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June 17, 2006
Paul Gillin is writing a book called The New Influencers about blogging — the book seems to be about marketing in the blogofied world — and has posted a pretty painless 25-question survey. (Here’s a column by Paul on the virtue of welcoming your critics.) [Tags: paul_gillin blogs marketing]
June 16, 2006
Wikimania, the big Wikipedia confab, is happening Aug. 4-6, on the Harvard Law School campus. It looks like it’s going to be terrific. And because the Berkman Center has been involved a bit, I’ve gotten to see how Wikimania is being organized.
I’m happy to say that it is being done entirely bottom-up. For example, take the meals. Everyone brings what they think is the best food. So, perhaps you place your organic peanut butter on the buffet table. I remove it, because clearly my Tofurkey is objectively better than your PB — better tasting and better for you. If you disagree, you can “roll back” the table to your PB, although I’m within my rights to re-replace it with my Tofurkey. This goes on until we come to some neutral food offering (NFO), such as peanut-butter-and-Tofurkey salad. Thus the issue is resolved, at least until some non-NFO bastard replaces our joint offering with some godawful sweet and sour soy ball crap.
See you there! [Tags: wikipedia wikimania humor]
June 15, 2006
Terry Heaton has an insightful response to the Nielsen Normal research about the marketing effectiveness of RSS. Along the way, Terry raises a key point about usability: It aims at making user experience better but not always for the sake of the user. [Tags: terry_heaton usability rss]
I am a satisfied user of CounterSpy, the anti-malware program, but that won’t stop me from whining. When you click on the “Abort” button when it’s running a scan, you get a dialogue box that says “Please wait while ConterSpy is working…” with only one button on it: “OK.” If it were OK, I wouldn’t be trying to abort! It reminds me of an old short cartoon in which a character encounters a rope dangling from off screen. The rope has a sign that says “Do not pull.” After much hesitation, the character finally of course pulls the rope. Another sign appears: “Out of order.”
June 14, 2006
Thomas Jefferson built a formidable library. Back when having 200 books was a big deal, he eventually had over 6,700, which he donated to the Library of Congress after the Canadians (those belligerent bastards!) burned it down.
Sometime before 1783, Jefferson started creating a catalog of his library, dividing books into three major categories that accorded with Sir Francis Bacon’s divisions of the faculties of the mind: Memory (history), reason (philosophy) and imagination (fine arts). Before then, however, he had made numerous reading lists. According to Douglas Wilson, in the excellent monograph Jefferson’s Books:
In some of the numerous lists he compiled for law students, which were usually not confined to works on the law, he arranged the recommended categories of books by the time of the day at which they should be read…” (p. 34)
Before 8am, you should read “Physical Studies, Ethics, Religion, Natural Law” and save “Belles-Letres, Criticism, Rhetoric and Oratory” for after dark.
Jefferson, by the way, did not think that the organization of knowledge — or, at least of books — had to reflect a single, GodNature-given order. In 1815, he wrote to the Librarian of Congress that a “physician or theologist” would arrange the books differently. Organization should reflect utility, he believed. In fact, one of this slaves reported that Jefferson would routinely have twenty books open at a time, spread out on the floor, not to mention the five he could have open simultaneously in the spinning book holder he apparently invented.
One person’s mess is another person’s desk. In the age of the miscellaneous, we can accommodate every type of mess and order simultaneously.
According to the monograph, Jefferson’s personal favorites were Greek and Latin authors, in the original languages. We know that Locke was a big influence on the founding fathers, including Jefferson, but somewhere someone has written about the influence of the Greek playwrights and Roman poets on Jefferson’s political thinking. Any leads? I’m just curious… [Tags: taxonomy jefferson libraries everything_is_miscellaneous]
Steve Rubel disagrees with David Meermen Scott about the value of “direct-to-consumer” press releases. According to Steve, they suck.
Yup, they do. There are two basic reasons why they suck:
1. Press releases are a weird rhetorical form, one-sided in the extreme, non-credible, and written in a bizarre form of speech found nowhere else.
