Recalibrating Organizations

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Contents The split second that makes everything possible 4 How to make the most of the poten/al for ac/on 19 It isn’t always a case of mind over maFer 6 Integrity creates integral ﬁt 20 Businesses are bodies too 7 GeIng the synapses going 21 GeIng under the skin of the organiza/on 9 Being conducive 23 Dealing with the degenera/ve organiza/on 10 Listen to the body 27 GeIng stuck in the head 11 A new gene/c code for corpora/ons 29 Trac/on, thrust, push and fetch 13 A grand challenge and the change we need 31 Beware the crazed corporate zombie 14 A checklist for recalibra/on 32 New businesses pulses 15 Fired up? 34 Contribu/on as a corporate currency 16 About 35 Credit where credit’s due 18 Notes, references and acknowledgments 36 © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 2

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures The split second that makes everything possible This is the age of the rapid response rate. We’re used to doing everything in a click or two and technology puts everything at our ﬁnger/ps. So imagine for a moment if the transla/on of thought into ac/on from the mind to the body took longer than that and it travelled haphazardly. If an impulse going from the brain down to the central cortex to your arm took minutes and hours instead of seconds ‐ how frustra/ng and debilita/ng would that be? In the comedy, ‘Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask’, Woody Allen paints this picture with hilarious consequences. In a scene set inside a man’s brain, when Woody gets involved in a sexual clinch and tries to answers the ques/on ‘what happens during ejacula/on?’ there follows an excrucia/ng series of aFempts to command the rest of the body in ques/on. What becomes disappoin/ngly and abundantly, clear is that geIng the mind and the body to move as one can be a gargantuan eﬀort that doesn’t always guarantee gargantuan results. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 4

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures The split second that makes everything possible When this happens, synapses aren’t firing. That’s what visceral business is about, organiza/ons as socially capitalized and connected bodies that are lean and opera/onally agile with the ability Synapses, the junc/ons where automa/c responses take place, are to move people. sub‐surface, sub‐conscious and can’t be operated by logical control alone. Organiza/ons that do this have a strength of purpose and the ability to Synapses are natural, visceral, reac/ons connec/ng the soc organs communicate that purpose credibly and compellingly and they operate of the body to the central nervous system. They can be trusted to not as rigid ins/tu/ons but as fluid networked communi/es. be ‘on the money’, and most bodies ‐ human or otherwise ‐ are lost without them. A new gene/c code for the corpora/on is being wriFen and it’s being brought about by the opportuni/es of social enterprise technology. Whether it’s business or whether it’s personal, not being in tune with one’s own ecosystem leads to unrewarded, misplaced effort and More than just media overlay, the changes social connec/vity bring with it opera/onal dysfunc/on. are becoming recognized as both subtle and profound. Business management is turning increasingly to neuroscience, to And the technology that powers it paradoxically heralds a return to an neuropsychology and neuroeconomics, to understand the detail of how approach with human values at its core enhanced by accountability and to enable commercial rela/onships and transac/ons at close range. the efficiencies of data management and with a collapse of tradi/onal contexts powering new forms of connec/vity. And networked technology is giving us increasing knowledge about how to support human connec/ons so that they can work to best effect in Visceral business is business that comes full circle. Driven by more than corpora/ons connected by a common purpose. Put them together and management process, the body of the organiza/on is plugged into organic you get a powerful combina/on. growth opportuni/es, opportuni/es that benefit the commercial ecosystem, and opportuni/es that are sustainable. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 5

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures It isn’t always a case of mind over ma;er Businesses, brands and communi/es… all of them have never needed to It’s a fundamental aspect of the human condi/on that body and mind be more visceral than they do today. Visceral reac/ons stand for a level of work together. Each one is lost without the other and each are equally in connec/vity that can be a powerful and enabling force for business. service to one another. Though it may come as a surprise to many who may have thought of Mind and the body have to collaborate together for synapses to work conscience as a mental game, ever since the days of the ancient Greeks effec/vely and we’re dependent on those synapses firing within bodies to and Aristotle, conscience has been considered to reside within the body. survive. The same is true for individuals, for groups of individuals and for organiza/ons PuIng it another way, there’s much collec/ve intelligence that exists When neurons connect in bodies and in businesses, that split second untapped within the body of an organiza/on and the best way to creates ‘ac/on poten/al’, the moment of connec/on that makes develop it isn’t always a case of mind over maFer. everything possible. Visceral reac/ons work on ins/nct as well as intellect, an ins/nct that Ac/on poten/al is the fuel for business in the networked economy. It’s comes from a corporeal intelligence that’s impossible to fake, the flash of what catapulted Facebook out from the Harvard campus at speed, taking inspira/on or the twitch in the gut we experience when something feels it from an idea to a $1billion business in less than two and a half years. real and profound. Beyond viral, Facebook succeeded because it connected with real needs Visceral reac/ons lead to response and contribu/on. More directly and with simplicity. The top growth businesses of the last ten powerful than symbiosis, visceral reac/ons are ones that go years have all been online organiza/ons because they do the same; beyond mutual exchange and generate momentum and growth they’ve succeeded by making meaningful and direct connec/vity with through ac/ve engagement, learning and development. their audiences a powerful fuel for future strategy. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 6

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Businesses are bodies too In business management, this level of connec/on, this kind of synap/c response can also be thought of as ‘flow’. Flow is ‘a mental state of opera/on in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the ac/vity’.1 Like the neurological cocktail that’s involved in geIng synapses to fire, flow reac/ons within organiza/ons have certain cons/tuent ingredients. They come from having clear goals, the scope for concentrated focus, the opportunity to lose oneself in ac/vity that enables the merging of ac/on and awareness, a distorted sense of /me, direct and immediate feedback, a balance between ability and challenge so things are not too easy nor too difficult, a sense of personal control of the situa/on or ac/vity and an intrinsic sense of reward which means there’s an effortlessness of ac/on. Put together, these factors can create op/mal business condi/ons capable of enabling human interac/on to propel a growth dynamic for a collec/ve or a corpora/on. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 7

