Collaborative Thinking

Communicate The Mission In Turbulent Times

What I like about this article (well-worth reading the full story on the Wharton site) - is the focus on communication, people, and (perhaps implied) constructing a sense of community around the mission. In some organizations that I talked to as part of the social networking field research study, a resurgence in communication and employee engagement works well when it is not "at" workers but "with" workers. Enabling participatory cultures within organizations augments communication and employee engagement efforts - more effective and sustainable for both employee and employer. What do I mean by “participatory culture”? I am building off the work of Henry Jenkins, Director MIT Comparative Media Studies Program:

“A participatory culture has relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby the most experienced members pass along knowledge to novices. A participatory culture also is one where members believe their contributions matter and feel some degree of social connection with one another. Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from individual expression to community involvement.”

Threshold, Spring 2009, http://www.ciconline.org/threshold

Thinking-out-loud, I believe this line-of-thought is applicable within the enterprise and enhances what people describe as Enterprise 2.0 - if you stretch is just a bit to not only focus on literacy but also include relationships and the systems of meaning that evolve through creative expression and community involvement. If we agree on that, then we can think of participatory cultures as it applies to certain aspects of what DuPoint CEO Ellen Kullman points out in two of her principles related to communication and mission (reading in-between the lines on my part):

DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman's Four Principles for Moving Ahead during Turbulent Times - Knowledge@Whart

..... Speaking at the recent 13^th Annual Wharton Leadership Conference, co-sponsored by the Center for Human Resources and the Center for Leadership & Change Management, Kullman described how she changed the company's thinking about its business model, while reinforcing its 200-year-old culture of innovation. "The question is, given the megatrends in the world and given the new economy, what changes do we have to make to continue to be successful?

..... Kullman identified three trends that would transcend the current crisis and provide a strategic framework for the company's annual $1.4 billion investment in research and development -- increasing agricultural productivity, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and protecting lives.

..... But organizing the company to respond to these long-term trends during a period of extreme uncertainty required strong leadership and specific initiatives "to change the way we think," said Kullman, who joined DuPont in 1988 as a marketing manager for medical imaging, and was named executive vice president and a member of the office of chief executive in 2006, and president in October 2008. Prior to joining DuPont, Kullman, who has a B.S. in engineering from Tufts and a master's in management from Northwestern, worked at GE. She shared four leadership principles that she has implemented to guide DuPont through the financial crisis since October 2008.

..... The first principle: Focus on what you can control. Kullman realized she needed to shift the company's attention from what was going wrong to the immediate action required to protect DuPont's financial position as revenues fell dramatically. "Last October, I saw a lot of people who looked scared and didn't know what to do," she said. So, she directed DuPont's management to "figure out those ... things we can do something about, and get about doing them."

..... The second of her leadership principles for the crisis has been to "adopt a new trajectory by rethinking your business model." For DuPont, that meant "getting people to think differently" about a business model that had always measured success based on plant capacity and capital investment: "We invent, we build, we make, we sell," Kullman said.

..... Kullman's third crisis leadership principle: Communication is key. "I'm a firm believer that there is a direct correlation between growth and the success of our communication. When we have an aligned team that understands" very clearly what the goals and the tradeoffs are, "that's when things can absolutely happen," Kullman said.

..... The last of her four crisis leadership principles is to maintain pride around the company's mission. "There's nothing like a bad economy to get people confused about what their mission is. They start thinking their mission is to reduce cost. That's a tactic, that's not our mission,' Kullman said.

..... During informal weekly meetings with employees, Kullman said she was amazed that the "number one question was about whether we are going to stick with our mission." She quickly realized that "people are scared [and] people want direction." Making sure that people understand the mission -- and linking their daily activities to the company's broader purpose -- is essential to reducing fear, maintaining morale and keeping employees motivated, Kullman said.

DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman's Four Principles for Moving Ahead during Turbulent Times - Knowledge@Whart

From Enterprise 2.0 Boston To Catalyst San Diego: Enterprise Social Networking Workshop

Bill Ives (Portals and KM) provided a write-up of the workshop delivered in Boston last week. I've read his blog for some time as well and it was nice to meet Bill and many others in the E2.0 social circle at the conference. I'll get around to some thoughts on E2.0 event itself soon but wanted to share Bill's summary and remind folks that it's still not too late to sign-up for Burton Group's Catalyst conference in San Diego July 27-31. If you heard good things about the social networking workshop (described below), I will be repeating the session on Tuesday morning, July 28th (so why not register and attend?). If you heard less-than-good things about the workshop, then let me know so I can make corrections! Feedback is appreciated either way...

