Institutions vs. Collaboration
Clay Shirky, author of “Here Comes Everybody”, shows how closed groups and companies will give way to looser networks where small contributors have big roles and fluid cooperation replaces rigid planning. With many organizations trying to harness the power of communities and collaboration, Clay suggests that the key to effective collaboration is to embed it into the infrastructure. Doing so will enable taking the “problem” to the “problem solvers”, rather than taking the “problem solver” to the “problem”.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7291940258825832258
About Tom Davenport:
Clay Shirky is the author of “Here Comes Everybody”. His consulting focuses on the rising usefulness of decentralized technologies such as peer-to-peer, wireless networks, social software and open-source development. New technologies are enabling new kinds of cooperative structures to flourish as a way of getting things done in business, science, the arts and elsewhere, as an alternative to centralized and institutional structures, which he sees as self-limiting. In his writings and speeches he has argued that “a group is its own worst enemy.” His clients have included Nokia, the Library of Congress and the BBC. Shirky is an adjunct professor in New York University’s graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program, where he teaches course named “Social Weather.”
Yes, You Can Innovate Like Google
The words “Google” and “Innovation” have been used numerous times in the last few years… and all of us undoubtedly admire “The Google Way”, their talent acquisition, management and retention strategies etc. However, we usually shy away from adoting a subset of those ideas, with the usual answer - “we’re different”. In this video, Tom Davenport describes how Google uses chaos to quickly move from prototype to finished product, tolerates a high failure rate in order to ensure bigger success, and gets the most from knowledge workers. He also asserts that more companies can, and should, borrow elements of Google’s innovative approach to business.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8608770609255440579
About Tom Davenport:
Tom Davenport holds the President’s Chair in Information Technology and Management at Babson College, where he also leads the Process Management and Working Knowledge Research Centers. His books and articles on business process reengineering, knowledge management, attention management, knowledge worker productivity, and analytical competition helped to establish each of those business ideas. His website is tomdavenport.com.
How to be a social provocateur
As per Josh Bernoff, “Companies are like organisms with immune systems. If you’re a change agent, you’re the antigen. Your company wants to reject you, and it’s got lots of systems to block that – accounting systems, legal systems, management hierarchies, policies and procedures. Social applications and their champions run afoul of this all the time. Why? Because the people in your social applications – your customers and prospects – are out of control. Who knows what they might say or do?” Josh gives some great tips on “How to be a social provocateur and still succeed within a company.”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=11595290171423794
About Josh Bernoff:
Josh Bernoff, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, has risen in thirteen years to become one of America’s most frequently quoted research analysts. Josh’s analysis, which aims at a deeper understanding of people and how they use technology, has been cited by sources from The Wall St. Journal to “60 Minutes.”