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Businesses are bodies too Many organiza/ons are based on mechanical processes, the result of In this respect, size and scale can work against heavily structured management thinking employed over the last 60 years and of ideas organiza/ons and create an disadvantage that’s akin to being opera/onally that were created in the age of the factory. arthri/c or musclebound. But for organiza/ons that are visceral and that achieve flow, there are clear Network effects mean the ar/san who’s hands‐on, elbow deep in the business benefits to be had, including lower overheads, increased efficiency, construc/on of his crac, these days has the opportunity to build a reduced churn, increased speed of business development, streamlined cri/cal following far more freely than the factory. business processes, improved staff performance and morale together with a higher market capitaliza/on and brand value per head. The ar/san can build a community based on word of mouth; he can build a tribe with whom there’s an in/mate connec/on, loyalty and meaning without Businesses now adap/ng to the networked age can struggle with legacy the middleman. In comparison to the factory, there’s a raw, visceral aFrac/on structures that make them seem unnecessarily ins/tu/onalized; they require that makes a craced business interes/ng to engage with. a degree of recalibra/on. Mechanical, factory thinking is linear, structured and based on output. The vitality of the organic body by comparison is based on Is it possible for businesses to be wholly effec/ve when they’re reliant on the fact that it grows by being scalar and highly distributed. external marke/ng s/muli to generate sales? A metamorphosis needs to be made, away from the mechanical frameworks of the factory, towards more Like breathing in and breathing out, businesses require both input and output developed natural and neural networks; here consumers and employees alike to thrive. As an alterna/ve to the one‐way dialogue of paid‐for marke/ng, the are members of the corpora/on as vital synapses, ac/ng as pathways to synapse of consumer response is what gives that dialogue a pulse. support viral word of mouth support, sustainable performance and prosperity. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 8

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Ge?ng under the skin of the organizaAon For both individuals and businesses alike it’s increasingly being A visceral business approach s/mulates spontaneous growth and acknowledged that success and advantage come from within the DNA. contribu/on and takes a whole body view, because when one recognizes that the neurology and pathology of organiza/ons are As with the human genome, organiza/ons have unique paFerns of relevant to business development, then rapid seamless synap/c behaviour, processes and competencies based on specific characteris/cs, they make up the DNA fingerprint that creates compe//ve points of responses instead of slow, mechanical ones become a reality. difference for each and every organiza/on. Ins/tu/onalized ways of working do not necessarily s/mulate the levels Corporate DNA is made up from a combina/on of factors, where and how of return they once used to do. In a increasingly socially capitalized an organiza/on originated, its heritage and its size. Other prac/cal environment, new technologies are bringing with them the opportunity ingredients include opera/ng environment, the norms and protocols of the to build trusted networks, new ways of doing things. par/cular sector a business operates in, how its management framework is It’s possible that conven/onal thinking pre‐2007 may have forever lost constructed, core competencies, geographic and virtual loca/on, corporate the means to generate previous levels of growth it once used to do. Since culture and the personality of the leadership. then, widespread decreases in market capitaliza/on have become the As is the case in humans, nature and nurture both have a part to play. With norm in almost every industrial and service sector. differen/a/on the key to crea/ng market share, DNA is a highly valuable Instead, network effects and how well opera/onal synapses perform are intangible asset with the poten/al to s/mulate affini/es more effec/vely, becoming cri/cal factors in business profitability and what makes an arguably, than marke/ng technique alone can hope to provide. investment worthwhile. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 9

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Ge?ng under the skin of the organizaAon Dealing with the degeneraAve organizaAon What the network effects of technology has created is the principle that Few organiza/ons tend to view themselves organically. In the face of the affinity is stronger than structure. huge benefits that collec/ve mass knowledge that connected communica/ons can produce spontaneously however, mechanical That means understanding what lies under the skin of a business, looking methods of management are coming under serious challenge. at its metabolism, how to fire it up, authen/cally, spontaneously, with all parts working together. Without synapses firing, the human body falters and suffers from degenera/ve disease. Without synapses firing effec/vely across an Today, the net worth of a business lies in the strength of its network, organiza/on, without visceral connec/ons rippling through its in its people. audiences, degenera/ve disease can strike an organiza/on in exactly the same way. Organiza/ons depend on the ac/on poten/al, the firing spark of the synapse. Some of the symptoms of this degenera/on include employee churn, sluggishness in terms of speed to market, a lack of innova/on, low levels of product take‐up, high overheads and reduced customer loyalty. One of the greatest economic impera/ves facing businesses today is how to s/mulate effec/ve par/cipa/on across audiences in terms of investor support, employee engagement and consumer response, and the connectedness of social networks has only served to amplify the degree dysfunc/on the factory model and the ins/tu/on have embedded within them. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 10

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Dealing with the degeneraAve organizaAon Ge?ng stuck in the head Dr. Dan GoFleib, psychologist and author of ‘Voices of Conflict, Voices of Many businesses are based on the principles of hierarchy, with the focus on Healing’, has observed the effects of this kind of disconnectedness within the a group mind largely controlled by an elite management team. It’s this elite medical profession. mind that’s deemed to have the intelligence, that creates the strategy, and that’s responsible for decision‐making. It is, however, ocen unconnected He points out how ‘people are going into medical school believing that they from and out of tune with the conversa/ons happening around it. Umair will be trea/ng human beings, and yet by the /me they get out of the system Haque has put it this way ‐ in many businesses management teams can be all they see are symptom‐carriers.’ said to be having a crisis of interac/on. In a similar way, the same Achilles’ heel came to plain view within the Organiza/ons today s/ll ocen operate off of Henry Ford’s old produc/on financial services industry when highly numerate execu/ves busied model where departments process ac/vi/es and informa/on, business themselves with genera/ng quan/fiable growth whilst neglec/ng the basic improvement engineering is a manufactured ini/a/ve, business intelligence viability of the system itself, with a set of long‐term and cataclysmic is conducted via planned, structured programmes of data analysis, consequences generated for the banking community and the global economy marke/ng is about pushing messages as part of a co‐ordinated campaign. as a whole becoming the eventual result. Command, control, cajole, all comes from the centre. This kind of behaviour is symptoma/c of a kind of entropy. The previously assumed value of much of our commercial landscape is undergoing When strategy and opera/ons are controlled this way there’s a risk of being something of a metamorphosis. Bricks and mortar now maFer less, stuck in the head and not in the body. The central nervous system of many the value of labour is diminishing as the market goes global, whilst the organiza/ons is ocen less than sympathe/c to what’s going on around it, making it less capable of being able to survive, thrive and perform. value of aFen/on and ideas has never been higher. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 11

