Posts Tagged collaboration
competition vs. collaboration — how far can you jump?
image by unclebumpy, flickr artist
i recently came across a post on wired.com’s science section about american bullfrogs and their leaping ability. in short: when in the wild, bullfrogs have a certain expectation of maximum leaping distance which scientists have previously measured at 4.3 meters. however, at a county fair in california’s calaveras county their bullfrogs have been known to leap over 7 meters when involved in their frog jumping competitions. that’s quite an improvement!
in business, it seems everyone is focused on collaboration; on finding synergies and maximizing productivity. but what if we increasingly looked not towards collaboration on our teams, but towards competition? how would the game change then?
ideas do not occur in a bubble
image by Reini68, flickr artist
when was the last time you had a good idea? one of those eureka moments?
i remember back in college my roommate and i were discussing which of the honey bunches of oats ‘flavors’ we enjoyed the most. after trying pretty much all of them, i told him with conviction that hbo with strawberries was my favorite. i said: ”the thing i love about it is how your milk turns strawberry-flavored afterwards.”
immediately i thought, ‘hey — they actually make that stuff!’ and i shouted out with such joy, “dude! what if i make strawberry milk, and then pour that into my hbo with strawberries? it’s double the strawberry! how awesome would that be?!”
the very next time we went to the grocery store i bought some strawberry nesquik mix and put my theory to the test. naturally it ended up being horrendous, but it was still a good idea at the time.
the difference between participation and adoption
image by dharmabumx, flickr artist
i was listening in on a social media community of practice presentation today that a colleague of mine was giving about social media in the enterprise and individual performance.
while i feel that my colleague has done some great work — and really took a rather large bite to create a conceptual model for promoting participation in online networks which is itself valiant — i think it’s important to make the distinction between participation, and adoption. it’s a distinction that i feel is greatly overlooked.
mike’s model talked about awareness, self-efficacy, organizational trust, and this notion of perceived improvement potential all being drivers of participation. and i think that’s wrong. in fact, i think it’s exactly backwards.
you might think that i’m splitting hairs right now; toe-may-toe, toe-mah-to, right? but participation and adoption do have rather different connotations despite the fact that often times you’ll hear those two words used interchangeably. i think, however, that you’ll find one is far more desirable (and much harder to come by) than the other. in fact, one leads to the other.
reduce your frustration: stop using email
[i started writing this post as a comment on megan murray's blog post, actually, but it quickly grew into something more.]
i find email to be a burden to my work.
it’s the hammer in the tool box. the problem is, not every situation is a nail. sometimes you need a screwdriver, and other times you need a wrench. but we’re so dependent on email (i blame ms outlook for it) that we all try hammering in screws and bolts — even when we know it doesn’t work.
even though we have instant messaging, and even though we have enterprise 2.0 tools like wikis and blogs and more, we time and time again return to email.
showing appreciation: not just a manager’s role
image by foreverdigital, flickr artist
i’m not sure exactly what my favorite part of hockey is. as a goaltender (in my younger years), i have to admit that few things get me going more than a glove save on a 2-on-1 breakaway. i can still appreciate a fine dangle, however.
i can tell you with conviction, however, that one of the best moments is the celebration when a player scores a goal. the unbridled passion, the camaraderie, everything great about the sport of hockey comes through in one moment shared by 5 players on the ice (sometimes more). it’s one single moment that embodies all of what hockey is about.
teamwork.
it’s the culture, stupid!
image by syamastro, flickr artist
blog. wiki. ms excel file. ms project plan. ms sharepoint page. basecamp project.
they’re all tools. while people may prefer one tool over another, whichever tool it is will not take hold unless the culture there supports it.
i see a lot of proposed changes to current work streams and business processes fail because — even with support from leadership — the user base rejects those changes. there could be a few reasons why:
- it’s not simple. if the change is convoluted, adding extra steps to the workflow process or time to complete tasks, people are going to reject it – even if they agree in principle that the proposed new method is “right”
- they don’t understand it. if you make a change that people don’t understand the reasoning behind, they will have a hard time accepting and implementing it. #1 sign that you made boo-boos? hearing employees say, “uh.. why are we doing this again?”
