SuperConnector – The Lauren Klein

Placing VALUE in personal networks

The Social Bloom — Time of the Social Bloom

As a social weaver, I think often about my networks. I do invest 10% of my time daily into reading, sharing and reaching out via the post office, phone, email, Word Press, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest and other networks to cultivate and nurture them. Certainly this has become a bit more challenging over the years with the complexity of tools, interfaces and compatibility that makes it more challenging. So what I try to do is the following:

1.) Create a system and back it up for you to capture all your key and/or tier one connections in your network.

2.) Flex your documentation muscles as details matter. Take time to document key information around your networks preferred interaction styles, preferences and likes so that you can remember names of family members, businesses, awards, alma mater, etc.

3.) Be authentic. Take the time to send hand written thank you notes, send flowers, books and/or hand deliver a meal. All of the personal time investment is going away with the speed the internet has given us, so now is the time to re-invest this savings into things that really matter.

4.) Give a Hoot. Personally I’ve found that by allowing the twitter application to connect with LI, FB and vice versa, my social networks get these updates and can customize their personal view as needed. I currently use Hootsuite to aggregate my twitter streams as it has an easy to use platform and a community based approach to support.

5.) Invest in your purpose per network. Take the time invest in yourself, your brand or simply hire a social media advisor to partner on your purpose and plan.

Someone recently asked me about the ‘size of my current network’? I wasn’t sure how to answer this question at first since it really depends, right? Immediately, I then started to analyze how social has changed the dialogue, the language and currency we use.

This notion of a social net worth is an akin to a financial portfolio.

In the future, perhaps we will be asked when applying for either a loan, credit card or job what the range of a ‘social value’ score that not only help them determine risk, but perhaps what someone views as a social investment. Truly fascinating how these social analytics are becoming game changers. As with anything, the public verus private ‘number’ will be something people yearn to acquire.

People, Pull and the Possibilities

With all the new tools that foster serendipity and real time feedback, do we really need HR?

It will be curious to see how HR organizations use their charter to further contour and shape cultures by partnering with functions within organizations.

I recently shared how I believe that if we in the field of “People” don’t invest more in acceleration versus deceleration in the field of HR, we will work ourselves right out of a job.

The purpose of organizations in some cultures is to connect them to their societies and physical communities. This is more true today than ever with the powerful social networking tools sprouting up all over the HRIS ecosystem. Which is why I am advocating HR becoming an accelerator and do hope that they will become an enabler versus something that is slow, behemoth and/or an engine that protects and creates more silos.

The danger is certainly real to use these tools to create more silos and inadvertantly focus less on people.

Recently I saw a demo of an HR vendor who told me they have ‘communities’ and when I asked several foundational questions about what the charter, purpose and cultivation plans? The sales representative responded with a retort that took me back to the ole’ client/server days where the value was in the ‘push’ information.

Which is why I believethe time is now to think about the People, the PULL and Possibilities. With the new social tools, we have an opportunity to harness the power of real time peer feedback and accountability all the while fostering candor, transparency and honesty. If we empower people to be courageous, provide the with processes and tools along with a culture that embraces asking tough questions of one another and management, imagine where could we be?

Lastly, as someone who thinks about social learning and culture, I believe we have a a huge charter ahead of us, with much work to do especially with the advent of texting and such with our youth. We must not take our foot off the importance of in person communications that are foundational to healthy feedback, debate and sharing.

The time is now. So let us POUNCE together!

Experience the Adventure

Reno Tahoe USA has a brand riddled with controversy yet there is in fact ‘more to know’ about the Reno / Tahoe area than what pop culture enjoys poking fun at.

Photo courtesy of http://www.visitrenotahoe.com

Instead of focusing on the why, I’m proposing we social brand ambassadors start discussing it openly through storytelling on the web. For example, we can use a twitter hash tag such #experiencetheadventure to aggregate experiences, stories, adventures and codes to serve as a real time focus group with real time social tools.

Why do it? You could bump your klout score or just enjoy the journey on a stream.

