing that number of incoming emails over the course of the next few months. And that way I can keep demonstrating to people how there better ways of sharing your knowledge and collaborating with your peers than good old email.

For this week I think that would be it. For now though I would just want to conclude this blog post with another thought that has been in my mind for a little while now, and which fits in quite nicely with that "Oh… the irony of things…". After thinking about it quite a bit, this is going to be my last *weekly* progress report over here in this blog. I know these entries don’t seem to be very popular in here, which, I think, is understandable. So, instead of boring you folks with these weekly reports, what I am going to do is to eventually move them out of this blog and onto a new social software tool that is making the rounds nowadays and that, funny enough, uses email as one of its main user interfaces.

Yes, I’m talking about Posterous, where, as you well know, I have got an account there that is screaming out loud to get things going and add some content to it. Well, this may well be it. One other chance to share with people how that progress is going, without clogging my main blog, and at the same time I will be making use of that account to share some further insights on the increasing number of articles that keep flourishing out there proving poor email as a knowledge sharing and collaborative tool. And as you well may have guessed already, I have caught a good number are draft entries that I will be putting together in the next few weeks and, from there onwards, we will see where things will take us.

Then every so often I still plan to come over here and post sharing overall general impressions of what it is like living in "A World Without Email". So, that way that conversation won’t disappear entirely from this blog. For now, I am almost ready to start posting into my Posterous account. If you want to subscribe to it, you can do so by going into this link, but … do it at your own peril hehe

Thus let’s continue with that meme of "Oh … the irony of things" then … Are you ready?

Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, email, Productivity, Re-purposing Email, No-Email, Challenge Your Inbox, Progress Reports, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Information Overload, A World Without Email, Moments of Weakness, Weakness, Giving up Email, Posterous

The Man Who Should Have Used Lotus Connections — Communities: The Driving Force of Enterprise 2.0

Yesterday, at work, was one of those days where there were not enough hours in the day that would allow you to go through everything you had planned in the morning to achieve during the course of the day. Far too hectic, for sure. But this time around in a good sense. More than anything else, because, after a little while now, we finally had the opportunity to go through one of those experiences that one feels very reenergized about once it is done and over (even if you have been in meetings for most of the day!).

That’s right! Yesterday we had that unique opportunity of re-launching one of the oldest internal communities at IBM. A community that has been there for almost 10 years, on and off, but that it keeps coming back time and time again. Like a phoenix. So for the last couple of months a bunch of IBM colleagues, and old time good friends, Matt Simpson, Sandy Yarchin, Bill Chamberlin, Kathryn Munda and yours truly, have been working together towards preparing that re-launch.

And yesterday was the big day! We eventually had two different online events along with their corresponding conference calls, trying to cover as many countries as we possibly could. I am sure you can relate to how difficult it is to plan any kind of global events. Time zones are always an issue. Either way, the entire day was rather exciting. We have just had the opportunity to re-kick things off again with CommunityBuilders.

That’s the name of the community. And, as you may have guessed, it’s just that, a community of truly passionate community leaders / facilitators / managers (And all those folks who are interested in general in communities) getting together back again to continue learning from one another (through collaboration, knowledge sharing, storytelling, etc.) on the fine art of facilitating healthy communities.

CommunityBuilders has been one of my passions over the last eight years. Being able to tap into a community of several hundred facilitators (Of their own communities, of course) to share experiences, lessons learned, knowhow, community building techniques, and so forth, is a privilege that very few people can get exposed to in a lifetime. And I am one of those lucky people.

These re-launch events where incredibly re-energizing, as you may have guessed, confirming, once again, the key and crucial role of communities for any business. And I mean *any* business. It was just an amazing experience seeing how much energy and enthusiasm there was all over the place. Even our own community executive sponsors were incredibly jazzed up as well. And they kept everyone going on further even more! Just the perfect plot anyone would have hoped for any re-launch. Just brilliant!

I am sure I will have an opportunity to talk plenty more about this particular community of IBM CommunityBuilders and the kinds of activities they are involved in, since plenty of those activities are the very same ones that other community facilitators out there could relate to. So stay tuned for more to come.

Thus, at this point in time, you may be wondering why I’m sharing all of this in my external blog, right? After all, it’s an internal community. Well, more than anything else because this re-launch just came about with the perfect timing. That one of having strong and healthy communities that can help accelerate, tremendously, the adoption rate of social software within the enterprise.

Indeed, for a good number of years, I have been advocating that communities, or a fully grown program on community building, would always be the major drivers of social software adoption, pushing the limits where no one dares to go to. They will be the ones that will make your Enterprise 2.0 strategy, if you have one, a real success. And with a lot less effort than you can ever imagine.

