Elizabeth Albrycht is a 16-year veteran of high technology public relations practice and co-founder of the
New Communications Forum, a conference series designed to bring journalists and marketing and PR professionals together to learn how to use participatory communications tools. She is a founding advisory board member and is the chair of the research committee for the
Society for New Communications Research: . Elizabeth has authored articles on blogging, RSS and other new tools for a variety of industry publications, and has presented teleseminars and in-person seminars on new communications tools for PRSA and
Ragan Communications: . She often speaks about social media in both the US and Europe, and blogs about PR and corporate communications at
CorporatePR.
Dave Desforges began piloting "Work From Home" solutions over 3 years ago. His role required identifying additional candidate requirements and necessary remote work practices for both employees and managers at Sun Microsystems. His current work encompasses blending appropriate technology, organizational practices, and workplace environments to support mobile and distributed teams.
Jim McGee is currently a Director at Huron Consulting Group. He has spent much of the last 30 years working to understand, design, and apply information and technology innovations in organizations. Before Huron, Jim taught at the Kellogg School and was one of the founding partners of DiamondCluster International. With Larry Prusak, he was the co-author of Managing Information Strategically (Wiley, 1993). Jim has both an MBA and a doctorate in Information Technology, Organization, and Strategy from the Harvard Business School.
Regina Miller has more than 18 years of experience in Organization Development, Human Resources, Leadership Development and International Operations. Regina recently launched a global consultancy called The Seventh Suite which assists growing companies bolster their competitive edge via aligned strategy and progressive people practices. Her last corporate job was as the VP HR/OD for Oskar (Vodafone) which has been dubbed “one of the fastest growing mobile operators in Eastern Europe.” More info
here.
Giovanni Rodriguez - Through a combination of luck and persistence, Giovanni has worked in the company of some of the most interesting and colorful leaders in several worlds: the law, theater, and technology. Today, he is a principal at Eastwick Communications, a Silicon Valley PR agency, where he advises both emerging companies and market leaders on executive leadership, public speaking, marketing strategy and media relations. He has worked for, consulted and advised numerous businesses and organizations including HP, Stanford University, Fujitsu Computer Systems, Cadence Design Systems, VMware, the American Arbitration Association, and the Unified Court System of New York. He is a graduate of Princeton University (Religion and Anthropology), and he has done graduate course work at the Columbia School of Journalism and N.Y.U.
Jim Ware is a cofounder of the Work Design Collaborative and the Future of Work program. He has over 30 years experience in research, executive education, consulting, and management, including five years on the faculty of the Harvard Business School. He was the lead author of The Search for Digital Excellence, (McGraw-Hill, 1998), and holds Ph.D., M.A., and B.Sc. degrees from Cornell University and an MBA (With Distinction) from the Harvard Business School.
Giovanni Rodriguez
Elizabeth Albrycht
Dave Desforges
Jim McGee
Jim Ware
1. kris olsen on September 29, 2005 2:38 PM writes...
I have seen the attributes in Regina’s post present in some collaborative sales, business development, and product development scenarios where multiple parties from different organizations have a relatively equal stake in the outcome. But it’s really a function of the personalities involved – creative, outcome focused, and ego free. I’ve rarely seen those attributes in collaborative situations within company infrastructures. It’s even worse when 3rd parties are involved with providing some internal services to the company (consultants, outsourcers, etc).
Old economy companies with heavily siloed organizations and complex enterprise technologies are rigid, slothful, closed, and heavily structured. New economy companies are the exact opposite – reflexive, responsive, nimble, and open. They are also inexperienced, unstructured, and blindly faithful to their own beliefs. That’s a problem.
While these companies are young, idealistic, tech-savvy, and passionate about what they do, they are also subject to high failure rates and inevitable stress rooted in human nature (the ‘Lord Of The Flies’ thing). It has little to do with technical innovation or new markets – it has everything to do with human nature. New economy power dynamics are still the same as the old economy.
You’re right – it’s all about acquiring and sharing information as the means to power. It’s sorta like the ‘letting the bird go’ analogy – if it comes back, it’s yours. If not, it never was. The same goes for those who can facilitate the sharing of information with others while giving up control over access and use, as has been the case in the old economy. As I commented to Regina’s post, I think successfully incorporating those attitudes will come down to profiling those people who walk that talk (not visa-versa), contain their egos and turf-building, and continually facilitate new habits in the rest of the organization.
What really needed though is the MEANS to share information. The real breakthrough will come when the technology tools proliferating in the tech/dev culture (blogging, wikis, etc) find their way into the mainstream enterprise so as to provide an infrastructure for the simple, seamless sharing of information. Power will accrue to those who can pull that off.
Permalink to Comment2. Lee White on September 30, 2005 1:13 PM writes...
I think the power shift is inevitable; it is just a matter of how fast it will happen. Within any given organization the current power brokers will control the pace of this transition. In "old economy" hierarchical companies where the majority of power resides at the top, leaders have two ways to effect (or delay) the change.
1) Their behavior sets guideposts for others to follow. If they are hoarders, and shy away from transparency, there will be a tendency for others to do the same.
2) They control the purse strings of new technology. They can effectively slow down the pace of change by limiting the type of technology Kris is referring to.
Eventually the social networks will find their way around the obstacles set up by the old boys’ network, but it can happen faster with enlightened leadership that can see the inevitable and embrace the change.
Permalink to Comment3. regina on October 1, 2005 10:58 AM writes...
Hi all - some really good sharing going on here. I actually think much of the debate goes back to people's beliefs and attitudes.
I can't help but think back to MacGregor's Theory X and Theory Y
http://www.businessballs.com/mcgregor.htm
Sharing power (and therefore information) is a leadership attribute of a person who holds assumptions and beliefs that sharing information and power is a good thing.
Yes there is a skill thing associated with it - whether or not a person is good at communicating and sharing information but what is needed first is the belief that drives the behavior or creates the culture. (The skill can always be improved, etc.)
But if the underlying belief systems don't support, drive and reward information sharing - all the skill in the world, and/or technology, and/or process won't make it happen.
Permalink to Comment4. jon oropeza on October 3, 2005 6:34 PM writes...
Good article. Over the last 5 years I've transformed himself from chief hoarder, the mysterious IT Guy who spells a few says and just makes it work, to chief sharer, champion of collaborative systems. I'm working harder, having more fun, getting involved in more, making more $$$, and did I mention working harder?
'milking it for years without actually doing anything...', wow, that hit the nail on the head, especially in IT land and especially in SysAdmin land, where a little magicians ability can mean feet are on the desk 75% of the time. That was me, circa 5 years ago.
What happened? Nothing especially epiphanous, more like I got bored, or bought into the company's goal system, or got wiser in my older age... a lot of things, honestly. So now I spend 1/2 of my day tapping code and the rest working on organization, flow, knowledge projects. Not just building calendars and wikis and rss feeds but teaching others how to. I've gone from the grumpy old sys admin who doesn't want to be bugged from his Quake match to Mr. Answers.
Everything feeds into my meta-project, this customized system that we've built on top of the Goldmine contact manager. Kinda like our own Google or what Google will be in a few years. Everything talks to each other - document management, contacts, email, calendars. If it's got an API we leverage it - delicious, gmail, flickr.
It's hard work, but I agree with the basic premise of the article - the Hoarders' days are numbered. Maybe not as soon as we think - Good Ol Boy clubs still rule the roost at the Big Boys. But at small companies like mine, it's happening already - and we do Financial Services Marketing, not IT.
Permalink to Comment