Category: Learning

The Network Navigator

Posted on by simongterry in Change, Collaboration, Future of Work, Innovation, Leadership, Learning

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The power of a networked world is shifting the emphasis of work from expertise to navigation. Are you ready to move from expert to network navigator?

From Expert to Navigator – a financial services example

Research into perceptions of an advice relationships in financial services consistently often comes up with a common theme. Usually, the financial services organisation is keen to build a trusted relationship with the client as an advisor and to demonstrate its depth of expertise in the advice process. 

However, these goals are rarely what the client is looking to achieve. The client is often more interested in building a relationship with someone who is responsive to their needs and who can to help them navigate the complexity to find their own answers. The complexity the client needs to navigate is not just the financial decisions; it includes the organisations own advice and service processes. In times of complexity, uncertainty & change, clients are reluctant to be dependant on someone else’s expertise. They want control. They want to be guided across the map of choices and find an easier way through the process.

The Network Navigator

Networks and the increasing pace of change that they bring about are having a similar disruption for the traditional model of expertise-based advice.

Relying on a proprietary stock of knowledge is no longer enough to justify an advice proposition. Knowledge is increasingly a flow. Stocks of knowledge are out of date too quickly as the network learns more faster by sharing.  If clients want access to stocks of knowledge, they can find the information themselves (& access a greater diversity of insight and experience) if they are prepared to put in the time and effort.  Doing that work for them on an outsourcing basis is a low value task.

The challenge of a networked era is no longer gathering a stock of knowledge. The challenge is leverage rapid flights of knowledge and guiding others through networked knowledge creation. The skills that rise to the fore are no those of hoarding a stock of knowledge. The skills are those of being able to connect people, share capability and create new knowledge together.

The 8 Skills of a Network Navigator

A network navigator does not need to know the answer. They do not even need to know the whole way to the solution. They need to be able to lead others, to leverage the knowledge of the network and to find a way forward in collaboration to create new value: 

  • Setting a course: In a complex world often the purposes, goals and questions are as unclear as the answers. Helping people clarify their objectives and questions before and during their engagement with the network is a critical role that the network navigator can play.
  • Seeing the big picture map: Navigators are people who can hold the network system in view and manage the micro detail to guide people forward.  A navigator creates new value with an understanding the broader map and new & better paths that others may not have considered.
  • Make new connections: Increasing the density of networks can be critical to creating new knowledge and value from network interactions.  Bridging weakly connected groups is another role that navigators can play to realise new insights and value.
  • Recruiting a crew and local pilots:  Building community matters in new network ways of working.  Community takes connection to a deeper and more trusted level and begins to accelerate learning and change.  Network navigators know how to recruit crew to their travelling community and add local pilots as they need to learn faster in new parts of the network.
  • Translating strange cultures: Connecting diverse groups often means that there are differences of context, language and culture to be bridged before conversations can create new knowledge. Network navigators have the skills to understand and share diverse inputs.
  • Logging the journey: A network navigator works out loud to record their journey and let others contribute and benefit from the record.  A network navigator nows there are many others seeking the same answers or looking for better paths forward and makes that possible by sharing their work and inviting others to contribute.
  • Weathering storms & avoid shoals: Journeys through networks are not linear and often unpredictable.  The navigator has the experience and the confidence to see others through the storms and to sustain others in their journeys. Most importantly, when the storm is darkest, they have the passion to keep pushing and keep experimenting.
  • Navigating where there is no map: Network navigators need to be able to embrace uncertainty and ambiguity.  They need to be able to lead others forward to learning even if it is dark and there be monsters.

Acknowledgements:  This post is in large part inspired by conversations with a wide range of participants that occurred during John Hagel’s recent visit to Melbourne for the Doing Something Good dinner and Centre for the Edge workshops that I attended.  It is also informed by ongoing conversations about new networked ways of working among all members of Change Agents Worldwide.  

The Pineapple Effect: Learning to See the New World

Posted on by simongterry in Change, Learning

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Discovering the New World was a difficult enterprise, as we have all been taught. But even more difficult, once the New World was discovered, was seeing it, understanding that it was new, entirely new, different from anything one had expected to find as new…

…the Old World catch the imagery of the New most forcefully when it still does not know precisely what it is dealing with, when information is scarce and incomplete, and it is difficult to separate reality from mistakes and fantasy.

from ‘How New the World Was’ by Italo Calvino found in Collection of Sand

We see the new through our old world. The new presents us challenges and mysteries of which we need to make sense. We make mistakes, learn and in the process we experience a Pineapple Effect.

