Emergent Organizational Structures

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Jonathan Schwartz, President of Sun Microsystems, on blogging in the corporation:

Schwartz: We had a pretty interesting change in our HR strategies at Sun recently. We allowed blogging for 100% of the workforce. If you’re not familiar with blogging it’s when you basically keep your diary online and talk to the world perpetually. There is no more distinction anymore between the Intranet and the Extranet. It’s just the Net. Traditionally, the people who spoke to the marketplace were the folks in communications or the key executives who were in power at the top. Now it’s the 32,000 employees of Sun.

Ultimately you have to govern by policy. We have to have a policy that says at Sun this is what’s appropriate to say on a blog versus this.


So I started my own blog. Now, think about Reg FD [a recent SEC rule requiring full and open disclosure of corporate data]. I had a long discussion with our general counsel. Either Reg FD mandates that I must have a blog, or it prohibits me from having a blog.

But if you’re no longer allowed to have private discussions of material issues, then at some point we’re all going to have to use a blog as a means of communicating and of managing. That changes the role of the senior executive. You’re not just a guy making decisions all day long; you’re now a part of the ecosystem in a community.

Read the complete text of Will Every Company Be Like eBay?
Five tech leaders weigh in on what developing technology means for corporations and workers.
Jul 30 2004
By David Kirkpatrick
Fortune.com; at Rob Paterson’s blog.

This type of corporate behaviour is a sign of the times. Many of my favourite bloggers are looking at new models for work in our internetworked age. Rob Paterson is teaching a UPEI course on the New Economy, using Natural Capitalism as the main text. Dave Pollard has been describing what a natural Enterprise should look like. Dave is also going to look at the Next Economy.

The Next Economy, whether that be a World of Ends Economy or a Support Economy, in which entrepreneurs will find and associate with each other to provide innovative, deeply valuable services to customers in a way that multinational corporations can never hope to match, depends utterly on the Internet providing us with a powerful means to find like minds and experts on anything under the sun. The bit of serendipity that I described above that allowed me to find Mark is a perfect example of how impossibly difficult that is with the tools, and shortage of knowledge, we struggle with today. The issues are:
1. How do we get people to post to the Internet (and keep up-to-date) sufficient information about themselves in an appropriate format to allow us to find them, easily, when we need them?

2. What kind of tool is needed to filter, qualify and leverage that information and (ideally, proactively and organically) connect us with like minds and needed experts, kind of a context-rich audited Yellow Pages of millions of people’s individual interests and expertise. We know that search engines and first-generation social networking tools aren’t up to the job. We need something completely different.

My own business is getting more networked every day and with every project. Being flexible, without “we can’t do that” constraints, I am able to quickly form teams from my growing network. Many in my network are also bloggers. How do we keep up to date? With blogs. It’s harder to keep in touch with my non-blogger partners though. What tools do we use? For now we use blogs for conversations and simple project management tools for client-based work – anything from eProject and Base Camp to ACollab and TasksPro. For connecting to others, I use my RSS aggregator. However, I’m finding that networking software, like Spoke, doesn’t address Question 2 above. I must say that it’s better than five years ago, when I used e-mail and some industrial-strength collaborative tools like Lotus Notes.

Ben Franklin & Management

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From Dane are these ageless words of wisdom.

Benjamin Franklin and the 12 Rules Of Management

1. Finish better than your beginnings

2. All education is self-education

3. Seek first to manage yourself, then to manage others

4. Influence is more important than victory

5. Work hard and watch your costs

6. Everybody wants to appear reasonable

7. Create your own set of values to guide your actions

8. Incentive is everything!

9. Create solutions for seemingly impossible problems

10. Become a revolutionary for experimentation and change

11. Sometimes it’s better to do 1,001 small things right than only one large thing right

12. Deliberately cultivate your reputation and legacy!

Dave & Dell

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Dave Pollard recounts the terrible service he received from Dell. It seems that customer care at Dell means:

The so-called Customer Care department has absolutely no authority to do anything for customers. Their sole job is to explain and apologize for Dell’s idiotic policies, including the five above. They are instructed never to give out their full names, and never to give out names, addresses or contact information of anyone higher up in Dell. In other words, these lackeys are paid to run interference, stonewall and prevent aggrieved customers, and customers who have ideas for improvement, from any contact with the people in Dell who could resolve or act on them. Staggering arrogance, disgraceful and classic corporatist contempt for customers. Every customer has the right to complain, in writing, about bad service or bad products. And in the process to copy the regulatory authorities so that if the complaints are frequent, the conduct of the company will be investigated.

I own two Dell computers, and according to Dave, one in four Dell computers has a serious problem. So what can the small business operator do to get good quality products and at least fair service? I know many people who have had problems with their Apple computers as well.

