Getting ready for a short presentation yesterday I spent some time thinking about collaboration. And I had a sort of epiphany. Here are some quick thoughts…

SHARING is the engine behind collaboration. It is what makes it work. If your org has a culture of hording it will be difficult to collaborate.

DISCOVERY is the heart of collaboration. When we share, others discover. This is what we are trying to do when we collaborate. There are two types of collaboration. Both are expressed by formulas:

1+1=4

I have one piece of information. You have another. We share those and I have two, you have two, thus four. We both have discovered a new piece of personal knowledge. Not that the information was new, but that it was shared. Examples of this is most of the discussion on forums. Some don’t know, others shared. (Hereafter, this formula is referred to as “=4″) This post is of this type.

1+1=5

I have one piece of information. You have another. We share those and I have two, you have two, thus four. But as we combine these four, a fifth is created. We have both discovered a new piece of group knowledge. Although this is a ‘higher’ form of collaboration, it necessarily is not always the goal. Sometimes =4 is all that is needed. But when we need to do more than share knowledge and solve a problem or create something new, this model is needed. (Hereafter, this formula is referred to as “=5″)

Examples: Wikinomic’s classic GoldCorp story: “I have information, you have information. If we put those together we can create new information.” This is the model behind the site innocentive.com.

How can your org collaborate within your org using E2.0 tools?

=4: There are so many blog posts which share information and others ask questions and comment.  There are a ton of other ways, but, unfortunately I don’t have time to type them all out.

=5: If there is a difficulty you are running in to, share it. Others will share their ideas. You may be able to take their ideas and create a third idea that is tailored to your idea.

How can your org collaborate with our customers using E2.0 tools? Two quick examples…

=4: A community around any topic is perfect. Anyone have a question? Anyone can answer. All about sharing.

=5: The Pilot (or Beta) community shares information and then comes up with solutions neither had thought of before.

Accelerant

If I have a process I need to fix, I might pull in four people in a meeting and we can all try to come up with a solution. What is wrong with that? There is a good chance we all have similar skills, industry and operational knowledge and experience. This limits =5 type discovery because we are all coming at the problem from the same perspective.

What to do? Invite more people with a diverse knowledge and experience base. This is what E2.0 tools can help with. More participants, more perspectives, more potential unique and quality solutions.

After Dave’s keynote at Training2010, Rahaf Harfoush, author of Yes We Did, spoke after barely getting off a delayed plane.  And we are very glad she made it!

It was a great presentation that gave me a lot of wonderful ideas.

These, again, are my raw notes…

She wrote, “Yes We Did” on using social media for building the Obama brand.

Overarching Themes

• Power of strategy in an integrated media campaign – this is a win for strategy.  They planned how and why they were going to be online and what they were going to do.
• Online organizing = offline action
• Consistent Branding & Design (Hope. Action. Change.)  Everything that went out fit.
• Iterations –

Innovation

• Fifty State Strategy – go after ALL states, not the ones you know you can win.
• Targeted the disaffected center – go after EVERYONE
• Focused on small donations

My Page is the hub.  Could donate, make change, etc.

Seven Lessons on building communities

1)   Redefine engagement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (mngrs, employees, execs, depts., activities, initiatives…)  The most trusted source of content comes from friends or family.  All of the other sites led back to MyBO – that was the center.  Speak to the group directly without filter of a group.

1. Be wary of arbitrary metrics
2. Focus on Value add
3. Target high engagement users instead of lowest common denominator users.  Give that minority to do what they need to get the job done. (Community who want to bring social media to NASA.  Give tools, share information, dates, etc)

2)   Convert Low End Users

1. Create very relevant content
2. Done by emails (1 billion emails)
3. Hyper-segmented.  Your DB (profiles) Segmented by location (link to grassroot activity in the neighborhood),  issues that they said was important to them (let them know of policies they were interested to them), financial contributions (how much have they contributed as a sign of respect)  Any contribution, no matter how small, was recognized, appreciated and valued. (also do activity levels – take them to the next level)
4. Over 13 million email addresses collected.
5. The Ask vs. Nudge – ASK = demand, require, those who are highly engaged.  Asked them for a lot of actions.  Nudge = easy activity, quick to complete and easy to do and complete.  Donate, watch a video

3)   Facilitating Existing Behavior

1. No matter where you were, you could be engaged (iphone app)  Make it easy to support us.

4)   Incenting the right actions.

