Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Social Media Information
Social Media is evolving - from playful to strategic
Social Media is no longer the cool nice to have where people tweet a bid, have a nice profile and blog random thoughts. Social media gets strategically embedded in corporations. Cisco, IBM, Walmart, Wholefoods, Starbucks and others invest millions in their social web presence.
The investment is more on the resource side than systems. Those leaders get truly social. Social media leaders need to stay ahead of the curve as well.
The Social Media Academy Intro webinar provides some insights http://www.socialmedia-academy.com/html/introwebinar.cfm -
The impact of social media to businesses like Cisco, Walmart and others across all industries - Identifying the largest pool of business opportunities
- Assessment of a company's social ecosystem http://xeeurl.com/A0848 - Developing a comprehensive social media strategy
- Creating a social media plan
- Reporting and analytics in social media
- over 100 reporting tools
- ROI, resources and budget considerations
- Social media as a cross functional business accelerator
- Competing for mind,
- and market share
- Building a successful social media practice
Social Media is no longer the cool nice to have where people tweet a bid, have a nice profile and blog random thoughts. Social media gets strategically embedded in corporations. Cisco, IBM, Walmart, Wholefoods, Starbucks and others invest millions in their social web presence.
The investment is more on the resource side than systems. Those leaders get truly social. Social media leaders need to stay ahead of the curve as well.
The Social Media Academy Intro webinar provides some insights http://www.socialmedia-academy.com/html/introwebinar.cfm -
The impact of social media to businesses like Cisco, Walmart and others across all industries - Identifying the largest pool of business opportunities
- Assessment of a company's social ecosystem http://xeeurl.com/A0848 - Developing a comprehensive social media strategy
- Creating a social media plan
- Reporting and analytics in social media
- over 100 reporting tools
- ROI, resources and budget considerations
- Social media as a cross functional business accelerator
- Competing for mind,
- and market share
- Building a successful social media practice
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Comunication to Effective Integration of Systems
7. Communication, Communication, Communication!
The leader must effectively communicate, because this how the delivery of organizational values, expectations/direction (alignment), and compelling vision is cascaded throughout the ranks. The leader must ensure proper strategic planning of vision and goals; the deployment of tactical plans that implement goals and objectives; and an information system that collects, analyzes, and reports data foe continuous improvement of the organization. Barriers to optimal performance within organizations primarily have their root communication ability or lack of. Communication is the primary way to engage, motivate and align people toward a compelling vision. Feedback loops ensure that senior management are fully informed and actively listen to all levels, which guards against hubris, and other destructive behaviors. One way to help launch an effective communication strategy is to use the basics of an Integrated Marketing Communication Planning. What are we trying to achieve – well we are marketing concepts and building a powerful brand – the compelling vision. Also the path way is described through strategic planning, which ensures that goal and objectives are clearly identified and the followers or stakeholders fully understand their part in the whole of achieving the vision. This can only be done with clear and careful communications.
Aristotle acknowledged 3 dimensions of communication – Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. All three are tied together in an inseparable interactive matrix of communicating a message. Communication is interactive and requires give and take to occur. To be effective in communication, one must be creditable, logical, and emotional. Only a coherent blend of all dimensions allow the message to be accepted, which results in the compelling vision to be shared and realized by the listeners/followers.
Why is it important? Gaps in communication result in misunderstanding or the stretching of present understanding to false/improper conclusions. People by nature hate gaps and will fill them with what ever suits them or what is close to them. This where fear, bias, personal agendas, etc start to creep in and becomes destructive. Let’s bring in Maslow’s third law of hierarchy – Socialization. People wish to be accepted and heard – being part of a group is very important to people. Communication achieves this powerful need and can dissipate fear and selfish agendas by properly communicating how each individual fits into the success of the big picture. Communication should help people understand what is being said and then why it is important to them on a personal level – invokes emotion. In turn, to facilitate this understanding – communication must be open so people can share their values and assumptions, which clarifies their understanding of the message.
