Work

business & working

The Business of Learning

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My friend Hal Richman said the other day that he is now in the business of working with clients who are excited about the potential of learning, and who want to see real results from learning initiatives. Working with an auto mechanic view of filling people’s heads with "training" is not where he wishes to spend his time. Life is always short, and Hal’s writings on critical health issues can attest to this. I like Hal’s attitude, and am glad to be his business partner. Another perspective for entrepreneurs comes from Tim O’Brien:

"Finding solutions for your clients and not clients for your solutions is the fastest way to success, (and the least expensive too)." It is much easier and effective to keep a current client happy than it is to find a new client. Strong, long relationships are a part of business longevity.

Life as an entrepreneur is a balance between finding solutions for your clients and just working on solutions until the right clients come along. Beating your head against a brick wall trying to sell the latest product/service mix can be a waste of time.

Establishing relationships of trust and solving problems together makes more sense in this complex world of inter-related systems. Once you have trust, you can work together to solve problems; or you can recommend someone else; or at least you can say that you cannot do it. Once trust is established, your client knows that you are not trying to sell something, but are doing what you believe is best. Within a trusting business relationship, you might actually be allowed to screw up once in a while – and so will your client.

Markets are conversations, and conversations coupled with action will develop trust. What more do you need?

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!

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.

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]

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.

Strategic Planning for Educational Organisations

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educ-system.jpg

I like to use system models when analysing an organisation, especially for strategic planning purposes. This system model is based on models by Geary Rummler and Roger Kaufman.

I developed this model as a means of communicating with educational institutions. It’s not comprehensive but it gets the conversation flowing. I’m always interested in finding graphical metaphors for the way we work and learn.

Organization of the Future

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Gautam Ghosh poses the question about what future work organizations will look like.

Taking the trends of how organizations develop, maybe it won’t take long for organizations to not even attempt at being ‘long-life’ entities.

Maybe, just maybe organizations should eventually become that ultimate knowledge organization – A movie unit !

I’ve heard and discussed the film crew metaphor many times over the past five or so years. It makes sense that in order to address the constantly changing market needs that a more flexible work organization is necessary. The film production crew model seems viable, but the dark side, according to Gautam, is that the producer gets the lion’s share of the profits, and the superstars command the enormous fees, while the average worker just survives. I think that a more cooperative model, like the independent productions, where more of the workers share in the risk and the profit, is more sustainable. This is becoming evident as the barriers to production are coming down – such as lower priced digital editing suites.

I am using this model with some of my business partners, and it works. We share the risks and profits; though someone is named as "Director" for the duration of the "shoot". That role could change for the next gig, and so it goes.

Blog Rules

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I’m being asked more questions about the value of blogs and how they can help to engage customers, suppliers and employees. Via Dina is this story by Stuart Henshall on what happens when a dedicated blogger is engaged by a corporation:

Blog Rules:

  • For blogs to work there must be trust. Let it be a warning to you when an employer is critical of your blog, or implies that they must approve every post you make first.
  • Blogs are strategic, but the messages must be personal. Planning out a blog strategy and topics in advance fails to account for the immediacy of the daily events and the need for responsiveness.
  • Make sure the company is large enough to have "personalities" blogging — otherwise own the company. The blogger is likely to become an important public face.
  • Think through where the blog should be on what URL. Is it better at blogperson.com or under the corporate banner? What is best to harness the blogger and readers?

Warnings to other Bloggers:

  • Your blog may be perceived as a personal asset and not a corporate one. You personal blog can become a corporate asset but only if the conditions above apply.
  • Corporate positioning is a must. If the company isn’t mature enough or is afraid to enable the blogger to talk about "category" developments then blogging will be difficult.
  • If topics and content are limited then you may lose your friends, lose access to thought leadership and potential partnerships and associates for the company – or even simply good press.
  • If the company fears balanced perspective on other products then you will find life difficult.
  • Blogs require a time commitment, if you are not getting it or there is no time left over for it then it is not valued. My target has always been in the ten hours a week category. That includes the use of my newsreader. Make sure your employer signs off on the time commitment to the blog.
  • If the company asks you when you will transfer your blog URL to the company then they really don’t get it.

As the value of blogging as a medium to connect producers with markets becomes more evident, corporate blogging may move into the mainstream, just as telecommuting (which means less control over workers) is accepted in some areas but not in others.

Small Towns & Free Agents

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Sackville, New Brunswick, where I live, is a small town of 5,000 people, which increases every Fall by the 2,500 students at Mount Allison University. I think that it is the perfect small town for free agents who run virtual offices. I’ve discussed this with some of the town councillors, but I don’t have any convincing market analyses to show that we could attract some more small businesses to set up shop here. Here are some of the attritubes of this community that I think would be appealing.

We have high speed Internet access, both DSL in the town core, and cable access in the outlying community. My web site is hosted locally. The town is located on the Trans-Canada Highway with Moncton Airport 20 minutes away and Halifax Airport 90 minutes away. There is a hospital in town, and larger hospitals in Moncton (50 km) and Amherst (20 km). We have a number of physicians in town; more than most small towns. Sackville is centrally located in the maritimes, with Fredericton, Charlottetown and Halifax within 2 hours driving distance. We also have a local, live theatre company.

Sackville is a great town to raise a family, as it is safe and hospitable. Many of us were not born and raised here, so the town is open to newcomers. A good house will cost in the vicinity of $(CAD)150,000, but you can even find them cheaper. For families looking to get out of the big city rat race, this may be the place. The school system offers French immersion starting in Grade 1. French schools are available in the neighbouring community of Memramcook, about 20 km away. There a few companies in town, and some free agents as well. We tried to start a loose association, The Sackville SOHO Society, to discuss non-retail business issues, but we never got the necessary critical mass.

So what would it take to interest a free agent to move to Sackville? Do we have what it takes? Are there essential infrastructure requirements, or cultural issues? I’d appreciate your comments.

Update: My neighbour has just put her house on the market, through Property Guys. Search for Listing #2370.