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Ge?ng stuck in the head Being stuck in the head, de‐sensi/zed to the vital signs and senses of the rest of The factory ethos runs deep within the commercial psyche of the organiza/on, blind to and cut off from the conversa/ons and impulses that contemporary organiza/ons and the fact that businesses can develop are coursing all around it, goes against the grain of social capitaliza/on and is a quickly and easily and more ins/nc/vely than that is something we’re dehumanizing form of existence. simply not used to. When this occurs organiza/ons become less able to compete in the face of new Just like Woody Allen in the film where we started, these businesses need ideas and are cut off from the visceral experiences of the collec/ve body of a reinvigorated means of capability and control. their audiences. Homogenous and pre‐meditated, many businesses can have Without the itera/ve, adap/ve and forma/ve learnings that interac/on informa/on in abundance, but lack a kind of visceral intelligence. between the head and the body provides, resources tend to slow and become gradually depleted. Their stock in trade is ocen transac/on over connec/on and rela/onship. These businesses don’t value or benefit from water cooler moments, they The typical retail opera/on, for example, has the symptoms of this. don’t have the means to capture the itera/ve, forma/ve light bulb experiences that are seen as risky, uncontrollable but that can be highly Branch uniformity, cookie cuFer stores, value engineering to produce reliable, illumina/ng. consistent performance. Malls and local high streets look the same, and they can fail to offer any sense of differen/ated experience. Despite the collabora/ve breakthroughs being demonstrated by many emergent forms of organiza/on as has been showcased the film Us.Now Brand management has all too ocen developed into delivering methodical, for example, tradi/onal organiza/ons can countenance against these u/litarian proposi/ons that are ocen numb to the touch, low on new ideas, on moments. Leadership cultures based on driving through predetermined audience acknowledgement and reciprocity and on consequent goodwill and impera/ves may not recognize spontaneous and co‐created value as an trust; they can be unpercep/ve and unable to generate dynamic connec/ons inherently valuable means of management. Essen/ally these are the signs with customer communi/es and those that know their products best. of being stuck in the head. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 12

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures TracAon, thrust, push and fetch Produc/ve exchange involves crea/ng an adap/ve fit in which both When synapses aren’t firing and when organiza/ons don’t have the par/es move a liFle. History’s proven that the most effec/ve capability to react in real /me, there’s a lack of trac/on. innova/ons come, as Clay Shirky puts it, from ‘small groups of large people arguing with each other'. Tradi/onal management and marke/ng wisdom says organiza/ons func/on from the top down. In effect they have compensated for a lack of Think of those moments when you’ve had an interac/on with a less than connec/vity by using thrust. They deploy marke/ng ini/a/ves in which co‐opera/ve contact, or a mee/ng in which there’s been a liFle resistance. messages are pushed instead of fetched, ocen abusing the permission of Ocen, in the long run, they’re how the strongest bonds are made. Both their consumers in the process who’ve in turn become cynical and adept par/es end up learning something and having a sa/sfactory exchange at screening them out. The net effect of this has been that the underlying from adap/ng a liFle. trac/on and the influence brands are capable of having with their That process of adapta/on is an extraordinarily powerful one but is in consumer base has been slowly eroding. reality ocen resisted. It’s an anathema to the factory model and stands outside conven/onal management concepts. Lack of trac/on means the true fan is hard to find, and this makes the marke/ng overlay an ever more expensive lubricant. When the opportunity for crea/ng an adap/ve fit with an exac/ng customer is thwarted, however, a brand has created exactly the opposite Over recent years brand loyalty has disappeared like a landslide. Some of what it intended. It’s done nothing to fetch new customer would say it disappeared when promises were made and not kept, when opportuni/es, and instead done everything to push them away. corporate and brand communica/ons became transient, lacked integrity or failed to ignite the audience’s imagina/on. When everyone’s a Zappo’s has learnt this. It’s a business that’s grown exponen/ally by having a generous policy on returns, and by having stakeholder and consumer stakeholder, communica/ons are more transparent and connec/ons are dialogue flowing at all costs, even when what comes back flies in the face ubiquitous, the disingenuous get called out, or worse, are simply ignored. of the business plan. The new baFleground for brand ROI is social capitaliza/on, how to engage an audience to build potency by developing a greater sense of collabora/ve value that can cut costs opera/onally. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 13

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures TracAon, thrust, push and fetch Beware the crazed corporate zombie So when lack of trac/on is compensated for by thrust it equals overhead. Ins/tu/onalized structures tend to func/on via hierarchy and supervision, Compared to trac/on, thrust is a struggle to maintain and costly to do. but mul/ple management layers dull the senses, and in this kind of environment it’s quite easy to enter a world of the walking dead. With lack of trac/on having diminished the levels trust consumers have in organiza/ons and brands, made management costs increasingly expensive What broke the financial service industry in 2008 and has petrified many and led to decreasing returns, marke/ng is becoming increasingly a industrial sectors since, has been an urgent need to service a return on tax that’s paid for being unremarkable. investment con/nuum, to find a never‐ending source of value from a system based on financial metrics at all costs. This can then fuel a need for lower overheads that drives down the price and value of talent. Some would say this focus has led to a diminished emphasis and ownership of a number of other indices that may have been more Before knowing it, a business becomes starved of the very lifeblood that effec/ve in sustaining long‐term corporate economic well‐being. As a would, as a viable corporate body, make it fit and healthy. strategy this has driven a loss of metacogni/on and ruled out possible ini/a/ves as the risk of risk itself becomes the enemy. Businesses need trac/on and they need to connect with informa/on from outside and that’s why being visceral and the synap/c connec/on is vital. This is something akin to the world of the corporate zombie. We ocen seek comfort and reassurance in code and organiza/ons that aren’t When companies outsource their community management, what they’re programmed to accept devia/on or to accommodate the discoveries that doing is crea/ng organiza/onal overlay at addi/onal cost as subs/tute for are interes/ng, fresh, and asymmetrical run the risk of opera/ng in a internal leadership across all levels of the organiza/on. Not only are they dead zone. A balance must be struck and as the /de shics towards more poten/ally distancing themselves from audience par/cipa/on and open means of management; profi/ng ‘from’ rather than ‘with’ an involvement, they’re paying significant sums for the privilege of doing it. audience these days means consigning oneself to a fairly short shelf‐life and being vulnerable to more social compe/tors. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 14