Like I said, I will be talking plenty more around this topic of communities, community building techniques and their impact in businesses’ social computing strategies. But, for now, I would like to start showing you the tip of the iceberg of what communities can really do, not only for your company, but also for your knowledge workers.

I am very pleased, once again, to share with you the latest episode from the absolutely wonderful, and delightful!, series of video clips that my fellow IBM colleague, Jean Francois Chenier, has been putting together under the title "The Man Who Should Have Used Lotus Connections". We are now on episode four and, as you may have noticed from all the others, there have been some dramatic changes, and for the better! Way better, my goodness!! It’s a completely new way of demonstrating the business value of social software and communities within the enterprise, I tell you!

The video clip, this time around, lasts for a little bit over 4 1/2 minutes. Here is the direct link, and attached you will also find the embedded version. I am not going to say much more about the video itself and its contents, other than mentioning that, if you have being reading this blog for a while, as well as follow me in various different social networking sites, you will have a good laugh. A very loud one! In case you’re wondering, I, too, belong to that very same community featured in this episode four of "The Man Who Should Have Used Lotus Connections".

After having said all of that, there is very little that I would want to add, except, perhaps, highlighting the beautiful piece of work that Jean Francois has been doing, all along, with all of these videos. You could probably say that he has got a natural talent (He certainly does!), and I’m surely glad that he has been sharing it all along with all of us. Well done, Jean Francois! Another marvelous episode to add to an outstanding series. Thanks ever so much for sharing it across!

Have a good one everyone!

Tags: Communities, Online Communities, Virtual Communities, Re-Launches, Matt Simpson, Sweettt, Sandy Yarchin, Bill Chamberlin, HorizonWatch, Kathryn Munda, CommunityBuilders, CommunityBuilding, Community Builders, Community Building, Community Facilitators, Facilitators, Community Managers, Community Leaders, Leaders, Sharing Experiences, Community Building Techniques, YouTube, Videos, Jean Francois Chenier, IBM Lotus Connections, Lotus Connections, Connections, Group Collaboration, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity, Mac, MacBook Pro

How to Kill the Apple Brand with a Single Keyword: Movistar

As you may have noticed, I didn’t put together a blog post over here in this blog yesterday, even though it was one of those days… I actually have a couple of draft entries I’m hoping to be sharing shortly, but the main reason why I didn’t blog was because I needed to apply one of my all-time blogging principles: don’t blog if you’re upset about something. Is not worth the trouble. So, instead, I decided to take it easy and unwind for the rest of the evening, pondering how I may be able to put together this article today. Things have been rather busy at work, and it is only now that I have a chance to share these few thoughts over here. And here I am.

The title of this blog post may sound a bit too harsh, but, to be honest, it eventually falls short. And by far! What I’m about to share over here in the next few paragraphs is a story. A story featuring yours truly. A story that shows how a true loyal customer, fully converted (Without becoming a fanboy yet though), has finally had enough with not being treated as such. A customer. I know that good (Forget about excellent) customer service is very rare nowadays, but what I experienced yesterday is way beyond any kind of the poorest service you can experience … Ever!

Thus, you may be wondering how can you kill the Apple brand with a single word, right? Well, it involves movistar: the Spanish mobile carrier that has got the exclusive to distribute the iPhone in Spain. To give you a little bit of background of where I come from, take a look into this very revealing article that my good friend Dennis Howlett put together over at Irregular Enterprise under the title "The Case of the Missing iPhone 3GS’s". Quite an interesting read, for sure!

From the article itself you can see that a whole bunch of us have been waiting, anxiously, to get our hands on the latest model from the iPhone: the 3GS one. Ever since it came out in July most of us have been patient enough to wait for it to become available in the movistar shops. It never happened. At least, to the levels of coping with the demand good enough. And that’s the beginning of my story. If you’re not interested in reading further about it you can stop at this point. However, I’m sure what I am about to share is not a unique experience, so, hopefully, it may prove useful to others, as, after you finish reading through it, it’ll help you save about one hour of your time, and your frustration, which is what I went through yesterday. For nothing.

It all started with a phone call from a local movistar shop, where I was told my already booked a couple of weeks ago iPhone 3GS 32 GB was ready to be picked up. This was the seventh shop that I have been to to place my reservation. And, finally it was there. So I went to the shop hoping that I will be able to exchange my current 3G iPhone for the 3GS one, in exchange of points and some cash, perhaps. The lady who attended me was very very helpful, so we started with the procedures. And after a few minutes she tells me that she cannot go forward, because I first needed to call the Customer Service Centre and request that my contract be "unlocked" and that way we could move on.

