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

Forget Social Strategy, Think Social Philosophy: Hippie 2.0

"Really? Are you serious? I mean, are you sure you know what you are saying?" "Yes, sir! I know what I am saying… Exactly that! For Social Computing to sink in and be that critical and crucial part of the ins and outs within the corporate world we would ALL need to make that blunt move. No exceptions. And the sooner, the better! If Starbucks has done it, why can’t we all? We need to go through that fundamental leap of faith, before we can all say that our job is done and over with. For a successful adoption of social software within any business, it needs to be, right there, part of the company’s DNA. Of their culture. Of their core values they live by day in day out. Not just another marketing strategy. Otherwise, it will fail altogether, like most of them have failed in the past. Even today.

I do know, and realise fully, that those comments shared above may well be a bit too harsh, but allow me to give you folks a little bit of background of what I actually meant with them. Back at the Enterprise 2.0 conference event in Boston, MA, a bit over a month ago, there was one particular panel that I was really excited about beforehand and for which I just couldn’t wait to participate in. It was moderated by the incredibly talented, and good friend, Susan Scrupski under the title "Roundtable on 2.0 Adoption in the Enterprise" and with quite a superb line-up of tremendously insightful and thought-provoking panelists: Bart Schutte, Jamie Pappas, Lee Bryant, Mary Maida and Dennis Howlett.

Now, I am not going to write much further about the various different highlights from that panel itself, since I will be doing that in an upcoming blog post on that very same topic, as part of the Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights series of posts.. However, I would want to touch base on something that happened during that session that I have been thinking about for a long while…

At some point during that session one of the panelists mentioned what has been, so far, one of the main showstoppers and inhibitors from a successful and wider adoption of social software tools: that is, failure to prove its business value. Yes, the good old known ROI for Social Software and how challenging it’s become to find its sweet spot. Of course, from there we started talking about financials, about making the numbers, about making it successfully quarter by quarter, etc. etc. And how social software could help influence such trend of thought. You know the drift. I bet you also know how it all followed from there onwards. Well, maybe not…

I just couldn’t help it; I had to stand up, and say something that’s been in my mind, heart, soul and whole self, for years, and that, finally, had an opportunity to come out on its own! Yes, I guess I was fired up by those comments to some extent. My commentary was basically stating out loud, and very clear, how having the same mind set about social networking inside the corporate world, as the one we have been having for decades is not going to get us very far! Quite the opposite!

Focusing on the financials alone of social computing and how it can help us generate more business revenue, i.e. focusing just on the numbers, on keeping the stakeholders happy, on using the same business models as last century’s is just going to help us get back into the same position we are nowadays in with this horrendous financial global crisis we are going through for a couple of years and still going strong. Hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel at the moment …

We need some fresh thinking; we need to break the barriers of how business has been conducted in the last few years; we finally need to break free from that financial yoke and eventually strike for that sustainable economy that everyone keeps talking about, but that doesn’t seem to come along as quickly as we thought. It keeps slipping away from our fingers, when we know it’s just so close to us! We need to stop thinking about social strategy and push more along the lines of social philosophy.

Because, after all, who wants to live in a world like today’s, yes, like today’s (With the current financial crisis and all) in say 30 to 50 years from now? Would you be willing to make the same mistakes we have made in the recent past and go through the same painful experiences again? And again! And again!! Would you? Would you like your children to inherit such unsustainable world? I am not sure about you, but I wouldn’t, and somehow something tells me that I will be around, like most of you folks out there, to witness what it would be like. And, for sure, I would want to see a better picture than what we have today! Otherwise, why bother altogether, don’t you think?

Now, can social computing help achieve that? I mean, can it helps us shift gears, change our chip, smarten up and start living by those same core values that social networking has been excelling at for over a decade already? Will we need to wait for 50 years for that to happen? I hope not! I seriously hope not!

That was along the lines of what I shared during that live panel. I know, I couldn’t help myself doing that. It was probably a bit over the top, judging by the comments of a few people who came to talk and catch up with me after the session itself, where a couple of them event hinted I just became the new Hippie 2.0 of the 21st century! Whoahh! Yeah, right! Whatever!

That got me! Well, what if I am. Most importantly, what if *we* are? What if through the usage and adoption of social software we would have an unprecedented opportunity to change the world we live in? Wouldn’t we want to seize that opportunity and make it happen? Again, think for yourself, would you want your kids and grand-kids living in a world like today’s in 30 to 50 years? Think about it …

Fortunately, I am not the only one who has been thinking along these lines, and somehow not only does that make me smile, but it also tells me that it may not be such a crazy thing after all … Did you have a chance already to go through the wonderful 7 minute interview that the Social Media Influence folks did to Alexandra Wheeler (Starbucks’ Director of Digital Strategies) on the topic of social strategy and social philosophy? Well, if you haven’t, you should! Because that’s what she is basically talking about; that in order for social networking (and social media for that matter) to sink in within our corporate world, and be part of every business’ DNA and provoke such sustainable growth where knowledge sharing, collaboration and, specially, innovation will be key, we need to forget about social strategy, and think more around social philosophy.

