The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Lego style

“There are two kinds of people in this world…”

That’s a line from an old Clint Eastwood movie and it sounds like the start of a corny joke, but bear with me and you’ll learn a bit about helping people think strategically about business and technology.

There are two kinds of people in your enterprise … Noun People and Verb People.

Noun People speak the language of Things.  Things like software and hardware. Applications, laptops, tablets, firewalls, protocols, routers, switches, phones, networks, portlets, databases, etc, etc.  Noun People are solution oriented.  They are typically passionate about supporting the organization and are eager to provide all the tools and infrastructure appropriate to the enterprise.  They know what it takes to support a business.  They can describe which gizmo does what, its total cost of ownership, how fast it runs and whether or not it can interface with the gadget.  Noun people are frequently in IT.

Noun People are Important and you can’t run your business without them.

Verb People speak the language of Actions.  Actions like manufacturing and selling.  Innovating, developing, motivating, purchasing, merging, planning, collaborating, analyzing, managing, etc, etc.  Verb people are results oriented.  They typically focus on moving the enterprise ever forward; to make it bigger, better, more successful.  They understand what it takes to run a business.  They know how to  turn ideas into actions, create treasure from trash and even sell balloons to porcupines.  Verb People are typically in “the business”.

Verb People are Important and you can’t run your business without them.

So, if you have some of each kind of person, then what’s the problem?  The problem is the communication gap.  Noun People don’t speak the language of  Actions and vice versa.  We’ve all seen it.  Look at your last set of business requirements for the big new software application you’re planning.  Do they really make sense?  Look at the new ”field of dreams” collaboration suite that’s just been rolled out.  Whatever will you use it for? 

This concept does not shock or surprise many people.   Typically, I get the sage nodding of heads all around the table when I describe this - no matter which kind of person they are.  This is especially evident in the area of collaboration (enterprise social software, unified communications, business video, social media, etc).  Collaboration tools (nouns) have been deployed for many years now without clear connection to business imperatives (verbs).  Likewise, businesses have been desperately looking for ways to improve, accelerate, grow (verbs) without an appreciation for the capabilities, architectures, infrastructure (nouns) required to achieve their vision.  

So what’s the solution?  The trick? You must find someone who can craft whole sentences using the Verbs and the Nouns.   Perhaps this is you, perhaps it is someone outside your organization who has the tools and experience to do so.  But collaboration solutions must never be deployed without a clear business imperative (it’s lacking the verb).  Major business initiatives should never be started without a clear understanding of the opportunities for enhancing collaboration (it’s missing a noun). 

This is not as easy as it seems and I’ll tell you more about the process for making the connections in a later post.  For now, pay attention to the language in your planning and strategy meetings.  Are there any Verb People in the room?  Any Noun People?  If you have some of both, do they understand one another?  Are they even listening to one another? 

A good translator can transform the conversation.  How’s your grammar?

"What we have here is a failure to communicate"

• Clint Eastwood in the 1966 movie “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”
• Paul Newman and/or Strother Martin in the 1967 movie “Cool Hand Luke”  

“Bachelor of Science in Business, Major – Management”

 … That’s what my diploma said.  But in 1983 we were in another “Great Recession” and entry-level management jobs were almost impossible to find.   With a little help, I found a role as a programmer for a textile company in my home town and began my years as an individual contributor.  Over the next 14 years I went through 3 industries, 4 companies and 8 managers.   Though they didn’t know it, during this entire time I was studying those managers.  I analyzed their strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures.  I was determined that when my turn came to lead, I would have mastered the techniques and be more than ready. 

When I finally got that first opportunity as a manager, I had sixteen direct reports.  16!  A bit daunting, but I knew I could handle it.  I knew how the perfect manager should behave.  How they should treat their staff.  How they should communicate.  I began to apply all that I had learned. 

It was a disaster. 

