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

Enterprise 2.0 – Towards Embracing a New Emerging Kind of Leadership

One of the toughest challenges that any business faces when embracing Social Computing within the enterprise is how, time and time again, social software tools keep challenging themselves the already existing status quo of the corporate world. Specially, within the traditional, hierarchical and structured leadership teams going all the way to the top! But is that threat real? Is that new wave of emerging leaders really threatening already existing organisational structures? Are their powerful networks overthrowing steadily those traditional and well established leadership teams? Does command-and-control still have a place in this new emerging working environment of Enterprise 2.0? Will both types of corporate leadership ever reconcile, learn from one another and start building the next generation of (business) leaders? Probably far too many questions, but here is a simple answer to them all: leadership 2.0 is here to stay, so we might as well embrace it!

I am not sure whether you may have read this Forbes article put together by my fellow IBM colleague, and good friend, Rawn Shah, under the title "Enterprise 2.0 Changes What Kind Of Leader You Need To Be", but he surely is hinting, and very nicely done, the path to follow for both traditional and emerging leaders (in the social networking spaces) to meet up half way through and instead of fighting against one another, trying to see who would survive further, start building stronger personal business relationships by collaborating, sharing their knowledge across and learning from one another about their own strengths. Tough challenge, I am sure you may be thinking, right? But, eventually, it’s not as bad as you think. Rather the opposite!

Like I said, Rawn hints, very nicely, a good bunch of insights on how both groups of leaders could come together into an explosive and rather energising mix that, if anything, will help set the stage and prepare the road for that next generation of leaders about to enter the workplace, if not inside already. And all of that with the use, of course, of communities, which, like I have been saying all along for a while now, are the major drivers of social software adoption within any business. Here is an interesting quote from Rawn’s article that pretty much nails it, in my opinion:

"As a traditional manager joining an online community, you should always identify and work with its emergent leaders. No matter how highly ranked you are within the overall organization, the community leader represents a trusted authority within the network. Challenging or overriding his or her authority disrupts the climate of openness and insinuates totalitarianism. You need to build trust and raise your digital eminence before you do anything like that, even though it may take time and work" [Emphasis mine]

I am sure after reading that paragraph you may be thinking that embracing this new kind of leadership is going to jeopardise whatever efforts traditional leaders may have been working with like command and control. But nothing further from the new reality; Rawn moves on and quotes Charlene Li and Jaime Punishill stating that it’s all about "Establishing command, not control". And I couldn’t have agreed more with that statement. Spot on!

But Rawn also hints what hierarchical, structured leaders need to do to start that exciting and thrilling new transformational journey to "become a truly connected leader":

"[...] you must embrace the virtues preferred in social environments: passionate, inspirational leadership, leading by motivating and setting an example, creating a vision, mentoring, asking the right questions and setting the right social conditions. Li advocates information-sharing activities that demonstrate such open leadership: explaining, updating, conversing, crowdsourcing and having open discussions" [Emphasis mine]

Thus as you would be able to see from the above quotes, embracing social computing within the enterprise has nothing to do with replacing anything, not even your current leaders; quite the opposite! It’s all about empowering them to begin their own transformation into merging successfully with that next generation of emerging leaders who have been around already for a little while participating in social networks and communities and eventually become even stronger leaders. It’s a partnership. It’s a commitment to learn from one another and become better at what they do already: lead by example.

It’s about learning from one another through a constant re-building and re-nurturing of personal business relationships by having open conversations where building trust is the common norm and the main rule. Trust amongst their peers, but also, of course, with their employees.

It’s about demonstrating you walk the talk, even with your current leadership team(s), in preparing your business for the knowledge economy of the 21st century, one where business work will get done around networks and communities; one where traditional teams and projects merge and disappear nicely into a fully networked, interconnected and globally distributed working environment. I realise you may be thinking that still is quite a challenge and perhaps you may be wondering how your business could tackle it, right?

Well, once again, Rawn shares a couple of examples of how it could work, providing some further insights on specific programmes that may be available out there. One of them, that I am incredibly proud of, is one that IBM itself has been running for almost a year now and which surely is enjoying a nice momentum at the moment. It’s a reverse mentoring programme by which some of IBM’s top leaders get paired with social computing advocates who will then coach them through a longer period of time on how to get the most out of social networking tools for business. So eventually, as Rawn mentions, "you build digital eminence while linking your existing and emerging leaders".

