Posts tagged social computing

Retired Guy Series: Update

May27
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

What is happening? What is going on? It has been over a month since the last series update. Seems like the right cadence for those that want to follow what is up with the “retired” guy.

Updates:

  • There has been little change to my overall “second” career. I have applied to a couple of positions that I feel fit my interest and passions but have not heard back from any of them. I have had a couple of positions that have reached out to me via resume reviews. Those opportunities (some good, some not so good) are something that I know I could do, but really don’t fit what I want to do with my “second” career. So, instead of wasting time – passed on those. I hope that I am not being too picky, but selective enough to make sure that I will be happy and successful. The one big disappointment in all of this is the total lack of communications on the hiring side. You get the automated message – “we got your stuff” and after that – the black hole. If you have hired, some automated message would be great back saying – done. Makes me not want to work for any company that does not treat people better than that. I know there are probably thousands of resumes sent in on any job, but not communicating back – seems like a missed opportunity.
  • I am still doing some volunteer work. I have already accepted a director position with AZ4Education. I will be helping out with marketing, scholarship fund raising and awarding scholarships to needed students. I also am helping one of the elementary schools navigate their way through social media. Haley Elementary was given the okay by the district to go ahead and jump into Facebook and such. So, I am helping the principal and administrative staff with getting this kicked off. I am waiting for the final acceptance on the fingerprinting in order to help out with Valley Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Should happen soon!
  • Lastly, from those that follow my twitter @stevebellnow – you all know that I had some minor surgery to my knee. Torn meniscus needed some clean up! I don’t have any great story on how it happened, sorry. I just completed my first week after surgery and have to say that everything is going well.

I think that monthly will continue to be the cadence for updates… Until my “second” career begins. Then I can really start to share some great stuff. Thanks for reading…

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Social Media Tools for Internal Collaboration

Apr26
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

The other day, I was asked a question by a recruiter about my experience with bringing social media tools inside the company firewall and how did that go. You want to talk about an open-ended question that could go on and on. So, I thought I would add this to my web notebook…

When I think of social media tools and capabilities for the enterprise, I am thinking about better communication and collaboration capabilities. What are the important factors that your enterprise is trying to accomplish? Global company trying to improve collaboration within the team? Knowledge capture and management? Better communications? Finding experts? Cool new tools that others are using? What is it that makes you want to change what you are doing today? Get your answer(s)… Since this is not “new” anymore – there is plenty of information (and suppliers) to help.

Here are the items that I believe need to be done to make this transition successful…

  • Pull in your HR, IT and business unit teams to spend the right amount of time drafting and finalizing your social media policies. Nothing worse than going down to the path of implementation and then being hit with the IT Security or HR policies roadblocks. They are there – just include them right off the bat.
  • Make sure that you are looking at tools and capabilities that integrate together. Don’t be looking for another stand alone solution. Of course, don’t be looking at that potential one-size fits all model either. Look for a platform that you can build on. You can add “best in class” solutions or the platform supplier does. Either way – you win!
  • Gauge how supportive your senior management team is with this endeavor. Are they receptive to changing how things get done? Do they feel okay with more challenging of the status quo? How thick is their skin? How about the ROI monkey? Leaders are supposed to removed roadblocks, but sometimes they like to leave the speed bumps in.
  • Start small and move fast. Goes back to an earlier comment. Don’t try to find the one-size fits all. Making a huge change will not go over well. Start small, start with the capabilities that are most often lacking (by listening to the user base). Get that in, make it work, make it fit within the normal workflow and go fast.
  • Take advantage of the “evangelists!” You know, the folks that jump at a chance to use “new” capabilities, that adopt early and really see how to make things work. Get them from the individual departments to help train and communicate success.
  • Stay your course. It is too easy to get distracted by upper management, a shiny “new” capability or feel progress is moving slower than you want. Once more people get into using and adopting these tools the better off your company will be – you will see.