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Beware the crazed corporate zombie New businesses pulses The world of the corporate zombie is a world where businesses exist in a As the railroad and the telephone transformed the way we do world of aliena/on between the corpora/on and the consumer, where business, the web is bringing with it new opera/onal impulses that businesses and ins/tu/ons have grown insensi/ve to changes within their inform new ways of business development. ecosystem as a connected communi/es, and they’re lacking a pulse. Whilst a ‘blink’2 response isn’t always accurate, the speed of modern Connec/ve /ssue in a human body revolves around contrac/ng pairs of communica/ons means we need to work with it more and more. In that point muscles deployed as opposing pairs. On a fundamental level, opposi/on is of connec/on fascina/ng things happen. Consider the gut reac/on, a flash of how we keep alert. In the human body, the tools of opposi/on are inspira/on, the twitch that tells you in a nanosecond something has moved how the human body becomes lean, efficient and organized, and you ‐ it feels like an irrefutable truth, and is the strongest mo/va/on for this is a far cry from the uniformity and bureaucracy of ins/tu/ons. ac/on. These are the kind of reac/ons that make people want to do something. What’s become clear over the last few years is that the hierarchical and bureaucra/c nature of many businesses and organiza/ons has been In a socially capitalized environment the strongest ins/ncts exist when our failing. As businesses strip out management layers because of economic bodies tell us to move, not our heads. The social web is an environment in contrac/on it’s worth thinking about one thing: Organiza/ons need to be which affini/es dominate, where rigid structures have far less currency than conducive to receiving impulses from without to be healthy, impulses that they used to do and where competencies that were once crucial in may fly in the face of management strategy, but that may be good for management no longer match the dynamic value of a community that cares. business. The management zombie by comparison is dead behind the eyes, fran/c but As the an/dote to the corporate zombie, sustainable architectures of ineffectual, and the corporate zombie organiza/on is incapable of making the par/cipa/on build bridges between a business and its distributed kind of visceral impact necessary for memorable connec/ons to happen with network. There may be some very real economic and social advantages to consumers. When organiza/ons block the paths for spontaneous contribu/on working this way. from their audiences they restrict their own opportuni/es to boost business through a free and flowing groundswell of energy, aFen/on and ideas. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 15

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures New businesses pulses Visceral business is different, thrilling, highly aFrac/ve territory. It’s bold This is a host of examples of viable businesses that focus on community and inspira/onal. Connec/ng and crea/ng distributed networks of communica/on and exchange. They’re businesses that can func/on well influence has powered growth of businesses like Google, Facebook, Bebo because they’re managing the flow of this exchange as an alterna/ve to and Myspace, and made them capable of becoming some of the fastest the more rigid regula/on of conven/onal management process by growing companies in the world over the last five years. leading and then geIng out of the way. Web‐based communica/on means influence and trust can circulate within loose communi/es highly efficiently and the power and value of this ContribuAon as a corporate currency emergent capability cannot be under‐es/mated. A host of social lending solu/ons are springing up to challenge tradi/onal When the visceral reac/on strikes, when that gut reac/on or a flash of banks ‐ Umpqua, Zopa and Grameen and Prosper are just some. The social inspira/on happens as a moment of truth and an irresis/ble, powerful web is crea/ng the community bazaars of Etsy and Aussiebum, the s/mulus engages creates ac/on poten/al, that desire becomes a form of authen/c engaging consumer experiences of LiFledish, Fairtrade and contribu/on. Threadless and Zappos, the distributed networks like Unilever's Shak/ ini/a/ve in India that taps into exis/ng networks of women’s self‐help And as social engagement and the power of people over product groups, the trusted networks like Mumsnet, the community recruitment becomes a primary driver of the commercial success, the ability to ini/a/ves of Zubka, the local community ini/a/ves being piloted by engender contribu/on within a business is becoming highly brands like Waitrose and the other companies that recognize their future relevant in ways that were inconceivable just a few years ago. lies in serving the interests of mul/ple stakeholders by puIng community management at the heart of the marke/ng and organiza/onal agenda. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 16

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures ContribuAon as a corporate currency Visceral businesses ac/vely seek out contribu/on both within and outside their It’s this conscious permission that lies ahead of any chance of consump/on. organiza/onal walls. Sale and consump/on has been tradi/onally where the energy’s been focused as hitherto the only important point of commercial transac/on. Consump/on Many exis/ng organiza/ons find it a challenge to work out how to accept today though is just as likely to be a page view, aFen/on paid via a free trial, this form of contribu/on, how to s/mulate volunteering, how to accommodate some thing that amidst the disloca/ons of our nanosecond culture and the this level of itera/ve fit because it requires high levels of adaptability, general scarcity of concerted focus aFen/on creates the kind of closer management with a light touch and communica/ons skills that are different proximity that necessarily has to exist before people will pay. from the one‐way, centre‐out conven/onal hallmarks of sales and marke/ng media. Without this kind of rela/onship a business runs the risk of becoming dull and expensive, it reduces its chances of it also being futureproof. Be remarkable, When someone first comes into contact with a business or brand, the first thing build a rela/onship, inspire and deliver a promise, and through that they contribute is aFen/on. rela/onship will come goodwill, knowledge, influence and ideas that can become a mainstay for innova/on and the fuel for future strategy. Whilst this is not hard currency, neither is it given freely. AFen/on has a value that tradi/onal business management approaches can discount or discriminate Let the users decide, find a tribe that needs leading. The best against ocen without realizing it. evangelists are prized ambassadors, the agents of value, they’re Many businesses mistreat and devalue the aFen/on they get paid by thinking consumers who spread the word. Ideally, they’re employees, and if that there’s too much cost in giving aFen/on back; they aren’t geared to they’re not employees, why not? Whether internal or external, the reciprocity. Reciprocity is worth baking in to a business model because in the advocates who spontaneously step up are the people who hold the key to age of ‘freemium’, valuing and nurturing aFen/on is a crucial part of building a future growth and effec/ve produc/on. following and sales conversion. Fan behaviour, their advocacy and their influence all create a model of With reciprocity in place, as trust builds, aFen/on travels to the front of the business development that’s self‐s/mula/ng. Just as in an intelligent central mind leading to conscious permission to engage. nervous system, these kinds of contribu/ons fire the synapses that can create a movement. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 17

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Credit where credit’s due It makes sense to treat this form of voluntary contribu/on as a currency and it makes sense to credit it as a means of consump/on and produc/on becoming integrated and aligned as a ‘profit with’ as opposed to ‘profit from’ rela/onship. This is a poten/al alterna/ve to the salaried employee model. Based on contribu/ons made, it’s possible that influencers and partners can become the new bedrock of a recalibrated organiza/on, where incen/ves are based on input as well as output, where strategy is co‐created as a viable as a way forward and where online collabora/on becomes transparent and accountable. Visceral businesses encourage dynamic ac/vity so that people in effect pay for their experience by being excited about it. As long‐held economic assump/ons come under review and freemium models are becoming integrated as a part of commercial business exchanges, there’s a need to think in new way about making contribu/on count for us in ways that we haven’t been able to before. What wealth can be generated when we’re able to credit connec/ons and contribu/ons made because people care and because they use their skill, their talent and their voice to make a difference? © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 18