My staff hated me.  The team was in an uproar.  Goals and deadlines were vague memories.  And I was completely at a loss as to what I was doing wrong.  Thanks to two great mentors and some serious introspection, I began to see the issue.   The problem was not the implementation.  You see, I was treating my staff exactly the way I wanted to be treated.  I was the perfect manager – for me.  The problem was the in the assumption.  The way I wanted to be treated was not the way they wanted, or needed, to be treated.  Thus began the first of my seven principles of leadership – Attune.  Attune yourself to the needs of the team and its members. 

Over the years, I continued to learn and refine my style.  I became a good leader – or so I’m told – and others began to ask advice.   My best advice is to understand that a manager’s job has many aspects, but the most important one is leadership.  To be a good leader, I believe you must be ALIGNED – aligned with your team, your mission, your peers, your management and your own values.  Below are seven principles that I believe can help you focus on your effectiveness as a leader: 

Attune your leadership behaviors to the situation, the needs of your individual staff members and the culture of the organization.   

Recognize that the people working for you are just that – people.  Each one is different and each has differing needs.   Do not make the mistake of thinking you can develop one style of leadership and carbon-copy that to each of your staff.  Likewise, don’t assume you can use the same style of leadership for diverse situations.  Day-to-day operations requires a certain style, but a crisis or, say, an impending merger dictates a far different approach.  Constantly assess your environment, your situation and the person you are working with and ensure you are properly attuned.

Liberate your staff members from unnecessary constraints.  Free them to be their best.

Your staff is held under a the bondage of bureaucracy, process, policy and politics.  While generally well intended and often mandatory, in many cases they are not specific to your situation and may be open to interpretation.  My mantra is “do what makes sense”.   Assess risk AND reward and then help your staff members navigate.  Wherever you create efficiencies, establish them as best practice for your team.  When you bend the rules, manage audit challenges by documenting the process and how/why it was developed. 

Remember that some rules, no matter how onerous, should not be broken.  Regulatory Compliance, Legal, Safety and similar topics should be carefully considered.  Be careful not to overstep your bounds!

Inspire your staff through frequent reminders of their mission and vision.  Help them recognize their value.

Studies show that most people are interested in more than just a paycheck.  They want to feel they are contributing to something that is important – that they are making a difference.  Sometimes this is obvious – a research team at an alternative energy company for example – but more often it is difficult to find enthusiasm in the day-to-day activities of our jobs. 

A good leader finds meaningful ways to communicate how the team’s mission contributes to the larger vision of the enterprise.  Each member of the team needs to understand why their role is important.  Repetition is essential.  Find different ways to make your point but say it often.  Ask provocative questions like “what would happen if this team didn’t exist”.

Despite your best efforts, the “big picture” vision may feel too remote.  Generate enthusiasm through purposes that are closer to the team.  Create contests, stretch goals, innovation challenges and other techniques to inspire the team.

Be Genuine.  Treat your staff members with honesty and respect.  Actively listen and, as appropriate, be open about your thoughts and feelings.

Your staff sees right through you.  We think we are artfully avoiding tough conversations using artifices like “management-speak”, “just following orders”, “company policy”, etc.  When we do this, they know and we lose their respect.  Take the time to sort out your own feelings about difficult messages before you talk to your staff.  Use your own words to explain the rationale behind the message.  Encourage your staff to ask questions without fear of retribution.  Ask for their thoughts on the matter. 

Then listen.  Active listening requires that you ask clarifying questions and even repeat the question in your own words to be sure you understand.  Answer honestly even if the answer is “I don’t know”.   

Nurture you team.  This means both a “pat on the back” and a “slap on the wrist” as appropriate. 

The annual performance review process required by HR is necessary, but insufficient.  Your HR representative will agree, as will your staff.  But more process and paperwork is not the answer.  Instead you must take a minute to talk to each person on your team at least once a week.  It should be casual rather than formal, authentic rather than artificial, and constructive rather than judgmental.  Updates on a current project, an “attaboy” (or “attagirl”) for a minor success or some upbeat coaching to help resolve a problem are all opportunities for nurturing.  This doesn’t excuse you from planned, periodic conversations for more formal status reviews, career discussions, etc. 

