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

When This All Gets Cool, It’s All about The People and Your Passion

After a couple of rather hectic days at work, I guess it’s time again to update my blog over here sharing with you folks a couple of thoughts that have been lingering around in my mind lately and which, more and more by the day, have continued to demonstrate what, to me, is the whole thing around Social Computing, Social Software, Social Media, Enterprise 2.0, Social Networking, Web 2.0 or whatever other "expression" you would want to use: it’s all about the people; and it’s all about passion, your passion!

Yes, I know most of you would be able to differentiate between one and the other, if I would ask you to go ahead and define them all; however, two of the key characteristics that will define them all would those ones I have just shared above on all about the people and passion.

And this is not the first time I blog on this very same topic; when most folks are talking about how social computing / networking is all about a new wave of social tools on the Internet that would help us become more productive while sharing our knowledge across and collaborating with our peers, I keep thinking that we should probably not make the same mistakes we have done over the decades in trying to justify such kind of movements as technology / tools based, because they aren’t. They are all about the people behind them, and tools are just that: tools. Enablers. And that’s where it all ends for them.

And that’s when it gets really fascinating and exciting for us all! Did you have a look into my good friend’s, Chris Brogan’s, blog post titled "When This All Gets Cool"? If you haven’t, I would strongly suggest you take a look, because he has put together one of those articles that would surely resonate with you all quite a bit and won’t left you indifferent. Yes! It is that good!

Chris shares on that blog post pretty much basically what I have said above on where the real focus should well be all along, as more and more businesses are starting to explore various different efforts on social software adoption, both inside and outside of the corporate firewall: not on the technology, nor on the tools, but on where we could get the most out of the whole experience. To quote him:

"Social media are a bunch of tools. They let us see things a bit differently. They empowered new ways of working together. But they’re just the tools. When this all gets cool is when we start really turning this stuff on our own passion projects, on our bigger goals, on what COULD happen."

What he has managed to do with that blog post is to inspire tremendously a whole bunch of folks into doing (Or continuing to do…) things 2.0 related in a completely different way: i.e. making a difference! So if you did enjoy some of the brilliant suggestions he made on what other things we could do with social software tools (Other than thinking they are the primary focus), I would suggest as well you take a look into the extended commentary where plenty of folks have been chiming in and sharing plenty of golden nuggets of what passion for what they do would mean to them and, most importantly, how they are attempting to make a difference in how they interact with things! Just brilliant!

Yes, it’s all about the people! It’s all about the passion your let permeate through every single part of your body, and brain!, wanting to share it across with others. And make it contagious! That’s exactly how I felt yesterday when I did go through one of the suggestions Chris offered in his post: "Give your local school teachers or library a free class on how to use the tools for their projects".

Ok, it wasn’t my school, but rather ESCOEX International Business School in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; it wasn’t a talk with the school’s teachers, either (Nor the library!), but instead it was a rather energising two hour event with a bunch of amazingly talented group of youngsters wanting to make a difference and surely preparing for themselves the way to do just that!

I bet when they saw me coming into the classroom, they were expecting to hear about this strange guy who telecommutes, has got his bosses thousands of kilometers away, works for a rather, perhaps too large, corporation making trouble for living "A World Without Email" and just probably wants to tell his story and go back home. Funny enough I had other plans for the session … and for them…

I didn’t use a single set of slides! In fact, I didn’t bring with me any gadget whatsoever other than my mobile phone, which I didn’t even use at all during the entire time; they were probably thinking they were going to learn some things from me on what it is all about using social software tools in a business environment. Yet, I was the one who had an opportunity to learn so much from them all that I am still digesting most of the incredibly cool things that we discussed during the entire session.

I am working already on a follow up blog post where I can share some of those various different insights with you folks. If you would want to take a peek, ahead of time, into some of the stuff we discussed during the session I would highly recommend you have a look into today’s blog post that my good friend Víctor Ruiz put together under the title "Luis Suárez (IBM) y su lucha contra el correo-e" (Yes, it’s in Spanish!).