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures How to make the most of the potenAal for acAon As I men/oned earlier, recognizing that the neurology and pathology of Organiza/ons can get suppressed, hysterical, knowing and angry, frightened organiza/ons are relevant to their development makes rapid seamless or simply exhausted. Without acceptance of this natural cycle, change can be synap/c responses instead of slow, mechanical ones a possible reality. a challenge that leads simply to burn out. For many this is ocen what it proves to be. Because of that organiza/ons can invest in becoming resistant. In an 1989 ar/cle in the Leadership & Organiza/onal Development Journal called ‘Organiza/ons Get Stuck Too’, Bill Critchley and David Casey described the main stages that organiza/ons navigate via a process of gestalt. This gestalt goes through several phases. Sensa/on, the ini/al visceral response, is the first phase of any s/mula/on; then awareness, that conscious understanding that confirms cogni/on follows. This awareness stage can be easily compromised but crucially is instrumental in cemen/ng any kind of group commitment. Following the awareness stage, mobilisa/on takes place, and from that and only then is there effec/ve ac/on, the opportunity to make contact, the scope for sa/sfac/on before, finally, comple/on of the experience through withdrawal and rest. Moving through this cycle in a balanced way creates ac/on poten/al at each phase, as each stage is succeeded by another. All stages of this cycle are of equal importance and both individual and organiza/ons can get stuck on it. Who knows the workaholic that can’t stop, the highly aware person who can’t help procras/na/ng, or the organiza/on that’s ac/ng in a frenzy but failing to make much headway? © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 19

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Integrity creates integral fit The physiology of the human body shows us that highly complex networks Social media creates a democra/c step‐change, a transparent age where populated by differen/ated collabora/ve ac/vi/es have great poten/al. the digital footprint speaks volumes, where informa/on is accessible, Bones, muscles, sinews, soc /ssue, bear out the wisdom of complexity theory where it’s socially libera/ng and where, despite the easy allure of and the need for organiza/ons to be highly differen/ated. These are elements socialwash, exploita/on is becoming a harder act to pull off. that all have a vital and quite dis/nguishable purpose within an overall whole. The human body is a hetararchy, and the best proven example of an efficient, It’s more and more difficult and counter‐produc/ve to do evil in the dark; self‐propelling system that we have. aFen/on is scarce and this is leading to a heightened aFrac/on to meaning. What it teaches us is that effec/ve synap/c responses do not require similarity and homogeneity but difference. The success of the networked whole, as people are coming to realize, is largely dependent on having a good reputa/on. That reputa/on has to be It shows us that a commiFed body can work together through just about any able to reach out and be aFrac/ve, with the prize that strength of blockage it has as long as it has integrity. This is a principle with the poten/al, reputa/on in a networked world begets new forms of value. too, to create highly tangible compe//ve points of difference for corpora/ons. Integrity is defined as 'soundness of moral character; honesty; the state of We appear to be coming to an age ‐ at least to some extent ‐ in which there is being whole, en/re, or undiminished'. In a networked, socially capitalized an end to edifice. Compe//on, transparency and an increasing surge towards and connected economy, integrity can be said to create integral fit. democra/za/on via the web mean that the winds of change are blowing, not just making it harder for management to hide behind a firewall, also making it So business leaders have a requirement to look at their organiza/ons and less in their interests to do so. see where there is slack, not simply as producers or as a measure of output, but slack in terms of strength of rela/onships, slack in terms of New business growth is being based on new values ‐ human universals, socer trac/on in the message, and where transac/onal aspects of slack there can values of crea/vity and innova/on, of shared goals and distributed equity, of be largely eliminated by technology. purpose, of meaning and peace. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 20

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Integrity creates integral fit Organiza/ons can benefit from looking at how to build the integrity of their The best brands have always had a combina/on of both of these two organiza/on in ways that highlight where the trust lies in their network, within aFributes, but what’s becoming clear is that corporate rela/onships maFer individual rela/onships, how they can build influence, and which key players can differently to how they used to do; /me served and track record can’t become leadership beacons for an outreaching organiza/on. indemnify against anything very much, the marketplace today is the landscape suited to the commiFed, of going above and beyond; influence is transient A characteris/c of businesses that fire on all synapses is that they have and leadership is about leaning in. not just integrity, but ‘blatant integrity’. Ge?ng the synapses going Blatant integrity doesn’t just hold up in the face of scru/ny, it reduces the chances of objec/on beforehand and significantly increases the According to Dr. Vasily Klucharev at the Donders Ins/tute for Brain, effec/veness of rela/onship building because it brings with it goodwill. Cogni/on and Behaviour in the Netherlands, our minds tend to converge to form a group mind when pooled together. Group‐think brings with it both This kind of organiza/on has a corporate willingness to embrace opposi/on and strengths and vulnerabili/es, and some group behaviours are beFer than in actual fact to welcome it. Opposi/on is taken as a sign of aFen/on, that others at being conducive to effec/ve group working someone cares and as such it’s a compliment and a chance to demonstrate leadership. These behaviours, as seen for example in viral or swarm behaviour, enable visceral responses to be poten/ally a powerful contribu/ng factor towards Barack Obama very publicly set the tone for this in his terms for leadership of his business health and growth. own administra/on complete with ethics leFers. Commercially, Zappo’s and TwiFer are the kind of rapid fire business growth examples where integrity of In the digital age, it’s the loose influencing networks, the neural service has propelled rela/onships from being casual to highly commiFed. pathways, that shape everything. The compelling case for integrity is that when an organiza/on is in integrity, a Neuroeconomics, a powerful emergent sphere of business focus, is trackable footprint becomes an substan/al asset making it possible to generate increasingly suppor/ng the view that there’s a burgeoning business case for posi/ve media for free by being compelling and credible. the synap/c response and puIng rapid‐fire itera/ve development on the new corporate agenda. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 21

