N2N Blog

A Metaphor for N2N?

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 04:30:00 GMT

N2N is an opportunity to proceed as climbers do. We are roped together; alternately anchoring each other as we move into new territory. Others tell us what lies beyond our view. We can go places together that we could not on our own.

Adapted from Antonio Dias: See the original here.

Shadow of the Future

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 05:04:00 GMT

Pete reminded me the other day of something important: the 'shadow of the future'. What is that?

In a few words, if I expect to meet someone face-to-face in the future, I am less likely to do him or his reputation harm today. (Ref: Prisoner's Dilemma Simulation, and Axelrod--The Evolution of Co-operation.)

The same goes for a group or network. If the group meets regularly, an individual is less inclined to harm the reputation of that group. Indeed, they may go out of their way to enhance it. Either way, the thought of future contact mediates present behaviour.

So, when you discover a network meeting format that everyone enjoys, you get a double benefit:

repeat attendance and
collaboration in the interim

That's the shadow of the future.

Counter-Intuitive Leadership

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 03:11:00 GMT

Community service can generate more profit!

Ordinarily we'd expect accounting to say that giving stuff away - even with the best intentions - leads to less profit. James Austin, a professor at Harvard Business School, says this is not so. "Community service is a form of job enrichment...(and) contributes to enhanced business performance."

This makes sense to me. And resonates with the strong vein of community interest amongst our Think on Your Feet® network.

Earlier this year, when I asked for volunteers to help me at CareerTrackers (a program designed to help Indigenous university students create career pathways through structured internships), we got an immediate, strong response from our network. One person even took his business clothes with him on a sea cruise holiday so he could rush from Circular Quay (Sydney) after final docking to be part of the event!

There were benefits I didn't expect: shared teaching experience, exchange of ideas, shared satisfaction, and a desire to collaborate in a similar way again. In a word, the event - designed to 'do good' for others - did good for us in many ways.

Which leaves a question hanging: Should we support this kind of activity more purposefully? I'm confident we could do so at little or no 'cost' to us, and with the strong possibility of 'enhanced business performance.'

Ken

Has Our Time Come?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:00:00 GMT

A few years back Jacqueline, Ric and I noted that networks could become 'organisations', while some traditional organisations were trying to become 'networks'?

We sensed that, one day, the two could meet--as networks organised and as hierarchies melted.

Well, it's arrived!

I've just attended the Self-Management Symposium in Sacramento, USA, sponsored by the Morning Star Tomato Processing Company--a $750 million company, with no managers. (See December HBR story by Gary Hamel.) Not only that, they invited me to give the opening presentation. I called it "Architectures of Collaboration".

My central idea was there are many examples of such 'architectures', including:

SMOs (Self-managed organisations like Morning Star)
VOs (Volunteer organisations like Wikipedia, Firefox, etc.)
ROs (Results-only organisations where you can work when/where/how you like as long as your get your results--like Best Buy)
COs (Community organisations, like Gangplank and N2N, where the currency is social capital)
NOs (Network organisations, like TOYFNET)

By and large, the audience was very comfortable with the idea of being organisational designers (or architects).The fact that the CEO of Morning Star was in the room was living, breathing, compelling proof.

He, by the way, speaks in 'design' language...and his design is a great example of Deep Simplicity (as we called a workshop we designed and ran in Bangkok years ago!).

And to cap it all off, one attendee told me their boss might want to emulate Morning Star. In which case: "I'll tell him we should hire Ken Everett as a consultant." It seems the ideas we wrestled with so long ago are now resonating, or we have found the right audience, or both.

Ken

PS:
Before the Self-Management Symposium, I attended a Peter Block workshop on Community--and the conversations that support it.
After the Self-Management Symposium, I attended the Conscious Capitalism Conference, and many of the same ideas were being canvassed.
There is evidence of a wider movement emerging.

The Flip Manifesto

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 04:47:00 GMT

To those close to us you would already have heard us sing the praises of Daniel Pink. In particular his recent book Drive, where he explores what truly motivates us. If you haven't read it yet, do! It is excellent.

