Just before the weekend I wanted to share this interesting 10 minute talk with you about hierarchies and networks. For one because it's just fascinating to watch how RSA visualizes this talk. Secondly because of the talk itself.
Manual Lima's talk about "The power of networks" is fascinating. He gives an overview of how we used to try to structure everything in hierarchies and trees, because we like order and simplicity. And how we now shift to using networks more because trees simply can't describe reality. Knowledge, species, bacteria, our brain, our body, societies, etc. are highly connected. He wraps up his talk by asking if there is a universal structure? Well, do you think there is one?
Of course there has been lots of thinking and talking about what this means for organizations, people and technology. The shift Lima describes is the shift 'social business' and 'enterprise 2.0' is describing. And it's the shift social technology is trying to support.
Have a nice weekend!
LinkedIn as your intranet?
Dissatisfied about IT
The intranet is changing rapidly. The internet provides all kinds of free tools, like Dropbox, Yammer and Google Drive. More and more people are getting used to sharing (versions of) documents, online collaboration, sharing short messages, setting up and maintaining a personal profile, etc. Employees are often dissatisfied about the internal IT-tools and content-focused intranets. These tools cannot compete with the functionality we have on the internet.
Free tools as intranet
More and more employees are openly, and sometimes secretly, using free internet tools to get things done ('stealth IT'). Organizations, especially IT departments are struggling with this trend. Making things worse, the developpers of the free tools aren't laying back. They market their tools, implicitly or explicity, as intranet solutions. Recently LinkedIn shared they possibly also want to position their platform as an intranet. Some are even using Facebook as their intranet.
LinkedIn as intranet?
Could LinkedIn fit as an intranet platform? LinkedIn has functionality many intranets have or should have, such as:
- Detailled profiles and connections between profiles (social network)
- Groups and subgroups to ask questions, share knowledge and publish news
- Share documents with 3rd party apps
- Available everywhere
- Mobile access
The advantages of a LinkedIn intranet aren't hard to imagine:
- (Most) employees are already there; they have a profile
- They know how the tool works (intuitive UI)
- Fast development of new functionality
- The platform is free
- Customers are there as well (so collaboration and co-creation via the intranet is easy to set up)
- The LinkedIn intranet can be set up and configured quickly
But there are also disadvantages of LinkedIn as an intranet platform. I'll list a few:
- Security of company informatie is fragile
- Ownership of content is not clear: is it owned by the company or LinkedIn?
- Navigation of information is defined by LinkedIn
- No functionality for content management
- Integration with organizaitonal processes and tools is impossible or complex
- Integration with user management tools (ADS) is impossible
- Search is limited: it works in LinkedIn, but you can't seach from one searchbox over all your free tools and in your business tools, like ERPS
When chosing a platform it's always important to weigh the pro's and con's. If costs and collaboration with customers are important, then a LinkedIn intranet could be a good direction. However, if information security and integration with business tools is a priority, this direction is probably not right.
A mix of different directions is also possible. E.g. a LinkedIn intranet for specific goals like knowledge sharing and facilitating internal networks, and an internal platform to open up business tools and share internal work methods.
What are your ideas about a LinkedIn intranet? Is it a viable direction? Do you know organizations that successfully use such an intranet?
(This post was also published in Dutch on Frankwatchting.)
Difference between internal and external consulting: is there a question?
I used to work for a large organization. One of the things that intrigued me most when working for that company is how little questions were asked. It seems like everybody was looking for ways to create a need and get people to ask them a question.
The strange thing about looking for needs and questions is that I look for the ones that I can answer.
In my work as a consultant I experience the complete opposite. Working for an organization always starts with a need, a question. Often I have to help the organization articulate the need and detail the question, but the need and question is there.
As a consultant the big question is: do I or the organization I work for have what it takes to address the need and answer the question.
To me this is a huge difference. Does this relate to your experience as a consultant or employee working for an organization?
The strange thing about looking for needs and questions is that I look for the ones that I can answer.
In my work as a consultant I experience the complete opposite. Working for an organization always starts with a need, a question. Often I have to help the organization articulate the need and detail the question, but the need and question is there.
As a consultant the big question is: do I or the organization I work for have what it takes to address the need and answer the question.
To me this is a huge difference. Does this relate to your experience as a consultant or employee working for an organization?
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