Why the Colts will Find A Way

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At work I am fond of saying that “conversation is like water, it will find a way.” I use it to explain that if we don’t provide sufficient collaborative capabilities for our internal employees to work with, tools that are at least partially comparable to those they can use in their personal lives, they’ll find less secure and more risky options externally. They’ll find a way to collaborate.

When studying today’s Super Bowl match up between the Colts and Saints, I can recall specific statistics, performance against similar opponents, player match ups, etc. But I keep coming back to one thing…for the better part of the last two seasons this Colts team just finds a way to win. In the last 26 games that the Colts TRIED to win, they are 25-1.

That lone loss was the playoff game at San Diego last season where the Colts lost in overtime, losing the coin toss and never touching the ball in overtime. You may also remember that the Colts had a 3rd and 2 in the 4th quarter that had they converted would have ended the game. They missed a blocking assignment on one play to seal the game, and that is their only blemish in 26 games. I also have a lot more faith in this year’s defense and special teams units than last year’s thanks to Jim Caldwell having the guts to come in and change the Defensive and Special Team coordinators to improve the team.

This entire season the team has found a way to win when it looked unlikely. Games against the Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots and Houston Texans come to mind…where both the offense and defense came together to produce results when it counted to make an improbable come back win possible.

So I look at this game with a faith that, regardless of how the game goes during the first half, the Colts will find a way to win…yet again.

MME2: Get It! Got It! Good!

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Thanks for visiting MME2: Monday Morning Enterprise 2.0…my weekly foray into exploring professional and personal topics on the tip of my mind. And don’t be confused by the “morning” branding when posts don’t appear until Monday afternoon. I promise that I was working on it on Monday morning, and at the point I post the article I am sure it will still be Monday morning somewhere.

From @TheBrycesWrite:

When we “Get It!”

As a self-proclaimed evangelist of the benefits of working transparently and collaborating in an open and connected environment, I am fascinated by stories of when people “got it.” When their understanding shift from “what a waste of time” to “this could be a game changer!”

Just last week I had the privilege of meeting with a Sr. VP here at Lilly to talk about some of the work I am doing trying to improve the adoption of and capabilities available for Enterprise 2.0- type objectives. He was already a proponent of finding improved methods for innovation and collaboration, but recent events in Haiti provided a real-life experience to strengthen his belief. You see he had family down in Haiti at the time of the earthquake, and he tried using traditional channels (government, media, etc.) to get up to date information and figure out courses of action to help them out, but wasn’t getting the information nor the results he wanted. Then he and his family turned to posting questions on Facebook, and in short order they were pointed to helpful information that helped contribute to ensuring his family members were safe. Now this wasn’t a work related incident, but he was adept enough to see how the network effects of a highly-populated social network could expedite knowledge and information to an individual faster than any of the traditional communication mediums we primarily make use of today.

My “got it” moment isn’t nearly as poetic and seems trivial in comparison…but it certainly worked for me. Last April on Sunday at the Masters Tournament Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson (both recently accused of “cheating,” although in drastically different ways) were trailing the leaders by a few strokes and were paired together! Tiger and Phil playing together in the final round of the Masters! And we were driving home from Cincinnati during the front-nine of that historic telecast! I informed my wife that she would be driving and I would be following leaderboards / blogs on my mobile during the trip – try finding golf on free radio some day. I was immediately frustrated because those resources were out of synch and I could tell they were at least 10-15 minutes behind the real action, or the blog would be 3 holes behind the leaderboard. I had a Twitter account but I rarely used it at that point…and for some reason on this trip I decided to check it out and search for some Masters-related posts…mostly because the slow blogs weren’t doing it for me. I started following about 15-20 people (mostly golf news outlets and some LPGA players tweeting while watching)…and immediately my involvement switched from frustrated to engaged in the experience. The best part was having real golfers tweeting about each shot from their personal perspective as they watched – describing Phil’s consecutive birdies, Tiger’s eagle on #8, Phil’s crazy recovery shot from the woods on #9, the two of them electrifying the golf course with a barrage of red numbers – tweeters saying “I don’t have that shot!” or “The leaders are stunned by the buzz of the crowd 5 holes ahead of them”.  And I was able to feel the emotion of it in real-time by reading tweets. I’ve been addicted to Twitter as a news/conversation source for live events ever since. Although my wife and kids in the car had a hard time relating to why I was practically jumping out of my seat just by reading short blurbs on a Blackberry.

