Getting more heaven

and less hell from our communities and networks

Nancy WhiteFull Circle Associates

@NancyWhitehttp://www.fullcirc.com

Technology has fundamentally

changed what it means to

“be together”

Incredible possibilities

… heaven?

And more than a little

bit of hell…

Uh Oh!

I create my own hell!

I create my own hell!

I create my own hell!

http://bit.ly/UsHnB3

Houston, we have a problem…

Uh Oh!

How many communities and networks do you belong to?

Tweet: #kmsg I belong to X communities

What is the

strategic value for your work?

Our participation thins as we

multiply our belongingness

Poor Collaboration - Breakdowns, Ideals, and CultureRypple recently published an infographic on collaboration, called Is Poor Collaboration Killing Your Company….

Biggest breakdowns (based on 1,400 people):- 97% - a lack of alignment on objectives- 92% - deadlines impact bottom-line results- 86% - lack of collaboration or ineffective communication

How employees want collaboration to work:- wider decision making involvement- issues are truthfully and effectively discussed

Creating a strong collaborative culture:- 1. encourage people to share ideas- 2. build brainstorming into each project- 3. log important communications- 4. limit group sizes- 5. resist the urge to direct

Michael Sampson on the cost of poor collaboration

Leaving aside the automagical…

Moving from mitigation to

adaptation & resilience

What should we be

changing in our

practices in using communities & networks?

#1 Make Sense:

discernment

What for,

then what…

Jabe

Bloomhttp://blog.jabebloom.com/?p=27

Networks(sometimes paired w/ small groups and communities)

TeamsSometimes Communities

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin#Description_of_the_framework

Just do it!

Communities

NetworksCommunities

Networks

Networks

CommunitiesTeams

Communities

Steve Waddell referencing Andrew Curry and Anthony Hodgson

http://networkingaction.net/2012/08/managing-three-time-horizons-in-large-system-change

Community & network

literacies… Howard Rheingold etc.

Why

discernment matters

#2: Creative

destruction

We have to stop doing some stuff

Harvard Business Review – Greg McKeown

First, use more extreme criteria .  By applying tougher criteria we can tap into our brain's sophisticated search engine. If we search for "a good opportunity," then we will find scores of pages for us to think about and work through. Instead, we can conduct an advanced search and ask three questions: "What am I deeply passionate about?" and "What taps my talent?" and "What meets a significant need in the world?" Naturally there won't be as many pages to view, but that is the point of the exercise.

Second, ask "What is essential?" and eliminate the rest.   Everything changes when we give ourselves permission to eliminate the nonessentials. At once, we have the key to unlock the next level of our lives. Get started by:•Conducting a life audit.  All human systems tilt towards messiness. In the same way that our desks get cluttered without us ever trying to make them cluttered, so our lives get cluttered as well-intended ideas from the past pile up. Most of these efforts didn't come with an expiration date.

•Eliminating an old activity before you add a new one.  This simple rule ensures that you don't add an activity that is less valuable than something you are already doing.

Third, beware of the endowment effect.   Also known as the divestiture aversion,  the endowment effect  refers to our tendency to value an item more once we own it… As a simple illustration in your own life, think of how a book on your shelf that you haven't used in years seems to increase in value the moment you think about giving it away. 

The disciplined

pursuit of less

Less?

How?

A Kanban cue: limit your C-I-P (communities in progress)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban

Use very small groups where they are useful focused tasks

Use communities where they are useful were learning needs depth

and focused practice

Use networks where they are useful where diversity, diverse time cycles,

scanning, curating and scaling are essential

TRIZ…a little generative destruction

http://www.liberatingstructures.com/6-making-space-with-triz/

Elephants

Make space for

disruption…

Letting go can

be hard…

Why stopping matters…

#3Conversation(s) that matter

Harnessing Latent Microexpertise -- The project must allow even the narrowest of expertise. A 3rd-year algebra teacher might not have the broad expertise of an experienced math education researcher, but that 3rd year teacher might have small elements of expertise that exceed that of the recognized experts.

Designed Serendipity -- The project needs to be easy to follow and encourage participation from a variety of experts. You want problems to be seen by many in the hopes that just a few will think they have a solution they wish to contribute.

Conversation Critical Mass -- One person's ideas need to be seen by others so they create more ideas, and the conversation around all the contributions keeps the project going.Amplifying Collective Intelligence -- The project should showcase the fact that collectively we are smarter than any one individual.Those are all great characteristics of any project. But what makes this any different than any traditional, offline project? Nielsen offers several suggestions. Unlike a large group project with clear divisions of labor, technology allows us to divide labor dynamically. Wikipedia certainly would not have grown the way it did if labor had been divided statically between a set of contributors. Also, networked science uses market forces to direct the most attention to the problems of greatest interest. Lastly, contributing to an online project rarely feels like committee work, and participants can more easily ignore poor contributions or disruptive members.

Nielsen’s:Reinventing

discoveryhttp://blog.mathed.net/2012/08/nielsens-reinventing-discovery-2005-in.html

The art of listening.

The time for depth.

Personal agency and responsibility

Empower and

amplify individual effort

Recap

1: MAKE SENSE/DISCERNMENT• Situate your communities for depth/sample and curate your networks for diversity• Cynefin framework for discernment• Consider all three time horizons for resilience

2: CREATIVE DESTRUCTION• Find what to stop• Develop a literacy, discernment and practices for knowing when to go broad/when to go deep• Limit your C-I-P and try TRIZ

3: CONVERSATIONS THAT MATTER• Depth: be present. Listen• Personal agency and responsibility• Amplify individual action

Thanks and more…

Thanks to Dave Pollard, Harold Jarche, Jennifer Dalby & my extended network!

Tons more stuff here: http://bit.ly/UsHnB3

Next?

Talk, write, Skype, Tweet

Nancyw@fullcirc.com

http://www.fullcirc.com

@NancyWhite

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