More recently Daniel Pink published a short piece named The Flip Manifesto: 16 Counterintuitive Ideas About Motivation, Innovation, and Leadership. Again, it's a great thought starter. I'm loving it.

In the manifesto you'll learn:

why you should do pretty much what you are doing now, but in reverse order
why trying to find your passion is a really bad idea
why paying people too much is actually a pretty good idea
why doubting yourself is better than believing in yourself
and why you should read the whole thing to find out the other 12 ideas

I recently passed a printed version of the Manifesto to a friend from my children's school parent community. She loved it so much she had all her employees read it before sending it back to me!

You can read your own copy by subscribing to Dan Pink's regular newsletter. Click here to go to his homepage and on the right-hand side of the page you'll see a place to subscribe.

Happy reading.

Peter

P.S. Sorry about the delay between blogs.

Improv Wisdom

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 08:40:00 GMT

My N2N friend Jacqueline has long urged me to learn from the 'improv' (or improvisation) world. Not to be funny, but to be present, alive and accepting. So I bought improv wisdom, a book by Patricia Madson. Its tag line is "Don't Prepare, Just Show Up".

Madson says "A good improvisor is someone who is awake, not entirely self focused, and moved by a desire to do something useful and give something back, and who acts upon this impulse...And the password - it is yes!"

I'd love to be with people like that. Maybe they'd like that of me, too?

I'm testing this in real life. It's wonderfully freeing.

In three recent N2N meetings (Sydney, Lausanne, London) we asked, simply: "How about we each share 3 or 4 headlines about what is happening in our businesses?" Three hours later...smiles all round...

Just turn up. I love it!

Oh...and there is a much deeper significance, I think. If hosting has anything to do with leadership - and I'm convinced it does - then convening conversations, naming a question, listening, paying attention and responding appropriately are not only improv in action, they are leadership in action, too (Peter Block).

Ken

A Fresh Set of Eyes

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:11:00 GMT

Ken and I are always editing each other's emails; before they are sent that is! It has become such a habit that I don't often think about it anymore.

I was reminded of this practice by two exchanges this week. One was talking with a writing trainer, the other helping edit the document of a friend.

When talking with the writing trainer we got chatting about how under-utilised and underestimated was the power of writing. We both felt strongly that writing with the right tone (voice), authenticity, and openness can craft a healthy, productive, and respectful culture within a network or organisation. And considering how often we write, doesn't it make sense to get it right?

In the same week an N2N colleague asked if I could help edit a document he had drafted. In the space of 5 minutes I had helped bring a bit more clarity and impact to his document. I don't want to take the credit; he wrote the document. All I did was give it a fresh set of eyes.

You wouldn't believe how many mistakes, confusing sentences, and boring paragraphs Ken and I write. Add to that the complexity of getting a message right for many people who have English as a second language. It's hard work!

Luckily Ken & I have each other to edit our work. It's made a huge difference to our writing, to our business, and to our relationship.

It might feel weird at first, but I wholeheartedly recommend you try it. It'll change the way you work.

Peter

Dangerous Ideas: Or the Story of O*

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 03:23:00 GMT

Next month I have an opportunity to deliver a key-note at HR Exchange - hosted by People Potential in Malaysia and Singapore. As a thought starter I've drafted the following piece titled "Dangerous Ideas: Or the Story of O*".

What do you think? Comments & feedback welcome.