It would be only then when we would be making real progress. And somehow, I just cannot, but agree wholeheartedly with her on that. Yesterday I talked about how change management was critical for a successful embracing of social software within the enterprise. Today, I think we are ready to start a movement, one where that co-creation process of something much better, between knowledge workers and their customers is one and unique. One they will all live by to heart, and not just because it is a nice business strategy.

Are you ready? Will you join the Hippie 2.0 movement? Not to worry, take your time. Whenever you are ready, we will be waiting for you … With open arms, wanting to continue making a difference. For everyone. Not just for your business.

Tags: Social Strategy, Social Philosophy, Starbucks, Enterprise 2.0 Conference, #e2conf, e2conf, Boston, Susan Scrupski, 2.0 Adoption, Bart Schutte, Jamie Pappas, Lee Bryant, Mary Maida, Dennis Howlett, Business Value, Return On Investment, ROI, ROI for Social Software, Financials, Quarter by Quarter, Sustainability, Sustainable Economy, Economy, Knowledge Economy, Hippie 2.0, Movements, Social Media Influence, Alexandra Wheeler, Culture, Corporate Values, Values, Business DNA, Making A Difference

Overcoming Resistance to Change – Isn’t It Obvious?

Well, may be. But then again, may be not! I am sure that one of the main inhibitors that social computing evangelists out there would currently face within their own organisations would be pretty much such resistance to change from various other knowledge workers; resistance to leave their own comfort zone; to change their already well established, perhaps a bit obsolete, work habits; to shake up their already existing powerful networks (Although perhaps much smaller altogether…); to downgrade their well established reputation and subject matter expertise on whatever the topic; to change their already high performing productivity skills. In short, resistance to change anything. But for how long? How much longer before we all realise that change is inevitable, after all?

Yes, that’s right! As Nick Donofrio himself would say, change *is* inevitable, so the sooner we adapt, adjust and take appropriate steps to look after the best of not only our very own interests, but those of our customers and business partners, the better. For all of us! Don’t you think so?

However, that’s easier said than done, I am sure! Change is always a hard job to carry out successfully, specially within a working environment where everything seems to work just fine. Changing people’s work habits and their own comfort zone seem to be amongst the biggest challenges altogether! Well, may be. Then again, may be not. It all depends on how you try to face, and pace out, that change, mainly for those around you.

That’s why when talking about Enterprise 2.0, or Social Computing within the enterprise, whatever term you would want to make use of, I keep stressing out that this movement hasn’t got anything to do with technologies, nor processes, but, mainly, with people! That’s right! Once again, it’s all about the people! That’s why, when working your way through such dramatic changes within your business, Change Management is *so* crucial. Yet, it keeps getting ignored, consistently, by almost everyone. Most probably, because it is much easier to focus on tools and processes than in changing people’s already deeply rooted behaviours at work. Still, whether we like it or not, that’s where our main challenge lies ahead for us all.

This is actually one of the reasons why I’m seriously looking forward to future editions of the Enterprise 2.0 conference, because during this year’s event in Boston I could sense already how plenty of attendees are starting to shift away from that tools and processes based focus into the one we should all be spending most of our energy and efforts on: change management, which is tightly associated with HR. Yes, our good old HR. That, folks, is where the final frontier for a successful adoption of social software within the enterprise will be occurring … and very soon, too!

Thus, to such extent I thought you would enjoy watching through the following YouTube video clip that I bumped into earlier on (In Twitter, of course!) and which I think would make plenty of people think twice about how they can not only get things started, but move along at a lovely pace, too, with the rest of the employee workforce!

I am sure you will notice the subtle touch of humour behind LearningTOC‘s "Overcoming Resistance to Change – Isn’t It Obvious?"; it’s a short video clip of a bit over 6 minutes that clearly explains how Theory of Constraints can help in clearing up the mud that provoking those kinds of changes within the workplace can well invoke. I’m not going to talk much more about it; I think it will be rather self-explanatory as you move along playing the video itself. So, without much further ado, here you have got the embedded version of the clip, so you can start playing it right away…

Then, now that you have watched through it, I guess some time soon I’ll need to put together another follow-up blog post where I can share with you folks my two cents on what IBM’s own vision would be like to provoke such unprecedented change about how we work (And understand work) with a rather thought-provoking, revolutionary, engaging, mind-boggling, committed and participatory new initiative that just got started a few months ago and that is certainly starting to pick more and more steam as of late…

Welcome to the Workplace of the Future!

Tags: Change, Resistance to Change, Employee Workforce, TOC, Theory of Constraints, LearningTOC, Nick Donofrio, Change Is Inevitable, Technology, Processes, Business Processes, People, Work, Workplace, WorkPlace of the Future, Flexibility, Mobility, Enterprise 2.0 Conference, #e2conf, e2conf, Events, Boston, HR, Human Resources, Change Management, 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, Work Habits, Comfort Zone

A World Without Email — Year 3, Weeks 19 to 23 (Breaking the Email Addiction)

It has been a few weeks already since the last progress report I have shared over here around the topic of living "A World Without Email" (#lawwe) and since quite a few people have asked me recently how things are going, to the point where I will be talking to an internal group doing smart work and then a customer event on this very same subject very soon, I thought I might as well get together another update to relate how things are going. Has my weekly inbound email increased or decreased? Have I given up altogether on it already? Have I gone back to email after listening again to the sirens singing along? No, not likely! Still going strong and steady! After all of these years I can finally proclaim I have now, at long last, broken my email addiction!