I believe we need to leverage our differences and similarities to drive brand transformation which will result in new revenue for the region while innovating.

We have great events cultural events; Burning Man, Art Town and exhibits at the Nevada Museum of Art. Yet we don’t seem to capture the entire web buzz that we could. We have leaders in the culinary arts field who engage with Nothing To It. We have popular new musicians like Whitney Meyer who recently was discovered on the Voice . Hip software companies like; Shortstack, Understand, GotDibbs who are helping bring jobs while re-investing in the region.

In terms of education, the Washoe County School District leader Heath Morrison awas awarded the AASA 2012 Superintendent of the Year and for the entire district beat out all other states for the award in overall Leadership in Communication. Furthermore, we have great sports teams, a new Discovery Museum and UNR which offer talent, learning and affordable programs.

This is just a very quick list. Countless numbers of organizations doing great work. However, we have more to do. We could invest in entrepreneurial thinking, alumni, and young leaders in different approaches than we currently are focused today. I digress.

Instead of focusing on the why the brand isn’t grounded in reality, I propose that as social brand ambassadors, we start to take the lead to help the region through using key hash tags to facilitate changing the perception. Through this approach, we can bring help promote job growth, economic stimulus and new possibilities all the while demonstrating new innovative social leadership.

Come on Reno Tahoe Adventurers, start to share the code #ExperiencetheAdventure. Nothing ventured anything gained, right?

Active Listening, a Core Competency for Social Business Leaders, featuring: Nick Howe

If you haven’t followed Nick Howe on Twitter, it’s time. He is a social business champion and hero who just happens to be a genius. This superhero by day has a key role at Hitachi Data Systems , Vice President of the HDS Academy, yet by night is probably the most humble, coolest, geekiest and happiest guy you will ever meet. He embodies networked learning in every sense of the word. He engages his industry through storytelling, like at Jive World. He is foremost a business leader who challenges himself to think about the disruptive nature of social business through active listening. LISTENING you say? How many times has a senior leader in one of your organizations taken the time to really listen and not ‘pander’ to you? Recall and value your thoughts and ideas, synthesize quickly and give proper attribution? Well, I certainly hope the answer is yes, but if you are like many people, those rare and inspirational leaders are unusual, which is why it’s noteworthy to celebrate when we find the attenuate. In fact, his personal philosophy is simple: “make learning a priority, trust that people will step up to a challenge and acknowledge weakness as an opportunity to learn, versus a threat.”

As a business leader he is constantly validating or examining what he believes his and his organizations’ roles are to achieve company goals as a continuous process. Not just a board room exercise once a year. Yeah, that’s right – the infinite Loop. Just like great leaders before him have, he is in constant examination of himself and his impact on the organization, his colleagues and his customers.

MerciChocolate — Merci, for chocolate, active listening and leadership

What I found the most profound in interviewing him for this blog post was his deep personal commitment to being a collaborative leader, who builds alignment, invites people into possibilities and empowers them. He engages in detailed community conversations with great detail and critical attention to drive business results, yet humble in his overall approach and demeanor that is exceptional. To use my food metaphors, like a scarce chocolate with intense and subtle characteristics, rich in flavor and depth. This type of leadership is commendable, addictive and perhaps will become a contagion that spreads the learning fever. Active listening and reflection are paramount for social business leadership; in fact I would argue these should be key core competencies for leadership.

Nurturing diversity of thought within communities is an art

Nurturing diversity of thought within communities is an art. The working title for this blog post occurred to me after reading the article and comments from “Firms Hail New Chiefs (of Diversity)”

If you are reading this article, it’s likely because you have interest in the subject of diversity, right? Ask yourself this question, do you know where your employee or consumer resource groups are today? What topics are being discussed? What are the key patterns? Who is discussing with whom about what? They are a great source of thought and inspiration, so why not engage them? It’s highly likely you have either been a member or are involved with either formal or informal E2E, B2B or B2C communities online and/or groups and teams that meet in person, right? Now think about your diversity of people (membership) and thoughts or outcomes. Do you seek change or are you wondering how to get more diverse