Communication is highly interactive, it must become a process where everyone listens and everyone has a chance to voice their view. Titles must not matter as well as no attacking or vengeance on what is voiced by an individual. This goes to Deming’s principle to “drive out the fear.” Care must be taken so powerful agendas do not dominate and quell the less forceful voices. It may be these quiet and soft voices in the still wind that carry the optimal solution.
The leader must effectively communicate, because this how the delivery of organizational values, expectations/direction (alignment), and compelling vision is cascaded throughout the ranks. The leader must ensure proper strategic planning of vision and goals; the deployment of tactical plans that implement goals and objectives; and an information system that collects, analyzes, and reports data foe continuous improvement of the organization. Barriers to optimal performance within organizations primarily have their root communication ability or lack of. Communication is the primary way to engage, motivate and align people toward a compelling vision. Feedback loops ensure that senior management are fully informed and actively listen to all levels, which guards against hubris, and other destructive behaviors. One way to help launch an effective communication strategy is to use the basics of an Integrated Marketing Communication Planning. What are we trying to achieve – well we are marketing concepts and building a powerful brand – the compelling vision. Also the path way is described through strategic planning, which ensures that goal and objectives are clearly identified and the followers or stakeholders fully understand their part in the whole of achieving the vision. This can only be done with clear and careful communications.
Aristotle acknowledged 3 dimensions of communication – Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. All three are tied together in an inseparable interactive matrix of communicating a message. Communication is interactive and requires give and take to occur. To be effective in communication, one must be creditable, logical, and emotional. Only a coherent blend of all dimensions allow the message to be accepted, which results in the compelling vision to be shared and realized by the listeners/followers.
Why is it important? Gaps in communication result in misunderstanding or the stretching of present understanding to false/improper conclusions. People by nature hate gaps and will fill them with what ever suits them or what is close to them. This where fear, bias, personal agendas, etc start to creep in and becomes destructive. Let’s bring in Maslow’s third law of hierarchy – Socialization. People wish to be accepted and heard – being part of a group is very important to people. Communication achieves this powerful need and can dissipate fear and selfish agendas by properly communicating how each individual fits into the success of the big picture. Communication should help people understand what is being said and then why it is important to them on a personal level – invokes emotion. In turn, to facilitate this understanding – communication must be open so people can share their values and assumptions, which clarifies their understanding of the message.
Communication is highly interactive, it must become a process where everyone listens and everyone has a chance to voice their view. Titles must not matter as well as no attacking or vengeance on what is voiced by an individual. This goes to Deming’s principle to “drive out the fear.” Care must be taken so powerful agendas do not dominate and quell the less forceful voices. It may be these quiet and soft voices in the still wind that carry the optimal solution.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Fifth Level Leadership Needed
5. Develop comprehensive solutions for your opportunities that include people, process, and technology
9. Measure results, learn and refine approaches
10. Keep an attitude of experimentation - we do not have "right answers" we have hypotheses to be tested and refined
To address these 3 statements, I have decided to comment on the financial crisis that affects us all and how fifth level leadership coupled with system/integral thinking would have forecasted this crisis and mitigated the severity of it all globally.
What does the future hold? Can we competently forecast the future? The use of trend analysis and scouring the various environments globally will take higher levels of thinking and selfless visions. The current financial crisis has devastated all forecasts, corporately and across all government budgets. Alan Greenspan made an admission that he and the fed did not foresee the impact of securitizing and selling mortgages. No one saw the consequences of the inactions of government regulators, public rating agencies, etc. Alan Greenspan claims ignorance in his statement, “We’re not smart enough as people…. We just cannot see events that far in advance. There are always a lot of people raising issues, and half the time they’re wrong.”