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Ge?ng the synapses going The consequence of all these trends and development is that corporate There’s a marke/ng rule of thumb worth bearing in mind, which is that if your influence is becoming increasingly flee/ng, the cumula/ve effect of the ideas aren’t working they’re usually not big enough. Branding, as they say, is a brand becomes only as strong as the value of its last interac/on, and it’s contact sport, so what’s going to make an impact? Maybe, when building a an influence that increasingly resides in the reputa/on of its officers, as following creates compe//ve edge, opera/onal efficiencies and a host of associated opportuni/es, inspira/on now comes with a business case well as the brand as a whole. aFached, and that corporate renaissance is dependant on a flow of business In this context it’s important then that we look commercially at how credit can be ideas from previously more marginalized resources. generated in new ways. Decades of deference and the manufacturing model has encouraged a Organiza/ons should consider how they can build a following outside of a kind of collec/ve iner/a, where only leaders lead and only the most reliance on mainstream and mass‐produced media, through ways that include industrious will do the heavy licing. providing authen/c construc/ve commentary to business ac/vi/es on an ongoing basis, with a mul/plicity of leadership embedded into the organiza/on In synap/c flow this is rearranged. Income is derived from output and output that can build discreet, aFen/ve and reciprocal rela/onships with key audiences, comes from full and autonomous contribu/on. With the costs of contribu/ng credi/ng others who contribute as a given and valuing posi/ve contribu/on in all falling and more and more engagement being generated this way, it becomes its forms as the means of building new channels of equity and return. possible to create a compound value based on authen/city, meaning and personal sa/sfac/on alongside conven/onal, func/onal, u/litarian advantage. Having anyone’s aFen/on involves gaining their permission to operate, and with this comes a major implica/on, namely we need to treat the scarcity and value of This is how employees, customers, stakeholders and audiences emerge and aFen/on respecsully and recognize that being given any aFen/on at all is a engage to build business value co‐crea/vely. privilege. It doesn’t maFer whether an organiza/on is a u/lity business or whether it’s With this in mind, organiza/ons are being asked to inspire via big ideas and grow based on a cause. In either case, network effects enable flow to be used as a their abili/es to encourage full par/cipa/on; as Seth Godin says, ‘the whole is full business model capable of aFrac/ng cri/cal mass through co‐opera/on. of people who need leading and we have a desperate shortage of leaders’. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 22

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Ge?ng the synapses going Being conducive Being conducive one can be said to be going beyond having passive influence to demonstra/ng contribu/ve, helpful and favourable behaviour. How conducive one is, either as an individual or as an organiza/on, is an increasingly easy aFribute to read as part of a digital footprint. Conducive behaviour is a part of one’s sphere of influence and the personal reputa/on that now supplements corporate reputa/on as the network’s worth holds sway. ScoF Monty, Head of Social Media at Ford, is a prime example of conducive behaviour in ac/on. ScoF is a visible personality within a corpora/on who has effec/vely added his personal reputa/on to the overall credibility of the Ford brand online. ScoF’s communica/on with his own audiences on TwiFer, Youtube and across other social plasorms adds new channels of informa/on to Ford’s footprint and builds a following for ScoF that aims to support the Ford brand authen/cally. It goes beyond advocacy to demonstrable affinity, where win:win rela/onships can be sustained because the behaviour is seen as credible. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 23

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Being conducive Another hallmark of conducive management is leadership with a light touch; it’s the kind of leadership that allows room for such ambassadors. Just as a sign of successful technology is that it becomes invisible by being embedded, effec/ve management within a new media environment does the same. Effec/ve management doesn’t need the apparatchik to func/on anymore and in the digital age leadership skills are being redrawn and redefined. Within online digital community networks and managed data environments, the means exist to strip out the padding and cost of supervision. Transparency becomes not just affordable but desirable; the lack of trust that hampers the goal of being truly conducive can be eliminated, and these kind of conducive contribu/ons can be used as the fuel for future strategy. When looking at who and what to value in this new paradigm, it’s clear that community management and good communica/on skills really do maFer. The key ques/ons for organiza/onal leaders to ask are ‘how well are my people able to lead others, how responsive are they, how usefully do they contribute to the development of new ideas, how well do they s/mulate others to have a share of voice and how much influence do or can they have?’ © Ed Brenegar : www.edbrenegar.com © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 24

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Being conducive For example, two organiza/ons can func/on in exactly the same space The benefit of a brand that’s built on conducive behaviour is that and have a world of difference between them in terms of performance investors can buy into a network that’s proven, the value of which has a because of how well they connect with their customers and the good chance of increasing because alignment creates efficiency and conversa/ons that people want to have with them. network effects. The models of consump/on and produc/on are changing. As func/onal There is a prudence in looking at these socer indices alongside the competencies become easy to replicate and as transac/ons are numbers. becoming automated and traded up to rela/onships, creed It’s investment in reputa/on, in talent, in what already is. The group becomes a real point of difference. Strong impulses are developed by reputa/on of talented individuals with a track record is a surer bet than having an overwhelming sense of purpose that people can believe in. many. With the playing field leveled and advantages of scale eroded online, the plain, the vanilla, u/lity purchase is no match for a transac/on that takes place within a meaningful rela/onship where value is added through strength of leadership, dialogue and inspired ini/a/ve. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 25

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Being conducive As preferred and trusted networks emerge and shic us from transac/ons to connec/ons, life/me customer value and enduring rela/onships offer the most poten/al reward for any business. Long‐term consump/on, levels of input, word of mouth support, the contribu/ons of enthusiasts, they all encourage a sense of organiza/onal wellbeing. In all of them, what marke/ng becomes is the vision of consumers delivered as a service. There are opportuni/es to be gained by developing the leadership poten/al of each and every member of an organiza/on, each doing their own thing, each going their own way, each with a specializa/on, each being remarkable. This creates a kind of champagne effect as the strength of the individual becomes the key to the strength of the collec/ve. Being visceral helps organiza/ons and individuals thrive in an increasingly As far as audiences are concerned, different groups on the adop/on curve, socially capitalized world, where audiences are looking for credibility and innovators, early adopters, laggards, have markedly different needs. organiza/ons are looking for efficiency. How well a business resonates with their communi/es and business Mee/ng these needs creates powerful and potent condi/ons for business health development opportuni/es can be increased by thinking differently about each and growth. group and what they need. Those users that interact as users infrequently, compared with those that do everyday, for example, also have different types of rela/onships; they must have different strategies for development too. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 26