The Pineapple Effect

The original meaning of the word pineapple was the cones of conifer trees. After the new fruit was found in the Americas, it was named pineapple for a perceived resemblance to what we now call pinecones. The discoverers of this new world fruit needed to made sense of it so they explained it with the tools they had at hand from their old world. Of course, the name was grossly misleading. There’s little beyond a surface resemblance between the two. Thankfully, pinecone came into usage and the terms went separate ways to avoid further confusion.

For those advocating for changes in the world of work this Pineapple Effect presents a quandary. How do we help people make sense of the new world of work?

Do you advocate for change using old models? or

Do you engage people in the creativity of the new with some mystery, mistakes and fantasy?

Build out from the Old

We see a lot of people choose the former path. The new world of social collaboration and new forms of work organisation are promoted often in very traditional terms that reflect management’s view of where benefits may lie:

  • reducing email
  • a new kind of intranet
  • increasing efficiency
  • making communications more effective
  • improving business processes or technology system adoption and use with a social layer

For many organisations, there is value in these approaches, if it begins the journey of adoption and further learning. New tools and new ways of working take new practice and new skills.  They must be learned the hard way, often by experimentation. Importantly, they often introduce new attitudes, thinking and elements of culture to the organisation. There is an important period of sense making that occurs as people engage.  As Buckminster Fuller said:

If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t teach. Give them a tool, the use of which will lead to it

However, if this new thinking and new practice is not specifically enabled by the culture of the organisation, real limits will be met. Unless the potential of the new tools and practices can be realised in change, employees & their managers will see the new approaches as Old World v2.0. That alone will limit the sense people can make of the changes, the discovery and the ultimate extent of change.

Worst of all, it may mean that the organisation may come to see change as unnecessary or faddish. With heavily technical approaches to adoption of tools, there is a similarly technical expectation of quick returns. In many cases, that shortens the timeline for people to learn new ways and to demonstrate the value of the changing practices.

Explore a little mystery

The business world is usually reticent to live long with the dangers of uncertainty. Mystery, mistakes and fantasy are seen as sources of concern in most organisations.

Occasionally we see a burst of the froth and bubble of the new in the business media, such as the recent discussion of Zappos’ decision to pursue Holacracy as a decision making process internally. While few organisations are likely to adopt the same decision as Zappos, the conversations of managers around the world about other models of work are potentially creative, if they provoke new thoughts and experiments in new models.

Embrace a little chaos. Be prepared to make new sense. Accept that these new ways of working offer the potential for entirely new models of work,sharing knowledge and decision making. Accept that the new way of work can be an agent of significant cultural change. When organisations have stepped into that potential, they can discover:

  • people fundamentally redesign decision making processes to leverage social’s potential to engage more people regardless of their place in a function or their expertise
  • new forms of trust built as people have a richer sense of other’s agendas and purposes – trust is an extraordinary enabler of so much that organisations need like collaboration, performance and creativity.
  • innovation arise in many new and varied places as people are enabled to experiment with new and better ways of working.

Transformative change occurs when people have the liberty & support to experiment. That means allowing the opportunity to embrace discovery of new meaning and the accompanying chaos, mistakes, & fantasy. Importantly that also means the time for new meaning to grow in a community of people. Many initiatives are cut short before they mature into new meaning and innovations.

The new world of work presents us with the Pineapple Effect. We need both smart leverage of traditional approaches to encourage adoption and a willingness to experiment for new meaning.

The Pineapple Effect: Learning to See the New World

Posted on by simongterry in Change, Learning

image

Discovering the New World was a difficult enterprise, as we have all been taught. But even more difficult, once the New World was discovered, was seeing it, understanding that it was new, entirely new, different from anything one had expected to find as new…

…the Old World catch the imagery of the New most forcefully when it still does not know precisely what it is dealing with, when information is scarce and incomplete, and it is difficult to separate reality from mistakes and fantasy.

from ‘How New the World Was’ by Italo Calvino found in Collection of Sand

We see the new through our old world. The new presents us challenges and mysteries of which we need to make sense. We make mistakes, learn and in the process we experience a Pineapple Effect.