Now how do I translate that story into getting why taking time to “share” can work in the enterprise as well? Having a Twitter-like environment within our firewall (Litter = Lilly Twitter) has provided similar experiences during internal conferences where many users are attending and posting to the backchannel (I wasn’t jumping out of my seat, but I think you get the point). I likely would have been skeptical of participating in such a backchannel had my Masters / Twitter day not served as a “Gateway Drug” to trying to replicate that experience in my work life. Today, considering myself a full convert since I’m now working on this stuff as a full-time job, my life and work experiences are enhanced because I can relate my conclusions / emotions / questions with other people. I’m more engaged in those events and those outcomes than ever before, because of a connection to the people doing the same.

So let’s see, I’ve used “Got It!” moments to realize benefits to speedy discovery, knowledge retrieval and engagement. Anyone out there looking to improve those aspects of your life and/or work? What have been your “Got It!” moments?

Getting Real with E2.0 – My best example from the week of people using E2.0 to generate value in the work environment:

For the last couple of months I have been experience significant performance issues with my work laptop. After running for only a few hours things would start going haywire and either I would have to reboot a couple times per day or it would just decide to reboot for me with no warning. I’ve been through memory upgrades, re-imaged hard drives, swapped out laptop “shells”, switching which browsers I use regularly, you name it, trying to get to the bottom of the issue with no success.

I had heard rumors that our diligent IT organization was working on a fix for the issue, but hadn’t seen any publications of when / if it would become available. Thanks to keeping up with Litter and a helpful peer posting that the patch was available in our software request system, I have installed it and so far things are much improved. Without the tool or the person’s willingness to share, I may have gone days or weeks without knowing that the patch was available, wasting who knows how many more hours in lost productivity waiting for multiple reboots per day. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that by writing this I haven’t jinxed the solution and I am now beyond the worst of my issues.

Top 3 Reads of the Week:

  1. Flexible Access: Impact of Interruptions caused by Enterprise 2.0 Technologies – Kathleen Culver:  I always like staying grounded and avoid pretending that what I work on is the nirvana of all things work. That’s why I like this post as a reminder. But like anything, I wouldn’t use this as an argument against involving yourself in E2.0 capabilities just like I wouldn’t use it as an argument to avoid email or instant messaging. Just a reminder that prioritization and discipline are important in how you work regardless of the communication mediums that surround you.
  2. Don’t Lose Yards in the E20 Super Bowl – Susan Scrupski: In honor of the Super Bowl this is an entertaining post with some valuable E20 traps thrown in for good measure. Although I have to admit I would have used “Face-Mask” to describe slide 15!
  3. What Can Facebook and Twitter Teach Us About Developing Knowledge Communities – Robert Coates:  This wasn’t written this week, but I discovered it this week, so that counts. Point #3 particularly resonates with me as people tell me about how the implementation must be targeted at specific business processes in order to work. I don’t disagree with that point, but I also don’t want to lose the creative value of people that have a flexible and capable platform to make it work for their needs without prescribing to them how it must be used. I trust in the smarts and creativity of the people that work here to discover innovative use cases.

