Social business webinar

 

   My next webinar on the social business, and will be on Tuesday 3rd May.

“The social business is often defined as one that uses social media or Enterprise 2.0 technology.  However, it's much more useful to define it by outcome rather than activity.  So Jon Ingham's definition of it is an organisation in which social relationships between employees and with others are valued and accumulated.  In this webinar, Jon will describe the range of tools, technologies and other activities - face-to-face and virtual, which are available to organisations to develop their peoples' relationships.”

 

You can book here.

 

Technorati Tags: Social,business,enterprise,2.0,HR,webinar

 

• Consulting  - Research - Speaking  -  Training -  Writing
• Strategy   -  Team development  -  Web 2.0  -  Change
• Contact  me to  create  more  value  for  your  business
• jon [dot] ingham [at] social [dash] advantage [dot] com

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John Lewis’ Co-Ownership Model and The Royal Wedding

 

  I’m a republican.  And I’ve avoided the royal wedding today by flying to Atlanta where I’m attending an unconference tomorrow.

On the flight out I’ve been reading this month’s Management Today, which includes an interview with John Lewis Partnership’s Chairman, Charlie Mayfield, and I’ve been struck by the similarities between this company’s co-ownership model, and the reasons why I’m a republican.

 

Co-Ownership

As Mayfield has explained in the Times a few years ago, co-ownership provides a good basis for long-term planning in business:

“Our success in that aftermath and our future economic growth will depend on knowledge-based companies working in new areas of business such as genetics and climate change technology. Such businesses tend to thrive when the people with the knowledge feel they have a stake in their future. Innovation will also be key to their success.

They will not grow into sustainable businesses unless they are built on a structure that encourages a long-term approach to investment and gives the people involved a stake in their success. The modern plc may not be it.”

 

He clearly sees the ownership model as one of the central planks in John Lewis’ success:

“Our constitution is most definitely not a philanthropic idea.  It’s a commercial idea.  A competitive idea.  It’s not political, it’s about engaging people.  We create a culture of ownership and people feel valued.  So they perform better.  That is a very powerful performance lever.”

 

Indeed.  (The article also suggests that:

“If you stack shelves at Waitrose or sell bed linen at Peter Jones, you regard yourself as a cut above the till jockeys at Asda or Debenhams.  You are the creme de la creme, with skin in the game.”)

 

So the suggestion is that co-ownership changes employees (‘partners’)’  perspective about their employment and employer, making them more engaged, with higher performance a result.

I think there’s a bit more too it than this.  I’d suggest the main benefit of this less hierarchical approach is enhanced co-operation - that John Lewis’ people are not just in the game but are playing in the game together.

 

Republicanism

I probably don’t really need to explain the analogy I’m making here.

But let me just emphasise that one key difference between John Lewis and other UK retailers is that Mayfield reports indirectly to his staff (through a 70-strong council of elected partner representatives), rather than simply the other way around.  It’s not too dissimilar to a Presidential political model where the populate appoints the President.

In other more traditional organisations, the boss is much more clearly on top.  He (still less often she) are the corporate equivalents of our dear old queen.  And employees don’t have the same sort of stake in the business that they do at John Lewis and they don’t get the same chance to ask questions, they simply need to do what they are told (as in the anthem: “Long to reign over us”).

So just as John Lewis gets improved performance from its enhanced engagement and co-operation, wouldn’t Britain (the United Republic?) benefit from giving its people (citizens not subjects) more of a stake as well?

 

Technorati Tags: Charlie Mayfield,John Lewis Partnership,Management Today,monarchy,royalty,royal wedding,republic

 

• Consulting  - Research - Speaking  -  Training -  Writing
• Strategy   -  Team development  -  Web 2.0  -  Change
• Contact  me to  create  more  value  for  your  business
• jon [dot] ingham [at] social [dash] advantage [dot] com

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Social HR / HR 2.0 webinar – slides

 

  I’m a few weeks with this, but I’ve now added the slides from my recent webinar on social HR / HR 2.0 to slideshare .  I’ve included links to all the references I discussed so you can see these in the presentation transcript (you’ll need to click through to Slideshare for this).

 

Social HR 2.0

View more presentations from Jon Ingham

 

My original notes on the webinar are here.

