The wrong tools for the job

There are a couple of articles that have sprung up in the business press in recent weeks that have highlighted challenges with collaboration within organizations that have piqued my interest given my current work with #sharingorg. The first, the cover article in the January/February Harvard Business Review, talks about problems of collaborative overload. Specifically, authors Rob Cross, Reb Rebele … Continue reading The wrong tools for the job

One-speed IT

The Internet, and in particular social networks, for all their wonderfulness, are crammed full of banal aphorisms, insights that aren't insightful, and motivational proclamations that make me want to take a spoon to my own eyeballs. I saw one of the last category last week on one of the many channels I pop into now and … Continue reading One-speed IT

#sharingorg bibliography

Over the past few months I've been immersing myself in the world of collaboration and organizational sharing. Here are the books that have been helping me along the way... Danah Boyd It’s Complicated an anthropological investigation of how teenagers use social networks  Peter Checkland & Sue Holwell Information, systems & information systems a primer on … Continue reading #sharingorg bibliography

Living the values

I had a fascinating conversation this morning with the HR Director of a large engineering company as part of my #sharingorg research. He has been helping to foster a change in how his organisation collaborates internally and externally, necessitated by changes in the markets in which the company operates (they're big in mineral commodities, mineral commodities … Continue reading Living the values

Changing lanes

I spent a lot of time driving over the Winter break, and as a result had a lot of time to think as we hurtled down the French péage road network. Ironically, I seemed to be thinking a great deal about the challenges faced by self-driving cars... What has struck me is, as ever, the … Continue reading Changing lanes

Polishing my crystal balls

It's that time of the year when pundits start taking their crystal balls down from the shelves and giving them a good polish as they start to wheel out their predictions for the year ahead. The more outlandish the prediction, the more coverage it gets. The more outlandish the prediction, the more chance it's total … Continue reading Polishing my crystal balls

Anti-innovative

Back in the early 00s, as a result of my work with Internet services at the commercial arm of the corporation, I was lucky to be able to spend some time at the BBC's Research and Development organisation. Nestled in the middle of a leafy Surrey estate, Kingswood Warren was a mansion house scarred with … Continue reading Anti-innovative

Talking about innovation

Yesterday I had the great privilege to be able to speak about the concept of innovation with the board of a major multinational company. Having spent the past few months exploring themes of collaboration with many different organisations about collaboration as part of my #sharingorg project, I've picked up many stories about how innovative things are happening … Continue reading Talking about innovation

AirBnB isn’t a hotelier…

There's a meme about digital disruption doing the rounds of technology and digital presentations and social networks at the moment that goes along the lines of The world's biggest taxi company owns no taxis (Uber); The world's biggest hotelier owns no hotels (AirBnB)... I increasingly am starting to think that this particular train of thought … Continue reading AirBnB isn’t a hotelier…

Agile procurement

With news coming through of the Government's Spending Review this week, one particular piece caught my eye and got me thinking... Now maybe I'm reading this incorrectly, but that to me reads as a £1.3bn project to deliver a set of defined outputs by next year. Call me a cynic, but if that is the … Continue reading Agile procurement