Coaching, correction or disciplinary discussions are challenging.  Handle these promptly and directly.  There are different techniques for conducting these.  Learn the different approaches and figure out which method works best for a particular individual before you start the conversation.  Get help from HR or a mentor if you are uncertain.  I’ve seen remarkable improvements as a result of proper coaching.   The more time you spend talking to your team about the positive things they are doing, the easier it will be to discuss the negatives.

Empower your staff to achieve their best by giving them the tools, training, technology and authority that is appropriate for their role, experience and needs.

The term “empowerment” was trendy a few years ago.  Essentially, it was about pushing decision-making as far down into an organization as possible.  I view it a bit more broadly.  Empower your employees by helping them develop their skills, experience, resources AND authority to excel in their role. 

How do you do this?

1. Make the case to your management for training budget.  Then require your staff to select and attend appropriate classes or seminars.
2. Assess technology needs and get creative if necessary.  Sometimes there is “salvaged” equipment available for the asking (bartering is another interesting technique). 
3. Create a “safe place” where your staff can practice their skills.  The best performing teams (sports, public safety, military) all do one thing that corporations rarely do – Practice!  
4. Give them authority.  Don’t make them come to you for every minor decision.  That’s a win-win.

Provide Direction to ensure everyone understands the team’s mission, goals and culture plus the individual’s role in achieving them.

Establish a culture for the team.  Without direction the culture evolves organically and doesn’t necessarily reflect your values.  Make sure you include a tolerance for and acceptance of a certain degree of risk.  Encourage your team to innovate.  Let them know that failure, in some circumstances, IS an option.  

The primary mission for your team is often passed down to you by your management.  How this mission is accomplished, who is responsible for what, and how the team interacts internally and externally is paramount in your success as a leader.  You must gather input from your staff but in the end, they need for you make the tough decisions and set the course for the team.    

Hopefully this list is not complete.  Even though I’m now focused in more of an individual contributor role, I still have plenty of opportunities to lead in informal ways and certainly hope to learn more over time.   Please comment with your thoughts and ideas.  I’d love to hear your stories.  Keep them constructive and change the names to protect the innocent!

Collaboration initiatives fail for a variety of reasons.  The solution is typically multifaceted and unique to the situation.  However, I believe there is a central theme that can help break down this complex equation.  In short, collaboration requires participation.  My friend and colleague, Joe Moran, recently postulated in a discussion forum on Cisco Community Central at cisco.com a key principle that he calls the Participation Theory.  He set this up as a simple equation that I think gets to the heart of the matter.  I’ll let him describe it here:  

So, the Reward must be greater than the Effort required to participate.  When true, collaboration happens.       

Sounds simple, but if you read the follow-on comments in the discussion, you will see that there are a variety of other variables that make up R and E.  Things like Inertia and Availability and Awareness and Time to name just a few.  Joe has promised more detail as he considers other variables.  Your comments are welcome on the Cisco site or here on my blog.        

When we think about what individuals see as Reward, we begin to appreciate the complexity.  In the “outside world” people are rewarded by emotional experience associated with contacting old friends on Facebook.  Or they gain professional benefits like job offers from LinkedIn.  But what are the rewards inside of the workplace?  For many people, I believe they center around whatever is on their performance plan.  Or the deliverables for the current project.  Or activities that help achieve a promotion.  Only the occasional person feels that altruistically ”enhancing cross team communications and community” outweighs the effort required unless, of course, that fosters success in one of their other goals.       

The Effort required is equally significant, especially when it’s placed on already heavy workloads.  Things like: learning new technologies; overcoming hurdles associated with alpha or beta products;   deciphering which new collaboration tool to use for what; fighting the inertia-of-the-inbox (“no one else seems to be using the new tool – I should probably just email this to the group”); taking the time to write things down.  All of this is above and beyond the current job.  Is it worth the reward?  Is there a reward?      