Today's business organization (O) is the love child of the church and the military--conceived about 100 years ago, by people born in the18th Century. It's purpose was to turn farm laborers into robots for the emerging factories. It worked well.
Little has changed. Training, planning, capital budgeting, brand management and many other disciplines of today's O are firmly rooted there.
Over the past 100 years, the O attracted a priesthood (think Frederick Taylor, Elton Mayo, Tom Peters), and built new seminaries (Harvard, Wharton, Yale, etc.). Few of the priests were scientific; several were frauds. Their weekly devotional readings (Fortune, WSJ, Business Week) featured the exploits and home-spun advice of favorite sons, almost all American (Watson, Welch, Lay).
Today, the O appears to be sick. Several 'most admired' Os have turned to ashes (Enron, Lehman Brothers). Several need government support to survive (GM, Citibank). Long live the free market!
Worse, there is an apparent crisis of leadership--to judge from the obscene levels of money on offer to attract 'leaders'. Which leads to the suspicion that the purpose of many companies is simply to pay these dramatic multiples to a select few.
To achieve the necessary support from employees, Os retain consultants to improve 'engagement'. This is difficult, seeing the O doesn't cut it for today's talented (your children and mine?), who don't like the work, or the control. They distrust the church's edicts: they want to 'have a life'.
There is a huge Opportunity for organizations which are both good for people and good for business.
The internet is not only a catalyst in this process, it is also an amazing example of what we are talking about. How come it is so successful---without a CEO? And how come it looks nothing like the military or the church?
What will Os look like 10 years, 100 years from now? MOs*, ROWEs*, NOs* and SO* offer clues. They say we can craft innovative, leader-full and resilient communities--the Os of the future.

O = The business organization

MOs = Motivations

ROWEs = Results Only Work Environments

NOs = Networked Organizations

SO = Self-organization

by Ken Everett

Leader as Host

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 01:25:00 GMT

The idea of the leader as a host hit me the moment I heard Peter Block say it in 2008.

It was a fresh and enlightening way to frame our relationship with the network.

We are hosts to

conversations (facilitated or self-organised)
ambitions (each affiliate is crafting his/her own life)
meaning (the values the network shares).

Ken Everett

Mind The Gap!

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:16:00 GMT

Gaps are opportunities: for innovation, for business, for people.

The internet overcame the gap between networks using different protocols--hence the name, inter-net.
What an innovation that turned out to be!

E-bay reduces the gap between buyers and sellers.
Singapore airport reduces the gap between arriving passengers and their luggage to ~12 minutes.
Amazon reduces the gap between books and readers.
All of these were good for business.

How we fill the gaps to people--our relationships with family, friends, colleagues or customers--defines us.
N2N reduces the gap between people interested in building networks.

Look for the gap.
Stand in the gap.
And as the London Underground announcement says over and over: Mind the gap!
It represents opportunity.

Ken Everett

The Abundant Community

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 07:38:00 GMT

This week I read a book named "The Abundant Community". Written by John McKnight and Peter Block.

Although the book focuses on neighbourhood and family communities, there are some great messages around "abundance" that I think are nice to reflect upon as we build our N2N community.

For example, an abundant community is:

gift minded
self-organising
welcoming of strangers

It also notes the Capacities of an Abundant Community:

kindness
generosity
cooperation
forgiveness
fallibility
mystery

Lastly, they note the Culture of Abundance as having:

time (not to be in a hurry)
silence (comfort for moments of silence - creating opportunity for inwardness and reflection)
storytelling

Peter

India Insights

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:25:00 GMT

In July I travelled to India for market research. I wanted to learn how might we as a business, and a training program, best build on our small success so far.

Over 6 days, across 4 cities, I had 15 meetings/conversations. Everyone I met was open with their time, and their expertise. I truly enjoyed their company.

It was a memorable trip, not least of which for the Delhi Belly I had to contend with when I got home to Sydney. :-)

Apart from learning I should have avoided eating meat whilst I was there, here are some more business related insights:

The market for 'international training programs' is alive and well.
An affiliate network/business model can work well in India.
Quality is key. Quality of the trainers/providers trumps everything.
Clients are as happy to buy from one-person businesses as they are from medium to large size training organisations. As above, quality of the trainer is what steers decision making criteria.
Quality of hub-affiliate relationships also important.
Networks (who you know) very influential.
'Customisation' of programs important for clients; you must address this at all times. Can be satisfied with good questions (pre-work) and good quality adaptation practices/assurances.
Target market is senior managers and executives - where affordability of 'international programs' is not a big issue.
But opportunity exists for large volumes at lower level staff - need to develop a volume/price model to match.
Strategic relationships with Management Schools (Business Schools) would be beneficial. e.g, public/open programs on their curriculum.

All fairly basic insights I guess. But very reassuring none the less.

I came away with a very positive feeling about the potential in India.

And an equally warm feeling about the people we might work with.