The Pineapple Effect

The original meaning of the word pineapple was the cones of conifer trees. After the new fruit was found in the Americas, it was named pineapple for a perceived resemblance to what we now call pinecones. The discoverers of this new world fruit needed to made sense of it so they explained it with the tools they had at hand from their old world. Of course, the name was grossly misleading. There’s little beyond a surface resemblance between the two. Thankfully, pinecone came into usage and the terms went separate ways to avoid further confusion.

For those advocating for changes in the world of work this Pineapple Effect presents a quandary. How do we help people make sense of the new world of work?

Do you advocate for change using old models? or

Do you engage people in the creativity of the new with some mystery, mistakes and fantasy?

Build out from the Old

We see a lot of people choose the former path. The new world of social collaboration and new forms of work organisation are promoted often in very traditional terms that reflect management’s view of where benefits may lie:

  • reducing email
  • a new kind of intranet
  • increasing efficiency
  • making communications more effective
  • improving business processes or technology system adoption and use with a social layer

For many organisations, there is value in these approaches, if it begins the journey of adoption and further learning. New tools and new ways of working take new practice and new skills.  They must be learned the hard way, often by experimentation. Importantly, they often introduce new attitudes, thinking and elements of culture to the organisation. There is an important period of sense making that occurs as people engage.  As Buckminster Fuller said:

If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t teach. Give them a tool, the use of which will lead to it

However, if this new thinking and new practice is not specifically enabled by the culture of the organisation, real limits will be met. Unless the potential of the new tools and practices can be realised in change, employees & their managers will see the new approaches as Old World v2.0. That alone will limit the sense people can make of the changes, the discovery and the ultimate extent of change.

Worst of all, it may mean that the organisation may come to see change as unnecessary or faddish. With heavily technical approaches to adoption of tools, there is a similarly technical expectation of quick returns. In many cases, that shortens the timeline for people to learn new ways and to demonstrate the value of the changing practices.

Explore a little mystery

The business world is usually reticent to live long with the dangers of uncertainty. Mystery, mistakes and fantasy are seen as sources of concern in most organisations.

Occasionally we see a burst of the froth and bubble of the new in the business media, such as the recent discussion of Zappos’ decision to pursue Holacracy as a decision making process internally. While few organisations are likely to adopt the same decision as Zappos, the conversations of managers around the world about other models of work are potentially creative, if they provoke new thoughts and experiments in new models.

Embrace a little chaos. Be prepared to make new sense. Accept that these new ways of working offer the potential for entirely new models of work,sharing knowledge and decision making. Accept that the new way of work can be an agent of significant cultural change. When organisations have stepped into that potential, they can discover:

  • people fundamentally redesign decision making processes to leverage social’s potential to engage more people regardless of their place in a function or their expertise
  • new forms of trust built as people have a richer sense of other’s agendas and purposes – trust is an extraordinary enabler of so much that organisations need like collaboration, performance and creativity.
  • innovation arise in many new and varied places as people are enabled to experiment with new and better ways of working.

Transformative change occurs when people have the liberty & support to experiment. That means allowing the opportunity to embrace discovery of new meaning and the accompanying chaos, mistakes, & fantasy. Importantly that also means the time for new meaning to grow in a community of people. Many initiatives are cut short before they mature into new meaning and innovations.

The new world of work presents us with the Pineapple Effect. We need both smart leverage of traditional approaches to encourage adoption and a willingness to experiment for new meaning.

Obstacles are the work

Posted on by simongterry in Change, Leadership, Learning, Life & Career

Is it really December?  Businesses and schools are winding down for the summer break. The cricket has started. Christmas is rapidly approaching.  With that comes a quick close to 2013.

2013 has been a year of adventures, obstacles and challenges. More than anything else it has been a year of new momentum. I could not be more excited by the incredible opportunities that have arisen this year:

Embrace the Chaos and all its Obstacles

I was reflecting on all that has happened this year when Dany DeGrave tweeted yesterday about the need to maintain momentum in the face of obstacles:

Obstacles are the work. They show you have chosen to have an impact. They help us see our purpose. They provide the challenge and interest.

Obstacles are proof that your work matters to others. These challenges remind us that change is human and social. They encourage us to share knowledge with our networks, to work aloud and to pay attention to the knowledge moving around us.

Obstacles help us reflect on what matters. Pushback make us ask new or obvious questions.  An orderly progression of success can be quite tedious and generate its own doubts.  If success is that easy, are we missing something?