Just because you now have a social community channel, it doesn’t mean your community is diverse. Nurturing diversity of thought within communities is an art. It requires a team of community weavers with valor, flexibility, inspirational leadership and courage. These individuals link the unlinkable which isn’t something picked up in a certification class. It’s like an fine aged cheese, it requires an artisan and maturity. Some of the best weavers that I’ve had the honor to work with build trust, foster diversity, invite dissention and are comfortable with the uncomfortable. Many of these weavers have the competencies, characteristics or learning plans to:

Risk takers. I think this is a number one rule – don’t be afraid to go where other community leaders haven’t gone before, because that is exactly where we often find the most satisfaction, by blazing new trails to find new possibilities. So, go on now, get started, and take a small risk, then a bigger one and so on…
Think like entrepreneurs. According to Wikipedia, “an Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to help launch a new venture or enterprise and accept full responsibility for the outcome.”
Can work with a shoe string budget. It’s important to be scrappy and just figure it out versus going the distance to try to get funding. I often find that if you cherry pick and take that low hanging fruit, get video testimonials, quotes and in expensive feedback that you incorporate into your on-going conversation or proposal, it is faster. What I mean is that you can ultimately get funding by using a quickly capturing the story along the way that you are recruiting and identifying community members. It not only creates a social memory and story – but also becomes the basis for a longer term funding pitch.
Creative. Use new media to bring people into the conversation; do consider a twitter meet up, a new free hang out tool or even bringing someone into a formal meeting via Skype. Whether they are uncreative to you – they may be creative to others. I recently learned this through using the www.meet-meme.com cards. It’s colorful, vintage like and fun. Think about new ways to bring imagery and tactical into your conversations.
Leverage resources. Check in with all community managers to see if they have a few people they would propose that join your committee, core team or program. Check in with your social networks as to whom within their companies could come as a guest presenter to bring outside though into your company. Consider sharing with a competitor during a conference during an industry event. Read and read more. There is so much to find on twitter by just searching hash tags, that you will be lost for days trying to make sense of it all. Make sure to scan the on-line blogs, tweets and industry magazines to tap into some thought leaders, bloggers or commenter’s to get a sense of others to invite into helping solve your problem.
Know thy problems – speaking of the problem. You must know how to clearly define what your problem is and how this community of diverse thinkers can help solve it. Aka – community charter – but one common way to get people to rally around a conversation is by starting with a problem. People instinctively want to help, they enjoy competition, sharing and solving – so why not really understand the problem that exists and share it. Hard to do if it’s a B2C community or even B2B because it can show your warts – but that is what these tools are made for right now
Politically map – ensure you are asking everyone in your social journey along the way that is nodes they would recommend to talk to within the market, geo, function or ERG. Through this process you will start to uncover diamonds in the rough. Linda Linfield taught me this years ago, build relationships with those that you want to influence and leverage the relationship you have with them to influence their thinking. It’s simple and effective.
Walk the talk – it’s a requirement that along the journey, you embody the collaborative principles– it’s contagious.
Engage SMEs – make sure that you are talking to people that face customers and are experts in their subject matter – they will often have direct contact with customers, suppliers or employees that they rely on for their day job. Often times these people are hard to reach whether they are in the Amazon working on heavy equipment or just really busy loving their day job. But the people that are doing the day to day work are resources we must leverage – but be mindful they are highly respected and require kit gloves in handling as they are often hard to reach
Encourage inclusion – make your community a safe and welcoming place for members. Do practice being authentic, warm and embodying the community guiding principles!

Community Manners

Etiquette basics such as you’ll find in Miss Manners, Debrett’s and Emily Post apply in online communities also – yet it’s easy to forget about manners when we are saturated in a day to day online community environment, so we thought we could share a few manners we have found most helpful to guide our daily online community lives.

Understand people are different and don’t assume.

