Category: Organization in the Collaborative Age

What’s hiding behind crowdfunding sites?

Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.org) is a site that crowd-funds creative ventures.

crowdfunding image
crowdfunding

It is part of the history of crowdfunding.

Have a look at the homepage. You’ll see many projects looking for funding. An example of a successful project is given in this excellent post by Mitch Joel: “kickstart your economy”.

Actually I encourage you to dwell into the projects and see how the site works. Did you get it?

No, the power of Kickstarter does not lie only in the fact that it allows funding for creative new ventures to happen through the accumulation of numerous small donations (the crowdfunding bit).

It also lies in the fact that donors vote with their feet (or rather, their keyboard and plastic card) on what projects they find the best. It is intrinsically a voting engine.

It also lies in the community building power around each project, with the project owner giving away some goodies to the generous donors, giving updates on the project progress after it has been funded…

Thus, what looks like pure crowdfunding is also a vehicle of choice and community building. It is a vehicle of the Collaborative Age. Below what just looks like a fun crowdsourcing service for weird creative projects lies the fuel of the Collaborative Age value production system: communities and crowd-voting.

Welcome to the Collaborative Age.

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The corporate revolution is upon us!

The coming corporate revolution due to collaborative technology becomes mainstream. See for example this interesting article by Forbes “Social Power and the Coming Social Revolution”.

Several examples in this paper show how consumers can influence company decisions, sometimes decisively. While most of the examples are negative (social networks impede organizations to do something), no doubt that with experience, those contributions will be leveraged positively by successful organizations.

Some quotes for thought from the paper:

In this new world of business, companies and leaders will have to show authenticity, fairness, transparency and good faith. If they don’t, customers and employees may come to distrust them, to potentially disastrous effect.

When confronting social power, you might as well jump in with both feet, because you just can’t hide. […] For one big company it recently turned up 60,000 different social media pages where employees mentioned or discussed company matters. (Not to mention the thousands of employee profiles on LinkedIn.)

Accepting social power as inevitable can significantly change the kind of products you design.

Says Microsoft and Lotus veteran Ozzie: “All this was unstoppable from the moment somebody installed the first network—this steady march toward reducing friction and reducing transaction costs faced by individuals. And you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

So, when do you start opening your organization? It becomes every day more urgent! And soon it will be too late!

 

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Open leadership – giving up control is inevitable

As the Fourth Revolution grows and spreads, giving up control is inevitable.

Leaders cannot any more control everything that is being done in the organization. Organizations cannot control any more their market as they used to do (for example, spending millions on advertising and measuring a constant return on investment)…

Charlene Li mentions the 3 levers of change – the 3 levers of the Fourth Revolution, pushing unavoidable change:

  • there are more and more people online
  • social networking sites usage is becoming extremely widespread
  • sharing is a rising habit

To that we need to add that with mobile technologies, employees stay connected to their own virtual world even when they are in office.

Do you want your organization to create more value? So, give up control! Stop barring access to social networks in the office! Real valuable work is anyway today not any more just dumb repetitive production, it is Creative, Emotional Work. Just allow it.

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The history of crowdfunding – the Fourth Revolution in action

I have had quite a few reactions from the blog post on Kiva.org, or how we can give money to needy individuals at the other end of the world.

handling dollar billsThat’s called crowdfunding.

Here is a link to an interesting post about the history of crowdfunding: the history and evolution of crowdfunding.

It shows how experiments are now following each other, more and more frequently, that allow small amounts of money to change hands, without the intermediary of a large organization (and its bureaucracy, risk-adversity, etc). Just because the Fourth Revolution provides us with unprecedented human interaction capability.

Will crowdfunding overtake the Industrial Age conventional financial institutions? For the moment it is rather complementary, a small scale solution to small scale problems that are overlooked by conventional institutions. Still, crowdfunding will become very important for many people. This is only the start!

Crowdfunding adds a layer of possibility on top of the existing institutions. That is what will happen with many of our usual institutions as the Fourth Revolution expands. Looking forward to the crowd-institutions!

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Guest post: How to be sure that you are a part of the 4th revolution…

Guest post by Olivier Lareynie, the winner of our contest on “why is hourly analysis of social network effectiveness fundamentally flawed?”

If you talk about the 4th revolution in your company of the Industrial Age (or at least try to explain it), I think most people would say “Yes, we’re a part of it! The company has its Twitter and Facebook accounts, we even post videos on Youtube!”.