I called them and I spent a few minutes talking to a customer representative telling me I couldn’t get the new terminal, because my contract wasn’t expired yet. In fact, I could only ask for a new one three months before the contract expired. And to date, I would still need to wait for six months. Ouch! Of course, I was not ready to wait for another three months (After having waited already for three months for the new terminals to arrive). So I was ready to terminate the contract, right there, and pay the penalty. Then I could get the new terminal, with a new number. I would be okay. Or so I thought.

After talking to the customer representative, and one of his colleagues, I eventually found out that I could not terminate such contract and pay the penalty. I was not allowed. Apparently, we are no longer capable of terminating the contracts we sign with vendors freely by even paying the corresponding fines, if applicable. We’re just stuck with them for as long as the contract is there. And mine is still running for another six months. Not looking good so far…

Thus after an interesting conversation I had over the phone and, which I’m going to skip over here (You can imagine what it must have been like…), I ended up in exactly the same position as I started: a contract still running for another six months, not being able to terminate it, even though I was very willing to pay the fine for it. And the iPhone 3GS 32 GB mobile phone waiting for me on top of the desk… Frustrating…

Okay, I decided to be a bit more creative then, and since I just have six months to go I decided to purchase another mobile number, with a new terminal, the 3GS one; so I spent the following few minutes with the lady from the shop filling in all the paperwork, and after a little while she is ready to click on the final window on her computer and she gets a lovely message telling her that I am not capable of having a second line, i.e. a second mobile phone with movistar. WOW!! Really? I can not have two different terminals, two differing mobile numbers, from the same provider, even though I am willing to pay for it? How fascinating! NOT!!!

Obviously, she cannot go any further. If I want to have a new terminal from them I won’t be able to have one till that contract of six months left expires. Now, *that* is what I call customer service! Indeed! NOT!!! So you can imagine, how, by now, I am rather frustrated, not only because I want to be able to upgrade my iPhone 3G, but mainly because I’m no longer in control of the contract that I myself signed and very willing to pay for whatever the penalty. So what’s the point? Is that how you, as a vendor, want to treat your customers? I hope not! More than anything else because movistar is already doing it! And we would just need to have one seriously bad customer service experience in a lifetime!

So, there you have it. My story. The story of a loyal customer who is no longer planning on purchasing a new mobile terminal from a company like movistar. No matter which terminal. The story of a loyal customer who is even considering, very carefully, moving away from his current ADSL provider, because it is part of the same company. So my search has started. And probably there will not be a way back! At least, not until they change and start learning what decent and good customer service is all about.

You may be wondering by now how does it affect my relationship, as a converted and loyal customer, with Apple, right? Well, after four iPods, one 3G iPhone, two MacBook Pros, one Time Capsule, and a couple of other Apple gadgets, that relationship is now destroyed. Completely. It is probably going to be a long while before I purchase any Apple product. As clear and simple as that. By the time I am "eligible" again to purchase this 3GS I will probably have a new mobile provider, with a new terminal. Hopefully, with a vendor that understands what good customer service is like. One with which I would not have got a strong feeling that I have been ripped off all along. One that has managed to earn my trust and loyalty, versus destroying it all together in 1000 pieces in a split second, just because they decided to partner with the wrong vendor. Yes, dear Apple, that’s how you have managed to destroy your prestigious brand with yours truly with a simple word: movistar.

(Oh, don’t worry, I won’t expect an answer, nor will I want it either, from you, my no longer dear Apple, and certainly not from you, movistar. You have already done a fine job yesterday in turning me away for a long while from you both, to the point where I would also be sharing these very same experiences with those very same folks who are about to make the same mistake I made over nearly a year ago. Hopefully, they won’t go that far!

Thanks, but no thanks! Hope you will learn one day how to treat your customers properly, because right now there is plenty of room for improvement, starting with making much better decisions altogether about  who your business partners should be. Perhaps movistar, in Spain, was not the best choice after all… So it’s time to put a stop to it. There’s a lesson learned there for all of us. Including you, my no longer beloved Apple, and me. I think it’s too late for movistar already…)

Tags: Apple, iPhone, 3G, 3GS, Terminals, Gadgets, Mobile Phones, Phones, Dennis Howlett, Irregular Enterprise, Customer Service, Excellence, Loyalty, Stories, Customer Experiences, Vendors, Movistar, Telefonica, Customer Service Center, Customer Representative, Sales, Contracts, Penalties, Brands, Branding, Corporate Brand, Lack of Customer Service, Constructive Feedback