Social networking promises to address an array challenges and opportunities within the enterprise such as bridging generational shifts in the workforce, facilitating collaboration and community building, and supporting strategic talent initiatives. Despite these potential benefits, a number of organizations moving forward with enterprise social networking projects experience a noticeable level of uncertainty. The road to success is complex. Project teams need to overcome the perception that social tools and applications are not a critical investment. Common issues proponents of social networking face include: establishing the business case, acquiring funding, determining metrics, developing governance policies, and addressing security concerns. In addition, strategists need to anticipate how best to handle cultural issues and adoption barriers that will emerge over the course of social networking projects.

In the fall of 2008, Burton Group conducted a series of in-depth interviews with 65 business and IT personnel representing 21 organizations to gain greater insight on enterprise social networking. These unguided discussions captured a variety of real-life stories, emerging best practices and common barriers confronting social networking project teams. Indeed, analysis of the study data reveals a repeating pattern of 15 critical issues organizations will likely encounter as the move forward with their internal social networking initiatives. This workshop provides an interactive forum for people to learn more about what other organizations are doing - their challenges - their successes - as well as their pain-points. Q&A time will be set aside after each module. The workshop will end with a general summation, updates on market trends, and address any remaining audience concerns.

Who Should Attend

• Business and IT staff whose job responsibility involves the following: innovation, talent management, collaboration, knowledge management, or community-building
• Corporate communications and HR staff involved in employee engagement strategies, learning, and strategic talent initiatives
• Social networking project teams who wish to learn more about business and cultural barriers, employee profiles, expertise location, community seeding tactics, and adoption strategies
• Business or IT executives and managers with responsibility for creating, sponsoring, or implementing social networking initiatives
• Strategists who would like to expand their knowledge of social networking trends

You Will Learn

• What are the critical issues confronting social networking project teams, and how organizations are responding to those challenges and opportunities
• How project teams are dealing with the business case for enterprise social networking, including concerns over ROI and metrics
• What cultural issues do social networking projects tend to surface, and how did organizations in the study address legal, HR, compliance and security considerations
• What difficulties project teams will likely encounter as they try to convince employees to adopt social networking platforms (e.g., profiles), and what adoption tactics were used to jumpstart participation (e.g., expertise location, communities)
• How interviewees felt their IT organizations were handling the topic of social networking, along with high-level impressions from participants regarding their experiences with different tools (e.g., IBM Lotus Connections, Jive Software, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server)

Catalyst pre-conference workshop agenda - Project Concordia

Another option for those wishing to leverage attendance at Catalyst (on top of all the great Burton Group workshops, sessions, guest speakers, etc). Alice Wang and I will be exploring the intersection between identity and social networking during the workshop below:

Use Cases Driving Identity in Enterprise 2.0: The Consumerization of IT

We will hold a pre-conference workshop at the Burton Catalyst North America 2009 conference on Monday, 27 July 2009, from 10am to 5pm, in San Diego, California. Participate in this working session as end users, deployers and technology providers discuss identity-based use cases reflecting the intersection of traditional enterprise with Web 2.0 and SaaS, models with consumer underpinnings that are turning traditional IT approaches inside-out. The group will problem-solve together to discover and define:

• Different styles of provisioning/federating identities
• Privacy concerns around unmanaged employee usage of outside tools
• Security and policy approaches to address virtualization and the cloud
• Authorization models that combine flexible access to resources with appropriate administrative controls

In Concordia workshops, real-world use cases rule: we work together to understand trends and requirements, and then facilitate effective results in future technology development and harmonization. We have gathered use case presentation and discussion proposals, detailed below, in order to form the workshop agenda.

Registering to attend

It is free to attend this Concordia workshop; you just have to let us know you're coming. You can do this by adding your name to the list below or by sending mail to Britta Glade (britta at projectliberty.org).