Tweets of the Week:

  1. @20Community: “Get ready for Monday Morning Enterprise 2.0 by Bryce Williams #e2adoption http://su.pr/5Wmg5T” – Thanks! I come up with an idea and write a post about it, and all of a sudden it’s being advertised. There goes that Twitter thing again.
  2. @humanfireplace: “If you don’t have time to read Enterprise2.0 and how it’s reshaping our business, listen to this short podcast: http://bit.ly/5H8ab2” – I certainly recommend the book but realize not everyone has time to read every book somebody else recommends. This could be a good resource to reference as an evangelist.
  3. @20Adoption: “1st of a 4-part webinar series Slide deck now online: http://bit.ly/dA9Jxe #acweb1” – As a member of the Enterprise 2.0 Adoption Council, this was a cool event because I got to hear some friends do a bang up presentation and at the same time see some great conversation on Twitter about the event as well. Nice job team!

From @GolfinBP:

Sports Minute:

This is the ultimate sports week for me being a huge Colts fan and Super Bowl XLIV (that’s #SB44 for the Roman Numeral impaired) quickly approaching. I was lucky enough (Thanks Toni!) to attend both home AFC Championship games (New England 2007, New York Jets 2010). I am actually more excited about this Super Bowl than when the Colts one their first (as the Indianapolis Colts) 3 years ago. That season the big pinnacle moment was the AFC Championship game when Peyton and the Colts finally overcame their painful losses against Tom Brady’s Patriots. Because of the significance and exciting nature of that win over New England, the Super Bowl vs. Chicago almost felt like a consolation game (sorry Bears fans, it was just how it felt). That and the fact that I had a 4 week old baby boy and a 21 month old daughter at the time. Things were still a bit fuzzy for us with the lack of sleep, all the diapers and all the puking. The kids weren’t easy either.

But now the Colts are where they are supposed to be. When Polian initiated ColtsGate…which I still hole-heartedly support as the right decision as I wrote (sort of) in my blog post…it became Super Bowl or bust for the fans. And now they are here, 60 minutes from earning another Super Bowl trophy that will hopefully be the pinnacle of the playoff run and one that I’ll be rested enough to remember this time!

TV Minute:

As if this week wasn’t exciting enough with the approaching Super Bowl, but ABC decided to premiere the FINAL SEASON of the most addicting television series I have ever watched…LOST. I’m not going to get into the business of trying to predict what will happen, but I will be living up every minute of it…and if anyone tries to talk to me or make noise during any of the episodes, I’ll be rewinding, pausing, cranking up the volume until they get the hint! I won’t miss a word, a reveal or an explanation as to what every mystery, weird happening or relationship twist meant throughout the entire arc of the show. And I know DVR is great, but I am not taking any chances and waiting until the next day to watch. If I have to stay up until 2AM to see the full episode, I will.

I get excited when new TV content is available for my favorite shows, but I also dread it. My 4 DVR tuners will be recording about 10 hours of television on Monday and Tuesday evenings alone (24, House, HIMYM, Big Bang, Two and a Half Men, Heroes, LOST, LOST, LOST, American Idol). That’s a plethora of entertainment and a burden on my mind at the same time. This is going to be another week of little sleep because I dare not watch that stuff while my kids are still awake. Plus, I have to watch every minute of NFL Network coverage of the Colts media day on Tuesday!  Oof.

Top 3 Reads of the Week: (all Colts/NFL related in celebration of Super Bowl week)

  1. Tuesday Morning Quaterback – Gregg Easterbrook from ESPN: My favorite part was the analysis of how Jack Bauer from 24 must be at least 60 years old by now.
  2. NFL Hangover – DJ Gallo from ESPN: My favorite article every week with the quotes / pictures at the bottom. Laugh out loud funny.
  3. Jim Irsay turned team plagued by instability into model franchise – Mike Chappell from IndyStar: The Colts are lucky to have 3 people to look up to when stepping back to admire the consistent success they have had: Manning, Polian and Irsay.