I know this is not new to many folks… Those folks and I have had plenty of war-story discussions together. I felt like I had to take that interview question and writing it down – As I thought I gave a pretty good (not 100% – did not mention suppliers) complete answer.

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Workplace Evangelist?

Nov30
2010 1 Comment Written by Steve

What a title! I have spent the past two plus months helping groups with improving their productivity and collaboration with using some of the Enterprise 2.0 technologies that we have implemented inside the firewall. Some folks call that person a workplace evangelist.. Catchy and probably looks pretty good on the old style business card! Since I have been doing this for over two months, it is time to write down my thoughts and observations. First of all, this role is something that I volunteered to do! I have found that using Enterprise 2.0 capabilities has helped me to communicate and collaborate with my global team and our key stakeholders. Some real quick observations were the demand greatly outweighs the supply of trained folks and people love buzz words. Demand is so high for someone to educate, teach and help implement – that I could have easily been busy for 24/7 for years to come. Like everything I do, I jumped in to do as much as humanly possible (till I figured out how to find those that will be successful).  Seems everyone wants to use the new technologies but just don’t know why or how.

I got to listen to plenty of challenges from each group that I have worked with. They basically came down to the following statements:

  • There is no consistent way to capture information or content.
  • There are lots of tools to use, which one is best for me? Or my team?
  • I have too many distractions today; meetings that fill up my complete calendar, emails that just go on and on, instant messages and every once and awhile the phone will ring.
  • Social computing is not work… It is social… (I guess that is why using Enterprise 2.0 saves you from having to listen to social computing confusion)

To help the teams understand better what is meant by this I found that Terry Starbucker’s 7 Essential Truths About Social Media very helpful. For the internal purposes I used and/or modified about 5 of them – fitting the audience that I was dealing with.

  • It’s not a “strategy” (it’s just a tool to communicate)
  • It’s not going to fix all that ails your business units problems (no silver bullets)
  • It will open up your world (just have to be open to making changes)
  • It will expose some basic communication weaknesses (so, be careful when you jump in).
  • It’s not going away (so, learn how to use it).

Usually after going over these truths and the examples that fit each one of them I can assess if this particular team is going to be resptive to making the necessary changes and work needed to be successful using the tools at their disposal. The other day, I was blessed with a quote from the team manager that just blew me away. “We are too busy with work, to work on reducing our workload.” I kid you not! Making changes take time and effort (work). I am willing to help, but I can not be the one that does it all… Almost all of the team needs to be a change agent to make this work. Not everyone, there will always be nay-sayers, but once they see how successful this is making the others or truly reducing their workload – they will come around, they always do. Just need a group that is willing to learn, open their eyes to dream how things could be and then work towards that dream.

Success rate overall, is still coming in. This takes time! Time to get moving, time to keep moving and getting the desired results that the team is looking for. I right now, have to say – this has been about a 50/50 split! My first months of starts, were with everyone that came knocking for help. The second month, I am only taking on those that are willing to give it a serious go. So, maybe my success rate will go up. I only have one month left – so, it better!

I do still love that title! I really enjoy the role… Maybe I can continue this role someplace else soon.

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First Day Back

Aug10
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

As many know, I had been on my sabbatical from Intel for the past 9 weeks. It was a wonderful time. I completed many of the TO DO’s that I set out for myself. All good stuff.  What I want to write about is that first 24 hours of getting back in the groove.

Last night, I was busy preparing for the next day drive to the office… Had to set the alarm clock – now that one hurt a bit. Not that I slept in late and did nothing the whole time.. But, I did not have to hear that annoying sound of an alarm. My internal clock told me when to get up. I had to gather up all of my work belongings. You know put the laptop back in the bag, insure that the AC adaptor was in the bag and all of the other office items I brought home (over the 3 other sabbaticals – I have had a few items come up missing from the old desk). Since I had not seen my badge in 9 weeks – it was a bit hard to remember where I last put it (found it in the glove box of the car).