If you are also planning to attend the Burton Catalyst conference taking place during the rest of the week, you can get a fantastic Catalyst discount for attending this workshop! Use the code concordia when registering on the [Catalyst site to get a full-conference price of $1,295 (this is an almost 50% discount for non-Burton Group clients who would normally pay $2,495 to attend).

Catalyst pre-conference workshop agenda - Project Concordia

Hyperconnectivity: The Power Of Sharing

Two videos, somewhat long, but worth watching. As you watch and listen, think about participatory cultures, participatory media, social networking, and to some extent, the enabling social tools. You might think about how this influences the enterprise (e.g., Enterprise 2.0) but I think the message is more interesting when you consider the broader implications.

Perhaps Mark Pesce should be considered as a keynote speaker at the San Francisco version of the Enterprise 2.0 conference - just a thought... the first video is a year old at the Personal Democracy conference (which is running today in NYC btw), the second video is recent but it shows the trajectory of Mark's thinking on the topic.

The Power of Sharing from Mark Pesce on Vimeo.

Introducing SharePoint Writer

OK, so that product does not exist - not today, and perhaps not even tomorrow (in a SharePoint 2010 timeframe). But it should. Windows Live Writer is perhaps the best tool for offline composition and publishing of blog posts to a variety of back-end blogging services. As Microsoft begins its marketing campaign for SharePoint 2010, one of the key focus areas will be social computing. This should come as no surprise since it clearly is an area where Microsoft needs to demonstrate dramatic improvement to just keep up with the competition (e.g., Jive, IBM, Telligent and a host of best-of-breed vendors). Note: I'm not talking about Microsoft moving ahead in terms of functionality - just improving in a "good enough" way to leverage it's other strengths with decision-makers (e.g., common infrastructure, common development, common operations, etc.).

One area where Microsoft could show some level of innovation could be content authoring - which brings me back to Windows Live Writer (a tool I use extensively). You could argue that Word could be used as well - but the user experience of Live Writer is just a lot more effective - it does exactly what it is intended to do without carrying a lot of other baggage for a content experience that I'm not interested in (traditional office documents). Microsoft could simply re-brand the tool (e.g., Windows Live Writer for SharePoint) but I think a specific version with extensions that make it more appealing to SharePoint environments (e.g., security, compliance, role-based templates, integration with workflow, lists, etc.) could help alleviate some management concerns regarding employee blogging.

So another "thinking out loud" post ... but in general, internal product teams at Microsoft need to leverage innovative work being done by other teams (that might be considered consumer-centric).

For instance, what does a tool like Vine, a notification service that behaves in a Twitter-like fashion, have on Microsoft's OCS platform? Can Microsoft recast some of the underlying tooling to develop an enterprise version?

As Microsoft moves from on-premise to cloud/SaaS instantiations of its products - will market perceptions shift in terms of interoperability expectations between its consumer and enterprise products and services? I think they will (digital life trumps digital work so to speak - interoperability will be a default assumption by a next generation workforce).

Right now, given internal team structures and organizational boundaries - Microsoft is not prepared to leverages those opportunities (in my opinion). Which is why I'm doubtful the Windows Live and SharePoint teams could coordinate effectively to delivers a SharePoint Writer idea to market.

But they should...

Leaving 'Friendprints': How Online Social Networks Are Redefining Privacy and Personal Security

Good read from the folks at Knowledge@Wharton....

A generation is growing up with social networking web sites such as Facebook and MySpace, casually posting accounts of their lives for their friends -- and the world -- to see. Few of these users realize that the information they post, when combined with new technologies for gathering and compiling data, can create a fingerprint-like pattern of behavior. The information provides opportunities not only for legitimate business purposes, but also for the nefarious aims of identity thieves and other predators, according to faculty at Wharton and elsewhere.

"The way privacy has traditionally been defined is being challenged," according to Wharton legal studies professor Andrea Matwyshyn, who earlier this year organized the Information Security Best Practices Conference at Wharton. Among other topics, the conference addressed security and safety issues raised by the social networks.

Research on online social networking and how it may alter privacy norms is just beginning, according to technology observers. "Our kids today will give everything [in terms of personal information] away, but it's not at all clear how this will shake out in the long run," says Wharton marketing professor Peter S. Fader. "Privacy is a moving target."