So are these statements just ignorance and the inability to see that far in advance or just greed coupled with selfish egotistical pride and self-righteous? Alan Greenspan and the Fed chose to view these actions with only one lens and only narrow perspectives of self service. If they would have listened to the nay sayers and truly took the view that no one understood the risks of these securitized mortgages using integral and system thinking, the severity may have been avoided or at least mitigated to minimum damage. It has been said that if Alan Greenspan would have taken an integral approach and used risk assessment on a global scale, he may have been able to predict the future. There were numerous warning signs pointed out by futurist and other higher level thinkers in the financial community. Politicians and CEOs with large ego may conscious decisions to ignore these scenarios. Not knowing that you have blind spots, is that you responsibility? I would say yes! One must use higher levels of thinking – critical and system thinking – to acknowledge ones ignorance and blind spots. This takes a selfless and humble approach, which is fifth level leadership. So we could use simple cause and effect analysis to come up with a logical conclusion that our country as well as global environments severely lacks fifth level leadership among the ranks of financial and government institutions. Leadership is driven by selfish egos, pride and greed for power and money. The securitizing of mortgages was a pure choice of greed of money above integral thinking of the consequences that would occur if the mystical cornerstone evaporated into digital fantasy world created by the innovations of financial engineers of these products.
Some say that forecasting and predicting results if only feasible 3 to 4 months out, beyond that is only silly. Is this true? Or do we just not have the ability to think critically enough to take into account the complexity of the global interactions between the developed countries, emerging countries, and environmental disruptions? Will developing more fifth level leaders, which will be able to develop higher levels of integral thinking, create this necessary forecasting wisdom? Scenario planning appears to be increasing in popularity, which requires deep levels of integral thinking and a vey open mind (whole brain thinking – multiple lens/perspective approach).
What else is needed? Fifth level leaders should also be able to humbly listen to all and not be in denial or numb to inactions and undesirable results. Embracing and acting on decisions through PDSA cycles and other tools will facilitate a culture of continual learning and discovery. This will in turn eliminate blind spots and discover further knowledge that was not even known that was not known. It has been said that in the whole of knowledge we know about 1/10 of what we know we know. There is probably another 1/10 to 1/5 that we known that we do not know. So that leaves about 7/10 or 70% of the knowledge that is out there to be discovered that we do not even know exists yet.
So how do we start to get there? It is a journey and not a destination that will take cross-functional and selfless communication. Open discussion with active listening, humility, and no judgment, just civil debate that is respectful – full of conflict and discovery. It is also embracing that there is no right and there is no wrong – there just is. Beliefs and assumptions are the same – they are predicated on what is known at the time to help people understand why something happened, but may not be true at all. A superstition is just a belief so ingrained in a person mind or a culture that it is actual fact. One must have an open enough mind to accept new ideas and concepts, even if they are counter to current beliefs and assumptions. This allows for nimbleness and flexibility in planning and forecasting. As one becomes further enlightened or different scenario develop, one can then go back and change the forecast via reallocating resources and changing direction to support the end goal – the vision. Enlightenment will occur if one travels outside of current circle and embraces conflicting ideas from others. Hubris and ego must be guarded against, because they are barriers to this embracement. One must also accept that uncertainty and ambiguity will be normal companions in this journey. People, communication, technology (to facilitate knowledge transfer), and processes that integrate all of the functions and science together in order to increase the velocity of discovery will be needed for future survival. Remember to be nimble – for it is not the strongest that survive changes in the environments that we all live in, but the ones that are able to adapt and be flexible that survive as well as thrive in the ever-changing world.
9. Measure results, learn and refine approaches
10. Keep an attitude of experimentation - we do not have "right answers" we have hypotheses to be tested and refined
To address these 3 statements, I have decided to comment on the financial crisis that affects us all and how fifth level leadership coupled with system/integral thinking would have forecasted this crisis and mitigated the severity of it all globally.