From there onwards, it’s through a series of open and engaging conversations between both parties, and under a rather specific business context, that business relationships will grow and mature enough to help merge both groups of leaders and eventually become a one larger, stronger, network that would not only be walking the talk, but at the same time it would be helping accelerate the wider adoption of social software tools within their own teams, as they will continuously demonstrate what that transformation process has been like. And that, folks, can only be a good thing!

Perhaps, at some other point in time, I may be able to explore further a good number of the social  business activities that such reverse mentoring programme is putting together, since I am sure plenty of folks out there would find it beneficial. Who knows… I may be able to get a couple of the leaders who I’m currently coaching at the moment to kick off their own personal blogs sharing what that experience has been like. Stay tuned!

Finally, to wrap up this article, the good news is that I am 100% positive IBM is not the only business embarked into such innovative and thought-provoking initiatives as that one, and I would love to hear from you, on the comments, about what your own company is doing to successfully merge both leadership teams, because somehow I think we all realise what the real impact would be of confronting both groups, don’t you think? It’s like why would you go for one or the other when you could have the best of both (colliding) worlds? It sounds like a natural path of evolution for those new leaders of the 21st century, don’t you think? It would be another matter though whether businesses, in general, are ready to help facilitate that switch… What do you think?

Tags: Leadership, Management, Leaders, Managers, Leaders 2.0, Management 2.0, Managers 2.0, Leadership 2.0, Rawn Shah, IBM, Forbes, Publications, Reflections, Trust, Knowledge Workers, Networks, Globally Integrated Enterprise, Charlene Li, Jaime Punishill, Command and Control, Command, Control, Empowerment, Connected, Walk the Talk, Making a Difference, Reserve Mentoring, Coaching, Facilitating, Support, Emerging Leaders, 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

Did You Know? Social Networks in Spain

Who hasn’t heard about the now incredibly popular series of video clips shared in YouTube, amongst several other places, under the heading "Did You Know?" to share some further insights on the kind of significant impact that social computing and social networks are having not only within the business world, but in our society as a whole? I am sure most of you folks out there have already been exposed to a number of them by now. I even have blogged about some of them myself in the past over here, as they provide a nice set of statistical insights that can surely convince even the most skeptical about the value of social software.

But did you know that there is now a Spanish version of such kind of videos as well? Yes, indeed, the smart folks behind Cientouno have put together a video clip of a bit over 4 minutes that describes, quite nicely, the status of social networking in Spain, compared to the rest of the world, by putting together some interesting facts on the kind of impact of those very same social software tools are having within the Spanish market. Rather interesting, to say the least!

Yes, I know, and do realise, that most of the folks out there reading this post are coming from an English speaking country and blogging about this specific video clip may not provide lots of value to most of you. However, for those of you who would want to polish your Spanish skills I bet that it would be a rather interesting exercise to go through the clip and learn about some interesting social networking facts.

At the same time, the main reason why I wanted to include a short reference to this video clip over here is because, contrary to what most people think, Spain is sitting on the top 10 (At #7 at the moment!) on the overall use of social networks across the world! Yes, at #7!! And, interestingly enough, those social networks drive as well a huge amount of traffic, as you would be able to see from this video link under the title "Uso de las redes sociales en España y el resto del mundo":

I am sure that after you have watched the video, even if your Spanish is a bit rusty, you would have to agree with me that it’s rather stunning to think how heavily used social networking sites are, in general, in Spain for private social activities (Family and friends!), yet, within a working environment, Spain, sadly, is one of the countries that doesn’t even come near the top of the list. Not at all!!

And that’s the main reason why I wanted to bring this subject into this blog, as I am about to start putting together a number of different presentations for upcoming conference events, in Spanish, that talk about social computing and its impact within the corporate world and, in particular, within the Spanish one. There is definitely plenty of work that still needs to be done, if we would want to bring social software across businesses, but, interestingly enough, we are not starting from scratch, like in some other countries. Instead, we have got a rather interesting challenge to face that perhaps it is not so obvious in other locations: the fact that Spanish social networkers are already very well versed into using these social tools, but for their own private and personal use! Nothing to do with the business!

So the biggest challenge that the Spanish corporate world is facing nowadays is not just generating awareness and enable knowledge workers to make use of social tools, but eventually to prove that these social tools can be used for business, too! And all of that in an environment where knowledge workers themselves are making that split very clear defining what are their own private, and personal, boundaries and those very same ones related to their jobs. What a challenge!

