Leaders In the Know

"People People" Weigh in on Web 2.0

My new favorite blog is that written by Harvard Business School's Andrew McAfee.

Earlier this week his post followed up on the Information Week Web 2.0 Survey I commented on as well in this space which surfaced the statistic that only a miniscule number of  IT execs see Web 2.0 social computing technologies as having real value to their organizations.

Andrew spent some time talking with HR execs representing large corporations and was pleasantly surprised to learn that they seemed eager to explore the possibility these technologies offer in terms of engaging their workforce. They also pointed out their conclusion that in reality  "Our lawyers / compliance officers / CEO would never allow it".

This mirrors what we've gleaned from conversations and sessions we've had as well.  Ever the optimist, I was so hopeful that finally (finally!) the HR community from which I hail would see this enormous opportunity that has just fallen right into their lap to become the strategic business partners they envision themselves to be but, regrettably, more often are not.

If HR folks were truly strategic business partners they would not accept this as another "you can't fight City Hall" defeated agenda.  Instead they would say my role is to get our senior leadership to understand that leveraging social computing is imperative for any company that wants to stay in the game.  They would say this technology is absolutely going to transform the way people work, both together and with various constituencies and partners, locally and around the world.

HR is perfectly positioned to take the lead on this. Not IT.  That's because social computing has more to do with building human relationships than it does software.  Is there any wonder why IT isn't all that excited about this stuff?  From past experience, they suspect they'll get left holding the bag as the "social computing police" (and they also know how hard it really is to get technology right). 

HR needs to spend some serious time getting more than a "buzz word" level understanding of these technologies or it won't have the credibility to really lead the charge. They need to spend some time deeplyunderstanding, on a systemic level, the implications of social computing in all aspects of human interaction in their organization. They need to plan the significant change management effort it will take people at every level to adapt.

I'm not sure the HR executives Andrew spoke to envision the extensive thought and the heavy lifting it will take to build the consituency required to move this forward any time soon.

Web Advice for the Harried Business Owner

Check out my guest blog post on the New York Times Small Business Summit page.

Click here to read the post.

Brush Up on those Apologizing Skills

Andy Greenberg had an interesting post today on Forbes.com, entitled, How Silicon Valley Says Sorry. It's all about the spate of public apologies we've seen coming out of tech firms this year. The most recent brouhaha, of course, is Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's blog entry apologizing for getting so swept up in the profit-making game he put advertisers before customers. Imagine that.

Zuckerberg's apology has been deemed a PR "best practice" in damage control.  I see it as illustrative of how the web is changing corporate behavior.

• There's nowhere to hide.  What used to take days, months, maybe even years - and if you were very lucky, maybe never - to discover is all over the Internet in a matter of minutes.


• The good of  the few is as important as the good of the many. Facebook was forced to retreat based on the outrage of a mere .2% of its 50 million subscribers. When was the last time your company worried about the concerns of such a small percentage of its customers or employees when rolling out a new program?


• Executives need to slow down on the Kool-Aide. Facebook execs touted Beacon as an advertising breakthrough. You have to wonder if anybody involved in the decision raised the possibility that no one would want to have to opt out of having their purchases broadcast online, even if it was to 500 of their closest friends.


• It's all about trust.  Apologies only work if they're sincere and people trust you to do the right thing - not just talk about it.

What To Do When Your Boss Just Doesn't Get It

There's still time to register for our webinar this  Friday, December 14th at 10AM PST, 1PM here in New Jersey. Click here to register for Leading Teams to Do Great Things: How to succeed when you have all the responsibility and no authority!

In anticipation of the webinar, I wrote an article for The Pragmatic Marketing Update, a newsletter for technology product managers and marketers.

When was the last time you attended a seminar, let's say on best practices? When it comes time for the Q & A, isn't there always someone in the room who asks how to get their boss (or their boss' boss) to buy-in to the program? 

We've all experienced what it's like to come back to work, all jazzed up, only to be brought back to the practical reality of reporting to someone who resists new ideas or ways of doing things.  It's demoralizing. It's frustrating. It makes you wonder why you even bothered.

I wrote the article for the folks who risk being shut down because they honestly believe the result will be a better way to do things. 

What can you do to improve the chances of convincing your boss to champion the cause?  Here are ten ideas that could help. Click here to read the article.

Feel free to add your ideas to the list. Post your thoughts below.

Webinars We're Presenting This Week

Charlie and I will each be presenting webinars this week and hope you can join us for one or both.

Thursday 13, 2007 at 11AM PDT/2PM EDT - Catalyze Webcast

Charlie Kreitzberg, CEO,  Cognetics will present Web 2.0 and You: How Web 2.0 Will Catapult Business Analysts and Usability Professionals into Center Stage. Charlie is a very informative and insightful speaker, active in both the Usability and IT communities.  Click Here to Register.

Friday, December 14, 2007 at 10AM PDT/1PM EDT - Pragmatic Marketing Webcast

Anne Pauker Kreitzberg, President, Cognetics will present Leading Teams to Do Great Things: How to succeed when you have all the responsibility and no authority. We'll share some techniques to turn a group of talented individuals into a well-oiled team, how to manage the complexity that new team structures bring and where trouble spots are likely to arise and how to deal with them gracefully. Click Here to Register.

When Your Family Turns Into A Virtual Team

You know you're in trouble when you start thinking of your family members as part of your virtual team.

It wasn't that long ago when Sunday afternoon meant the entire extended family somehow ended up "passing by"  just in time for dinner. But now, with family members far-flung and leading  complicated, busy lives, little by little we've gone virtual.

Sometimes it works just great - as it did in organizing my mother-in-law's 90th birthday party.  OK, it wasn't her fault that her birthday fell on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  As it turned out, the Thanksgiving-air-travel-gods were with us and were we ever grateful. No huge security line! No sitting for 3 hours on a plane waiting our turn to take off! No lost luggage! Talk about managing our expectations.

But getting back to our virtual team.

Technology is the life-line of virtual teams and we used it all in the various stages of planning the event and handling the logistics for getting everyone there: phone, fax, email, web meeting, conference call, instant messaging, photo and file sharing.  I wanted to suggest using In the Know!  to keep track of all the moving parts but thought maybe that was a little over the top.

One example illustrates a typical family project. Charlie and his sister decided to produce a bound book containing photos of the birthday girl, her family and friends dating back way before she was born, when her parents were kids. We're talking hundreds of photos, going back well over 100 years. Each one had to be scanned, electronically shared, cropped and cleaned up to be suitable for reproduction (thank you Adobe Photoshop).  The last of a series of  web-conferences (thank you  Citrix GoToMeeting) was a final edit and off the book went for online production (thank you Peecaboo.com) and delivery directly to our hotel, the Jupiter Beach Resort and Spa, right on schedule. 

Virtual teaming gurus say nothing substitutes getting the team together face to face.  Sounds right to me.