I think that what we got then are two categories of companies and organizations.

what to do with social networks?
what to do with social networks?

Companies of the first category only use the tools of the 4th revolution as if they were from the Industrial Age, like radio, television or newspapers: one-way communication (nowadays faster), no interaction and no collaboration (even at short-distance).

Companies of the second category are aware that the entire society is currently being redefined, and are slowly opening to this new world. 4th revolution tools are not considered as one-way communication tools, and the first fruits of the collaboration and interaction are visible. However, these tools are often controlled by very few management people, and their use doesn’t means that the company is as open-minded as it seems to be when you watch it from outside.

Have you tried to explain the 4th revolution concepts to colleagues in your company of the Industrial Age?

I’ve tried. And I’ve realized that 4th revolution concepts are not so easy to explain, and can be misunderstood or misinterpreted very easily. I’m sure there are many companies and people who really want to thrive through the 4th revolution, but maybe they are thinking in the wrong way.

How to avoid the illusion of being part of the 4th revolution? How to help people and companies to be a part of it?

…Wishing Olivier a lot of upcoming blog posts!

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Regulatory authorities: the challenge of jumping into Open Regulation 2.0

Governments are reluctant to open themselves. Regulatory authorities even more so, generally.

Andre-Claude Lacoste, president of the French Nuclear Safety Authority, in a press conference
Andre-Claude Lacoste, president of the French Nuclear Safety Authority, in a press conference

When I was at the French Nuclear Safety Authority ten years ago, the President, Andre-Claude Lacoste, decided to publish the follow-up letters that were sent to operators after they got inspected and audited. He took this decision very much against everybody (in government, operators and civil society). They were scared it could give leverage to anti-nuclear activists to know all the small mistakes they were making. I myself, managing inspectors, must say I was not very comfortable letting my activity be under close public scrutiny.

I learnt my lesson. The end result is globally, today, a much more mature discussion about nuclear safety, and a much better understanding of the effectiveness of public control and regulation by all parties. The operators are much more careful to respond to the Regulator’s observations and are being held accountable by the public. The anti-nuclear activists watch how control is effectively done. The Regulator itself is more careful to have a balanced view.

That was a bold step. A step many regulatory authorities in many fields have not yet taken. But that was openness 1.0. – before the Fourth Revolution.

Although the French Nuclear Authority does use today many social tools, it is still only one way, only broadcasting. When will Regulators move decisively into openness 2.0?. Go and open discussion forums, create a network of interested people, let people comment on blogs and articles, let a debate grow, let people in the organization be in touch with the citizens, their issues.

Most people will think it is risky. It is as risky as when 10 years ago, Andre-Claude Lacoste decided to publish inspection follow-up letters.

It will only bring the debate to an even more mature stage, where the Regulatory authority, a public authority, will perform its job closer to the citizen. Where all parties will be able to express their views publicly and create the right debate. And at the end, where the citizen will feel it is taken care of.

Open Regulation 2.0, where the Regulatory Authority will foster debate and exchange on the industry it regulates, listening much more deeply and quickly to citizen’s issues, is the way Regulation will work in the Collaborative Age.

The French Nuclear Safety Authority was a precursor of Open Regulation 1.0. Will it also be a precursor of Open Regulation 2.0?

 

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Video of the month: Gary Hamel on the future of management

In the following video, Gary Hamel, an influential business thinker, tackles the future of management, or how management needs to change to get out of the Industrial Age mindset.

Watch the video: Gary Hamel on “Reinventing the Technology of Human Accomplishment” by following the link (16 min duration).

In the video, Gary explains what is conventional Industrial Age management, where it comes from, and why it is obsolete. Gary also explains what are the characteristics of the Collaborative Age organization. Don’t miss the example of HCL Technologies, an Indian IT company, where employees rate their boss, open a ticket when they are not happy with their boss or HR that get escalated if no satisfying response has been given within 24h, and more!

If you only have 2 min, look at least at this other video from Gary Hamel, “could you imagine a world without bosses?”

To finish let us dwell on this quote from Gary Hamel’s video:

You can’t build an organization which is fit for the future without making it fit for human beings

When do you change your organization to be more human-oriented?

[This video will be added to the Fourth Revolution Resource Center. Visit the Fourth Revolution Resource Center for all videos, book reviews and papers about the Fourth Revolution!]

