Chairing the Social Workplace conference

 

   On Tuesday I chaired the new Social Workplace conference in London.

This was a great event, focused on the digital workplace.

Highlights for me were:

• Lee Bryant’s points about:
• Social business will be key to engineering ourselves out of the economic crisis
• It fits exception handling in a complex process driven organisation
• Humans being leaky so organisations will never have 100% data security
• Amazon having ‘2 pizza teams’ (if two pizzas is not enough to feed it then the team is too big)
• Benjamin Ellis talking about:
• Digital being about engagement – making someone want to come and play on a website vs traditional interrpution marketing (putting the intranet on the home page – similar to putting adverts in the middle of a TV programme) eg a good strategy is to tell people NOT to use the intranet
• The spectrum of communication activities ranging through broadcasting to feedback (still over a closed channel) to dialogue to networking
• The culture of sharing which works best if you share something when it’s unfinished
• Measurement being largely qualitative – through tags and comments
• Elizabeth Lupfer on social experience and the importance of employee profiles, tagging and social recognition (gamification):

 

Picture credit: Olga Pavlovsky

Technorati Tags: Social,workplace,media,technology,culture,conferences,SWConf

 

Also see:

• #SWConf interview with Jon Mell, IBM
• #SWConf interview with Jenni Marshall on Social Communication
• #SWConf interview with Sam Marshall on the digital workplace
• #SWConf interview with Mark Morrell, Intranet Pioneer
• #SWConf interview with David Christopher / Oracle / StopThinkSocial

 

• 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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#SWConf interview with Jenni Marshall on Social Communication

 

My latest interview is with Jenni Wheller, Internal Communication Manager at SSP UK.  Jenni describes the role of social in an organisation that 1. doesn’t have an existing internal communication function , and 2. in which 80% of their people work offline – a couple of challenges which might leave you thinking if social communication works there, where wouldn’t it work? (even if you don’t call it social media).

You can see more from Jenni at the Social Workplace conference on 1st November in London.

 

 

Technorati Tags: Jenni Wheller,SSP,social,media,communication,workplace,conference

 

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Work your Strengths

 

As what I hope will be part of a regular series of guest posts, my wife and colleague, Sandra, reviews a new book, ‘Work Your Strengths’, by Chuck Martin:

 

This book is promoted as a ‘must-read’ for those who are keen to identify their executive skills and match them to the most natural, best-fit career solution.

Martin explains that, particularly when under pressure from stress or fatigue, research shows that the weakest executive skills fail first. Once you know your executive skills strengths and weaknesses it is much easier to predict where issues may arise and which positions are likely to be unnatural or difficult for you and which positions best match your strengths. You are in a good situation if one or more of your top three executive skills is required for the job.

Knowledge of executive skills enables you to assess those around you. It becomes easier to understand and anticipate the behaviours of others in work situations, gives you the knowledge to suggest to others what you are good at and the ability to make the right move by selecting those openings that play to your core strengths.

Call it a mid-life crisis if you must but I was suddenly curious to find out if I am following the correct career path, particularly as an online assessment is included with the book. I decided not to read the book cover to cover but instead chose to steer my way around Chuck Martin’s map of 12 executive skills which, he says, are hardwired into our brains from birth. In order to creative this effective executive skills map Chuck Martin analysed each of the executive skills and matched them against industry, department and job titles.

I will say that it is important to do the online assessment before reading the book. I think if it had been the other way around I would have got it in my head that I should be answering questions in a certain way to be a high achieving director! As it turned out Chuck Martin’s careful analysis of all 12 executive skills was such that through the online assessment tool he was able to order my top three strengths and, oh God, my top three weaknesses and I have to say that all of them rang a familiar bell in my head!

As it turned out I am naturally suited to marketing, sales and communication which is my area of work. Now that I am nicely reassured what else can I do with his findings? Well, Chuck Martin uses research to show that under pressure from stress or fatigue the weakest executive skills fail first. Ah! Yes. That does means I have a tendency to put things off to the last moment and then go all out to meet an oncoming deadline – I just knew you would want to know my weakness! Although, I would like to point out to potential clients and employers that now I know my natural strengths and weaknesses I will be able to predict where issues may arise and which situations are likely to be unnatural or difficult for me and plan things accordingly (once I’ve had that cup of coffee, that is!). And the important thing about me is that, as Chuck points out, it's as if my memory is always on, no matter how busy I am or what I am doing. I am able to hold information in memory while performing complex tasks and I can draw on past learning or experience to apply to the situation at hand or project into the future. I am usually able to do one task and not lose sight of other commitments. I am considered by others to be reliable, can be counted on to follow through, and able to keep my eye on the ball. Now, you’re reassured!