I woke up bright and early – too early! I must have been excited to get back at it. 9 weeks is a long time. I was really looking forward to the drive in, getting to see my cubicle farm mates and get started earning my paycheck. I am so glad that I wrote down my laptop password, because if I had to remember it – I know I would be calling into the help desk for a password reset. Once logged in, I got my usual IT updates from all of the time I was off. After 30 minutes or so and a reboot. I was off to opening up email. I wondered how many I would have. I guess about 5 thousand! Well, I was off by 100%. 10K emails were in the inbox. Spent most of the morning deleting!

From time to time, I had folks stop by and get caught up on the doings of my sabbatical. I got caught up on what I missed while I was out. Office environments are way cool sometimes. For those folks that were not physically in the office – I got some instant messages (just happened to see you logged in – you back? – of course, why else would I be logged in).Got some more emails – just like the IM’s. 

What all did I actually get done. Well, the inbox is under 125 unopened. Deleted a bunch, answered some and filed the rest. Should be all back to speed in a couple of days. Had some great discussions with folks. Touched base with many others. Some even told me they read my personal blog to stay up on my happenings. Read plenty of material on the internal professional networking (blogs, forums, wiki) tool to get up to speed on other items that are important to me.

Definitely a long and tiring (but exciting) day!

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A Shout Out to Laurie

May10
2010 5 Comments Written by Steve

I would like to take some of my blog space and time to send a big thank-you to Laurie Buczek for her work as Program Manager for the internal social computing program. She is moving on. She is taking her ball and moving to our external social computing program. Being one of the folks that have worked with Laurie from the beginning of her tenure in IT – I will miss her. She has brought a passion for her job that could not be met by anyone else.

Everything that we have internally, is due in late part of her efforts and leadership. Having been so close, I completely understand how hard this effort has been. She has had to move mountains. The hurdles that this program has had to jump through have been big. Laurie has done this, with a smile and a can do attitude. I just hope that the next person can keep the torch going.

Laurie – here is my big thank-you to you personally for a job that has been difficult, but you have really done well. The direction is set. Thanks. I am also taking this opportunity to wish you well in the future.

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Book Review: Social Networking for Business

Apr16
2010 1 Comment Written by Steve

 I just completed Social Networking for Business, Choosing the Right Tools and Resources to Fit Your   Needs, by Rawn Shah. This book would have been handy a couple of years ago, when I started down the social  computing path inside of my employer. The book is very well organized and is detailed enough to pass onto the reader the how to’s.

 Since Rawn works for IBM, he has much insight into a large enterprise and how they are using their social tools for overall collaboration for their employees, work teams and large innovated activities. He highlighted that collaboration can bring together skills and knowledge in more permutations than members might imagine. Drove home the point that social computing depends on the human factor. For me, I help out many teams or organizations with using our internal social tools to communicate and collaborate. The one point that really is hard for folks is using these tools is work. This is not Field of Dreams, just because it has been built, they will not come (back).

Rawn has broken his book into logical sections that if you are already engaged – you can skip to parts that you or company are struggling with.

  • Overview of Social Computing
  • Sharing the Social Experience
  • Leadership in Social Environments
  • Social Task (collaborating on ideas and creating and managing information)
  • Social Ecosystem
  • Building a Social Culture
  • Engaging and Encouraging Members
  • Community Management
  • Measuring Social
  • Social Computing Value

For me, the areas that really stood out are the Leadership, Engaging and Encouraging Members and the Community Management. Leadership is key to overall success. Don’t let anyone fool you, without leadership in this space, nothing will work well. I have witnessed the struggles of teams and organizations due to overall minimal leadership when applying the tools. Engaging and encouraging members will always be a point of emphasis (from the start and throughout the community life-cycle). There are many ideas in this section to get the braincells moving. Lastly, the community management chapter was extremely helpful for me.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. Rawn Shah definitely got me thinking about my activities within the internal social teams I lead, participate in or just read from time to time. This book will be on my bookshelf in the office as a resource and reminder to me…

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Have You Witnessed Outstanding Service?