1. Activity index on profiles (!!!!!!!!!!!) with a score (number of blogs, doors knocked, amount raised, groups joined, events hosted – all based on time.  If they didn’t do anything for a while, their score dropped.  It was a game.  (**** Do a ratio rather than a score.)  All activities worth points.

5)   Personalizing the Mission

1. Showed the total amount raised.  It asked WHY raising was important to you.  They were giving $50 to support their neighbors. – link

6)   Empowering Motivation

1. Mashup of Google maps and community organizings.

7)   Embracing the Unexpected

1. When you know what is happening, you can react appropriately.  If you are not engaged you cannot react.

Let people rip, make their own content and use it

Dave Wilkins’ keynote at Training2010 was amazing.  I got into the auditorium an hour before hand to see if I could help and to save places on the front row to so we could heckle him.  He had me run through the slides of his preso and my reaction was, “It is about time.”  What he says in his presentation is RIGHT ON and has needed to be said for some time in front of a large audience.

The essesence for me was this: Training and Learning folk, you are behind in adopting this.  Either adapt or become less valuable than you are now, if not (personally) extinct.

Here are my rough notes.  Here are his slides.  Some times I forgot to write because he articulated the conundrum the learning community was in so well that I was wrapped up in the presentation.

Here ya go…

Déjà vu – Other industries are going through what learning professionals are going through.  But more about that later.

Scenario #1 – Enterprise software solution or a new product launch.

Social Learning or not?

67% said yes, 33% said no.  Much higher NO than we expected.

Scenario #2 – Workers with specialized expertise on deep, complex and ever-changing subjects all around the country or even the world with social profiles & discussion boards

Gives the Ace Hardware example – 500% ROI in under 6 months, better customer satisfactions, culture of sharing.

Social Learning or not?

93% said yes.

Who owns it?  36% Learning & Dev group, 34% Knowledge Management.  Hmmmm.  Not convinced that you own it, though, eh?

Scenario #3 – Your sales teams needs more information about competitors.  Info might be in the minds of clients and employees.  You have decided to document this infor and examples in a wiki.

Social Learning or not?

88% said yes.

Who owns it?  41% Sales, 23% L&D  So it definately is social learning, but you don’t own it.  Do you see the problem here?

What is the difference between KM, Learning, Document Mngmt, etc?  Is it all in our head?  Good question to ask!

Scenario #4 – As a group, your clients know more about your product or service than you do.  Mining the information is costly. Use message boards to allow them to support each other.

Social Learning or not?

92% yes, 8% no.

Who owns it? 43% was Product group, 20% is L&D.  Same here.  Do we see what is happening?  We agreed that it was Social Learning yet someone else is in charge of it?  Is this a disconnect?

If the organization learns from clients, it is any less valuable than learning that is pushed from the top down?

Corporate walls are melting – deptartments are starting to melt into each other with less ridgid walls.

Teach a man to… teach and you become exponential.

Too many people try to rush in to say, “I want the technology.”

Where do newspaper reporters do?  Interview, write, publish.  What do trainers do?  Same.  What has happened to the newspaper industry.  It is being replaced.  Why?  They are the middle man between content that those who consume.  How is this different from most of the functions of the training department?

Reports from Training 2010

I am at Training 2010 in San Diego this week.  The next few posts will be from this conference.  Not all coherent, I am sure, but rather in not fashion.

Tom Stone’s “Overcoming Obstacles and Objections to the Use of Web 2.0 in Organizations.”   I have loved Tom’s sessions at other conferences and expect this will be great as well.

Obstacles and Objections:

Culture & Change issues

Productivity concerns

Connection with L&D

Purpose issues

Control issues

Measurement issues

Technology issues

He is providing ‘advanced common sense.’  I love that.  That is so true.  Sometimes in new situations it is hard to use old common sense – but it still applies.

“Culture eats strategy for lunch.”  You can have the best plans possible, but if your culture is not ready, it won’t go as planned.

1)   “Our overall org culture is not ready”

You are behind – sort of.  Because these are not new technologies (10+ years old some of them) but not many orgs are not up on this.