Also, curious person that I am, this newly acquired knowledge of executive skills helps me to assess those around me so making it easier to understand and anticipate the behaviours of others in work situations.

Above all, I now have the knowledge to suggest to others what I am good at and the ability to make the right move by selecting those openings that play to my core strengths (the above was just a modest flirtation!).

Duly tried and tested, I am inclined to agree with Chuck Martin that this book is good for personal career planning and for managers and executives to discover more precisely who might be best suited to a particular job/industry or department.

 

Sandra is an experienced internal & external communication professional who consults alongside me through Strategic Dynamics.  Please contact her with any communication requirements at sandra dot ingham at social-advantage.com.

 

Technorati Tags: Check Martin,Strengths,book review,assessment,Sandra,Ingham,Harrison,communication,consult,Bracknell,Berkshire,Thames Valley

Scott McArthur: HR 2.0 – the end of the business delusion (Update from Bucharest HR 2.0 conference)

 

 

Technorati Tags: Scott McAthur,HR 2.0,measurement,business delusion

 

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More on Ctrl-Alt-Del

 

Over the next couple of days, I'm going to be continuing the series of posts on the 'global reset' that I began earlier this month:

• Corporate social responsibility in the global recession
• HR's main responsibility
• Innovating in the downturn
• HR in the spotlight: banking bonuses
• Sexism in the City
• Ctrl-Alt-Del: your comments.

 

Firstly, I've been thinking about my response to Jo, who challenged me to think more clearly about the changes I believe may be coming.  However, although I've thought about this in a couple of different ways, I keep on coming back to a diagram I used in my Digital HR webcast with Knowledge Infusion,  and another webinar with Kennedy Information, last year.  This is it (slightly updated):

 

 

 

The diagram suggests that two key factors associated with the business context (the competitive environment, and new technology), and another two factors linked to the employment relationship (the demands of the organisation, and changing expectations of the individual) are influencing workforce attitudes.

 

• In terms of the environment - globalisation; increasing focus and importance given to human capital; and also to internal diversity, supporting increasing external diversity (of customers, partners etc) are leading to increased sensitivity and intelligence in approaches to business.
• Organisation pressures focus on the increasing proportion of work which is knowledge-based, and also the proportion of knowledge that is included within 'non-knowledge based roles' (it's becoming increasingly difficult to identify roles in which knowledge isn't now a key component).  This means that work is increasingly intangible and leads to increasingly disparate levels of performance between the strongest and weakest employees., therefore emphasising the role of talent management.  And knowledge work can be done anywhere, so virtual teaming is increasingly important.
• Individual pressures focus on what I call 'millennial expectations' which are especially evident in the millennial generation, but I think are also increasingly prominent in the rest of us as well.  These expectations are supported by a desire to be treated as individuals, with our own identities and needs for self-actualisation, but also a growing need to be part of a community.
• The key technological change is the growing access to, and comfort with, new media, including social networking, and web / knowledge 2.0 applications, enabling user driven content.

 

The factors impact on workforce attitudes through customer, investor and stakeholder attitudes (none of us are employees alone), and also by the recession.  This is driving some factors forward (for example - talent management: we need to get much better at understanding what good performance really looks like, and rewarding it effectively), and constraining others (for example, millennial expectations - people are increasingly happy to have a job, and forgetting about their desire for meaningful work).  However, the greatest impact of the recession is to increase the attention we're giving to this whole picture, which has the potential to increase the rate of change, regardless of the strength of the individual forces.

And here are some of the changes I think may result from these forces.  This diagram is still very much work in progress, but is the best answer I think I can give to Jo.

 

 

• Culturally intelligent management is a response to the increasingly global, diverse environments in which many firms now operate.  It implies an increasingly sensitive, empathetic and personalised approach to people management.
• Conversation based development recognises that the key improvement tool in a knowledge based environment is the conversation that people have which each other, and attempts to increase the quality of the conversation in order to improve business performance.
• Transparent communication is a result of the use of social media - if you're reading this, you recognise the effect.
• Team orientation is a response to the increasing expectations of the workforce - it doesn't ignore the individual, but focuses on individual within a social context (individual and team at the same time).
• All of this is based on relationships based on trust, or it doesn't work at all.