Tweets of the Week:

  1. @NFLfootballinfo: “All Decade team: QBs-Manning,Brady. RBs-Alexander,Lewis, James,Tomlinson. WRs-Harrison,Holt,Moss,Owens” – The triplets live again! QB Peyton Manning, RB Edgerrin James, WR Marvin Harrison. Only Peyton remains on the team this year, but a testament to the sustained excellence of the Colts for the last 10 seasons AND their ability to replace top-level talent to remain competitive.
  2. @MoveTheSticks: “Haven’t seen one play of the pro bowl. My 2 year old son requested a mickey mouse clubhouse marathon and I obliged. No brainer.” – Been there, done that. “It’s the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! Come inside, it’s fun inside!” The recent obsession though is Chuggington.
  3. @stewartcink: “Packing up for my trip to Northern Trust Open tomorrow. Should I give my ‘new’ lob wedge a try? http://twitpic.com/10rj6s” – I can’t believe the fuss over 20 year old clubs because of the shape of the grooves. Just hit the ball and get it in the hole! If Phil and Stewart want to play a club built 20 years ago with all the “advances” in golf technology…why are people whining that they have an unfair advantage? “Boss, I think if I downgrade my poorly performing laptop to Windows 3.1 I’ll start running circles around everyone else here!”

Up in the Air: Worlds Colliding

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I have a few issues keeping me from writing here as often as I would like:

  • Luke (3) – he likes to stay up late
  • Abby (4) – she likes to wake me up early
  • My day job – it occurs between the Abby and Luke encounters
  • The Colts Keep Winning, and I keep watching and attending their victories! Not a bad problem to have.
  • Good Business Practices:  Based on the stage on my Enterprise 2.0-related effort right now, I am limited in what I can discuss aside from broad generalities about Enterprise 2.0 as a practice or stuff having nothing to do with work. Over time that will change a little bit and should result in more valuable experience for me to share.
  • Writer’s block: I’m not great at pontificating about general concepts. I like to think of my work in applicable terms attempting to produce valuable and tangible results. I rarely spend any significant effort on conceptual or hypothetical scenarios.

So I have been trying to think of creative ways to come up with useful AND entertaining content for any readers that may venture this way. In a strange convergence of my life’s passions, something hit me….figuratively…

I rarely find time to read books at home because my emergence into real-time platforms consumes my reading windows…mainly because reading a quick article or series of Tweets when I have 5 minutes of peace is more convenient when drawing my hip-sheathed handheld versus toting around a 200 page book. But on the rare occasions I fly for work, I use that opportunity to read as many pages as I can manage in the sky. On my trip this week I happened to have two books with me. I brought Andrew McAfee’s Enterprise 2.0 to finish (sadly I started it way back in November) as well as Peter King’s Monday Morning QuarterBack (MMQB) which I had not yet started.

A funny thing happened…I finished Andy’s book at precisely 5pm (“quittin time”) and quickly transitioned to the opening pages of MMQB. I made the switch seamlessly from @TheBrycesWrite to @golfinbp at the proverbial Flinstone whistle.  My work interests and my personal interests were colliding!

As I started reading Peter King’s book, he explained the origin of his NFL-driven MMQB weekly article on SI.com (one of my long-standing Monday reading traditions) as a request from Sports Illustrated in 1997 to combine his unique NFL insights with stories and discussion of other elements of his life. It was an experiment for that new internet thing, essentially a blog before they were called blogs. It dawned on me…I am a man of structure, routine, patterns…what better way to keep me motivated and pumping out content than a routine oriented blog structure that I could rely on. This attempt to maintain a blog with spontaneous moments of inspiration just isn’t cutting it. My life doesn’t have spontaneity…see the first paragraph of this post…why should my blog try to be what I am not!!?? I was voted Most Dependable in high school, not Most Likely to Do Something Crazy.

So I am doing it…starting this Monday I am launching MME2 (Monday Morning Enterprise 2.0)…a blatant copy of Mr. King’s reliable platform…and a title that aptly describes my somewhat narcissistic nature. It will have a consistent format you can rely on. It will be published at a consistent time, providing me with a routine to follow. And it will mix insights from the work that I do, the life that I lead, and the passions that I enjoy. And it sure better be entertaining, in addition to providing a basic level of dependable insight, or else it isn’t MME2.