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Listen to the body The interes/ng thing about passion is that when it’s s/fled or thwarted by circumstance, it just gets stronger. Passion is an essen/al but ocen trivialized and much maligned character trait of the human spirit. Do passionate people give up when things tricky? It’s a fundamental characteris/c of being passionate, in fact, that they don’t. Acer a period of being s/fled, when one finds oneself in tune with one's passion again it can create a real surge of very dynamic produc/vity. With passion, it really is a case of absence making the heart grow fonder. Passion comes from listening to the body and the soul, and from respecsully tuning in to what really maFers. It takes /me. And whether that body is poli/cal, corporate or personal, this is what 'listening to one's body', means. In toughening circumstances it’s easy to lose sight of where and what our real passions are and just survive, but for connected businesses and distributed networks this does not do. And it’s easy also to get caught up in a rush of frenzied ac/vity, of ‘doing’ without ‘thinking’, without the calm reflec/on that listening to one’s body entails. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 27

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Listen to the body In a commercial context, 'doing' too much can obliterate any opportunity In /mes of uncertainty and depression, repeatedly the ability to see to do some really useful ‘thinking’. beyond the limita/ons of the darker horizons of a situa/on is fueled, most par/cularly, by passion. Thinking can be seen at /mes as a commercial risk when the name of the game is just delivery, pure and simple. Being in tune and connec/ng with the corporate body, in Steve’s case, Apple, made the passions within his people easier to connect with and The commercial accelera/on that’s been driven by the external investor success easier to achieve. It made a priority out of finding what ways and the consequent need for a year on year return isn’t sustainable in the would release a surge of meaningful ac/vity when the struggle was really long term when the system's got nothing lec to give. on. It was innova/ve, it was brave. Steve Jobs, when talking about managing through and economic Because social networks constellate around spontaneous, downturn, relates to the issue of passion. unbridled and uncontrived interest, they can be highly efficient “When the dot‐com bubble burst”, he said, “what I told our company was when without constraint in a similar way. that we were just going to invest our way through the downturn, that we For corporate businesses to have a good chance of genera/ng future weren't going to lay off people, that we'd taken a tremendous amount of wealth for their investors, investors need to allow organiza/ons to seek effort to get them into Apple in the first place ‐ the last thing we were an approach to wealth management that centers value around the social going to do is lay them off. network and that liberates the passion of their people. And we were going to keep funding. In fact we were going to up our R&D They need to listen to the body. budget so that we would be ahead of our compe/tors when the downturn was over. And that's exactly what we did. And it worked. And that's exactly what we'll do this /me.quot; © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 28

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures A new geneAc code for corporaAons The emergence of social networking asks us to take a more organic What it asks management is to develop a more sensi/ve intelligence, for management approach that builds on collec/ve wisdom and energy. organiza/ons to look at outcomes as well as incomes, and for businesses to review how they deliver on their essen/al promise and reason for their It requests we develop management that can lead and get out of the way and being that to a very real extent goes beyond the boFom line. new kinds of intelligent leadership across the span of an organiza/on, leadership based on contribu/on, and reward based on a rounded set of We’re in an age when unleashing latent talent, amplifying capabili/es and metrics. enabling the commiFed gives us a chance to stand on the brink of a emerging corporate renaissance. This autonomy is inherently aFrac/ve because natural connec/ons are more cost‐effec/ve than those that are forced. Permission lowers the price of Making deeper, more meaningful and sustainable connec/ons with entry, and corporate DNA is free. audiences has marke/ng, digital and HR implica/ons, it offers major opportuni/es for streamlining and structural change. The next /me you find your business struggling, tune in to what’s really going on under the skin. Is the business firing on all cylinders? If not, where are the blockages? How much aFen/on, imagina/on, confidence and trust is in the corporate footprint? What’s being ar/culated through networked behaviours? An organic and conscious management approach has fail‐safes set inherently within it. ‘Profit with’ instead of ‘profit from’ will call out exploita/on in the face of renewal. With best inten/ons established, feedback can be more freely given which builds the value of preferred networks. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 29

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures A grand challenge and the change we need As Gary Hamel set them out in his HBR ar/cle, ‘Moonshots for Management’, there’s no doubt management has some grand challenges ahead of it. It’s being asked to go from a being a mechanical construct to a biological, more humanizing one, underpinned by a changed set of economic impera/ves and holis/c performance measures. This is less about management consultancy, more perhaps about corporate homeopathy and holisi/c approaches to value engineering. Instead of a having a name over the factory door, organiza/onal futures may be best served by focusing on crea/ng a /ght body of people that stand for something. Acer all, people will forget what you said and they’ll forget what you did, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel and what you inspired them to do. Back to ﬁlm again, the place where this story started. In 1876 Eadweard Muybridge captured the essence of mo/on with his photographic studies of horses. At that /me, stop frame photography ushered in the age in which photography changed the way we understood the human condi/on as it exists via the study of the split second. With the advent of that new technology, a whole era of human expression and a new levels of understanding about the physical condi/on became possible. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 30

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures A grand challenge and the change we need At that /me and as a consequence of the technology, ar/sts like Degas then studied what photography meant and ar/culated back to us the essence of the human condi/on in ways that hadn’t been remotely appreciated up un/l that moment. Photography and that first mo/on picture, spawned the world of film. It created new media that made compelling storytelling, reaching out to new audiences and giving birth to whole new industries. In the same way now, digital technology allows us to make similar advances, this /me in terms of the corporate movement and how we organize. Capturing the flee/ng experiences that move us is the new goal of process management. It’s the prize of the synap/c response and making connec/ons is a new business benefit we cannot afford to overlook, either as producers or consumers. Response and contribu/on mark us out as valuable. These days then, maybe if you’re not geIng fired at least once a day, can you say are you really doing your job? © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 31

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures A checklist for recalibraAon Asking a few key ques/ons can enable momentum within any corpora/on. How strong is the organiza/on’s iden/ty? Beyond the logo, what exists How close is yours to being a visceral business by answering some or all of in terms of common ancestry, shared interests, experience, beliefs, them? geography, profession, shared problems, religion, philosophy? Do people in the organiza/on understand its origin and does it have a coherent iden/ty What’s the business about? Does it have clarity of purpose, a passion, a that makes the community congruent? cause, great ques/ons to answer, interes/ng challenges to solve and a common sense of direc/on? How are people ini/ated? Rituals encourage respect and commitment for the community as a whole and the part each person plays within it. Are What are you doing that’s new? What is the business doing that’s there roles and liFle rituals to help to get the right people through the about more than business as usual, what’s progressive? Where’s the rush door? of excitement about doing something that hasn’t been done before that’s going to bond par/cipants together? Where and how do people gather? Is there a des/na/on, a mee/ng place and a territory that members can call their own.Does it act as a Who and where are the leaders? Can the business point to benign, shelter, a launching pad and a soc place to fall? trusted leaders that are respected by its members, that act as totems within the business and are valued as such? How are self‐interests aligned with the common purpose of the organiza/on as a whole? Do you have a /ght body of people in your Are the leadership skills in place across the organiza/on that can inspire organiza/on, is the prize of being involved bigger than being in it for others to lead unselﬁshly and point out examples of greatness to follow in oneself? How are egos dealt with? Can they be lec at the door suﬃciently others? for members to be crea/ve and brave? © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 32

