Make connectivity free!

I was travelling lately and I am still amazed at how difficult it can be to get reasonably cheap access to the internet for a traveller.

wifi logoWell of course there are some free computers to be able to look at some basic websites in most airports and a lot of hotels. I’m speaking about getting internet access for one’s device – computer or other device.

Want to connect your computer in wifi at the airport? You need to pay. Want to connect your computer in the hotel? Again, you are charged a small fortune.

Of course that depends on the country and some countries have understood the benefit of making free connections available – and they are often not the most developed. They are the emerging countries and the small dynamic countries like Hong Kong and Singapore.

Wonder why these countries will develop more value and will overtake the countries that still believe that connectivity should be exclusive and expensive?

Unleash value by enhancing free connectivity everywhere!

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Measuring the available cognitive surplus

A useful statistics in the excellent book by Clay Shirky, “cognitive surplus“.

Cognitive surplus is that cognitive capability that is available during our free time. It has steadily increased during the Industrial Revolution, in particular in the 20th century. But, it has mainly been devoted to broadcasting media, and mainly TV.

American watch about 200 billion hours of TV every year (and, interestingly enough, this is still increasing).

All of Wikipedia, all articles, edits, in all languages represents roughly about 100 million hours of contributions (over 10 years or so).

Hence, Wikipedia, this extraordinary sum of human knowledge, permamently updated (so much that it is a worthwhile source of information) represents less than 0.005% of the available cognitive surplus.

So… can you imagine what will happen when just 1% of the available cognitive surplus will be used for the community?

That’s right, it will be a true Revolution, the Fourth Revolution.

When do you start contributing a small share of your cognitive surplus?

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The education system revolution: developing curiosity

Our current education system was created during the Industrial Age. It was made mandatory in the second half of the 19th century in most developed countries to produce the manpower Industry was requiring.

What skills were taught? Basic literacy and conformance.

Einstein on curiosity and education
Einstein on curiosity and education

No wonder that Einstein reflected “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education”.

Curiosity is now what we need. What we need to develop – with some other skills like Presence and Choice. Because we need to educate for creativity.

When will we say “It is a miracle that conformance survived education”?

Sooner than we can expect, because the young generation today thrives by being curious. But that will require great changes in our education system. And then for sure the Collaborative Age will be flourishing!

Note – the image of this blog comes from the “Presentation zen” blog, a blog by Garr Reynold, a presentation specialist living in Japan, with some very interesting insights about what it takes to do great presentations.

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What motivates the K.E.E.N.?

There is a great video from Dan Pink about motivation: the surprising truth about what motivates us.

It shows the incentive schemes of the Industrial Age corporation only work for mechanical skills. Once the task involves cognitive skill, rewards lead to lower performance!!

What then does motivate the K.E.E.N, the Knowledge Enhancing Exchanging Networker of the Collaborative Age? According to Dan Pink, there are 3 main factors: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

  • Autonomy like self-direction.
  • Mastery like getting better at something.
  • Purpose like getting up in the morning.
purpose maximizer
We are purpose maximizers

According to Dan Pink, we are purpose maximizers, not just profit maximizers.
So, when do you start maximizing your purpose?

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The scariest is not to start something new, it is to stop something ongoing

I am a Coach and I find through my experiences that one of the most difficult stumbling blocks for personal change is for people to stop doing things.

We are often scared to start new things. What will be the result for us? How are other going to look at us?

But because it adds things to our life, our character, our reputation, because the new can be exciting, with a little or more effort this fear can be overcome, and we effectively start the new activities.

Though, you can’t continue to add up things in your life without removing others… or you’ll have a burn-out problem.

And then comes the even more scary part: removing activities, habits that one has developed over time. We feel comfortable with them. They become part of our identity. It is scary to abandon them for the benefit of some new, uncertain things and activities.

Stop and go sign
Stop and go sign

It is where most people fail: stopping old things to give room to new things. They don’t fail to start new things, but because they don’t abandon old things, they don’t devote the time and attention to the new things and they falter.

Overcoming the fear of stopping and abandoning things and habits is the hardest. It is where the Coach needs to concentrate.

So, when do you make an habit to abandon every year what makes 5 to 10% of your time and replace it with new, better activities?

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A simple habit to tame the lizard. Just for you.

I have a small trick to tame the lizard.

When you consider a situation, an event, always look for the positives before you consider the negatives. Always brainstorm the opportunities before the risks.

Setting your lizard in positive mode first will tame the lizard.

If you don’t do that, you will drown in the negative and never be able to look again at the positives.