The Blog as a Meaningful Business Tool

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Matthew Lin, an MBA candidate at University of New Brunswick at Saint John,Canada, is currently conducting research on how weblogs are being used as business tools, and their particular implication for small and medium enterprises. Matthew has designed a questionnaire in order to survey individuals who publish weblogs or can describe the reasoning behind their company weblog. The survey is at The Blog as a Meaningful Business Tool.

If you or your company publishes a blog for business, then please support Matthew’s research.

Storyteller Honoured

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Budge Wilson was appointed to the Order of Canada yesterday.

Budge Wilson, C.M.
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Member of the Order of Canada

Her stories are unabashedly Canadian, featuring characters and landscapes that we recognize as our own. A popular children’s and young adults’ author, Budge Wilson brings her unique voice, creative spirit and passionate love of Canada to her writing. She gives tirelessly of her time to readings and workshops, particularly in Nova Scotia schools, where she spreads the joy of reading and writing to new generations. A champion of new and established authors, she generously shares her knowledge, humour and insight. She is also a committed volunteer with organizations such as the Nova Scotia Children’s Literature Roundtable and Word on the Street Halifax. She continues to be a storyteller who challenges, inspires and empowers readers of all ages.

Storytelling is an important medium for teaching and learning, and Budge just happens to be my mother-in-law :-)

Congratulations!

Feedback on Course Management Systems

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Scott Leslie is asking for specific feedback on any issues that you may have with academic course management systems (these include WebCT, Blackboard, Desire2Learn, eCollege, etc).

So here’s your chance – use the comments below to tell me, and others, what you think is wrong with the ‘majors’ right now, & more importantly what you need to accomplish but can’t in your existing CMS environment.

Training Basics

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From the T&D Blog, here is a review of some basic principles of training from a performance technology perspective:


Dr. Seth Leibler, CEO of the CEP, says organizations should evaluate their training based on these criteria:
  1. Training is viewed as the right solution only if the cause of a problem is a lack of skill or knowledge. Training is not automatically developed as the solution for every performance problem.
  2. All training requests are analyzed to ensure the right solutions are developed and implemented. In addition to training, all the potential causes for underperformance are addressed: skill, motivational, and environmental resource and supports.
  3. Practice situations in training match the actual on-the-job conditions as closely as possible (It’s why off-the-shelf training generally is ineffective.)
  4. Learners receive immediate feedback after each practice to reinforce what is done correctly and coaching on what to do differently.
  5. Skill checks ensure that learners master all essential skills needed to perform to job expectations before leaving training.
  6. On-the-job reference tools (job aids) are developed to provide essential information to performers who only need a reminder of how to do a task.

I slightly disagree with #4, as some research shows that it’s better to provide feedback just before the next practice attempt, as opposed to after the previous one. This way the learner can put into practice the correct behaviour/skill immediately after the feedback is provided.

[Some day T&D Blog may make comments and trackbacks available, but at least there is a permalink]

Robin Good’s Official Guide to SOHO Web Conferencing & Live Presentation Tools

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Luigi Canali [AKA Robin Good] has released an e-book on affordable web conferencing tools. Luigi’s online presentations are fun and informative, and it’s good to see someone focused on the SOHO (small office, home office) market. From one of the reviews:

To help the reader understand the differences between such SOHO platforms and their enterprise-class counterparts, three of the latter are similarly evaluated. The outcome of the comparison, which is sure to delight you if you’re not the captain of a large enterprise, is a surprising conclusion: many of the features of the SOHO platforms, particularly the all-important voice conferencing, are better than the corresponding features of the enterprise platforms! The inescapable conclusion: your agile and thorough move to an online office facility will indeed help you in your struggle with the dinosaurs!

This book has been added to my list.

Free Content means Increased Sales

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In a previous post I mentioned that Lessig’s book, Free Culture, was being made available free online, while the physical book could be purchased through the normal channels. This is a view of the potential future of publishing. Unfortunately, many people and organisations like the CRIA, don’t seem to understand the new medium. Creative Commons now reports that Lessig’s book has gone into its third printing. Making digital content freely available actually increases the sale of the physical product. If you don’t understand this, start with The Cluetrain Manifesto.

Commerce is accelerated by spreading ideas and encouraging openness. Innovation comes from the edges, not the centre, so ideas and content must get out to the edges. Many of those 180,000 downloads of Free Culture were made by people who would not have bought the book anyway. But now they are talking about the book, and that is accelerating its purchase. I had read much of The Cluetrain Manifesto online, and when I saw a copy at an airport bookshop, I immediately bought it for my own library.