Math is not my forte

 Another critical variable in the equation is that people often believe that giving up precious knowledge will make them vulnerable – less valuable.  Known as knowledge-hoarding, it is characterized by the phrase “Knowledge is Power”.  In this economic climate, if you give up your power, do you also give up the death-grip you have on your job?  I think of it as the perceived penalty or the anti-Reward.       

This is where team leaders can directly influence the equation.  Staff members examine the actions of the leadership team to know if collaboration is really important.  Are they modeling the behavior?  Are they working to increase the reward and decrease the effort?  Do they offer reassurances that sharing, rather than hoarding, knowledge creates value for the individual?  These actions are especially important during the initial adoption period.  At some point, as with email 20 years ago, the new processes and tools take a life of their own and achieve momentum – inertia.  Until then, the leadership has to provide guidance on which tools to use and for what purpose.  They have to encourage certain behaviors and discourage others.  Otherwise the team is confused.  “Should I be using Wiki-tool X or Y? Or maybe the knowledge management system?”  “Should I be spending time documenting this solution or do I need to move on to the next task on the project plan?” “Mailing lists seem to be the best way to reach everyone.  Should I try something different?”  Et cetera.       

But how aggressive can the leaders be in applying top down tactics.  Can we go so far as to prohibit email, or limit it to certain tasks or quantities?  On an enterprise scale, my experience says “No”. At a team level, however, I think disruptive moves like this have some merit.  In the past I’ve led brainstorming sessions that yielded easily a dozen similar ideas that appealed to my team.  Everything from “no email Friday” to prizes for the best blog.  To gain buy-in from your team, and to avoid being seen as heavy-handed, be sure that you include your staff when developing these ideas.       

Can mathematics alone solve your collaboration adoption problems?  Of course not.  But perhaps they can help you understand them.  Once you see the relationships and understand the variables, you can begin to determine those that have the strongest impact for your organization — especially the multipliers or exponentials — and find ways to influence them.      

So, what about the team I mentioned at the beginning of this post?  In that case it’s pretty clear.  While Effort is actually pretty low, Reward is even lower.  Relative, that is, to the Priority of their primary tasks and their available Time.        

Interesting… Perhaps we have yet to uncover the Theory of (Collaborative) Relativity?   

I’m pleased be permitted to re-blog one of their early posts describing some of the theory and mechanics of this approach. For more information including an excellent white paper or to contact my friend and sometimes colleague/partner Simon Evans, please visit Innovoflow.com

Innovation Velocity – Developing Agile Innovation Leadership through Gaming

The Problem with Innovation

It is a truism that armies tend to continue to fight their last war and need to go through bitter learning experiences before they can understand and adapt to the new, emergent rules of conflict.  Present innovation thinking is constrained by legacy successes achieved within a context of unsustainable economic market growth patterns and obsolete models.

 

This recession is heightening a natural fear of risk and failure, which combined with a perception of increasing innovation difficulty (as highlighted by the Boston Consulting Group reviews in the past couple of years), is encouraging management caution toward innovation. This is reducing leaders’ ability to recognise, understand and manage the full range of options available, and this is slowing the pace of innovation (innovation velocity).

 

We need some new tools to help us deliver approaches to innovation that better suit the emerging realities of the 21^st century environment.

Introducing Gaming as a Tool

We propose to use gaming as a tool in this context… Read More

via InnovoFlow – Freedoms to Innovate

More about that in a minute.  First, it’s obvious that user adoption for collaboration tools is becoming a hot topic.  Rightly so.  Even with all of the transformational capabilities at our disposal – wikis, blogs, microblogging, social networking, folksonomies - and the money we are pouring into them, we are still held captive by the “ inertia of the inbox”.  Try as we might to espouse and adopt the benefits of social media or web conferencing we still find ourselves caught in lengthy email threads with a dozen or more people – most of whom wish they weren’t on the CC list.  Personally, as a Collaboration Solutions Architect, I am overwhelmed by a sense of irony (or hypocrisy depending on my mood) every time I exceed my inbox quota.  Solving this is a huge challenge and opportunity.  The benefits are apparent but not easily measured.  I’ll write more on User Adoption in a later blog, but until then I highly recommend you look into The 2.0 Adoption Council.   You should also see Gil Yehuda’s blog and his white paper titled “Framework for 2.0 Adoption in the Enterprise“.         