ColtsGate

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I decided to not write anything about the Colts / Jets game until after a few days of letting the experience settle in a bit. But I have certainly read my fair share of analysis and reaction the past couple of days and I stand perfectly on the fence, continually rocking back and forth not being able to tell if I like or dislike what transpired.

To make my obligatory Enterprise 2.0 association in this post…I think the voices that the Colts brass are hearing from fans via various channels, clamoring that their opinion on going for 16-0 should have been considered…is something Bill Polian and Jim Caldwell did not anticipate. They obviously are not privy to the shift in People 2.0’s communication expectations from informed to consulted. Engagement and customer satisfaction are no longer just predicated on performance, but a willingness to accept and at a minimum acknowledge the views of the crowd, particularly a crowd that you depend on so much to exist ($$$$). This is another example of old-school thinkers not realizing the impact of ignoring this paradigm shift until it is too late and as a result having to face quite a bit of scrutiny.  And as much as they want to ask fans to move on…this isn’t going away until they win the first playoff game.

Now back to football….

Why I didn’t like it:

As a fan watching the game live, I hated every second of it, and I didn’t even pay to see the game, I was just watching from the comfy confines of couches and HD. Yet even yesterday, more than 24 hours after the game, my wife said I still seemed grumpy while we were at Chuck E Cheese celebrating my son’s 3rd birthday with family. So I guess if I can’t be cheerful then, I really must not have liked it.

One bit of analysis/reaction to Sunday that I haven’t read yet, the lack of execution in the first 2.5 quarters that made Jim’s decision that much more painful. Putting myself in Jim Caldwell’s shoes as a coach that expects high levels of execution from his extremely efficient team, there were 3 plays in that game that could have made Jim’s life a lot easier while making the exact same decision:

  1. The blocked extra point after the first touchdown of the game actually ended up costing the Colts 2 points, not just 1 point. This is because the Colts later attempted a 2 pt conversion to make up for the miss and didn’t convert. Adjusted score at #ColtsGate: 17-10
  2. The Colts have been among the best teams this season at turning red zone opportunities into touchdowns. In the 2nd quarter they had to settle for a short field goal after getting into the red zone. You’ll recall the close call between Peyton and Reggie which is a catch we have seen Reggie make before (last season at Houston comes to mind). So not converting there cost the Colts 4 points. Adjusted score at #ColtsGate: 21-10
  3. I bet that kickoff return to start the 2nd half really honked off Caldwell and Peyton and here is why: Caldwell had told Peyton at halftime (I am speculating), “You’ll get one more series to turn this 6 point lead into a 9 to 14 point lead, two scores…then we’re resting you. So make it count.” Then immediately after kick-off, boom, that two-score lead is out the window. Had the Colts coverage team held, I would wager the best the Jets could have done there with starters still playing defense and not completely deflated from resting Peyton would have been a field goal. Another 4 points in the Jets favor. Adjusted score at #ColtsGate: 21-6

So how would we be reacting differently to #ColtsGate if they had pulled Peyton and the gang with a 15 point lead and just the 4th quarter to play instead of a 5 point lead (less time remaining because of a more sustained Jets opening drive instead of a kick-off return)? How much more would the crowd have supported Painter audibly instead of, as my wife says, putting negative thoughts into the universe? How much more conservative would the Colts play calling have been with a kill the clock mindset instead of trying to throw from inside their own 20 (likely avoiding the sack/fumble/TD sequence)?

Now I am not one to believe in what if’s, but it just goes to show how football is such a game of inches and how every play counts and how the impact of an inch here and an inch there completely changes the perspective of a decision.