 

And a reminder about my next two webinars:

• Social Business webinar
• HR Innovation webinar

 

Thanks again to Citrix GoToWebinar for supporting me to deliver these.

 

Technorati Tags: HR,business,management,organisation,social,media,web,2.0,innovation,value,webinar

 

• Consulting  - Research - Speaking  -  Training -  Writing
• Strategy   -  Team development  -  Web 2.0  -  Change
• Contact  me to  create  more  value  for  your  business
• jon [dot] ingham [at] social [dash] advantage [dot] com

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Social Learning Conference

 

  I’ll also be chairing this social learning conference on 1st March 2012:

 

#SLCONF 2012 is aimed at connecting the learning community with global speakers and thought leaders, to share insights on Social Learning. We are pleased to have confirmed the following Keynote speakers. We will continue to update this page, so please check again soon!

Jane Hart / Founder, Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies

Jane Hart is the Founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (C4LPT).

Jane is also the author of the Social Learning Handbook, which discusses the principles behind using social and informal approaches in the workplace, as well as provides guidance on how to use social media for working and learning smarter. More ...

Dan Pontefract / Senior Director, Head of Learning & Collaboration at TELUS

As Senior Director / Head of Learning & Collaboration at TELUS, Dan is responsible for the overarching learning & collaboration strategy for the company. He has driven a philosophical and cultural shift in the way TELUS views and experiences learning called “Learning 2.0”; the shift to a social, informal and formal learning and collaboration model for all 35,000+ team members, bringing TELUS to the forefront of learning leadership. More ...

 

 

Technorati Tags: Social,learning,conference,Dan Pontefract,Training Wreck,TELUS,Jane Hart,Centre,Performance,Technologies

 

• Consulting  - Research - Speaking  -  Training -  Writing
• Strategy   -  Team development  -  Web 2.0  -  Change
• Contact  me to  create  more  value  for  your  business
• jon [dot] ingham [at] social [dash] advantage [dot] com

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Social Workplace Conference

 

  I’ll be moderating a panel and participating in a discussion at this conference focused on the social business in London on 1st November:

 

#SWCONF will bring together Senior Executives to discuss the future of the Social Workplace. We are currently confirming speakers for this year’s event, so please check back soon.

Charlie Duff / Editor, HRZone at SiftMedia

Charlie Duff is Editor of HRzone.co.uk – UK-based online community and e-zine for HR practitioners, providing advice, news and views on employment law, employee engagement, managing people and all other things HR.  She live-blogs from conferences, edits all the content you see and loves being a part of the HR digital and real-life community. Read more ...

Elizabeth Lupfer / Social Media Geek at Verizon and The Social Workplace

Elizabeth Lupfer is a geeky-cool internet strategist who combines her self-professed social media addiction with over 14 years of technical knowledge to develop measurable strategies and tactics to humanize and market a company, both internally and externally, through the judicious use of social technologies.  Elizabeth founded The Social Workplace in 2009. Read more ...

Jon Ingham / Executive Consultant, Social Advantage

Jon Ingham is an independent strategic people management and organisation development consultant working across Europe, the US, the Middle East and Asia. His main focus is on helping organisations gain competitive advantage through the creation of human and social capital supported by effective leadership, HR and management practices, OD interventions, and the use of enterprise 2.0 tools. Read more ...

Sarah Goodall / Regional Head of Social Media (EMEA) at SAP

Sarah Goodall is the Regional Head of Social Media (EMEA) at SAP. She is an international marketing communications professional with over 14 years experience in the technology B2B sector including both software and hardware. Sarah is currently focused on social media, working at all levels of the organisation to ensure social technology impacts internal productivity as well as external brand awareness. Read more ...

 

You’ll find more details at http://www.socialworkplaceconference.com/, #SWCONF on Twitter.

 

Technorati Tags: Social business,workplace,conference,Elizabeth Lupfer,Verizon,Sarah Goodall,SAP,Vic Okezie,Crexia

 

• Consulting  - Research - Speaking  -  Training -  Writing
• Strategy   -  Team development  -  Web 2.0  -  Change
• Contact  me to  create  more  value  for  your  business
• jon [dot] ingham [at] social [dash] advantage [dot] com

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