I mean, as you will see from the video clip, several million people are making use already of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tuenti, etc. etc. for their own personal use, so how are Spanish businesses going to sell the idea of using those very same social tools as their knowledge workers’ core business tools? Most people would probably think that yes, they are using Facebook, Twitter and the like, for their own private use, so why would they bother to use those very same social tools for their day to day job when they would want to keep separate their private lives from their work ones. Here is an example, how many of your Spanish friends have friended their boss or boss’ boss in Facebook or Tuenti and talk about work matters in those social environments? I bet not many!

Like I said, that surely is quite an interesting and mind-blogging challenge that Spanish businesses face today and although I have got already some ideas on how to tackle those issues, I thought I would share with you folks this video clip to give you as well some hints as to what would be those couple of ideas… Hopefully, later on, in the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing with you the presentations I’m putting together already and which I think would help clarify a bit the social computing landscape in Spain. I will leave you with a quick hint, or two, though … It’s going to be a blurred thin line… And also Spanish businesses would probably need to finally change their productivity business models, if they would want to engage those several million knowledge workers online out there who are already getting the most of those social networking sites…

Not a bad challenge to face, right? Or would you rather prefer to start from scratch, so you could influence a completely different experience right from the beginning? I would love to know what you folks think about this topic, specially if you are working for a Spanish firm. Somehow I sense that privacy and security would be two topics that would have a new stronger focus, one where the culture is going to play a big role. Actually, a *huge* one, don’t you think? As a starting point, would you friend your boss in Facebook and talk about work? Or would you follow, or be followed, by your boss in say Twitter and exchange tweets on work related tasks? Not an easy one to answer, right? Well, maybe it is …

Tags: Did You Know?, Videos, YouTube, Statistics, Skeptics, Spain, España, Cientouno, Spanish Market, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tuenti, Productivity Models, Performance, Knowledge Workers, Smart Work, A New Way of Working, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity, Redes Sociales, Software Social, Empresa 2.0, Privacy, Security, Personal Activities, Business Performance

Iniciador Las Palmas – Q&A with Rodolfo Carpintier

Last week Thursday I took an opportunity to take part of my first Iniciador CITY-NAME event (Entrepreneur CITY-NAME) over here in Spain, after a whole bunch of other Web 2.0 start-up events that I have attended over the course of the years in multiple countries. And I can honestly say that it wasn’t a disappointment; quite the opposite! Rather entertaining and enlightening altogether! I actually had a great time, because the event itself was also hosted in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, so it was rather easy for me to make it, since it is a short drive from where I live. Now, after spending a bit of time the last few days reflecting on the many various outcomes, I thought today would be a good opportunity to share with you folks what were some of my main highlights from the event itself.

As a starting point, "Iniciador Las Palmas" had the rather exciting opportunity to have Rodolfo Carpintier (President of DAD – Digital Assets Deployment), as the main guest speaker, which proved to be rather successful and interesting since he decided to deliver his pitch using 2.0 techniques; mainly, no slideware around to be seen, and just answer questions that the audience put together before on sticky notes, Facebook messages and tweets; and start answering them all, one by one.

Absolutely fantastic if it weren’t a bit disappointing how it may not have been as 2.0 advanced as it could have. We were all in a small room, rather cosy, very well prepared, but alas with no Internet access, no wifi, not even our very own 3G connections from our mobile devices; something along the lines of a locked up room with no external exposure other than the air from the outside. Very disappointing if you claim to deliver a 2.0 kind of pitch, and then the audience cannot do anything else other than writing stuff down on paper, because we couldn’t get access to Facebook, nor Twitter, nor our blogs, whatever. Yes, I know and do realise, it’s one of my pet peeves, but I thought for a group of around 50 people attending the event, we weren’t asking for too much, when most of us were already going into the event connected! Oh well … Let’s hope the video recording will be made available shortly, so I can point you folks to it…

Anyway, back into the event; back into a rather engaging Q&A session with Rodolfo, where he got to answer some very interesting, and thought provoking, questions from entrepreneurs, and other interesting parties from the audience, on how to get things going with their own Internet businesses. Questions coming from all sorts of angles, some of them with relatively easy answers coming through, some others tough cookies to crack! But incredibly helpful and educational to see how Rodolfo nailed each and everyone of them!

Now, I am not going to give you an account of all of those different questions and answers; and the reason for that is because both my good friends Víctor Ruiz and Esther Pérez Verdú have already done a superb job over at Iniciador Las Palmas: Rodolfo Carpintier and Las Perlas Que Dejó Carpintier, respectively, amongst several others. So go ahead and read their insightful blog posts (In Spanish) to get some further accounts of what the event was like. It will be worth your time.