 

There you go, Jo.  I hope it helps - any suggestions?

Of course, I still don't know whether the 'global reset' will actually encourage these changes to take place, and will come back to this question over the next few days...

 

Technorati Tags: Global reset,recession,change,workforce expectations

 

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More thoughts on employee communication (part 2)

3. Trust your people and use social media

Presenters gave some great examples to show that organisations have lost control of the conversation. Employees are going online to join interactive conversations about our companies – we need to enable this.

The best web based communication combines web 2.0, the research web by giving people access to data; web 2.0 - the social web by giving access to tools, and what Steve Crescenzo termed web 3.0 - the multimedia web by entertaining people.

We saw some great examples of web 2.0 in organisations including (as well as IBM), Microsoft, BT and ebay. It’s a shame these are e all technology companies but as Marc Wright pointed out, we’re still at a very early stage in the development of social media – things will be very different in five years time. So it’s important not to codify approaches and to keep aware of trends and changes.

But we’re not going to be able to put the genie back in the bottle. People are using social media in their personal lives and are increasingly going to expect to be able to do so at work as well.

So how do you get your organisation interested? Mark recommended searching out the people with both power and enthusiasm and through this approach, seeking senior level endorsement. Don’t force people who are resisting the technology to say no – once they do they won’t say yes.

A couple of presenters recommended down playing the new aspects of the technology (“sneak it out”) – for example by talking about allowing people to publish and comment, rather than using the word ‘blog’. (However, this isn’t the approach used by Microsoft and I’ll post on this separately).


4. Measurement

I didn’t get much out of Susan Walker’s formal presentation on measurement but Ethan McCarthy from IBM; Paolo Tosolini from Microsoft and Richard Dennison from BT all talked intelligently about it.

Paolo explained how Microsoft measure their Academy Mobile system (their “enterprise you tube”) using reach and awareness (downloads, reach) and operations (number of podcasts on Academy Mobile, number of podcasts produced, number of profiles).

However, he emphasized, supporting Ethan's perspective that it is very difficult to calculate a ROI so they, like IBM, focus on the use of testimonials which are sent to the CEO. He believes it’s about belief rather than a hard business case: they need to “go for it because we believe in 2.0 / social media”.

Richard’s perspectives on measurement are included on his blog. Readers of my HCM blog may recognise some of these points from some of my previous posts.


For further perspectives on the conference, check out:

http://www.krishnade.com/blog/2008/international-employee-communications-summit-2/

http://talkingic.typepad.com/foureightys_lee_smith_tal/2008/06/view-from-the-summit-day-two.html

Employee Communciation Summit

I’m attending Simply Communicate’s Employee Communcation Summit today and tomorrow.

It’s an interesting conference, and I sort of wish I’d decided to live blog it (when I’ve done this before, at last year’s CIPD conference, I’ve found it very valuable to my learning as it forces me to internalise each presentation and articulate my perspective on the topic that’s been presented).

I’m not live blogging this conference however, possibly because I’ve got lazy, but also because I don’t find I’m yet as clear in my own thinking on communication and web 2.0 as I am on HR.

However, I am tweating on it, and here are a couple of other thoughts on some of my main reflections so far (I’ll do a couple of more substantive posts later on).

Firstly, there’s a big focus on web 2.0 in the presentations – so for example, I’m currently listening to one on Microsoft’s Academy Mobile (described as an internal you tube).

But there seems to be less familiarity of web 2.0 in the audience. I think only Krishna De and I are blogging (she is live blogging). And judging by the last question (upon hearing that Microsoft don’t moderate people’s podcasts: “But that means they can post anything!”) - Steve Crecenzo’s point that now we can only facilitate not control the conversation about our organisations doesn’t seem to have hit home.

I’d sort of expected a communication conference to be quiet different to an HR one (in the UK at least I know that most HR attendees are probably never going to have even visited a blog) – audience tweats up behind the presenter and that sort of thing.

We are using Crystal Response systems for asking questions, voting and providing inputs, but in the main, the style of delivery is still very much 1.0.