Use each tool where appropriate – he skipped over this point because of sake of time, but this is SO HUGE!

2) “Change will be slow.  How can we speed up transitioning to Web 2.0?”

Do a pilot – give more people a real experience and get an early win. (See the webinar later this week on how to roll out).

Seed content and retire old tools.  Tom had great success with this at ElementK.  In fact he uses the word ‘force.’  Force indeed.

Get those who might be strong into other tools or methodologies into this early and get them to be champions.

3)   “Our people aren’t techies”  They won’t understand how to use it…”

Create training classes on how to use it.

It is new, but it isn’t hard.

4) “Nothing major happens without key decision makers championing it, and our leaders aren’t Web 2.0 people”

Is it really true that nothing happens without them?  Question that.

Fear factor: Show them what your competitors are doing with Web 2.0 / Social Media.

Find case studies that show the likely benefits.

USE IT YOURSELF – I can’t stress this enough!  Tom is so right here.  If you are not a prolific user, how can you explain it?

5)   “Our younger workers will get it, but what about our older staff?”

Conduct a Boomer Survey for their insights and concerns.  Really, get to know what they think.  Include them.

He failed to point out that these tools are age agnostic when you integrate them into work processes.  I have found that the age factor doesn’t matter much in the end.  Sure, they may gripe more, but if they find it useful, they use it.  Read “Diffusion of Innovation”  In the first few pages it gives 5 ways adoption happens for anything.  Age is not one of those factors.

6)   “Using Web 2.0 is a time waster”

Personally, I hate this objection because it is so shortsighted.

Tom says that it is their work ethic.  Agreed.  If they were wasting time before, they will now.  If not before, they won’t now.  Tom’s slide says, “People are too busy to waste time – or should be!”  Amen.

Tom points out that a lot of this is replacing, not adding to their work.

7)   “Web 2.0 tools will produce too much info…”

Define your scope (Excellent). Be specific in your topics, initiatives and define scope closely.

He didn’t mention that this information can be found and delivered to me by person or topic.  Right now EVERYTHING gets pushed to us.  So using the new tools with the old paradigm is wrong.  It won’t work the same.

8)   Web 2.0 is very different than training.  What are they good for?”

There is a need for ILT, eLearning and this as well.  Focus ratios will change, but we will need all of it.

He points out (correctly) that training is a subset of learning.  “You need to stop thinking in terms of training only.”  !!!!!!

Not meant to replace formal training and supplement, not replace.

9)   “What about the traditional roles in L&D of trainers, ID & SMEs?”

We will have a need for all of them.  It will just shift the mix.

10)  “We intended it for purpose X but they use it for purpose Y”

‘”Be glad that you have found the  more valuable use!”

After, validate that there is still a need for the original purpose and build another plan.  But don’t shut down if they are using it.

11)   “We already tried it and it didn’t work”

See THIS post.

Basically, he says to find out why it didn’t work.  Poor communication? Poor purpose? Did you reward and incent?

Me: Actually, the more prevalent case is that they have not tried this exactly, they have tried other things, like a KM software and it didn’t work.  That jumps into another full session.

Not many have tried this and have completely failed.  They may not have been as widely successful as you thought, but few totally fail

Then he goes through a list of business goals and technologies to consider.  Great list.

12) “Who can create content”

Do not allow anonymous.  Tom talks about limiting initially to a number of people or certain people.  I don’t agree with this.  If you do, you are limiting access.

13)   “Will we allow people to post just anything?”

Actually, yes.  “Be clear regarding scope, and don’t allow sensitive information to be posted.”

14)  “How do we know the information created will be accurate?”

Do you trust people to use email properly?  Same thing here.

A lot of information is experience.  Capture that!

15) “How will employees know what is appropriate to post and what isn’t?”

Do they know that in emails?

16)   “What about user generated content behind discoverable for legal proceedings?”

“Same issue for existing tools, right?”

Easy to roll back changes.  Archive.  Flag content.  More visibility so now you know what is going on – more visibility into that,.

Clearly indicate disclaimers.

17)   “ROI”

He points out the 90/9/1 rule and applies it to the organization.  But I say that is wrong within organizations.  It is fine for outside, but not for internal orgs.  If you scope it correctly and integrate into how they work, it can be MUCH higher.