In it he details, very nicely!, a good chunk of what we discussed and comes to conclude whether I live in a parallel universe, or a different world altogether, since it looks like things within local businesses are going rather slow at the moment, and perhaps for the next few years still, with regards to their own adoption of these social tools to try to keep making a difference.

Yet, there I was! With all of my passion for the topic, focusing on the people, on their conversations, on each and everyone of the students knowing we may not be that far off from that reality I seem to be living in. I won’t be disclosing further details on what I mean by that (In an upcoming blog post you will see what I mean…), but one thing that I can certainly share with you all, and which resonated with Chris Brogan’s blog post I originally mentioned above, is that "To me, the cool stuff has very much yet to happen. We can do SO much more".

And yesterday I witnessed, and experienced!, the sheer talent behind those younger generations who surely are passionate about what they do, and who certainly want to make a difference in this world. They may let them do it; they may not, but one thing that surely came out from yesterday’s event at ESCOEX International Business School is that they are going to try it damn hard and I am surely going to help them succeed! Will you?

Will your passion help them make a difference at whatever they truly believe in? Not sure about you, but they certainly have mine! For a long while …

Tags: 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, email, Productivity, Re-purposing Email, No-Email, Challenge Your Inbox, Progress Reports, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Information Overload, A World Without Email, The People, Passion, Passionate, Tools, Enablers, Web 2.0, Chris Brogan, Escoex, International Business School, Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Victor Ruiz, Making a Difference, Things That Matter

Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize Wish: Teach Every Child about Food

Oh, and talking about inspirational videos one gets exposed to every now and then. Here I am back again with another one; slightly longer (Nearly 22 minutes), but one of those that will not leave you indifferent. Forever! Of course, it had to be one of TED’s videos; one that will surely make you think about it twice next time you go and grab a bite! I am sure plenty of you folks out there have seen it already and have been WOWed just as much as the rest of us, to put it mildly!

However, if you haven’t, I am going to keep this blog post rather short, so you can go and have a look into "Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize Wish: Teach Every Child about Food" and enjoy 20 minutes, approx., of pure genius, joy and inspiration! Whether you are well built or slim, whether young or old, whether you care or whether you don’t, this is one of those incredibly thought-provoking videos that will surely make you change and / or adapt some of the food habits you may have gotten used to over the course of the years and those from those around you.

And all of that coming from someone like me,  who keeps struggling to find the right balance, specially when travelling abroad and being away from home for a few days, but who, after watching the video clip, clearly sees the light at the end of the tunnel and is already on a mission to take on board some of the helpful tips shared throughout the video clip by Jamie. And, believe me, it’s worth it. Very much so!

Thus without much further ado, here is a little bit of homework for you for over the weekend, in case you may not be able to watch it in the next few minutes. Go and click on PLAY, sit back, relax, and enjoy one of those TED presentations that will help change your life forever. For good! For better!

Tags: TED, Videos, Inspiration, Inspiring, Life, Health, Healthy Habits, Habits, Fit, Fitness, Food, Jamie Oliver, Travel, Travelling, Making a Difference, Things That Matter, Break the Habit, WOW Factor

It’s All About Work Life Integration; It’s All About You!

One of the topics that I set myself to blog about way back when I first got things started over here a few years ago was surprisingly enough about Work Life Balance (Yes, I know, it doesn’t have much to do with KM, Collaboration, Communities, Learning or Social Computing for that matter… but not to worry, bear with me… ); and that everlasting battle of living both a fruitful and satisfying online and offline life without going crazy along the way. Well, it’s been a long while since I shared a blog post on this topic, so I thought I would spend with you folks today a few minutes talking about it. Because, in my own experience, it’s not about striking a good work life balance, but eventually it’s all about Work Life Integration.

This blog entry is inspired by another article that was written a few hours back by my good friend, and former IBM colleague, Alan Lepofsky under the title "Finding The Balance Between Online and Off" and I can certainly recommend it as an interesting and thought-provoking post on what are some of the various different challenges that knowledge workers face today with regards to their own exposure to the online world: The Social Web.