Why I Do Like It:

On the other hand, there is still hope for a successful playoff run and the reality that the Colts are two home wins away from playing in the Super Bowl. I can’t imagine how grumpy I would have been yesterday had Peyton gotten hurt during the game and we were facing the reality of a Divisional Round game with Curtis “Blank Canvas” Painter. So from that side of the argument, I can’t fault the team for realizing that their greatest asset is going to win them games, not this imaginary concept of momentum or “mojo.”

But I do know if the Colts show up to their Division Round playoff game on Jan 16 or Jan 17 and lose, this decision will never be forgiven and Jim and Bill will never hear the end of it. So that one game will have a ton of pressure. The AFC championship game would be less impacted by resting players and more about who played the better game, although I am sure the really bitter followers would still blame a loss on losing momentum by resting, particularly if the fall behind early in that game. But if they make it to the Super Bowl and lose, there is no way you can blame that loss on resting starters, especially with an extra week between the Championship games and the Super Bowl.  So I’ll deduce that this decision really only matters for 1.5 playoff games, then doesn’t matter any more.

Looking at history, it is hard to conclude that historically resting has had a direct impact on their one and done playoff losses.  They rested in 2005 prior to the Pittsburgh playoff game and lost, but they also experienced the tragic death of Tony Dungy’s son during that period as well. Then in 2007 they rested and lost their first game at home to San Diego, but they were playing without Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis AND Marvin Harrison tried to play after being out for 3 months and fumbled following his first catch. And they actually came out of the gate really fast in that came (what rust?) and had momentum until Marvin’s fumble.

I am very glad (reviewing that history) knowing this year that the Colts 6 pro bowlers (Manning, Wayne, Clark, Saturday, Freeney, Mathis) will be healthy for the playoffs, and I think that combination will probably overcome any rust factor from resting. But will all this media attention of purposely disrespecting NFL history be distraction enough to throw things off?  Even if they do win the Super Bowl, will the immediate reaction be “Colts make right decision to stay healthy for Super Bowl win!” OR “Colts win Super Bowl and willingly gave up 19-0”????  Only time will tell.

But oh how much fun would watching history have been?  It will be bittersweet all the way through…watching the healthy stars giving it their best…3 weeks from now.  Sigh.

Pandora 5.0: Avatar emulates Enterprise 2.0?

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So last weekend I was allowed to get away to see Avatar because it was my birthday, and I have to say it was pretty impressive visually. I would call the storyline predictable, but strong enough to support the special effects and definitely worth your while to go see. Strangely enough, while watching, a parallel between this movie and Enterprise 2.0 dawned on me…thus this blog posting..

WARNING: I’ll write this with the best intentions of not giving away significant story points for those that have not yet seen the movie, but if you have any trepidation of spoilers for this very predictable story, maybe it would be best to wait to read this until after you have seen the movie.

So back to this relationship (whether intended or coincidental) between the Pandora moon and Enterprise 2.0:

Avatar takes place on a moon named Pandora, and it is primarily inhabited by wild beasts and the indigenous Na’vi people (the very tall bioluminescent blue people from the commercials). But what is unique about this land is that there is a mysterious connection between all living things, including animals, plants, trees and the Na’vi. The inhabitants of the moon can “bond” with one another to share thoughts and the Na’vi people can “bond” with trees to hear the voices of those that have passed. Eventually we learn that the makeup of the moon is effectively a huge interconnected neural network and all living beings have common anatomy to be able to plug into that network and “bond” with each other. Pandora is one big Social Network, or better yet, an Existence Network.

So, our main character Jake Sculley (who has been “matrixed” into a genetically engineered Na’vi body and dumped into the Pandora wild), uses his newly discovered pony tail with a mind of its own to “friend” his six-legged blue horse and his alien pterodactyl for public transportation. These connections between the living creatures on Pandora, and through the main source (the mother goddess, an all powerful tree named Eywa) are what help the moon thrive and the creatures to co-exist peacefully (except when satisfying their hunger by hunting, but always with utmost respect, of course).

