New architecture of collaboration
Things have changed, the tools of web 2.0 make collaboration, at least theoretically, really easy, so why it is so hard to get done? Outside the web, where Wikipedia, Linux, Ideo and a few others have rewritten the rules, and boomed as a result, the output from new...
Authority and responsibility.
This is a story of 2 bosses. One bloke I worked for over a considerable period in two different corporations never told me exactly what to do. We agreed outcomes and the resources to achieve them, project time frames and milestones, and he was always willing to...
Spontaneous collaboration.
Forming and directing groups has become pretty easy with the advent of email, mobile phones and photography, face book, and other forms of mobile, instant technology applications. This reality is simply that the new tools have removed the transaction costs that...
Outsourced project agility
Finding professionals to develop stuff for you is getting easier by the day. A whole range of services are evolving to meet short term needs, by matching the booming IT capabilities in emerging nations prepared to work for what in a developed economy is peanuts, to...
Information access can get things done
Access to information, rather than being for abstract analysis, is a call to action which in the past has been to the individual, but now can be across huge numbers who have no connection apart from the cause. As the analysis of the dynamics of the changes occurring...
Consensus is not collaboration
These terms are often used as synonyms, as managers seek to evolve a culture of inclusion and shared responsibility, but they are markedly different. Collaboration is essential, and now so much easier given digital the tools to hand, and increased understanding of...
The paradox of learning
Real, lasting learning comes when you get stuff wrong, then seek to understand why you got it wrong. The obvious paradox is that by doing nothing new, or different, by staying inside the accepted practice, you get nothing wrong, and often receive accolades as a...
Innovation at Google speed.
The verb "to Google" took only a few years to emerge as Google changed the world around us. Peter Norvig was Google's research director from its early days, playing a key role in building the phenomenon that is Google. His basic thesis is that you must be prepared to...
21st century innovation.
When one of the giants of industry, in this case, General Electric, takes a position on a topic, and supports that position not just with money and commitment, but sets out to persuade anyone who will listen to adjust their own perspective for everyone's good, we...
A tale of “Either/or” and “Both/and”
Typically, we see things in an "either/or" context, you can do one thing at the expense of another, take your choice!. You can have line efficiency, or line flexibility, not both, advertising reach or frequency against a narrow target, but not both in the advertising...