If there weren’t obstacles, our talents would not be required, we would not learn and not grow in the work. If there weren’t obstacles, we would not get the rewards of overcoming them.  If there weren’t obstacles, we would not have the joys of collaborating with others to move forward around over, under or through.

Your Obstacles. Your Momentum. Your Year.

So next time you are considering a year of obstacles, remember the hard work proves that you are on the right track. Obstacles are proof of your momentum.

I bought this poster at the midpoint of this year. It has been a reminder ever since that every year is my year.

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Every year is your year too. Move past challenges. Reflect on the successes.

Maintain momentum in doing whatever you need to do to make it your year. Your impact is up to you.

If you would like your own or other great posters, the source is The Poster List. 

Shorten the long run

Posted on by simongterry in Future of Work, Innovation, Learning

In the long run we are all dead – John Maynard Keynes 
  
The economic concept of the long run is the period that it takes to be able to change every variable in a system.  It is the time it takes a system to adapt fully.  
  
The long run defined this way is a handy concept for an organisation to use when thinking about change.  Your most disruptive threats will pick the variables that you find hardest to change.  Because you cannot or will not change these variables quickly then you will be in danger of losing value to the disruption.  For example: 
 

  • newspapers: struggled to change an economic model where advertising in the paper funded content to attract an audience when internet businesses offered alternatives for both advertisers and audiences
  • music industry: struggled to change their ways of identifying and managing talent and the economics of distribution models tied to physical distribution when digital music distribution disrupted both
  • premium airlines: struggled to change high costs of labour, fixed cost infrastructure and the value perceptions of their other premium offerings when low cost competition attacked

  
If you want to improve your organisation’s ability to respond to disruption, you need to shorten the long run, your adaption time, by speeding up your slowest areas of change.  In most cases these will not be simple decisions.  The slowest areas of change are often those deep in the hidden infrastructure of the organisation.  

One thing you can do is invest in capabilities to help you change all areas of your business more rapidly:

  • people capabilities:  change leadership, talent, agility of structure and performance measurement
  • system capabilities: flexibility of systems, agile development, standardised integration and ability to leverage new technologies in experiments.
  • process capabilities:  continuous improvement, process measurement, agility of change, etc.

The long run is also the end of the period when the ugly impacts of disruption are felt.  We would all like to move faster through the periods of confusion, pain, adjustment & loss and get back to competing aggressively to win. 

Ultimately, it comes down to the culture in the organisation.  Can you build an organisation that has a long run that suits your business and its environment, where you can change the way you think and work fast enough to survive?

If you can’t shorten the long run, then you can guarantee in an era of disruptive innovation, your organisation will be dead.

Posted on by simongterry in Learning, Life & Career

…one enquiry only gave occasion to another, that book referred to book, that to search was not always to find, and to find was not always to be informed; and that thus to pursue perfection, was, like the first inhabitants of Arcadia, to chase the sun, which, when they had reached the hill where he seemed to rest, was still beheld at the same distance from them.

Samuel Johnson

Actionable insight matters more than big data.

Posted on by simongterry in Learning, Strategy

Don’t worry how big your data is. Focus on how actionable your insights are.

The only thing that delivers business value is turning insights into effective action. Big data can deliver new insights but they will only drive your business when they are put into action to create new sales, save money or create other ways delivering better value in line with your strategy.

Many companies forget to leverage the insights in their existing customer systems. Do your people remember to make a birthday call to a key client using data in your customer relationship management system? Do referrals, leads & other opportunities identified always get executed effectively? Are anniversaries, expiry dates and other retention triggers well managed? Before you launch into new insights make sure you have captured the low hanging fruit.

Big data is often celebrated with examples of counterintuitive insights. Counterintuitive insights are hard to predict and equally hard to action. People doubt the strategies that come from black boxes. Doubt is not a great enabler of action. Organizations often lack the capability to execute the counterintuitive strategy. For example, knowing that left handed plumbers are more likely to watch opera is not much use unless your opera company has a hardware partnership.

Big data is often sold as a source of new strategy. It is rare that a company changes strategy on one insight. Usually, insights enable you to better execute your current strategy. These insights will confirm the hypotheses you used to create the strategy and translate general plans into the right actions with specific customers. Start your focus on better insights with what you need to do to drive your current strategy and leverage your existing capabilities.

Before you boil the ocean in a battle of data completeness, decide what you need to know and can use to create value. Invest in the capabilities to better action insights. You might be surprised by the insights you already have that are opportunities. Focus your insights on driving your business, not the size of your data bill.