From Alistair Rennie’s Enterprise 2.0 presentation: "The enterprise itself is changing forever"
July 12 2011
I'm preparing for a customer meeting later this week, and in looking through some of the presentations available to me in our internal deployment of IBM Connections, I found Alistair Rennie's presentation from Enterprise 2.0 last month. The presentation isn't online, though Luis Benitez made some comments about it here. One of the slides was one I had not seen before, but it really resonates with me:
Earlier today, I had the opportunity to speak to a group of Northwestern University MBA students about social business. They found it hard to believe that the tools they use to communicate with friends every day would help them in the business world, but we had a great discussion, full of examples. I even talked about a recent case where Words with Friends became a social business tool -- most of the people I play with (and who beat me mercilessly) are IBMers, and in one case, one told me in the game chat about a candidate I was about to interview. That really changed my attitude about the call with the candidate the next day.
I never really put these words together before seeing the chart -- "leadership by connections". This isn't about the raw number of connections, but rather the influence level upon those connections. I have been flattered and humbled to see my Google + circle inclusion rocket up by crazy numbers over the last ten days, while approaching 5000 followers on Twitter, over 3000 subscribers to the blog on Google reader, 400 likes on my new Facebook page, etc. The raw numbers are nice, but what's even nicer -- and more valuable to me as a leader -- is the level of engagement on those connections. Things I post generate comments and discussion, retweets, shares, likes, and more. This blog is coming up on 50,000 valid, non-spam comments. 50,000!
Even more important is the depth of those connections. When I think about the key thought leaders and influencers in the Lotus community, most of those individual on the IBM Champions list or on PlanetLotus or on the other channels are people I consider friends. How different a world this is than a decade ago, where IBM chose consciously to portray a "faceless conglomerate" on the market -- instead of the tens of thousands of unique voices we have today. That is where the "digital reputation and individual brands" plays out. When I first started blogging, an early entry was an oblique reference to Ambuj Goyal being named as general manager of Lotus. Within hours, someone inside IBM was admonishing me for the blog entry, "we don't want to make celebrities out of IBMers". Today, we celebrate the individual brands of thought leaders across our organization, and the mindshare they generate for IBM in the industry at large.
Anyway, I really like the message on this slide. It really explains why "social business" is so much more than understanding the use of public social networks to reach customers. The practice of social business is about using the right individuals and teams with the right information to take the right action, quickly and authoritatively. That is the way we work today, successfully, and it is so much more comfortable than the old ways.
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Lisa Duke http://www.getsocialdobusiness.com | 7/13/2011 10:02:21 AM
I really like the "talent as a cloud" line, too. While the phrase is probably a bit to buzzwordy for some people, the vision of being able to tap into knowledge and skills your team has that you may not even be aware of is compelling for management. It's even more appealing to staff, most of whom are not free to really contribute and be appreciated in the top-down "sit here and push that button" style of the past. Excellent stuff.
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Alan | 7/13/2011 10:45:16 AM
Every business has talent it isn't aware of, because humans are multi-faceted. The difficulty comes trying to convince leaders that skills for which someone isn't employed are equally as useful as the skills they use in their "day job". I've encountered this recently myself - getting a product idea through to our product owners by stepping outside my "IT guy" box. Surprisingly difficult, and a surprising reaction from what is still a very siloed business with strong demarcation lines when it was adopted.
A business has logistics specialists, creatives, photographers, designers, all working in "boxes" where they don't use those skills.
Solving the line management conundrum of the social business is the million dollar question, and I would see as the biggest bump in the road as the management cadre has to adjust to strange reporting lines. Its more than matrix-management, and even that is often poorly grasped in reality
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Ferdy http://www.jungledragon.com | 7/13/2011 11:50:13 AM
I could be wrong, but when I hear "talent as a cloud" I think it means companies sourcing into the enormous outside virtual pool of knowledge, the almost opposite of internal staffing. That's why its a cloud. Just like a cloud application is external.
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Charles Robinson http://www.cubert.net | 7/13/2011 3:19:08 PM
I read a blog post recently about how business is changing and the workers are taking more control. It has been a subtle shift as they realize they can achieve their goals faster by collaborating than they can by going it alone. They also know what they need to do their jobs better and the technological barriers are low enough that they can often do it themselves.
After nearly two decades of promises of collaboration management is finally slowly accepting that, like water, people will find their own paths of least resistance. Management needs to build bridges to help them get where they need to go, not dams to stem the flood of information.
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Bill Geimer | 7/13/2011 3:42:13 PM
Ed, I recall the ref to Ambuj. And at the time, I recall the rebuff you got, but never equated the post with making him or you famous. I was just information that was available on the'Net. Still is, although I would venture that few would say you are not more famous because of this blog. But even that is because of the content and and the usefulness.
I suspect that the same can be said of TribLocal and other creative outlets.
Good slide. You may be too late though. Alistair Rennie is fairly famous already.
I hope that you told the NW students that far more companies will prevent you from using blogs, facebook and twitter than encouraging it. But web 2.0 is in its infancy most places, like the one where Balmer is again talking about prohibiting employee use of iPhones. Many companies, in this employer centric market seem to list more ways to be terminated for web 2.0 than encouraged for using it to connect to customers.
Its really one of the best things that I have seen IBM do in their century year. The celebration by volunteering was probably the best though.
Bill
Great post, Ed. I've always defined collaboration as "bringing together the people, processes and information you need, when you need it and in the correct context". I think your very nice summary paragraph basically states the same thing. This speaks to the fact that the underlying fundamentals haven't changed, but the mechanics that enable it are just different (and better). I believe that this is why the IBM Collaboration products and IBM's customers have done such a great job embracing the social ideas...they were very much a part of our DNA to begin with.