Innovation - Servant of Chaos

Saying is Momentary, Doing is Forever

Creativity, Digital Strategy, Innovation, Social Media

Over the past couple of weeks I have been doing workshops and talks and entertaining people with what I call “the magic quadrant of getting shit done”. It’s this chart of “walkers, talkers, stalkers and baulkers” – the four basic behaviours that people exhibit when presented with some kind of change.

This tends to get people talking – which is great. But more importantly, it provides us with a shared language. It helps us identify, from a 1000ft point of view, what is happening for the people who are involved in our projects – and allows us to name a behaviour. It allows us to identify individuals and then develop a plan to shift their behaviour (or to amplify their best efforts as appropriate).

Now, changing someone’s behaviour is never easy. It requires focus and commitment (from you). It requires a plan and often a great deal of time (also from you). Remember, the person, the organisation or the brand you are trying to change has little incentive to change – so the onus is on you.

While I have worked in marketing for years, most of what I actually do comes from the world of corporate “change management”. It just so happens that brands and branding are a great way of curating an ongoing narrative about change. I learned this early on and continue to bring this into every strategy I produce and every tactic that I use.

When I was recently asked about the difference between “talkers” and “walkers”, I realised that sometimes the talkers actually think THEY are the walkers. This is not just a case of drinking your own kool aid – it’s a lack of understanding of the principles of change management.

The talkers believe that simply identifying a gap or a problem is enough. They may even go so far as to point out a solution (which may or may not be obvious). In some cases they can even provide a connection – a person, a business or a recommendation to help. But this is not enough. Success means that even the most articulate and passionate talkers must at some stage shift mode and become walkers (or at least hire or surround themselves with some).

Saying is momentary, doing is forever. In the words of The King – what we need is a little less conversation, a little more action.

Don’t Target Your Fans, Target their Friends

Community, Innovation, Smart Bloggers, Social Media

During a presentation recently by Steve Sammartino, I was reminded of one of the most simple human behaviours – the short cut. Put simply, Steve told us, with no inducement humans will seek a short cut, a loophole, or way around a roadblock. We’ll look to “game” the system.

I think this is, in part, why we sometimes struggle with social media.

You see, social media is a great complex beast. It appears easy on the surface – setup one or more free accounts and go! But we all soon learn that growing a Twitter following is hard graft. We learn that our customers don’t always want to be our Fans. And that “being social” as a person doesn’t always translate to “being social” as a brand.

But I think this is largely due to our narrow focus – to our desire to take a short cut. Think about Facebook. We think – in our marketing world view – that the best approach to grow a community or fan base is to target our customers. BUT that isn’t social – that’s broadcast. That is assumption writ large. The underlying assumption is “I’ve got something for you”.

Perhaps, instead, we need to think about giving, pushing or delivering. We need to think about SERVING. How do we serve our customers needs?

And taking a purely social mindset, clearly the answer is to serve our customers friends.

Facebook and ComScore have teamed up to provide a new service called Social Essentials. If only 16% of branded messages reach Facebook users in a given week, we clearly need a different approach – and Social Essentials aims to bring the network scale to bear on this problem. For example, Starbucks has 23 million Facebook fans. Sounds big, right? But those 23 million fans have 670 million friends. Now that is what I call reach! But more importantly, it explains and commoditises what we too often call “influence” (and no, influence isn’t your Klout score).

For the moment, Social Essentials seems to be about the measurement of campaigns, but there are big plans afoot. As FastCompany reports:

The service will, in the future, be able to track what kinds of products users are purchasing, what they were doing before and after seeing messages, and even what type of credit card was used–making it easier to conjure up savvy promotions that scintillate the particular pressure points of Facebook users.

Nike has called Facebook the “new TV” – and this new service sounds like it may just start delivering the digitally-verifiable reach that TV has claimed for decades. But it will become really interesting when this data is turned inside out and becomes available for real time targeting. I bet that’s what Google will be doing with Google+.

Do You Know a SuperNova?

Innovation, Life

There was a time where I would cast a curious and sceptical eye across any new innovation, platform, technology or website that would make its way to market. I’d look for the holes. For the things that could have been done better. And I’d find them – there are always plenty.

But time and experience has shown me that every success is built upon the shoulders of a thousand small failures. To bring something new to market doesn’t just require tenacity. Or a budget. Or a team. It requires a whole range of skills and capabilities. It requires thick skin. It requires an individual with a pioneering spirit and the passion to identify, embrace and deliver innovation – sometimes even when your business or your bosses don’t see the need.

And sometimes, just sometimes, at the end – everyone loves it. Wants to own it. Claim it.

The SuperNova is the unsung hero who made it happen.

They may not have had the recognition they deserve – but you know who they are, right? They are the folks you’d gladly work with, support, or join forces with.

Well, if you ARE a SuperNova – or know one – Constellation Research Group are calling out for nominations. There are only a few days left! There are five categories in which you can submit your application:

Social business
Mobile enterprise
Cloud computing
Advanced analytics
Emerging technologies

These types of awards come along rarely – and this is a great chance to have an innovator recognised for their work. Get to it. Nominate now.