2. Direct-to-consumer press releases are spam.
Plain old press releases need to be deep-sixed. They already are nothing but wastebasket fodder for editors. Mulch waiting to happen. The idea that their reach should be extended to customers I find actually depressing.
Is anybody doing this, or is it just David’s own PR plan?
(Disclosure: Steve works for Edelman, to whom I consult.) [Tags: pr media marketing]
June 13, 2006
1. Go for a routine stress test and have to give up after 13 minutes, with the treadmill ratcheted up to “Lollygagging,” because that’s all your little chinchilla legs can take.
2. When the medical technician takes your blood pressure, she says, “Hmm, looks like I’ll have to get the smaller cuff.”
But seriously, I’m fine.
Traci Fenton, founder of WorldBlu.com, is giving a Berkman lunchtime talk about organizational democracy. Excellent turnout, especially for the most beautiful day of the year. I’m especially glad to see that Traci has drawn first-timers, from union reps to workplace managers, in addition to the usual Berkpeople. [I’m paraphrasing throughout this post. As always.]
She says: In a democratic workplace, people get to decide which projects they work on and have access to the financial info about the company. This is the case at the GE Durham plant —150 employees and one manager. They make jet engines. All future GE plants will also use a democratic working style.
Organizational democracy = “democratic principles applied to a business context.” She cites Drucker, Wheatley, Senge, Hock, Semler, Collins, Fairtlough and Bower as sources of the idea. It’s not about everyone voting but everyone having a voice. It’s about operating out of freedom, not fear. Peer-to-peer, not paternalism. Humility and resolve vs. ego. Transparency vs. secrecy. Fluid networks, not hierarchy. It can become the norm, she says.
David Isenberg points out that the managers at GE (for example) get paid disproportionately high. How does this growing gap fit with the idea of democratic organization?
Traci says that people are rebelling against this. Whole Foods, for example, caps the disparity. Fairness is one of the characteristics of organizational democracy. GE overall suffers from the disproportion, but GE Durham does not. She points to other companies, too fast for me to keep up, except for Southwest Airlines…
Why should any one care? Context, cash and change.
The business context is changing because of technology: Employees have a voice on the Net and want one in business. Also, there’s been a reaction to Enron. And more of the world lives in democracy. And Gen X and Y have different expectations about work. And there’s a search for meaning going on (embracing our humanity). She says we’re going from the industrial age, to the information age, to the democratic age — networks, engagement, individuals…
Semco in Brazil flattened its hierarchy, gave employees a say in decisions, started job rotation, let people choose their boss, and let people choose how to be paid (e.g., hourly, by goals, royalties, etc.). As a result, their sales doubled, they launched 8 new products, and revenues went up 35%. Traci says that within this freedom, there is a tremendous sense of discipline. This happened because Ricardo Semler, the owner (his father founded it), at 25 was killing himself with stress.
Organizational democracy leads to more cash because it increases engagement. A Gallup poll showed that 73% of US workforce is not engaged by their work. Five years ago, that was 54%. This drives down revenues. Organizational democracy increases retention, increases efficiency, increases competitive advantage…
Organizational democracies have a positive ripple effect on their communities, decreasing corruption and increasing peace and stability.
WorldBlu wants to build 1,000 organizational democracies by 2020.
Q: People have been saying this for a long time. What’s the resistance?
A: People don’t understand how. Business leaders freak out because they think they have less control. I tell them they’re just giving up the illusion of control.
Q: People running the companies would have to give up a substantial amount of money personally.
A: At organizational democracies I don’t hear people complaining about the money piece.
Q: Does this work for low-skill or only for high-skill?
A: Atlas Container makes boxes. The average worker hasn’t finished high school. But they’re run democratically. Everyone knows what it feels like to be disengaged.
Q: (me) Is this a cultural change or can it be done incrementally?
A: It usually starts at the top, although I’ve blogged about how a junior employee can get involved. It can be rolled out at various paces.
Q: At GE Durham, people divide into teams and are given quotas. The team decides how many hours they’re going to work, they cover for each other, and suddenly they’re peer-accountable. I got the religion when I heard that.
Q: What’s the role for labor unions?
A: [Union organizer in the audience] This kind of model can work with the union. It seems like a natural pairing.