This is so simple, yet so powerful. It is just a habit. It is just a simple way to exercise the brain the right way.

So, promised? In the next days and weeks when faced with a new situation, always think opportunities first. That will change your life.

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The bureaucratic entanglement (part 2)

Bureaucracy is pervading our mindset so much that when we are faced with a problem, our first reaction is to add another layer of bureaucracy.

Enron crash
Enron crash

Take the Enron scandal for example. What was the reaction? A book of new rules, also known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Voted by 99% of representatives and senators.

Add controls, permissions to ask before doing anything. Is that safer? That’s not sure at all. Is it stifling companies? That’s pretty sure – all the companies that can are fleeing the US stock markets to avoid the additional bureaucracy.

Anyone working on technical risk knows that adding new safety systems necessarily adds new risks. It introduces additional complexity, new types of failures. It generally lowers reliability. It often makes sure the widget does not work even if it could.

So, what’s the solution?

Bureaucratic approaches rely on removing the responsibility, bringing it higher in the hierarchy, splitting it between people looking at each other suspiciously. They rely on permissions to be asked before doing anything.

Make people irresponsible and they will certainly behave so.

The solution is to make people responsible. Entrepreneurs. Foster taking initiatives without asking for permission first. Give authority and accountability as close to the ground you can. Encourage people to multiply the value they create for the organization.

Let’s aim to remove everyday one bureaucratic itch in the organization. Within a few weeks you’ll see the difference. And more happy people that will be easier to retain in your influence zone!

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The bureaucratic entanglement (part 1)

Bureaucracy is stifling entrepreneurship. While it looks like rampant redtape is there for all the good reasons, it is stifling bureaucratic companies to death. Entangled in their procedures they will one by one topple over.
Open, fluid organizations based on decentralized accountability will take over.

Corporate bureaucracy
Corporate bureaucracy at work

In the industrial age, where communication was scarce and large companies based their competitive advantage on information management, bureaucracy was all about making the organization more efficient. Bureaucracy was the essence of the corporation.
Today where information management is inexpensive and can be done by anyone with an internet connection much more effectively than any bureaucratic organization, it is obsolete. The quest for efficiency of commodity production has been replaced by the quest for effective creative solutions.

As often with Fundamental Revolutions, what was the life-giving system of the previous age has become gangrenous.

Every day we meet bureaucracy: “sorry, that is not the standard operating procedure“… “I need to ask permission first higher up“… “that’s a good idea but it does not fit in the box“…

Sorry, but the game is over. Get rid of the bureaucracy or you’ll die. And slow death is generally the most painful.

Wake up. Reject bureaucracy. Do something today for others in your company without asking permission first. You’ll see. It’s great.

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Collaborative tools and catastrophes: transformation of the emergency response

Collaborative tools of the Fourth Revolution are reshaping the way we manage catastrophic events.

Examples from the Japan Earthquake:

If you are looking for information on people in the quake zone, Google has opened a Person Finder page.

Ushahidi, a crowdsourcing mapping tool, has set up a local platform for Japanthat allows people in the area affected by the earthquake to text the location of people who may be trapped in damaged buildings

And did you notice how Facebook is slow these days? That’s certainly because so many people use it to connect, give news to loved ones.

The full extend of how these collaborative tools will change emergency response is, I believe, not yet apprehended by Emergency Response Institutions. For example, this great video from TED shows how collaborative map making changed the response to the Haiti quake.

Emergency Response Institutions need to account for the Fourth Revolution. People are connected. They stay connected. And together they can greatly help themselves. When Emergency Response Institutions will know how to leverage this connectivity, their intervention methods will transform for the better.

Emergency Response institutions need to change. Let’s tell them.

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The power of collaborative information: a live demo, right now!

Do you follow the evolution of the situation in Fukushima nuclear power plant? I do, and it happens I know a bit about nuclear power plants and nuclear safety. So basically, as in any field where you happen to know a bit more than average, I am frustrated by the approximations of conventional media.

So, I was looking for the best source of information for me – not just high level plain-vanilla information but accurate and detailed information to allow me to understand what was happening.

I found it.

It’s not CNN or any of the television news networks.

It’s not the International Herald Tribune or any of the newspaper web sites.

It’s Wikipedia. The Fukushima 1 article is up-to-date as quickly as the professional media and much, much more precise and detailed.

Fukushima NPP accident picture (from Wikipedia)
Fukushima NPP accident picture (from Wikipedia)

The power of the Fourth Revolution in action: the collaborative enterprise of amateurs beats the professional news.

When do you start looking at Wikipedia and other collaborative news sites for a better information coverage?

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