Leaving 'Friendprints': How Online Social Networks Are Redefining Privacy and Personal Security - Knowledge@Wharton

Relationships and Identity: Two Sides of the Social Networking Coin

One of the interesting outcomes from my contextual research project on enterprise social networking was not only what was said by study participants but what was "not said". One such topic that did not come up to any great degree during the storytelling sessions was the topic of identity and its role in social networking. That gap could be the result of many factors (e.g., the people in the room, the way the conversations flowed, the project phase of the social networking project, etc). However, given the prominent role people are placing with user profiles on social network sites, it seems natural to look at profiles as the "fuzzy front-end" of identity - at least from a social computing perspective. The intersect between identity and social networking has intrigued me for some time. Below, I've outlined some work-in-progress thoughts on how the interconnection between social networking with identity management might evolve. To help me out (since I don't cover identity management), I've been brainstorming with Alice Wang, Director, Burton Group (who is an identity expert). Alice has given me some real-life context based on her consulting experiences with clients and her synthesis of our identity research as its applied to actual situations in the field. The thoughts below reflect this joint perspective Alice and I have sketched out. 

And if you're looking for yet another reason to attend Catalyst, Burton Group is hosting a Concordia workshop (details below) that, in part, will bring this topic more out into the open.

Thoughts and comments on the outline below greatly appreciated... if you are a Burton Group client, we would love to explore this concept with you in-depth.

Thesis

As organizations explore the use of social networking, the enterprise is no longer the only participant in managing identity. An employee’s social network site profile, social graph, and use of other social tools and applications enable them to construct additional identity facets to suit their own needs. As a result, organizations should incorporate “social identity” claims within identity management practices.

Framing

When we think of relationships, and study it from a social perspective, we look at:

• how people construct facets of their identity based on social structures in a particular context and activity
• how identity controls people’s impressions and establishes reputation
• how people switch between social identities to fit the needs of groups and activities
• how people evolve their social identity facets across activity domains and social processes

When we study relationships from a purely identity management focus, we look at the people, process, and technology arenas such as:

• how the organization ensures that authenticated and authorized employees are securely accessing information and applications
• how business roles are defined and separation-of-duties enforced
• how entitlements and classification policies are applied so that information is handled properly and compliance needs met
• how “need to know” access controls enable effective information sharing and collaboration between co-workers while protecting intellectual property

The result: an enterprise “tells” its employees what their identity is vs. what employees wish to create to suit their own needs. Today, few enterprise strategists, architects, infrastructure planners, and project teams involved in social networking initiatives are paying enough attention to the long-term implications of identity on efforts. Conversely, identity management teams are frequently not involved in determining the strategic ramifications of social networking initiatives on their enterprise practices. For instance, how does the organization assure attributes within a self-claimed social identity – what if employees build exaggerated or misleading social identities – what methods does the organization employ to vet social identity data (e.g., assess community equity and reputation)?

However, societal trends are fusing these two perspectives, compelling enterprises to connect the social aspects of identity emerging from social networking tools and applications in a manner that augments long-standing internal and external identity management requirements. Accomplishing this feat in a sustainable fashion enables organizations to leverage its network of connections across employees, customers, partners, and suppliers for competitive advantage (e.g., improved relationships, more effective knowledge sharing). Failure to address the social aspects of identity by managing identity only from an enterprise perspective will reduce benefits from social networking solutions.

Understanding the intersection between identity and social networking trends, and its implications to enterprise strategies, is a critical first-step. Some of the core issues emerging from each of these two vantage points include:

• Identity in the context of relationships
• Relationships in the context of social networks (communities, collaboration)
• Social structures, fragmentation of identity, and structural holes in social networks (positive and negative consequences of)
• Identity and roles (both formal, “institutional” roles and social roles that are often emergent)

Rationale

From a social networking perspective, identity is a complicated, multi-faceted construction, created and evolved over time within the social structures of individuals. When we talk about social structures, we focus on two inter-connected spheres: systems of relations (e.g., patterns of roles, relationships, and forms of control) and systems of meaning (primarily culture and its associated beliefs, values, languages, and practices).