It isn’t that groundbreaking to see how an entire world thriving in a connected environment relates to Enterprise 2.0…even if the connections are biological instead of technological. Differing tribes and species that might not otherwise relate because of space and communication gaps collaborate in peace thanks to a common network. They work together in unison for the good of their world instead of fighting one another for supremacy.

What I really found cool was how the natives of Pandora leveraged the Existence Network to overcome their invaders…money-hungry corporate Earthlings! This is the part where I may be delving into a little bit of a spoiler, so you may want to turn away now if you haven’t seen the movie yet….



Just when it appears that all hope is lost for the Na’vi people, despite their greatest efforts to fend off the superior human military artillery, you know there must be a happy ending, right? Jake (pictured above) pleas to Eywa on behalf of the Na’vi to help save not only their species but their entire world because he understands the power of human weapons. Eywa listens, and calls on her Existence Network of thousands of alien pterodactyls, elephant sized rottweilers and hammer-head rhinos to fight along side the Na’vi. You can see for yourself how that turns out…

Another parallel to the virtues of Enterprise 2.0 was when Jake tamed  and then “friended” the fierce Toruk (a dragon-vulture the size of an F-16) to prove his commitment and skill to the Na’vi people after he had been exiled. Only five other Na’vi had ever tamed a Toruk. Jake’s demonstration of skill and influence over this treacherous animal was enough to gain the respect of the Na’vi people regardless of his position or status. There were going to follow his lead based on his accomplishments as a warrior. Leadership and influence within the network was earned, not appointed in his case.

Watching the movie I couldn’t help but recall the concepts of 2.0-style collaboration were underlying themes to the feel good elements of this movie (although biological connections through a fiber-optic pony tail would be more like 5.0-style collaboration), and the primary weapons that gave the Pandorians an advantage over the command and control humans. Now don’t confuse this blog post as my undying commitment to using the movie Avatar as my “Real Business Use Case / ROI Example” for Enterprise 2.0…even I know better than that. But hey, who really needs extra excuses to write blog posts about cool movies and claim you are talking about work?

For my next post, I’ll discuss how much shorter the Lord of the Rings trilogy would have been if Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee had been biologically networked to the rest of the Fellowship of the Ring…

Andrew McAfee’s Enterprise 2.0 Book

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I recently wrote the following review on the Amazon.com entry for Andy’s book, and it has bubbled to the top of the reviews.  And my review was only based on Part 1 of the book, and I am still trying desperately to get to Part 2!  I will be in the car for 10 hours tomorrow, so maybe I’ll get some time if I can convince my wife to drive a little bit.

I was a little concerned when I started reading the book, being that I am a self-proclaimed Enterprise 2.0 “convert”, that it may feel a bit like “preaching to the choir.” But in reading Part 1, even though some pages are spent on introducing concepts and benefits with which I am already familiar, reading the book has been time well spent. And here’s why:

– Andy uses 4 real world case studies that demonstrate how Enterprise 2.0 collaboration methods can be valuable, and if you are involved with trying to drive adoption of similar tools within your organization, these case studies are great examples to recall. Also, the examples of the US government looking to open collaboration capabilities in response to some communication failures that led to 9/11 make for great reading.
– While understanding how various 2.0 style tools work and how organizations have leveraged those tools in the past is important, having the ability to analyze existing organizational inefficiencies and identify effective collaboration methods/tools to aid those problems is where you can separate yourself. Andy provides a well thought out mapping between relationships within professional networks (Strong Ties, Weak Ties, Potential Ties and No Ties) and how Enterprise 2.0 methods/tools can be applied to build/strengthen those ties in ways that can positively impact an organization’s issues. So instead of blindly throwing a wiki at a business problem, for example, you’ll have the background to identify other potential tools that may be a better fit to help a specific business problem.
– While reading, I thought to myself on multiple occasions, “That’s exactly what I have been trying to tell people, but now I have examples, human behavioral studies as evidence and a credible resource as another weapon in telling my story.” If you have responsibility for driving adoption of 2.0 tools, trying to make a business case, or approving the business case for evolving an Enterprise 2.0 agenda, this book will be very helpful for you.