Alan questions that, as more and more social networking tools keep flourishing and demanding much more of our attention and that of our various social networks we hang out with online (We can see the latest example with Google Buzz), it is becoming increasingly more difficult to make it work in a balanced way with our offline lives. To the point where, while we may enjoy quite a bit our own online lives, we seem to keep neglecting the offline ones. And that may not be a good thing altogether. Read through his entire post and you will see what I mean…

For a good number of years most businesses have been trying to strike that good balance between like and work for each and everyone of their knowledge workers. More than anything else, because it’s probably the right thing to do (And you will see what I mean in a couple of minutes…). However, things didn’t always work out as they should have and eventually if you would go out and start asking those employees they would tell that work life balance is a myth. At least, for them!

Well, it shouldn’t be! After all, we are all smart and very productive knowledge workers, aren’t we not? I mean, "A knowledge worker is someone who gets to decide what he does each morning" (Beautiful quote by Thomas A. Stewart), so why is it that difficult to strike that good balance between the two? To me, it’s all about our inability of "Saying No!" (By the way, I would strongly recommend you read that wonderfully crafted article by Alexandra Samuel, although I would totally understand it if you say "No!" ).

It’s about our inability to let things go (Like reading every single thing that comes through your way – Facebook, Twitter, email, newsgroups messages, Instant Messaging, etc. etc.); to let information fly past by us without even having a peek at it; to say "No!" to other fellow knowledge workers, because we don’t want to hurt their feelings; to be ourselves when we already know what’s right and what’s not so right (Working from 6:00 am in the morning till midnight is not right! No matter what your boss or your colleagues tell you about it or regardless of that huge deadline that is approaching!).

And things are only getting worse! All of that thanks to social software tools! Yes, that’s right! With them the always thin line between work and life becomes thinner than ever. We are now more capable of working remotely, distributed and virtual that our personal offline lives, vs. our online work related ones, are becoming almost impossible to distinguish. And that’s when we are starting to be in trouble, as Alan has put it quite nicely under the rather insightful questions he ponders towards the end of his post.

So, you may be wondering, where do you draw the line? How do you put a stop to it? Where have I drawn the line myself (Specially seeing how most folks who know me seem to be perceiving how I seem to "live" out there, up in the clouds, on various social networks, when it is actually not the case)? Well, it starts with that concept I mentioned at the beginning of this post: it’s all about Work Life Integration!

IBM’s short article on The New Workplace Model puts it quite nicely:

"In today’s fast-changing world, the most skilled and creative professionals expect to take charge of their own integrated lives"

That’s right! Spot on! It all starts with you! Not your boss, nor your peers, nor your family, nor your friends. It all starts with you taking responsibility, and action!, for your own online and offline life; for your own work and personal life; in short, it all starts with you taking care of yourself. No one else. Just you! Yes, I can tell you you may not please your boss, your colleagues, your family, friends and whatever other acquaintances. But that’s fine, don’t worry too much about it! Why? Well, for a very good reason: because if you don’t do it, NO ONE will! That’s why it all starts with you deciding what you do each morning. But think wisely. That’s where work life integration kicks in! That’s where you take back control of who you are and how you may make use of your time, both offline and online.

Unfortunately, that’s something that I learned myself throughout the years the hard way. Till one day (Those of you who know me well would probably venture to guess when that happened and be right) I decided to put a stop to it. To say enough was enough. I wanted to make that work life integration work out for me all right. Not for everyone else, but for me. I’m sure it wasn’t pretty for everyone, but thanks to that move I could probably state I’m still alive and kicking and *loving* what I do, both offline and online!

Thus the next time that someone asks you to do something, to read something, to comment on something, to get something done even, sit back, relax, count to 10 while you are taking a deep breath and evaluate, rather carefully, whether that new task fits right in with your recently re-discovered self: the one who understands that what matters the most is your own self, because no-one else would for you … Time to take control back of who you are both online and offline, don’t you think?

Tags: Work Life Balance, Work, Life, Balance, Work Life Integration, Integration, Alan Lepofsky, Offline, Online, Google Buzz, Thomas Stewart, Knowledge Workers, Saying No, Alexandra Samuel, New Workplace, Models, Self, Things That Matter, Smaller Things, 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