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures A checklist for recalibraAon Does tolerance and mutual respect exist for different points of Does charity maFer? In the most successful trusted and networked view? Are other viewpoints able to be taken in effortlessly and is organiza/ons, charity is recognized as important and giving is its own everyone encouraged to par/cipate? Does each and every member have reward. There’s a willingness to share, to give as much as to receive and the poten/al to make an important contribu/on to the success of the to ‘spread the stroke’. How much is this embedded into the culture of the organiza/on at any given moment? organiza/on? Is anyone able to join in? How inclusive and open is your organiza/on? How high are the levels of individual ownership? In highly effec/ve How does it deal with the aFen/on of those that are interested in it, so organiza/ons, high levels of individual ownership and collec/ve they have a role to play? responsibility co‐exist simultaneously, enabling them produce great results for their members and, at the same /me, genera/ng pride in the What’s the focus of your organiza/on and how well is it ac/vity that’s being created together. ar/culated? Focus is a sign of there being a collec/ve commitment and of dedica/on and vitality. Focus shapes the energy an organiza/on has at Is there a sense of collec/ve conscience? Strong organiza/ons are any given moment. How well is it defined? aware of what, and what not, to accept in their best interests. Both explicit and implicit communica/on ar/culates and confirms this from Is there choice and variety in ways that the commiFed can engage? /me to /me. That communica/on comes from the leader (s) and also How geared is the organiza/on to providing mul/ple ways to par/cipate, from the group as a whole. It upholds the common values the get involved and contribute for those that want to do so. Are you organiza/on has together. harnessing the best interests of these people? © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 33

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures A checklist for recalibraAon Not standing s/ll? Is the organiza/on responsive, does it innovate and What’s it worth? Is the organiza/on able to gauge the value of evolve, does it look acer the new and the young as the path to its future? belonging for its members as well as measure its value based on the How open is it to new ideas and experiences as part of a con/nuous metrics of what maFers to it and the outside world? process of renewal? Do the leaders encourage new leaders, is con/nuity an essen/al ingredient? Is it fun? How much pleasure does your organiza/on create? Does it have the capability to just aFract people who want to join in? How does it Does the organiza/on ques/on itself? The self‐ques/oning fare compared to compe/tors where being fun makes it even more organiza/on builds integrity this way and becomes something its people special. can believe in, valida/ng the organiza/on and crea/ng a process of perpetua/on. Does yours deal with the difficult stuff conscien/ously and Is it capable of exceeding expecta/ons? A ‘nothing is impossible’ re‐evaluate ethical issues in an open, honest and ongoing fashion? philosophy is a mark of confidence and is highly inspiring. The strongest organiza/ons offer the belief and the hope that the opportunity to Is there a baked‐in resilience? The strongest of all organiza/ons have exceed expecta/ons is present. They enhance and nurture their people resilience built into the way they do things, specifically by valuing their by providing strength in numbers and this way, the organiza/on goes heritage and when things get tough the stronger ones look acer the beyond exis/ng limita/ons together. weaker ones by passing on their experience. Fired up? Here’s what to do next How many ‘light‐bulb’ moments are you having? People form strong and powerful bonds when they have shared memorable, character‐ It doesn’t take much to get started. Some simple ini/a/ves can be forming, and high‐value experiences together. Light‐bulb moments created through the development of people and leadership skills, uncover something deep within the individual and collec/vely become technology or through marke/ng. If acer reading this you’d like to discuss part of a shared rite of passage. your needs, please feel free to get in touch. © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 34

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures About Part strategist and part pragma/st, Anne McCrossan is a specialist in business and brand development based in London focused on helping organiza/ons make the most of their intangible assets in /mes of transforma/on and change. Visceral Business is an approach to marke/ng and organiza/onal development that helps businesses align their digital ac/vity, human resources and marke/ng to help organiza/ons adapt to an increasingly socially capitalized world. Anne McCrossan (+44) 0203 355 0582 It helps organiza/ons develop strategies for par/cipa/on and create lean and (+44) 07508 021951 eﬀec/ve networks and works with businesses across strategic development, organiza/onal change, marke/ng communica/ons and employee and Web www.visceralbusiness.com audience engagement and with brands to help them make deeper, more www.annemccrossan.com meaningful and sustainable connec/ons with audiences. Blog hFp://annemccrossan.com/a_bit_visceral Our areas of exper/se include brand and business audits, strategic posi/oning assignments, leadership and social media coaching, brand iden/ty Email anne@vicsceralbusiness.com development and community and communica/ons management. TwiFer@Annemcx © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 35

Recalibrating organizations Thoughts about organiza/onal futures Notes, references and acknowledgements 1 Flow: The Psychology of Op/mal Experience’, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Defini/on source from Wikipedia 2 ‘Blink’, Malcolm Gladwell ‘How We Decide’, Jonah Lehrer ‘Tribes’, Seth Godin ‘Voices of Conflict, Voices of Healing’, Dr. Dan GoFleib ‘Construc/ve Capitalism’, Umair Haque ‘Here Comes Everybody’, Clay Shirky ‘What would Google Do?’, Jeff Jarvis ‘Organiza/ons Get Stuck Too’, Bill Critchley and David Casey ‘Moonshots for Management’, Gary Hamel, HBR, Feb 2009 Us Now. Watch the film at hFp://watch.usnowfilm.com/ Illustra/ons by Hugh McLeod www.gapingvoid.com Cover photo by Gunnar Freyr hFp://www.flickr.com/photos/gunnarfreyr/2210695636/ © 2009 Anne McCrossan. All rights reserved. 36

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Recalibrating Organizations

by Anne McCrossan on May 14, 2009

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Recalibrating Organizations — Presentation Transcript