I couldn’t put the book down getting through Part 1, and I am anxious to complete Part 2 having read that it is even more valuable for Enterprise 2.0 practitioners than Part 1.

When totally complete with the book, I’ll post here my plans on using the book’s key messages and takeaways to help support our Enterprise 2.0 agenda.

“It is Time!”

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I have little difficulty relating most life experiences to movie quotes, song titles and story lines from television shows.  In fact, I regularly hear famous quotes in my head during daily activities, like “I have made fire!” from Castaway, or “I am the law!” from Judge Dredd, “When will then be now?  Soon!” from Spaceballs, or “You have to be careful with eggs.” from Bill Cosby: Himself.  I rarely, however, choose to recite them aloud at the risk of people having no idea what I am talking about and partly because most of my examples are becoming out dated as my knowledge of current pop culture inversely decreases at the same rate that my children’s shoe sizes increase.

For reasons unknown, quotes from The Lion King always have stuck with me as well.  (Maybe that is because I hear it in the mini-van on trips all the time coming from the back seat?)  For reasons likely known…I remember Timone yelling “What’s going on here!” or Poomba declaring that “You’ve got to put your behind in your past.”  But appropriate for this blog is from Rafiki, the witch doctor baboon that discovers a grown up Symba.  And upon convincing Symba to return to the pride lands to take on the evil Uncle Scar, the baboon declares “It is Time!”  This isn’t much different.

I am not using that title to directly equate my initiation of a new blog with re-conquering an entitled position of leadership (although I am a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson and know that must entitle me to something, right?), but to serve as a declaration that I have waited long enough to start this blog, and the time is right to use this platform for some key goals of mine:

  1. Be an example – Working at a pharmaceutical company brings a necessary set of guidelines to consider when it comes to external communication channels and sharing of data related to the work we do.  But it can be difficult to understand where the boundaries around those guidelines exist, and we shouldn’t discouraged to provide a voice into the Blogosphere and/or Twitterverse if we are so inclined. We just need clarity and examples on how to do so in a manner that protects the integrity of ourselves and our company.  As an internal evangelist for Social Media methods, for my colleagues, I would like to provide an example of treading those waters in a compliant manner but with a voice that is my own at the same time.
  2. Establish an External Network – If my recent engagement with the Enterprise 2.0 Adoption Council has taught me nothing else, it is that having a network of people and information to share with and learn from makes me better at what I do. I have seen that occur in my work environment as well, by creating awareness of my skills and understanding the skills of others through basic Social Networking capabilities, I’ve become a more effective employee (IMHO).  This blog is another avenue to continue to expand that network, become a better knowledge-worker myself, possibly provide some entertainment, and hopefully help a few other people with similar interests along the way.  Also, to walk the talk that I have been  talking, I best do some walking beyond the comfy confines of my internal corporate blog.
  3. Enterprise 2.0 Conference – As I am writing this, I am traveling to the E2.0 conference for the first time, and I plan to come away even more enthused (via the information I take in and the contacts I make) about the work I have ahead of me and the impact I can have.  Consider it my baptism into the Enterprise 2.0 profession, accompanied by a web log of the journey from newbie to ????
  4. Have fun – Innumerable times throughout my life I have secretly wished I could be an author of some sort.  Write a book, be a sports columnist, write a movie, write a television pilot, etc.  Unfortunately my thriving golf career has kept me from achieving those goals…so now at least I have a blog to fall back on!

FYI…I have a Twitter account (@golfinbp) that will continue to be my avenue for raving about my Colts, talking golf and bragging about my children.  But I am starting a second account this week (@TheBrycesWrite) to focus on my professional observations and to accompany my blog.  So if you follow me on Twitter as @golfinbp and are interested in following my Enterprise 2.0 related posts from this point forward, please also follow me @TheBrycesWrite.