Apr07
2010 3 Comments Written by Steve

After a long morning, I decided to step away from the office and take my lunch at one of the local eateries, Wildflower Bread Company located in the Chandler Fashion Mall. I really was feeling the need for their Caribbean salad and some quiet time. I was treated to my usual expectations of the food, enjoyed it very much. My post is really not about a food review. It is truly about what I witnessed while I was sitting in my booth, enjoying my food and catching up on the morning twitter stream.

What did I see? I saw some really outstanding service. It had nothing to do with the service that I got, but the service I witnessed for another customer. This lady sat down and was waiting on her food, she definitely was not having a good day. You could tell by the way she was acting; she was frustrated about something and it had her overall mood down. When her food came, she smiled and started to eat. After a few minutes the food delivery person for Wildflower came by to clean up. Without asking (he noticed by the amount of food left) he asked her. “did you not like your soup?” She commented that it was a bit spicy for her (something real close to that). He added that maybe she would rather have a different soup. She said that was not necessary, but he went off and got one anyways. She was about to leave, when the soup arrived. She sat back and enjoyed that soup very much, nothing was left. She had a smile on her face when she left. You could tell that with that one small act – her mood had changed significantly.

I did not get that person’s name (or I would publish it here). But, I did tweet out this act of great service. This morning when I logged in the Wildflower CEO, @WildflowerCEO – thanked me for my kind words. For me, it was not about the service I got, even though it was good. It was truly about what I witnessed and how that turned that particular person’s day around. Letting others know about the service via twitter was my way for saying thanks. Getting an answer back from the CEO, bonus.

For the folks in Chandler or any other Wildflower Bread Company location, stop by, enjoy the food and service – I do!

Anyone else have a nice story of some outstanding customer service that they have received or witnessed? Please share…

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Spin-o-rama Gets a Birthday

Mar21
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Spin-o-rama turned one this past week!

In 2009, I took some goals that were both professional and personal. I have been blogging internally now for about 3 years and have really enjoyed the experience. One goal was to kick off my external blogging and everything that goes with it. After looking back this past week, I have to say – you met your goal. Some simple accomplishments…

  • I set my goal for posts at 100: surpassed it by 5.
  • Learned something new: again learning WordPress was the goal, but having an externally hosted blog is much more to learn. I got a quick crash course… Been learning everyday since.
  • Changed the theme of Spin-o-rama 3 times. I can’t sit still – so, keeping the same theme is not going to happen.
  • Met some very interesting people because of my blog. Many of them have helped me tremendously.

My goals for Spin-o-rama’s second year – is to increase my overall postings both in quantity and quality! Looking for 175! Learn how to fix the broken RSS – not sure what is happening (others have tried to help with no success). Change the theme only once this year (need to find that “one” that really hits a home run for me).

Hope you have enjoyed the past year…

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Command & Control vs Collaborative

Jan20
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

I have struggled with this topic for quite some time. I have pretty much worked in 3 organizations all my life (2 large ones – US Army and Intel; 1 small – Myron’s Service Center).  No one will argue that the military is anything but command and control… Oh, don’t get me wrong there is some collaborative work going on, but in the heat of the battle – command and control wins. As long as the order is lawful, the simple answer is to carry it out. I remember my drill instructor say, “If I say jump, you ask how high. Got it?”. That seems to wrap it up.

I wrestle with the notion of when is it time to skip the command & control and move towards a move collaborative approach. When you look back – command and control seemed to work well, when the boss knew more or had more access to information. Those times are changing. Information has become available to just about everyone, thanks to the information revolution. Teams today are more globally dispersed – where it used to be the company (where most groups acted independently) that was global. Things need to change – or maybe – things are forcing the change. In order for me to get my work done, I have to be more collaborative than ever before. I have to be willing to give up some command & control. What makes me think I can do it better or faster?