Indeed, 5 weeks have gone by since the last time I blogged on this subject and even though I haven’t commented much on the topic on this blog throughout that time, things have been going rather well, steady and straight to the final destination of living that dream of "A World Without Email". One step at a time, year after year, but eventually getting there! Check out the latest progress report from those five weeks:

As you may have noticed, except for a single week where I reached the mark of 30 emails received in that week, for the rest of them the numbers have been rather consistent to go under 20 emails received per week, which is not bad considering the average of those 23 weeks gone by so far is still around the 18 emails mark, which I consider a rather good result to end up the remaining of the year in pretty good shape closer to the 15 to 10 mark. Indeed, not bad at all!

But might social media ever win the war with email? Or are the claims about the death of email greatly exaggerated, as Beth Kanter seems to provocatively suggest? Or are we in recovery mode, for the time being, since it looks like email is bad for our health? (My good friend Frank Bradley eventually suggests a few tips on reducing the impact of email in our health on that post; worth while having a look into it!). I’m not too sure, despite the wonderful news coming along indicating otherwise; like Ben & Jerry’s dropping email marketing in favour of social media, which a few folks have asked me what I thought about it … Well, what can I say? Hummm, Yummy!!

No, seriously, what I think is happening at the moment, is that we have reached the tipping point where we are finally breaking loose from our email addiction, as Tony Schwartz has nicely put, just recently, under the title "Breaking the Email Addiction", over at Harvard Business Review, with some rather thought provoking, controversial, but very much descriptive quotes of where we have been for a while:

"It isn’t overload we’re battling anymore, it’s addiction — to action, and information, and connection, but above all to instant gratification"

To then finish up with this other quote that seems to tackle that very same problem of email addiction and what we can do to break it:

"[...] We, too, can strategically train our attention. When it comes to email and the Internet, it’s critical that we do so to give ourselves more time to think more reflectively, creatively, and deeply in an increasingly complex world"

This last quote clearly reminds me of a recent blog post I put together where I was questioning whether multitasking is bad for the brain or not. And while still pondering some more about it, there is something out there going on that tells me that we don’t seem to have learned much from our previous addiction(s) and here we are, finding ourselves up another alley, but with another addiction: social networking, as Steve Rubel, from Edelman, has nicely described over at "Study: 43% Of Online Americans Addicted To Social Networking". Ha! I bet you saw that one coming, didn’t you?

I can certainly recommend folks have a read at Tony’s HBR piece, as I am sure that plenty of the tips he shares on breaking our email addiction could also be applied to taming that very same addiction leaning towards social networking. To me, eventually, it is all down to how we manage our interruptions; basically, how we train ourselves to focus our attention on what we really need to do, using the proper collaborative,  knowledge sharing or social software tools. Or, as I shared on another blog post over four years ago: "We create our own distractions and just need to learn to manage them".

I guess after three and a half years of living "A World Without Email" I have learned how to manage those distractions, and if folks out there may be wondering about how I have done it all along, I think I could just summarise it with two key words: balance and flow. That is, focusing on striking the balance between my distractions and the tasks / activities at hand and flow with regards to the point that I have finally learned to come to terms with my limitation of not being capable to read and digest everything that gets thrown back at me. Instead, I rely on the flow of the Social Web, as Stowe Boyd would put it, having realised that whatever it may well be, if it was really meant for me, i.e. something I would need, something that would really require my attention, it would eventually come back to me. In whatever other form or shape.

Perhaps that’s what breaking our addiction from both email and social networking is all about. Relying more and more on the social networks we all belong to, so that they can do their work in helping collaboratively filter what we need, and get rid of what we don’t need; resulting, eventually, in carrying out (our) work inside of networks and communities versus our traditional organisational structures, which seem to have trained us very well, over the course of the years, in sustaining that email addiction. May be it is the time to break loose and let social networks do the job. May be it’s the time for us to finally cultivate and trust, essentially, those networks we have learned to nurture over the course of time, because whether we like it or not, they do know what they are doing, don’t you think?

Are you ready to break through and join the revolution? What do we have to lose? Or, better said, what do we have to win? Something tells that a lot! Just hope we would all wake up before it is too late… before we transition from one addiction, that one of email, to another one: that one of social networking.

Hope not!

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, Beth Kanter, Kill Email, Frank Bradley, Health, Ben & Jerry’s, Icecreams, Tony Schwartz, HBR, Harvard Business Review, Email Addiction, Social Networking Addiction, Instant Gratification, Multitasking, Steve Rubel, Edelman, Distractions, Focus, Balance, Flow, Social Web, Social Filtering, Collaborative Filtering, Stowe Boyd, Striking the Balance