Presentation by Charlene Li on her new book, to be published in May 2010 by Jossey-Bass. Presented at a Harvard Business School Alumni Northern California Club event, September 14, 2009.
5. 5 “Flying off a carrier at night into a pitch blackness scares me so much that I scream into my mask. I feel like a die a little death every day. I love my work, but suffer from insomnia – but then, we all do. The Navy cannot really train us pilots to deal with the fear -- they can only hope that we learn the skills to get the job done.” Lieutenant Luis Delgardo USS Nimitz
11. Focus on relationships, not technologies What kind of relationship do you want? Transactional Occasional Impersonal Short-term Passionate Constant Intimate Loyal 11
12. Give up the need to be in control Photo: Kantor, http://www.flickr.com/photos/kantor 12
17. Let Go, but Retain Command The Sandbox Covenant 17
18. Examples of Sandbox Covenants Plans and rules for engagement Have plans on how to engage Social media policies Develop contingency plans What to do about negative feedback/comments Line up advocates who can counter detractors 18
40. Find your open leaders Lionel MenchacaDell Paula DrumH&R Block Ed TerpeningWells Fargo Revolutions create the “moments of faith” and support in “moments of crisis”
42. Dealing with risk and failure Identify the top 5-10 worst case scenarios. Develop mitigation and contingency plans. Prepare everyone for the inevitable failures. 25
45. Discussion What are the biggest barriers you see to letting go? Who have been the open leaders in your career? What characteristics made them successful? What practices, procedures, and policies do you find helpful in encouraging openness? 28
46. Summary Prepare to let go of the control you never had. Determine how open you will be. Find and nurture your open leaders. Build practices into your organizations to sustain openness. 29
Engaging a community has typically meant creating and polishing a message that will result in an action. And you push, nay, SHOUT it out. And if they didn’t hear it and act on it the first time, you shout it again, with greater frequency and greater reach. Worst of all, you can’t see the people behind these messages. It’s been so crafted and controlled, that the people are beaten out of them. Worse, when they are shouting they can’t listen. Here’s an example.
He’s a musician, Canadian from Halifax, and generally, a pretty reasonable and nice guy. After a year, he was fed up. So what does a rational musician do? Write a song about it. And make a video of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozoMusician Dave Carroll from Halifax had his guitars damaged on a flight from Halifax to Chicago.United lost control of this situation.
The key is to focus on the relationships and connections that are enabled, not the technologies. Think about the kind of relationship that you want. Do you want it to be short term and transaction, or long-term and intimate?To help you think about this, I have a simple idea.