What I would want to do though is try to connect "Iniciador Las Palmas" with some of the main themes I have been blogging about over here in this blog in the last few years, since, as you can imagine, there may be some questions out there as to why is this guy, Luis Suarez, working for a large corporate, multinational environment, attending a local entrepreneur event. Right? Well, here is why… Three main themes that came through that afternoon that are equally relevant in whatever the business context:

1. Collaboration Now More Important Than Ever: Yes, indeed, something we all already know, but which I think was rather nice to confirm; whether it is team or group work (i.e. Communities) collaborating across the board with an amazing, high performing team will pay off eventually in the long run; even if your idea may not be the best of ideas! It’s all about execution; it’s all about working your way towards carrying out your idea with a brilliant pool of talent that will help make advance that same idea no matter what; it’s through that collaboration that work gets done; that the idea matures, gets improved into perhaps becoming your next best product out there in the market! Sounds familiar with how businesses feel about their products and ideas nowadays, right?
2. Find Your Tribe: If you would want to be successful with your product sales, there is a great chance that you would need to go out there, on to the Internet, and start finding, building and sustaining your tribe to make it happen sooner, rather than later! This is very much along the lines of what Seth Godin discusses in several places and which I have recently blogged about over here and here. Instead of trying to sell your product to the whole Internet, how about starting with a tribe, your tribe, of connections who are truly passionate about your work, about your product and who are very willing to improve, through direct feedback mechanisms, how to make your product(s) even better. Work your way through finding your tribe and you will be off to a great start, to say the least!
3. Think Global, Act Local: This was another theme that came through the conversations with Rodolfo and in today’s (Internet) world I just couldn’t help ignore. The basics is that if you are putting together a business in Gran Canaria, as an example, don’t think your only customers would be people from the island. You need to reach out way beyond the geographical barriers and reach out to a global audience! Now, this is when it surely gets interesting and exciting, because thanks to the Internet, and, specially, thank to social networks, that opportunity to reaching globally, but still act locally has never been closer than today!

   It reminds me of the superb blog post that Chris Brogan put together not longer ago under "When This All Gets Cool", which I have also blogged over here, and that pretty much nails it with this specific quote: "Give your local school teachers or library a free class on how to use the tools for their projects". It’s that local / global reach dichotomy that is probably one of the most exciting opportunities for social networks to thrive not just locally, i.e. your tribe, but also globally when thinking about communities, wider networks and a whole infrastructure behind knowledge sharing and collaboration with a purpose: that one of making a difference!

Not bad for a Thursday afternoon event, was it? I know! Quite the opposite! Really enjoyable time and lots of new things learned; mainly, that most of the same challenges that entrepreneurs face are pretty much the same challenges that the corporate world faces today as well, now more than ever! So I am thinking that it may well be a good time now to join forces, collaborate and network with one another; and learn from each other on how we can help each other meet our respective targets and goals through an intense relationship of collaboration and knowledge sharing where social networks will turn themselves into infomediaries. That, folks, is the exciting future of Social Networking and Web 2.0 out there on the Internet!

I bet you just can’t wait to engage with it all, can you? So did we! After such wonderful conversations with Rodolfo we headed down to a small bar, and enjoyed a couple of beers sharing ideas back and forth about what was a truly fantastic session; specially when you are given the opportunity to catch up with Víctor, Esther, Julio Pérez-Tomé, Kilian Barrera, Carlos Hernández and a whole bunch of other smart and talented folks! Like I have always said, physical, face to face social networking over a beer or two really rocks and it’s just the beginning to plant the seed to go further and beyond in your reach of global networks!

(Thanks ever so much to the organisers of the event for putting together a rather delightful afternoon, and, yes!, I just can’t wait for the next one! If you are local … hope to see you there! If you are global, not to worry, I will be sharing with you all some of the major highlights like today’s article!)

Tags: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria, Spain, Iniciador, Iniciador Las Palmas, Rodolfo Carpintier, DAD, Digital Assets Deployment, Entrepreneurs, Events, Victor Ruiz, Esther Perez Verdu, Tribes, Seth Godin, Find Your Tribe, Think Global, Act Local, Chris Brogan, Making a Difference, Infomediaries, Julio Perez-Tome, Kilian Barrera, Carlos Hernandez, Web 2.0, Startups, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity