Category: Uncategorized

Trust us to leave the office

A look at some potential offices of the future:

http://www.workshifting.com/2012/11/the-evolution-of-the-office.html

It does seem crazy as so many people now commute just to log into a network connection in a big glass building. I do wonder if in the future the only people regularly coming to the office will be the cleaners and the bosses. Most knowledge workers will be creating their own innovative environment, either at home or in communal spaces which avoid the demotivating and environmentally unfriendly commute to the office.  I think we had similar aspirations when the paperless office was always promoted but virtual and communal environments start to mirror the way an increasing number of people now want to live – not tied to a physical building but integrating work / life balance.

Social tools enabling networking, collaboration and knowledge sharing are essential to achieve this, as is good Wi-Fi connection. But the main issue will be one of trust. Trust in the employee (or partners, associate or whatever we will be called); trust in the cloud and the virtual and physical spaces we attend; and trust that the organisational has a real belief in cultural change and see it as a major shift in the way they conduct business.

Coffee and content on the move

Been working in a number of clients offices over the last few weeks and it dawned on me, not sure why – it just did, that nearly everyone was carrying around cups of coffee with them. It’s one of those behavioural shifts that creeps up on you and must have been part of the corporate culture now for quite a few years. It has replaced the notepad or the corporate brochure as that ‘comfort blanket’ that we carry around to us between meetings and offices (the iPad will soon replace this so maybe a coffee holder fitted into the iPad or tablet will be the next round of innovation!).

Anyway, the point of my musing is that it also dawned on me that we treat coffee the way we now treat content (or ‘big data’ – not sure what that is about but didn’t we always deal with structured and unstructured data or content from many sources?).  Many years ago (sounds like a nursery rhyme) coffee shops would be few and far between on the high street and squeezed in between the purpose of the visit to the high street, shopping (or browsing). We sat down in the coffee shop, consumed the drink in crockery provided, with spoons, napkins etc. Once finished these were then removed, washed and ready for the next customer. We left the shop with our business conducted and there was finality to the ‘event’ with no residue effecting the environment.

Now coffee shops are everywhere. In many cases they mask the reason for a visit to the high street. We have coffee on the move; it’s a mobile experience that requires more accessories that are thrown-away items. We leave litter and rush taking slurps that leave a bad feeling at the end of the day.

Content is providing a similar experience. It becomes more easily available and consumable everywhere; it’s rushed and starts to create more noise; it leaves us with litter and residue that someone eventually we need to clear up; and I sense it provides a far less rewarding experience.

I’m sensing that as we start to look at the consequences to the environment of millions of coffee cups and accessories that litter our high streets we will see the demand that we change our behaviour for the benefit of the environment. Indeed we may even start to savour it more.  The same with content. As organisations move towards enabling the workforce to contribute and generate content and data we will be looking at how we introduce behavioural change to ensure we don’t become lost in the noise, clutter and litter of content everywhere.

How formal do we need to be?

A recent Virgin Media Business survey had judged the University of Warwick the UK’s most ‘digitally savvy’ university with 92 percent provision of the services examined.

http://theboar.org/news/2012/oct/17/warwick-named-uks-most-digitally-savvy-university/

That got me thinking again about the issue of accredited qualifications within the intranet industry and how we still appear to have so few qualifications related to the world of intranets.

I remember Sam Marshall running a ‘Mastering Intranet Management’ course (a quick plug for Sam) but I don’t believe this was an accredited qualification (recognised by an educational awarding body such as universities or vocational bodies) – Sam happy for you to respond if this is not the case.

There are many training organisations that offer courses in areas that may assist in the role but, to my knowledge, none that offer a formal qualification. Maybe this type of recognition is not actually relevant as intranet folk come from different backgrounds. My original area of study was in psychology, and then I moved onto the study of how labour markets and organisations develop. This led onto knowledge management, online services and intranets.

Over the 20 odd years I’ve been involved in the connection of people to content and people to people I’ve seen the skills required move from very technical aspects around writing code, architecture and design, to the more business discipline around content management. Now I see the skillsets around assisting the nurturing of relationships and networks. I’m not sure there would be one formal academic qualification that would meet, or keep up with the shifting sands of intranet management and development.

I would be interested to know how other members of the group got into intranet and the relevance of formal qualifications in that path.

Any good plugs for training courses within the intranet field would also help the community.

Sprezzatura ??? is this the perfect word for the Intranet Manager?

Sprezzatura – Is this the perfect word for the Intranet Manager?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprezzatura

This is an Italian word for being able to do your craft without a lot of visible effort. It’s a combination of elan and grace and class, sort of the opposite of loud grunts while you play tennis or a lot of whining and fuss when you help out a customer.

Many people are unable to put their finger on it, but this is a magnetic trait for many of us. We want our lawyer, dentist and waiter to demonstrate sprezzatura, but of course, not particularly try to. Is this the perfect word for Intranet Managers? And I was going to order it with a tagliatelle!

Generation Desk

Been lots of traffic recently on what the workplace will look like over the next few years and even if offices, desks and workspaces will exist. I agree with Ross Dawson’s articulation around the need for common spaces to exist.

http://rossdawsonblog.com/weblog/archives/2012/06/will-offices-still-exist-in…

I also wonder if the drive towards migration from the office environment is a generational aspiration and / or defined by the stages of our life? I was speaking with my nine-year old son during the last half-term holiday, talking about what we are looking forward to over the next few weeks and months. We talked about the Euros (not the currency but the football tournament), the school trips planned, our holiday and then he mentioned that he is really looking forward to starting Year 5 as he will get his own desk! In the early years his class would sit on floor mats, then upgraded to chairs with a shared desk for each group but now, finally in Year 5 he gets his own desk. There was a sense of arrival, being a senior part of the school – one of the big boys.

Thinking about my own career journey I had been working virtually for nearly 7 years when I joined a new employer. The first minute in the office my boss walked me over to a corner of the office and told me “here is your desk”. Immediately I wondered what I actually did with it! I had been working so long virtually, in various office spaces, hot desking or as a ‘coffice worker’ that I had to remember what it was for. Needless to say after a few weeks the drawers were still empty as I sought to work not at a desk but where the ‘action’ happens within an organisation. I was at a stage of my life where a desk became irrelevant, part of a legacy that I was once held hostage to.

I started working ‘virtually’ when my son was born. I wanted to ensure I spent more time with him rather than catch the odd bath time at the end of the working day. So, having a forward thinking boss, I endeavoured to find ways that enabled me to achieve true work-life balance. Working in a global role helped so I wasn’t confined to the 9-5 routine, but through enabling technology I could complete tasks, innovate, create and add value in an environment I created, without the need of a branded office building. The common spaces were important but these were virtual rather than physical spaces.

Over the last few months I have been interviewing graduates and apprentices (generation X?) as part of some user requirement gathering projects I have been working on. One of the interesting aspects I found from the sessions, other than their flexibility around when they receive and deal with work tasks and the technology used to complete these, was the desire to go to a physical office, or common space. They wanted to meet co-workers, people of the opposite sex, people from diverse backgrounds, not to collaborate on work tasks (they can easily do this with their social technologies) but for their own development as individuals.

It got me thinking is the ‘digital workspace’ primarily for the ‘working parent’ generation that have matured to an extent that work-life balance means the mixture of quality time with family (both young and old) whilst continuing a career.  We always talk about social and enabling tools being something generation X demand but in fact do the ‘more mature’ workers that demand these tools to create more fulfilment within their working lives. Generation X may become ‘Generation Desk’ as they enter into the office and look for some traditional symbols that give them the sense of belonging. Will this generation be bragging to friends not about the ability to bring your own device to work but they actually have a floor, a desk, a desktop (ok – maybe not that far) to show they have arrived.

IBF celebrates ten years of defining the world???s best intranets

Congratulations to Paul Miller and the Intranet Benchmarking Forum (IBF) in celebrating 10 years in benchmarking and defining the evolution of the intranet channel.

http://www.ibforum.com/2012/06/11/the-intranet-benchmarking-forum-celebrates-ten-years-of-defining-the-worlds-best-intranets/

Through various employers I have been on the receiving end of IBF services and have found their benchmarking, research and thought leadership outstanding. As the environment (whether intranet, portal, digital workplace or whatever we call it) has evolved and matured the IBF have been leading the identification and articulation of these changes.

I have also worked on the other side of the fence, being the Content Producer for the 2010 IBF 24 event.

http://www.ibforum.com/2010/06/04/ibf-24-what-the-attendees-and-presenters-said/

Without doubt the 6 months of toil spent with contributors and the IBF 24 team have been the highlights of my professional career. I still carry the scars and the memories.

I wonder what the workplace will be like when IBF celebrate 20 years. Will offices and desks exist for knowledge workers? Will laptops and iPads be just a fond memory? Will enabling technology force management to change the way they lead? I’m not sure anyone can predict what will happen but I’m confident IBF will be identifying and providing thought leadership on the matter.

Congratulations once again. Here’s to the next 10 years.

21st century management, social business and feminine values – do we all need to find our feminine side?

Love this piece from hypertextual

http://thehypertextual.com/2012/05/03/21st-century-management-social-business-and-feminine-values/?goback=%2Egde_1829403_member_112419553&blogsub=confirming#blog_subscription-3

and supports my belief that the skill sets are dramatically changing for those with stewardship over platforms (many have no need to change but I’m sure the rest of us do).

It got me pondering on the new structures organizations need as various functions and technologies are becoming increasingly intertwined and extend not only to, but beyond, the firewall. In many organizations departments have traditionally selected someone who knew a little about technology to be the main contact with IT. The same approached happened with functions such as Knowledge, Marketing, Training etc. Now we require top-of-the-line technologists within departments, who are dually knowledgeable in both their specialist discipline and technology to really understand the way the digital environment works. It’s an area where intranet teams have led the way, being early adopters of merging business needs with the possibilities of the digital environment. As the digital world moves on the disciplines and roles of intranet teams will change. From the early days of intranets (we could trace this back to 1989 is we look at some of the early IBM work) the role of the intranet team has been based around the development, governance and maintenance of a database (or database apps). As intranets move away from the firewall the skill sets change. I believe we are looking more towards managing a users experience with content and relationships, in numerous areas, rather than managing a database that a user engages with. The softer nurturing skills will become more valuable, rather than development and design. Most organizations may be some years away from this model but times are changing and intranet team skill sets will change with them.