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How the Fourth Revolution changes the military

The Fourth Revolution changes dramatically the military – for a long time the most hierarchical organization.

The military is hierarchical because in the midst of dangerous action there is not time for discussion and the leaders need to be visibly identifiable.

Yet today the military need to become smart in the way they seek to achieve their objectives. Information is key today, and leveraging Collaborative tools is a way to better identify important information. Leveraging on the collaboration of the troops for data acquisition and intelligence is just a way to leverage on the Fourth Revolution.

This interesting speech of General McChrystal on TED about leadership shows clearly the contradictions the military face today between their traditional hierarchical model and the emergence of the Fourth Revolution.

And recently, the USA published a new doctrine about cyberwarfare, getting ready for cyber wars.

The military forces of the Collaborative Age will be organized and operate very differently. And the military will certainly even change deeply as an institution. Are the military ready for such a change? Are they aware of the potential of changing the way they run intelligence and active missions?

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A first functional aircraft entirely 3D-printed!

If you are a regular reader of this blog you certainly remember the blog post about 3D printing and how that will change the world – making manufacturing as we know it obsolete. Anything you need will be available through on-demand printing at the corner shop.

The first operational aircraft model printed in 3D
The first operational aircraft model printed in 3D

OK, we’re still a bit far away from that. Still, a milestone was reached during the summer 2011 with the first functional aircraft model that was entirely 3D printed, flying!

More on this feat following this link to a blog post detailing the event and looking at what Boeing is doing in terms of R&D for real commercial aircrafts.

This other blog post is also very englightening as to the current status of progress regarding 3D printing (includes a MUST SEE video from National Geographic).

Traditional engineering and manufacturing  (assembling bits and pieces) are going straight for obsolescence!

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Are “charter cities” really the future? Is Paul Romer wrong?

In a talk about charter cities on TED in 2009, Paul Romer explains extremely brilliantly how cities develop their own charter, their own rules, to grow as cities, to create the value of cities as a center of exchange, of creativity. This perspective is very interesting, and applies to a number of cities who have grown with specific rules that did only apply within their limited territory.

In 2011, Paul Romer comes again to TED and announces that a country in Central America has passed a constitutional change to allow a city to grow out of nothing in the middle of the country, with specific rules to be developed for that new territory to foster economic growth.

I doubt that will work. All the examples Paul Romer is drawing upon – Singapore, Hong Kong, are cities that developed thanks to their environment, and not independently of it. Hong Kong was the door to China and thrived on this relationship. Singapore is placed at a key geographical bottleneck of world commerce, and thrived as a logistics and shipping platform. Can one create a city anywhere, with specific rules to promote growth, and hope that the city will expand?

I doubt it. Let’s watch the experiment and hope that there won’t be too much disappointment.

 

 

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How long will corporations still be able to resist to internal social networks?

Lately the pressure increases dramatically for companies to setup internal social networks.

Two main reasons for that:

  • a lot of people can now access internet on their mobile, so that they can access Facebook and the like without being bothered by the futile attempts by companies to block access
  • large commercial social networks become more pushy to propose solutions to companies (whether they like it or not), leveraging on the fact that many employees are on their network

This blog post about how LinkedIn is going to try to leverage its 100 million professional users to move into the enterprise social network market reveals that the pressures on the companies increase dramatically.

Still, corporations continue to resist (read again my blog post on why organizations do resist to social networks). Those that will continue for too long will be overtaken by those that will understand that social networks can unleash unprecedented value.

Stop resisting. Go for it. Start small and learn. And create the value you deserve.

 

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Establishing effective co-located teams is not in contradiction with the Fourth Revolution

There is a misunderstanding hanging around.

The Fourth Revolution allows long-distance communication, the creation of networks and communities across incredible distances.

Yet for the process of creativity to unfold, when something really challenging needs to be done, nothing can beat the geographical co-location of effective teams.

That’s not a contradiction. These are just two complementary ways of connecting.

For challenging work, for emotional work to be done, tight connection is needed, of the kind that can almost only be happening in a face-to-face relationship. This is primordial. And around these temporary, closely linked teams, a wide-ranging network of less involved contributors also helps.

This is the model of the Fourth Revolution. Travel and relocation is not dead. It is even more important. It is necessary. And it comes in complement to virtual, long distance communication.

When do you move closer to a team to produce something really exceptional?

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