Now, back to the importance of going viral.  The first time I experienced information that “went viral” was in 1997 at a major pharmaceutical company.  (The term ”viral” actually meant something entirely different in that time and place!)  A visionary in the IT department sponsored a system on the intranet for idea collection and harvesting.  Called Newton’s Orchard (clever, huh), it was a quick success with many people posting ideas, hundreds of others reviewing and commenting.  It really took off when people started talking about – wait for it — goose poop.  Yes, goose poop.   There was a big problem on the corporate campus with the Canadian geese and the sidewalks.  I won’t go into details.  You can thank me later.         

In retrospect, this was a huge success.  People were discussing an issue that was important to them in a collaborative forum other than email.  But it certainly didn’t seem right at the time.  Usage on the system was skyrocketing, but it was about things like harmonizing the color of milk caps at the supermarket. 2% should be green, whole milk should be red, etc.         

I am not making this up!         

Finally, someone crossed a line and posted something that had potential legal implications for the company.  A stern phone call from the CIO and the site was shut down.  Immediately.  Permanently.        

The ingredients were all there for a dramatic shift in culture with profound benefit to the company.  The only thing missing was some governance and a willingness to manage a bit of risk.  Missed opportunity!  Or in Twitter terms - #fail.  

Rapper Intern - Greg Justice

A dozen years later and the more things change, the more they stay the same.  We’re struggling with many of the same issues, but at least we recognize them now.  And there’s hope.  My favorite example happened recently at Cisco.  Granted, Cisco is one of the most collaborative organizations around.  We have all the tools and the culture and incredibly supportive management.   Even amidst all that, this example stands out.  A summer intern named Greg Justice was just a few days into his new job when he used nothing more than a Flip camera and some editing software from Show and Share to record a video of himself at his desk.  Using the medium of Rap and a great sense of humor, he proclaims himself  “THE WORLD’S MOST INTERESTING INTERN“ and issues a challenge to other interns inside and outside of Cisco to post their own videos.  Watch it here…  

Within a few days, it was playing across the global campus.  People were sending the link via instant messaging, screen sharing on WebEx, posting to Quad and, of course, sending via email.  Good news is that they were sending the link and not the whole video.  Soon it was posted on the home page of the Intranet.          

The content of Greg’s video does not contain Cisco’s next billion dollar idea.  It doesn’t provide process changes that save the company millions in expenses.  It doesn’t include policy that will ensure our employees comply with important regulations.  What it does is set a tone for a culture of sharing and openness.  A tone that encourages creativity and, yes, fun.  This, my friends, is the tipping point for collaboration.  When your organization reaches this point it is poised to take advantage of collaboration and ultimately innovation opportunities far beyond anything you’ve experienced.           

Just be sure to keep an open mind when it happens.  You don’t want to find yourself a dozen years from now thinking regretfully about goose poop.        

Raise your hand if you attended this in 1994.

I give it a B+.  That’s my initial reaction when people ask about my first trip to Enterprise 2.0.  I always grade conferences based on my level of enthusiasm when I leave.  I’ve been to some conferences that scored ”C” or even lower.  I once awarded an “A+” for the Second International World Wide Web (WWW) Conference back in 1994. I still have the T-shirt and, yes, I know it’s sixteen years old and should be in the rag bin.   

Dozens of people have already blogged extensively about the E2.0 conference. Their articles range from overviews of the whole event to notes taken right on the spot during the conference sessions and keynotes.  By and large they’ve done a much better job than I could, so I’m not going to waste precious keystrokes repeating them.  I will, however, provide a list of some of my favorites at the end of this article.  Instead, I’d like to entertain you with some thoughts about the “social” aspects of the conference.  By “social” I don’t mean social networking or social media or even the very social IBM boat party which, I hear, was quite the event.  I’m talking about how the leaders in the field of “social computing” - movers and shakers in the industry – act and interact when they are put in close physical proximity of one another.     