Identity therefore, from a social networking perspective, is not equivocal to a person per se. People put forth a persona (or social identity) they construct within the context and activities associated with a particular social structure. The social identity performed in one context and activity is just one facet of their overall identity. Different social identity attributes and social identity facets are evolved to fit a variety of situations. The existence of multiple identity facets raises the pro and con issue of enabling other parties to correlate and connect multiple social identity facets and, by doing so, gain the ability to connect social structures of that identity. Sometimes people are accepting of having their social structures (or actors within a social structure) being cross-connected – but sometimes they are not (raising issues of privacy). For a variety of reasons, people may prefer to create or maintain structural holes in their social networks. Structural holes can be a desirable objective as people try to control how their social identity facets are maintained for a given context and activity. However, closing structural holes may have benefits as well.

When it comes to communication, information sharing, collaboration, and other community interactions within the enterprise, people behave in a similar manner. Employees often (knowingly or unknowingly) construct social identity facets when interacting within a particular social structure (e.g., help desk discussion forum, profession support community, wiki editors group). Sometimes people use the term persona, or profile, or personal brand, when referring to a social identity. That social identity forms a “face” they create for purposes of control within a given social structure.

This implies and forms a key assumption at this stage of our hypothesis, that as employees interact across multiple social structures, they construct multiple identities based on context and activity. Engaging in these social structures also results in formation of social roles. Before the advent of social tools and applications (e.g., blogs, wikis, tags and bookmarks, social messaging, and social network sites), social identities and social roles were opaque and difficult to ascertain within a networked public. With systems that enable employees to define themselves more openly (profiles on social network sites, membership in online communities, or as avatars in virtual worlds), organizations are now faced with a situation where employees are augmenting the identity ascribed to them by the enterprise.

The enterprise views identity very differently. Identity management efforts are often a fundamental process for managing a variety of concerns (risk, privacy, intellectual property, compliance, etc.). Issues related to authentication, authorization, permissions, roles, entitlements, and security are common requirements for identity management strategies. Identity teams have valid concerns regarding the design of some social tools and applications (i.e., base don consumer models), or the level of controls that protect how identity is controlled by both end users and within enterprise policies. Finding the optimal balance between the social needs of employees and management needs of the enterprise must be a core design assumption for identity management strategies. As employees redefine, extend, or contradict these formal identity assignments, there may be unintended consequences to identity management practices of the organization at-large unless action is taken to view identity as a shared responsibility. Increased use of social tools and applications that span internal and external environments will only compound the situation unless organizations begin to act now.

Concordia Workshop

Use Cases Driving Identity in Enterprise 2.0: The Consumerization of IT

Date: Monday, July 27

Time: TBD

Description: Participate in this working session as end users, deployers and technology providers discuss identity-based use cases reflecting the intersection of traditional enterprise with Web 2.0 and SaaS, models with consumer underpinnings that are turning traditional IT approaches inside-out. The group will problem-solve together to discover and define:

• Different styles of provisioning/federating identities
• Privacy concerns around unmanaged employee usage of outside tools
• Security and policy approaches to address virtualization and the cloud
• Authorization models that combine flexible access to resources with appropriate administrative controls

In Concordia workshops, real-world use cases rule: we work together to understand trends and requirements, and then facilitate effective results in future technology development and harmonization. If you have a use case you'd like to share—please submit your suggested presentation and summary by June 19 to Britta Glade (britta@projectliberty.org). As the agenda develops, it will be posted on the Concordia wiki.

http://projectconcordia.org/index.php/Catalyst_pre-conference_workshop_agenda

Introducing Cisco "Wave Connect"

OK - so that product/service does not exist yet. But it could. When Cisco analyzed the Google Wave announcement, and all the surrounding media buzz, it could have quickly stated that it planned to extend its WebEx Connect platform to support Wave once it proved viable in the market. Cisco could leverage its Jabber acquisition (people, technology) and come out with Wave Connect as an extension of WebEx Connect. Wave Connect would provide all the underlying XMPP infrastructure for Wave federation. Cisco could also offer its WebEx Connect "cloud" to third-party Wave application servers. Cisco could also then turn around and leverage its XMPP and SIP resources to bring the XMPP/Jingle world into unified communications - offering its third-party cloud tenants that additional competitive differential. It might also be able to tweak its WebEx Node for ASR 1000 Series routers to bring Wave into the enterprise.

Just thinking out loud... I might be off on some of the technical nuances - but conceptually - interesting.