Thanks again to those of you who connected me to people in India. It's what made my trip!

Peter

The world is dominated by networks

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Consider just a few examples: the internet, power grids, road systems, epidemics, ideas, financial systems, molecules, cellular phone grids, flight paths, the brain, communities, and more.

Knowing about networks is a key for understanding the 21st century. As a science, the study of networks is only about 10 years old. But it is basic to understanding nature, markets, and organizations. Network science is a case of maths meeting the real world. It started with questions like: How do crickets synchronise their chirping? How is the heart regulated when it has many pacemaker cells, with no single one in charge? How does the brain function without a conductor cell? These systems, and countless others, are networks.

Six degrees?

A breakthrough came when seeking an answer to the so-called ‘small world problem’: Namely, is it true we are all connected to each other within six degrees? The answer is yes, more or less. If I know 100 people, and they all know another 100 people, and so on, then, mathematically this is trivial--we’d all be connected within 5 steps (or degrees). The problem is we are more clustered than that. If you and I live in the same town, the 100 people we each know likely overlap.

Hubs are the secret.

So, how could 6 degrees be true? The key is that while most people are clustered, some people are also connectors. Connectors connect to other clusters. And if we know the connector, we are also within 2 degrees of their clusters. It takes relatively few connectors to show mathematically how 6 degrees is possible (See Watts).

The role of these connectors, also called hubs, is crucial. The distribution pattern of hubs and their connections is not normal (or bell-shaped). It is an L-shaped power curve. A handful of people, the hubs, connect to huge numbers of others, while most people connect to many less. That is, a few hubs are richly and widely connected and, through them, we can be within six degrees of everyone else.

Google?

The hub insight contributes to the power of the Google algorithms. They connect us to vast networks of data by taking advantage of the super hubs; that is, the websites that are linked to thousands of others (while most link to only a handful). Google is, in fact, good evidence for the breakthroughs possible by understanding these relationships. It turns out everything is connected in ways we didn’t understand. It is literally a new way of seeing the world.

Viruses of all kinds:

For example, take viruses; the computer kind and Aids. The ‘I love you’ computer bug turned out to be very difficult to eradicate, even though most people acted quickly. The key was not the great majority, but the handful of really big hubs.

In the transmission of Aids, the key is the ‘sexual hubs’; those with hundreds or even thousands of partners. For example, the American basketball player, Wilt Chamberlain, boasted of 20,000 partners. Even allowing for some exaggeration, if he or others like him are transmitters, then they are the key to eradication, one day. Publicity programs aimed at the great mass of people who have a one or few of sex partners miss the point. Public health issues like this are not understandable without network science insights.

Saddam Hussein?

The US Military Academy (West Point) now teaches network science as a way to neutralise key hubs. Saddam Hussein was tracked down by observing his network (not electronic, but human)—and Osama Bin Laden, likewise.

Organizations:

Network science has given us new ways to think about organizations: for example, an organization can be thought of as a hierarchy (which is not terribly helpful, it turns out), or as a network (which is much more helpful).

The bottom line?

Network science shines a light on a huge gap in our understanding of complex systems. We are all profoundly connected.

*************************

These notes are based on the book Six Degrees by Duncan Watts, and the video How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer featuring Watts, Strogart, Barbarasi and Vidal. This video can be seen at: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/documentaries/interactive/futuremakers/ep4/

by Ken Everett

Netiquette…..and ‘Closing the Loop’

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Ken and I have talked a lot about what constitutes good networking etiquette. You know, things like how to treat opportunities we are given, how people should be cared for……etc. We often use the word ‘Netiquette’ to describe this.

Specifically, I’ve used the phrase “closing the loop” a lot lately. I think it is because I’ve been given so many quality introductions for my visit to India next week. I know that when my trip is over I need to write to everyone who made an introduction, thank them, and tell them of the outcome of my meetings. In other words, “close the loop”.

Unfortunately, we sometimes get busy and let this drift, or just plain forget, or do it a long time later. I’ve been guilty of this.

So, this is to remind myself not to underestimate the importance of this. It’s good manners, and generates wonderful goodwill - and maybe, more introductions!

by Peter Everett