What does the future hold? Can we competently forecast the future? The use of trend analysis and scouring the various environments globally will take higher levels of thinking and selfless visions. The current financial crisis has devastated all forecasts, corporately and across all government budgets. Alan Greenspan made an admission that he and the fed did not foresee the impact of securitizing and selling mortgages. No one saw the consequences of the inactions of government regulators, public rating agencies, etc. Alan Greenspan claims ignorance in his statement, “We’re not smart enough as people…. We just cannot see events that far in advance. There are always a lot of people raising issues, and half the time they’re wrong.”
So are these statements just ignorance and the inability to see that far in advance or just greed coupled with selfish egotistical pride and self-righteous? Alan Greenspan and the Fed chose to view these actions with only one lens and only narrow perspectives of self service. If they would have listened to the nay sayers and truly took the view that no one understood the risks of these securitized mortgages using integral and system thinking, the severity may have been avoided or at least mitigated to minimum damage. It has been said that if Alan Greenspan would have taken an integral approach and used risk assessment on a global scale, he may have been able to predict the future. There were numerous warning signs pointed out by futurist and other higher level thinkers in the financial community. Politicians and CEOs with large ego may conscious decisions to ignore these scenarios. Not knowing that you have blind spots, is that you responsibility? I would say yes! One must use higher levels of thinking – critical and system thinking – to acknowledge ones ignorance and blind spots. This takes a selfless and humble approach, which is fifth level leadership. So we could use simple cause and effect analysis to come up with a logical conclusion that our country as well as global environments severely lacks fifth level leadership among the ranks of financial and government institutions. Leadership is driven by selfish egos, pride and greed for power and money. The securitizing of mortgages was a pure choice of greed of money above integral thinking of the consequences that would occur if the mystical cornerstone evaporated into digital fantasy world created by the innovations of financial engineers of these products.
Some say that forecasting and predicting results if only feasible 3 to 4 months out, beyond that is only silly. Is this true? Or do we just not have the ability to think critically enough to take into account the complexity of the global interactions between the developed countries, emerging countries, and environmental disruptions? Will developing more fifth level leaders, which will be able to develop higher levels of integral thinking, create this necessary forecasting wisdom? Scenario planning appears to be increasing in popularity, which requires deep levels of integral thinking and a vey open mind (whole brain thinking – multiple lens/perspective approach).
What else is needed? Fifth level leaders should also be able to humbly listen to all and not be in denial or numb to inactions and undesirable results. Embracing and acting on decisions through PDSA cycles and other tools will facilitate a culture of continual learning and discovery. This will in turn eliminate blind spots and discover further knowledge that was not even known that was not known. It has been said that in the whole of knowledge we know about 1/10 of what we know we know. There is probably another 1/10 to 1/5 that we known that we do not know. So that leaves about 7/10 or 70% of the knowledge that is out there to be discovered that we do not even know exists yet.
So how do we start to get there? It is a journey and not a destination that will take cross-functional and selfless communication. Open discussion with active listening, humility, and no judgment, just civil debate that is respectful – full of conflict and discovery. It is also embracing that there is no right and there is no wrong – there just is. Beliefs and assumptions are the same – they are predicated on what is known at the time to help people understand why something happened, but may not be true at all. A superstition is just a belief so ingrained in a person mind or a culture that it is actual fact. One must have an open enough mind to accept new ideas and concepts, even if they are counter to current beliefs and assumptions. This allows for nimbleness and flexibility in planning and forecasting. As one becomes further enlightened or different scenario develop, one can then go back and change the forecast via reallocating resources and changing direction to support the end goal – the vision. Enlightenment will occur if one travels outside of current circle and embraces conflicting ideas from others. Hubris and ego must be guarded against, because they are barriers to this embracement. One must also accept that uncertainty and ambiguity will be normal companions in this journey. People, communication, technology (to facilitate knowledge transfer), and processes that integrate all of the functions and science together in order to increase the velocity of discovery will be needed for future survival. Remember to be nimble – for it is not the strongest that survive changes in the environments that we all live in, but the ones that are able to adapt and be flexible that survive as well as thrive in the ever-changing world.
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