What are helping drive these changes?

  • Enterprise 2.0 technologies – Speed of communications and collaboration. Information is available and shared with all.
  • People – are demanding these tools. Technology is a funny thing, the more comfortable you are growing up with it, the more you demand when you get older. I am afraid that I am an exception to the rule. But, when I look at the workforce today, this is a definite trend.
  • Micro-managing scares folks away - we all know the workplace studies that show that people leave because of their boss more so than their job. I have come across this a couple of times in my career. I have left very good positions that I loved doing, because the person that I reported to was a micro-manager. I have stayed in terrible positions because I have worked for some amazing people (the job, I can make better).
  • Workforce is more global - For me, this is extremely true. I have people that I work with everyday – and only one of them sits in the same general physical location as I. In order to keep everything going – we have to use these tools. We have to be willing to make it fit within our normal work flow.

Will large established corporate culture change overnight? Will it happen at all? Overnight, no way. Resistance is always going to be there. Giving up command & control is not easy. It takes people to change. Moving their cheese is not a good thing, at least not to them. The shift has to happen. Many small to medium size companies are doing it and finding some great results within innovation and great places to work. When that happens – all the great people will come running. So, the big ones have to shift or stay the course on the path that they are on. That path does lead to a slow and painful death – I believe folks have some examples they could share on that…

Thoughts?

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Predictions – What I would like to see!

Dec29
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

The days for 2009 are going fast.. By the time some have read this post – we are in 2010 already. I am not one for predicting the future – as if I could I would be independently worthy and enjoying myself on my own island somewhere.  In the spirit of the this time of year, I want to put my top ten list of predictions for the upcoming year. These are in no particular order or category…

  1. The economy will rebound not once but 3 times. We all have heard that the corner has turned, but I predict that we will be turning that corner more than a few times. When will we really see a true turn around?
  2. Role models will not be celebrities or sports figures in the future. Mass media will stop painting them as role models – we don’t need the disappoint. Go back to really showing the true role models. This means – local area news will have to feature ordinary folks doing extra-ordinary stuff for no reason at all. Just because is good enough.
  3. Human interaction has gone more on-line everyday. I predict that dinner time conversations will make a comeback. Verbally discussing the day activities rather than texting, emailing, wall to wall or twittering updates. I am an empty nester now, so – for me that maybe a bit tougher to do, but every chance I get – I want the discussion verbally..
  4. Electronic gadgets will continue to spring up all over the place. My hope is that Intel chips are everywhere.. Which could have an impact on the stock! The only downside – too many gadgets, so little time.
  5.  Arguments around social computing (Enterprise 2.0) technologies internally will move from what and why to implementation of more agile capabilities that do not tie to one size fits all philosophy I see with most companies. I do want my cake and eat it too… Why can’t I have both?
  6. After years of complaints, software vendors will insure that upgrading or their new releases – will not require hours of work to insure that what I already have will work in the new. Seems that every upgrade has me spending hours to relearn, migrate my content or reset up permissions. Enough already – using your stuff was supposed to save me time.
  7. Decisions that I have been putting off – will move to the forefront of my to do list. We all have stuff that we should do, know we should do; but put off due to too many other reasons. I am saying no more excuses… Time to do something for me.
  8. There are way too many overly serious folks in the world. Fun, should not be something that you have to schedule, force or demand. Fun should just happen. Smile more, laugh more. Surprising how better you feel.
  9. Educating the future will become a reality. Budgets will match the expectations of what we want to happen. Time to prioritize the future – and stop living in the past…
  10. I will get to know my neighbors. It is amazing how when I was growing up in the 70′s – every house had a front porch and neighbors used to talk with each other. Today, how many front porches do you see? How many of your neighbors do you really know? For me, I know I have to do better…
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