- it doesn’t fit. if your changes contradict the way you do business, it’s only going to lead to confusion and frustration, and ultimately it will be abandoned.
if you’ve tried making changes to the way your team or organization does work in the past and failed, check the process again. look at what you’re trying to do, and see what your people think about it. when new tools don’t take hold, don’t discredit their use.
it’s the culture, stupid!
keep the tools and fix the culture.
social media: an evolution in communication
image by oliver widder, creator of geek and poke
people don’t fully understand social media, and part of it is our own fault — the social media mavens. i don’t think we do a well enough job of explaining it to everyone.
most people aren’t very fond of change, because change is unpredictable. am i going to be better, or worse off? will i be able to adapt? can i make the necessary changes in me to succeed in this new environment?
the problem with social media, though, is that it’s really not a change from one thing to this other. in the end, we’re all still communicating. how we communicate — the tools we use — do (as everything) evolve over time, however. but it’s certainly not anything to be frightened over.
we need to find better ways to communicate the benefits of social media to yesterday’s enterprise 1.0 stalwarts. how do you get someone who is so loyal to the old way of doing things to change?
i think it’s in the metaphors.
you can use a hammer, but can you build a house?
for some reason, people think that because they know how to set up an account on twitter and facebook that they can use social media. but just because you can use a hammer, does that mean you can build a house?
social media isn’t just the tool. blogs, microblogs, wikis, forums, are all just the hammer. you can’t build a foundation, much less an entire house with just a hammer. there ought to be a plan, or a blueprint before you start using social media. understand what it is, and what it’s about before setting out on this journey of ‘modernizing’ your organization.
don’t set up a blog because you want comments (first!1!!! lolz!), and don’t set up a twitter or facebook account because you want the most followers [seth's blog]. you should be setting up a blog and twitter account to communicate with your readers and followers. remember that the whole premise behind social media is the social aspect of it.
before you start building, you should have an overall communications plan or strategy (your foundation), and know what your end state is (the blueprints). what are you trying to accomplish? an increase of 10% in your sales? an increase of 20% in brand loyalty? to increase your workforce by 5% in each region?.. to decrease your workforce by 5% in each region?
just like any good construction firm, you better have inspections along the way. identify the metrics you want to follow, and measure them throughout the process so you can tell if things are actually working or not. not getting the results you expected? is the third bathroom costing too much money? it could be time to change your approach (or at least lower your expectations).
you can’t show up to the job site with nothing but a hammer — and you can’t integrate social media into your organization just because you ‘know twitter’. a lot goes into building a house, just like a lot should go into your social media and enterprise 2.0 plans.
social media, “finding nemo,” and you
image copyright the walt disney company, all rights reserved
i’m a big pixar fan.
i love everything about their company. john lasseter’s drive to pursue his dream until it was fulfilled is something that we should all admire and look up to. then, there’s the unsung heroes of pixar — the animators. every pixar movie made is 100% animation. that means there’s no help from motion-capture tools or other technological devices. the animation is done 100% by hand on computers.
and, of course, there’s the stories! there’s a reason pixar wins year after year at the oscars for best animated movie despite competition from dreamworks animation, blue sky studios, and disney animation studios. that reason is their ability to tell fantastic stories that appeal to young and old alike. they’re stories that we all can learn from.
why “it’s dangerous” is no excuse
when i was growing up in south philly, my family didn’t have much money. but being kids, my brother and i did what kids do anyway. we played roller hockey without helmets, gloves, shin pads… pretty much any protective equipment at all. i tended goal with nothing but leg pads, a — what we called it back in those days — waffle board, a baseball glove, and a stick (all of which was borrowed, hand-me downs, or bought with my paper route money). i’ve been hit with sticks and pucks in the face, and had more than my share of scrapes and bruises. looking back at it — it was stupid. it was dangerous. but i loved playing hockey!
fast forward about 10-12 years, and i’m wearing a suit and tie — screaming at my team from behind the bench at the penn state ice pavilion with my heart beating out of my chest in my first game as assistant coach for the ACHA division 2 ice hockey team. my love of hockey that was sown on the streets of philadelphia is the only reason i was able to reach that point in my life. we beat SUNY stony brook that night by a score of 3-2 — the #1 ranked team in the league. it was one of the greatest wins in our program’s history, and was the staging point for a season-long run that put us into the quarterfinals of the national tournament in fort collins, colorado that year.
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