18)  “ROI for learning” specifically

Point to case studies.  Prove the value!  Look to competitors. Change in time for onboarding, change in training costs.  Speak in their language.

19)  “What kinds of security constraints will we have?”

Authentication, Authorization.

20)  “Should all tools be from the same platform?”

What are your integration goals?

If you would like is slides, feel free to email him.  Or better yet, ask him on Twitter

This short video shows shows snippets of informal interviews on college students’ perception of Twitter.  The case?  They don’t get it.  Whether that is wide spread or not, we really can’t be surprised.

Why?  How do I, and MANY others use it primarily?  Professionally.  To share information about our chosen line of work – oh and some personal stuff on the side.  They wouldn’t get Yammer either, as that is all professional.

Wait until they get the working world and reintroduced to Twitter.  Suddenly, they will find that there is a lot of great information and conversation going on about their profession on Twitter.  Then they will get it.

Yes, that’s right – Twitter is not all fun and games (although it can be – the subject for tomorrow’s post!).

Can it be used for professional reasons?  Absolutely.  And once you learn this it is hard to turn back because it is so useful.

Remember when I wrote about social networks and the ability to bring geographically disperse, like-minded people together?  Twitter does the same thing.  I follow people (from all over the world).

People I follow on Twitter

Most of the people I follow I am similar to in some way (except for maybe the llama).  Twitter brings us together to allow us to have discussions (albeit short ones).

Here are a few of the most popular professional uses of Twitter.

#CHATS

Example of TweetGrid on the #lrnchat hashtag, but not during a session.

There are Twitter Chats that happen on many different subjects.  Usually one hour is set aside for anyone to join in on a chat and it is assigned (by the moderator) a #hashtag.  Then they use web page like TweetGrid or a downloaded app like Tweetdeck to watch the chat’s #hashtag.  They will automatically update.

Then, at the appointed time, those who want to join do a short intro (every tweet will have the hashtag) and the moderator will ask the first question.  Everyone else will start answering and having discussions about the topic and sharing resources (links to more information).  These are very valuable discussions which help you step out of your comfy box and find out what others are doing or how they have tackled certain problems.

Sound good?  Find a Twitter Chat that interests you.  Here is a short list of twitter chats.  There are chats for the organizational learning profession – #lrnchat (a favorite of mine); accountants – #AcctgChat; knowledge management – #KMers; children’s literature – #kidlitchat; social media – #socialmedia; young moms – #youngmoms; dogs – #WoofWkly, and a ton more.

#CONFERENCES

This is what hooked me on Twitter.  Every conference nowadays will have a specific hashtag.  For exmaple, the Enterprise 2.0 conference uses #e20conf.  Those tweeples at the conference can use the hashtag to discuss or share the content of keynotes, sessions to those who didn’t come, which sessions to come to because they are so good or which ones to avoid, and to hook up with others for dinner after the conference.  There are many more ways to use it – these are only a few.

#TOPICS

Dave Wilkins and I used to moderate a “social learning question of the day “(@slqotd).  We would ask one question and everyone would answer.  We used a little bit of technological magic that made it so when you DM’d @slqotd, everyone who followed received the response, but we got too much spam.  I haven’t done it for a while, but need to get back on track.

Others, however, have done it differently.  For example, #lrn2day – what have you learned today?  Andrew McAfee asks a question a day using #andyasks.  Everyone answers with that hashtag.  Everyone else follows it to see all the answers.

There are lots of ways to do it.

#QUESTIONS

So many times I have thrown out a question on Twitter and received immediate responses from people who knew more than I do.  These are people I would not normally have access to.  What a great resource that is!

ASIDE: In a session where I spoke about Twitter, one person asked why I didn’t just Google a question.  I brought up the point that the answer may not be out on Google (imagine that!).  But someone from that session later emailed me his AH-HA moment which I feel is worth quoting:

“I hadn’t thought much about the power of Twitter, but yesterday’s session brought it into focus for me.  When I do a regular internet search, I’m either added or doomed by my choice of words for the very rule-based machine search that ensues.  In Twitter, I benefit from the interpretive skills of fellow human brains that read and interpret my need and thus are able to better design a relevant response.”

Well said!