Do you like to have your mobile phone beep at you with new status notifications? How about listening to the noise of a colleague who has sound play for each tweet or instant message that arrives? The first question is about how you manage your preferences. The second is about how other’s preferences are important. Both are part of good manners. Language is also important – we may think we are being clear when we post a comment on within a community, but often they require clarification, explanation and/or further context. So, don’t be offended if someone comes across short, unclear or frustrated. Remember to be understanding, apologize and try to find another way to approach the topic. So don’t assume that everyone has your experiences, cultural understanding, knowledge or common language – because we don’t. Do assume positive intent and just invest in deepening meaning and understanding through dialogue and inquiry.

Invite!

With corporations, individuals may play a role formally, but do have many competencies outside of their current role. Don’t assume that an individual can’t or won’t contribute simply due to their role, title, etc. Often times you can miss great contributors if you aren’t trying to assume how and/or what role they play. Simply extend invitations and offers and allow members to determine where, what or when they will engage with the community.

The old adage that if we build it they will come simply doesn’t work. We can turn on facebook pages, twitter lists and linked in groups – but that doesn’t mean they will come. You need to understand your audience first and what is in it for them (WIFM) so that we are building a true ‘community’ where people are connecting over a product, service, business problem, or support issue. It’s important to be spending time to tend and nurture this community in a non heavy handed way and marketing is NOT equal to community. If you are approaching the communities as simply the same old marketing materials but in a new medium – that won’t work either, so make sure that you are bringing real conversations that are authentic, open and transparent into the social sphere.

Be honest.

If you don’t have an answer – quickly turn around and use your network within the organization or escalate through your management chain. The most important thing we can do as knowledge brokers is to find the information quickly and share it back with the requestor and then teach them what we learned. Was there a broken link? Then tell them and thank them for highlighting this oversight but tell them you fixed it. Then share feedback intra organization about this and/or think about how you can influence shoring up any broken processes in the meantime.

Jump in – walk the talk. You will get more credibility in a commuity if you are active in another networks–don’t limit yourself, consider joining other communities and post interesting research information, good videos and/or other content that isn’t just marketing focused.

by Lauren Klein & Sharon Crost

Social Artistry – Linking the Unlinkable

In a meeting in San Francisco with Etienne Wenger in 2008, we were discussing the critical role of a weaver in the field of Communities. It is more commonly known as a community manager. Etienne described this ‘community weaver’ as someone who is a Social Artist. This was the first time I had heard this term, yet when he described what he meant, I felt validated in the work that I’ve been doing for years. Being a weaver, or what Richad Koch calls, a SuperConnector.

Recently a former colleague was mentioning that they missed my role in the community. She was lamenting the fact that I’d rolled off that closed community project as I was invited into a new community project. What she was described to me in great detail in terms of the void that I
left in the community was that of the Social Artist role. This is why I’m writing this blog post, to help provide more visibility and credibility to this capability as it’s not yet mainstream and therefore something that CEOs and other Executives don’t value within their organizations.

Wikipedia describes it as a technique, “Social Artistry, ^[6]represents a new model for leadership. Houston, working through the United Nations Development Group, has been training leaders through this modality since 2003. Under the direction
of Monica Sharma, ^[7]then Director of Leadership and Capacity Development for the UN, Houston traveled to developing nations throughout the world bringing Social Artistry techniques to leadership groups. As of 2011, Social Artistry trainings and projects are ongoing in a number of countries and new leaders are being trained on a constant basis. This work is supported through The Jean Houston Foundation.”

PuzzlePiecesImage — Puzzle Pieces Cory Doctorow from London, UK

Social Artistry is a leadership skill where someone provides the glue and holds the entire community or network together. They have an innate ability to see strange divergent connections between disparate concepts together via culture, human beings, and notions of progress and development. They link the unlinkable. They foster a feeling of connectedness despite the divergence and most importantly they communicate openly and authentically. They make what could feel like a fragmented bunch of networks, instead the sense a community has is one similar to that of a puzzle that was recently completed, when you as a member visualize that last single piece snapping into place, which resonates
with your interpretation of that image. It just fits.

Category: SuperConnector

Experience the Adventure

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