First, let’s look at the demographics. While the ballrooms echoed with the term Millennials (another name for Generation Y), actual sightings were extremely rare. I would even say that the GenX-ers comprised only about 50% of the audience (if any of you have real numbers, I’d love to hear from you). The rest of us were Baby-Boomers or, as Rick Ladd so aptly named us, the BooMillennials – Boomers who adopt the best practices of the Millennials. What can we read into this? I can only speculate, but here are some possibilities:        

• In these cost-constrained times, the older you are, the more likely you are to have a travel budget – or a huge number of frequent flyer points.
• Millennials don’t value physical conferences. They do all of their meeting online and create sardonic vlogs about the “old folks” who feel compelled to travel.
• Hopefully and importantly, there are a lot of Boomers who understand the value and importance of this new way of working. They recognize that organizations must evolve to embrace these tools and practices to invigorate collaboration and innovation. Fortunately, many of these BooMillennials have achieved positions of respect and authority in their organizations. They nurture the seeds of change.

My second “social” observation was the new dynamic of presentations. Up to now, presentations have generally been monologues. A panel presentation would be essentially a conversation of the elite.  The occasional talented speaker or moderator could achieve some dialog with the audience. But the audience has traditionally been simply spectators to the event.   

This time, things were different (bear with me if you are a member of the Twitterati and know all of this). The conference organizers had publicized the Twitter hashtag of #e2conf to create a way for attendees and other interested parties to share information. Anyone “following” the #e2conf hashtag in Twitter now had a constant stream of back channel information about the conference. This included those who weren’t physically attending (note the second bullet about Millennials above). “Sub-tags” soon emerged to allow followers to track specific sessions (e.g., #e2conf-11 was for session 11 about Enterprise 2.0 Value Propositions).  This created parallel discussions during the breakout sessions and allowed attendees to get a sampling of the presentations they were missing.    

Smart presenters monitored this information to know when they were effective and when the audience was bored, confused or had questions. The best presenters integrated the back channel into their discussions. Presentations became multi-modal. Conversations within conversations. Instant feedback. Cross-referencing with people in other sessions. I’m not sure I’d call this social computing at its best as there were some downsides (more on this in a future blog about what I call “Meerkatting”).  But I do think it shows how use of the tools can create new dimensions of communication and collaboration.    

Finally, I think it’s fascinating that, given the power of all the tools available to the attendees – the elite of the industry, we chose Twitter and blogs as our common medium for collaboration. This bears some consideration for Enterprise implementations.       

By the way, old-fashioned conversations were just as popular. Old-fashioned business cards were everywhere – though most had a Twitter address in addition to phone and email. Old-fashioned meals and cocktails were still shared. This is good. In my opinion, the old ways are being enhanced rather than replaced.       

As promised, here’s a list of some excellent links about the conference    

• From Paige Finkelman’s Official Enterprise 2.0 Conference blog

It is often said that “walking is controlled falling.”   You’ve seen a toddler learning to take those first steps.  They have a clear objective and incredible determination but they spend a lot of time with their bottom on the floor.  Fortunately for them they don’t have far to fall and have a bit of natural resiliency.  There are some rough tumbles though, and some tears.  It’s important that someone create a good environment without sharp edges, hard surfaces or tripping hazards.  And they get better with practice.   Soon, with each step, their foot seems to catch them just in time.  The whole body begins to align - arms and head for balance, eyes for threats, hands to catch (just in case).   

So it is with recent attempts to enhance Collaboration and Innovation in the enterprise.  So far there seems to be a lot of falling.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Like the toddler, we wouldn’t achieve our objective without a few setbacks.  Given time, we’ll start to put one foot in front of the other and gain a little control. Of course, we want to minimize the damage (aka Risk Management).  There are a number of things we should do to reduce those “sharp edges, hard surfaces and tripping hazards”. Basic things like focusing on business objectives instead of technology; starting with a strategy and an architecture; and implementing a user adoption program.