Resurrection of Alchemists

Love this piece by Braco Dimitrijevic from 2006 (currently showing at the Tate Modern – London) which expresses the dangers of crushing the innovation and creativity of ‘artist’s (we can replace artists with knowledge workers in the corporate environment).

The great gold rush to a social organisation should be tempered with a vision of what the future could look like. If everyone within an organisation becomes ‘social’ are we running a risk of conversation and sharing overload or do we just need to adjust the way we work to learn how to consume what’s relevant? Ideas welcome.

Changing the skill set to meet the digital game changers

Excellent article – be interested to know if anyone feels the ‘intranet’ skill sets need to change to adapt to the ‘game changers’?

http://www.csc.com/insights/insights/78770-the_next_generation_of_digital_game_changers?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 This is an exciting development for intranet teams, with changes to the scope and role of the intranet meaning an opportunity to redefine what they do and how they work. Intranet teams have traditionally been rigidly built around the organizational structure and technology, with the intranet team often emerging as an afterthought. The dawn of the social and digital workplace represents the possibility for some radical re-shaping of intranet teams in order to prepare for these shifts as well as open up new career opportunities in the area of social and collaboration.

Where content has been a central focus, this evolution will mean putting relationships at the centre of what intranets can achieve.  As this starts to happen, the intranet team’s role in the organization moves beyond design and communication towards that of a facilitating collaboration and knowledge sharing.

In addition, as organizations emerge from the recession, a new paradigm is becoming apparent as technology provision is no longer limited to the traditional IT department and argument over whether the colour looks right, or what graphic goes where. The availability of tools, many open source or “freemium”, outside the firewall and employees’ desire to use them in place of outmoded enterprise systems is compounding this trend.

While IT and intranet teams control, the new generation of workers are looking to innovate, share, collaborate, learn and engage not inside the physical boundaries of an office nor the virtual boundaries of a network but a social or digital workplace that spans the globe.

The behaviours, attitudes and expectations of employees are undergoing a seismic shift.  A new generation are entering the workplace, at ease with technology and redesigning our perceptions of private and public in the digital environment . This new generation, with a reputation for limited digital patience, attention seeking and being at ease with showcasing and communicating via digital platforms, will put pressure on traditional intranets to evolve in my dynamic and interactive ways.

These changes in the workplace do not mean that the fundamental skills we have looked at for intranet management are no longer needed, but they do mean that intranet teams need to respond by developing new key characteristics:

·         Becoming more agile and fluid – able to adapt quickly to new technologies and ways of working. This may mean learning new skills quickly, or bringing in these skills from other parts of the organization, or outside.

·         Becoming more user-centric – focused on fostering communities, and facilitating interaction and knowledge sharing. Nurturing the capabilities to make best use of the digital platforms available.

·         A broader scope – the intranet team may no longer be called the “intranet” team – an opportunity to re-write the definition of what the team does. For example, “Digital Communications Team” or “Web and Workplace Centre of Excellence”.

·         Leading by example – as the intranet team increasingly takes on the role of facilitator/ enabler, it is key that they demonstrate new ways of working in the social or digital workplace in their own behaviours. This is further emphasized by the fact that as the workforce becomes more technologically savvy (anyone can set up a blog, start microblogging, or find what they need on the web) everyone is becoming an “expert”.

  • Being the innovators  – as traditional boundaries and ways of working are challenged the intranet team need to become ever more creative in understanding the opportunities for the organizations online channels to develop and merge in new ways. To do so it is essential that the intranet team understand emerging technologies on the web and the user behaviours associated with them. 

A more visual digital world

Is it me or are larger graphics making a comeback and is Pinterest leading the way?

Pinterest is a step in an ever growing visual direction. There is definitely a need to step away from heavy text laden social and knowledge platforms in the age of smartphones and tablets. People want to be captivated by images and I think Pinterest fills the niche.

Even top news sites like the BBC have moved towards a more graphical display to signpost content.  Strangely enough Facebook have started to limit image size (more memory size than pixel size – is this a sign that Facebook is no longer ahead of the curve!).

At the moment I am working with some young artists and they love what Pinterest offers. Whether large organisations can derive benefit from it is another matter.

Much of my work is with organisations internal applications and there is a shift toward imagery across some areas such as intranet homepages. When intranets and external websites first entered the arena we saw large graphics used to make impacts on news items or links to key content. As more and more content piled onto sites the  trend then went to reduction of graphics and more links. Maybe we are all looking for a simpler doorway to content and relationships. Rather than bombard users with links, text and documents  the trend may be back to’ less is more’ but more relevant content with large, bold graphics as a signpost for them?

I must confess I always thought something like audioboo would take off as people became fed up with text and documents. Maybe Pinterest is the visual answer as we enter a more colourful and visually pleasing digital world.