Q: Is this equally appropriate in rising and falling industries? And how does this play out with globalization and outsourcing?
A: I don’t know. How do the ethics of capitalism and the ethics of organizational democracy work together?
A: [audience member] Outsourcing can increase the knowledge work done by the people in the home plant.
Q: Are the outsourcers part of the organizational democracy? [Ouch!]
Q: Are these principles transferrable to very fluid industries where the parameters are changing rapidly?
A: Pandora is a startup using organizational democracy. It allows a company to adapt very rapidly.
Q: What’s your advice to new companies that want to start out right?
A: It’s not a matter of having standard processes that can be put in place but in adhering to a set of principles. At Gore, they use a lattice structure where everyone is related to everyone else. They share knowledge. “You have to find an answer that works on the scale you’re at.”
Q: What are the most common problems democratic organizations face?
A: At Pandora, the make-your-own-radio-station, people feel so engaged that they can be over-confident about the value of their participation.
Q: There are parallels between organizational democracy and the organic movement. The organic movement got coopted by the FDA. How are you working with large organizations so that the concept of org democ isn’t diluted?
A: You are in my head. We’re working on some proprietary tools that we hope will create a standard.
Q: Seal of approval?
A: There can be a backlash to that.
Q; Saturn seems to have gone from democratic to undemocratic.
A: At one company, they axed the CEO after the company missed one quarter, and the board brought in someone with a command and control background. I asked the old CEO if the employees had the strength to go forward. He said that there aren’t other job oppportunities. It’s unresolved still.
A: I love the idea of org democ, but it seems like it only works so long as the guys at the top say it’s ok.
Q: Yes and no. The movie The Take is about workers in 200 companies in Argentina demanding organizational democracy. Southwest Airlines also survived the replacement of the CEO.
Q: Why would the board care so long as the company is generally delivering? I something else going on?
A: Probably.
Q: Is one of your 12 qualifications having a certain percentage of staff on the board?
A: We don’t have set policies or processes. We recommend the adoption of principles. The Orpheus orchestra in NYC has no conductor. But their board doesn’t get it.
Q: (me) To what extent does the lack of democracy have to do with the fact that most companies are run by men?
A: Male CEOs who can run their companies democratically have this wonderful balance of the masculine and the feminine. They don’t have anything to prove, which is an important characteristic of leaders and workers in democratic organizations. Democratic organizations need a blend of compassion and discipline.
Q: What happens if the workers don’t accept change? Suppose they just want to follow rules?
A: A democratic company is not for everyone. Employees need a high degree of self-knowledge and confidence. Sometimes people have to leave companies that make the transition.
Q: I think this would work better in America than in some other countries. For one thing, when you’re responsible, you have to manage stress.
A: I don’t believe it has to do with culture. I think it has to do with the type of person you are.
Q: Does this work better for particular sized companies?
A: Smaller companies frequently are democratic just naturally.
[Tags: business democracy worldblu traci_fenton berkman]
June 12, 2006
Traci Fenton is the founder of WorldBlu, a company and a foundation dedicated to increasing organizational democracy.
Not sure what organizational democracy is? There are still some spaces available for tomorrow’s Berkman lunchtime conversation (12:30-1:45) with Traci. If you’re interested, send an email to Erica at egeorge
cyber.law.harvard.edu. [Tags: democracy worldblu traci_fenton]
Robert Scoble has announced he’s leaving Microsoft. On the heels of the promotion of blogger Jonathan Schwartz to the position of CEO of Sun, the Blogosphere has lost its only two examples of corporations productively allowing non-CEO employees to blog.
Pundit Doc Searls commented, “Now we’re down to three CEO bloggers and like a gazillion teenagers writing how much they hate their English teacher.”
In a note pinned to its site, the Blogosphere said it was going to “shut up about itself” for a while until it had time to come up with some new examples. [Tags: scoble humor blogging blogosphere]
PS: The Boston Globe illustrated its AP story about Scoble with a photo of Shel Israel, Robert’s co-author. You can see just a bit of Robert’s ear and eye where he’s been carefully cropped out of the photo.
PPS: Best of luck, Robert.
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