But there’s a problem with this perspective. Successful organizations cannot be content with being a toddler. We all see that the rules have changed. A common mantra in business journals is “innovate or die”. Collaboration is an imperative for the savvy executive – whether they be IT or business. Novel technologies are emerging faster than we can grasp them. One directory lists 2830 Web 2.0 applications in 175 categories! Organizations cannot afford to toddle in this new environment. Real success amidst this rapid change requires that we become more like a stunt-person than a toddler.

Really? A stunt-person?

Think about it. I’m not talking about a daredevil who takes foolish chances. I’m talking about the professionals. Stunt-people practice. They learn to fall gracefully. They take chances – sometimes big chances – but these are based on knowledge, experience, and a careful understanding of their environment, capabilities and goals. They have a plan. They manage the risks. And the smart ones know when to walk away.

Our organizations must develop these skills. We begin by creating collaboration and innovation ecosystems. These are environments where the occasional fall is acceptable and sometimes planned. We must nurture the staff who have the proper knowledge and experience and sheer intestinal fortitude. We acknowledge our limitations and reach outside to the experts when we don’t have them in-house. Finally, like the professional stunt-person, we control our environment and manage the risks by implementing a comprehensive governance program around our collaboration and innovation initiatives.

We are falling headlong into an uncertain future. It’s obvious to me that enhancing collaboration, facilitating innovation and managing the associated risks are critical activities for our survival and success. So the trick is to control that fall – to do it with grace and skill. If we work at it, then someday it will be as natural as walking.

My relationship with Social Networking, that is.  This next big step is starting my own blog.  I have an intimate understanding of the commitment required for tools like Facebook, Twitter and Yammer and enjoy those casual encounters.  But blogging?  Sure, it looks easy and everyone seems to be doing it, but I’ve been very deliberately putting it off for years.  It’s obvious to me that I shouldn’t start blogging unless I’m truly committed to putting fingers to keyboard every week or so at a minimum – willing to string together thoughts of more than 140 characters.  This is certainly the advice I give to others.  Even when I’ve built and managed blogging tools, I have coached senior executives NOT to start a blog because they aren’t passionate about it.   I explain that if they start and don’t keep at it, then they will lose credibility with their staff, many of whom have their own blogs and DO find the time to write about things they know on a regular basis.

That’s the trick though isn’t it.  Writing what you know.   Writing about your passions.  Mine?  To name a few – Collaboration, Innovation, Risk Management, Environment, Home Renovation - all of which are hot topics right now (ever heard of HGTV?).   It’s easy to think there’s nothing new I could offer.  After all, even if I read all day, everyday, I wouldn’t be able to consume all of the information that’s being posted about these topics.

But friends and colleagues keep asking me for the web address to my mental musings.  They want to know what I think about things.  It is good that those who know me well also trust my insights and opinions.  They want to know what I  find relevant and what I feel about this opinion or that commentary.  In some cases they want me to be their filter – to help them sort through the masses of information or offer a shortcut solution to their problem.  It can be a bit daunting.  I wouldn’t want to let them down.

Fortunately for me there’s a lot of history to draw upon.  I’ve been developing collaborative solutions since before the term “intranet” was coined; working closely with a firm specializing in innovation; managing risk before Enron; working for environmental change since Project SOAR in 1971; and remodeling houses before HGTV aired its first show. 

The fact is we all have something to offer.  Perhaps a wealth of experience.  Or some new or different way of seeing things.  Maybe the ability to listen and assess when others are busy talking.  There are times when something that seems incredibly obvious to you will be the “Eureka!” moment for someone else.   So here I go, starting my blog.  Finally taking that big step.  Making the commitment after years of flirting.   It feels right.

Take a minute to consider your own situation.  I assure you that you have something to offer.  Start collecting a list of topics.   Pick a good blogging tool (most are free, and easy).  Experiment a bit.  Then, when the time is right and you are comfortable with the situation, take the step – hit the publish button.