#THROUGHtheDAY

All day I have Twitter up on my screen.  When I have a free moment, I look at it.  I always find something valuable to my profession.  A link to a study. A reference to a new technology I had not heard about.  A new perspective that helps me broaden my own. A person in need that I can help by responding to.

BTW – there is so much coming in that I miss most of it.  And remember – it is OK to let go of what you missed.  Taking in more than you are able would overwhelm you.  Don’t even try.

Do you have any more professional uses of Twitter that you can share with us?  Use the comments below!

Tomorrow: The fun side of Twitter and great Twitter apps.

Steve Ballmer after the iPhone announcement but before it launched.  He says “I like our strategy, I like it a lot” because “It will do XXX and XXX and XXX.”

Note to self: It is not enough to do, but to do really well and simply and intuitively.

[polldaddy poll="2325646"]

Week 4: Wikis: Day 2

Some things are beautiful because they are easy to use the first time and don’t need much of an explanation, if any at all.  It has always made me laugh that instructions are printed on a bottle of shampoo.  Understandable, but  still…  Other products are just too over the top, or way too complicated to understand.

Wikis are simple: Click edit. Modify. Click Save. Done.

Photo by kristin wolff on Flickr

When a product is so easy to use, its adoption increases (see this post on Complexity and adoption).  If we combine these together – ease of use and high adoption – something extraordinary happens: Unintended uses.  We think, “Well, if I can use it in this instance, I bet I could also use it here, and here, and here…”

There are many list of how wikis can be used.  In fact, many times it changes the norm.  For example, I was in a meeting where they were redesigning a web site.  They said they wanted an FAQ page (which, interestingly, seems to have its internet roots from NASA). But, there has been a long standing problem with FAQ web pages.  Usually, only one person can add to it because of the complexity of editing a web page and soon it gets out of date.  Why not create a wiki page that will allow you and others to update it?  When you or they see an FAQ, add it to the page.

Or what about the endless meeting agendas and followup notes.  An agenda is emailed to the attendees before the meeting, then a recap of what happened is emailed after.  What if you want to find something that happened a few months ago.  Finding it can be difficult – did you delete it or file it, and in which folder?  But if it was in a wiki, the agenda and results could be one, and last week’s meeting could be on top of the other.  Also, if you have an update or an agenda item you want covered, anyone on the attendee list can add it.

Often, wikis take the place of meetings.  Think of the wiki as the meeting room.  When you have time you come in and say what you need to say or get the information you need.  Then you leave.  Allow anyone in the meeting to do that and you have a meeting you can join when you have the free time, and still get the same information.  I agree – it is not as personal.  But how many meetings have we been in that are all status and anything but personal?  Way too many.

For a final project of mine (in pursuit of my masters degree) I created a wiki page with all the info there.  Although not requiring feedback, it was a easy place for me to put the information for anyone to see and use in the future.

Some of my favorite uses:

• Brainstorming – again, no need to be in the same room, just be in the same wiki
• Collaborating on a project
• Creating a knowledge base
• Manuals (instead of pointing people to a static PDF, point them to a living, breathing and up-to-date document)
• Any collaborative work – especially school group assignments (I don’t know how many teleconferences and meetings a wiki has saved me!)

TO DO – Apply to Your Circumstances (Difficulty Level: EASY – Time: 10- minutes)

This is ‘homework’ of the most fluid kind.  It is time to brainstorm.  Go to your wiki you created yesterday and think about and type out some ways you could use a wiki – inside and outside of work. To help, answer some of these questions:

• Where/When might I need others’ input?
• Do I have a lot of emails floating around that I wish would go away? Can I use a wiki instead?
• Is there any documentation that needs updating that I could put out there?
• Is there a meeting that is marginally useful that a wiki could help with?

More specific questions:

• Are you a kids sports coach and need people to sign up to bring snacks?
• Do you have a project at work that could use some better collaboration or record keeping?
• Need input from colleagues on an idea?

OK – Many would argue (as I would) that information in a wiki is easier to create, to share, to collaborate.  But that does not mean that it is always done that way – or even most of the time.

In fact, we default to what we have used in the past.  We go with what is comfortable.

So, this week’s question is this: What do you use as default?  Microsoft Word or a Wiki?  I realize that it depends on the context – but overall what do you use?

1) Vote in the poll and
2) add your comments as to why you use one over the other.

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