Roger McNamee – The Social Web is Over

FutureVisions, Innovation

Roger McNamee has us all talking. He is a director and co-founder of venture capitalist, Elevation Partners – and has been investing in technology for almost 30 years.

In this 30 minute speech, 10 Hypotheses for Tech Investing, Roger brings his history and knowledge to his speech at the Paley Center for Media – and it’s fascinating. There’s another 20 or so minutes of Q+A which follows – but it’s well worth your time. In the talk, Roger canvases:

The demise of Microsoft and the opportunities that may arise (especially in the enterprise)
The challenges that Google face due to the shift in relevance of search
The power of experience and why HTML5 will allow communities, developers and publishers to out innovate Apple (and if you sell ads on TV, you want to get onboard now)
The need for all innovators and business people to understand what tablet computing means for their business. He likens the iPad to the IBM PC – and claims there has not been another company like Apple since IBM in the 1970s
Any screen access – “the cloud” enables us to access our data from any screen that we have. But Google, Facebook, Microsoft have failed to get mobile right – and Apple’s no better
The “Social Web is Over” – Facebook has won and is now a commodity
The internet enabled TV will reveal that viewer statistics aren’t as strong as ratings agency suggest they are (TV is the last protected media)

Walkers, Talkers, Stalkers and Baulkers

Activism, Audience 2.0, Flaneurs, Innovation, The Social Way

In almost any field of endeavour, you are going to come across four different types of people. Your project may be some form of project implementation for your company. It could be that you have a creative idea for an advertising client. Or you may just want to go back to university to complete a degree. But no matter your focus, you will have to deal with walkers, talkers, stalkers and baulkers. In some cases these people will be your boss, or a member of your staff. They may be parents or friends.

But whether you like it or not, you need to figure out a way of dealing with each type. Let’s take a look at their characteristics.

Type	Description	How to help them
Walkers	You want the Walkers on your project. They deliver. They understand the terminology and the goals and they know how to achieve outcomes.	Because the Walkers are so busy resolving issues, achieving outcomes and so on, they may not communicate “up” as much as is necessary. Add regular communications into their mix of KPIs.
Talkers	The talkers are evangelistic. They are great at the start of a project, picking up the terminology and the ideas and transmitting them to others.	The Talkers are often purists which means that they are sometimes unwilling to compromise. Help them see the win-win outcome – but also push them to move from “talk” to “walk”.
Stalkers	The vast majority of the population are Stalkers. They will watch from a distance but don’t personally commit. They won’t get in the way but they won’t participate either. The Stalkers will often do a great job – but will only do as they are instructed.	Inertia is the domain of the Stalker. You can use the Talkers to engage and activate these folks. You can point towards the Walkers as aspirational role models, but the challenge is in building momentum.
Baulkers	The Baulkers are the intransigent group. They may be active detractors or simply explain all the reasons why your project will not succeed. They can sometimes feign support but will often move back to an inert or negative position very quickly.	The Baulkers have the power of negativity on their side. As we generally don’t like change, the Baulker appeals to our risk averse natures. They discredit the ideas underpinning your project and those who support them. Leave them in a room with a Talker.

Any long term project success requires the activation of all four of these types. The important thing to remember is that you don’t need to change these people. They won’t change for you.

But they may change their opinion of your project.

Take the time to understand the motivations of each of these types and play to their strengths and weaknesses. It is about playing the person, not the project.

Working with the people will deliver your project – but focusing only on the project will more deeply entrench the positions of the Walkers, Talkers, Stalkers and Baulkers. Your challenge is to create movement between the categories – and the best way to do that is activate their talents.

Give it a try, you might just find you succeed wildly.

Beyond TV – ‘Go Back’ is a Must-Have Experience From SBS

Digital Strategy, Innovation, Social Media, Strategy

As a rule I don’t watch a lot of television. It’s often not challenging enough or emotionally engaging. But last night as I was prepping for a little writing after an already long day, I spotted a number of tweets about a show that sounded compelling.

SBS’ Go Back to Where You Came From takes six ordinary Australians on a reality TV style adventure – living like refugees for 25 days. In this first episode (with two others to run over consecutive nights), the scene is set, participants are eased into the process, hearing the personal, confronting stories of former refugees now living in Australia. Spending three nights living with these families begins the long process of cracking the hard core of prejudice that many of us blithely live with. But how confronting will this get for the participants – and for us the audience?

In true reality TV fashion, events are orchestrated to emotionally and physically test the participants. We often say that truth is stranger than fiction – and it is clear from this first episode that the reality of being a refugee contains more drama, fear, risk and challenge than many of us, cocooned in the comfort of our armchairs, could have imagined. Just when you think that the participants have been pushed to the limit, they are plunged to a deeper level of discomfort.

And while the show itself is brilliant, there’s also some seriously good social media integration around it. You can view the show online (which was perfect for me as I missed the first few minutes). There’s no waiting 24 hours etc. I think there is a problem with viewing via iPad, but the immediate availability of the show allows late-comers to still engage. Brilliant work from SBS.

Then there is the Asylum: Exit Australia simulation, an interactive quiz, interactive school resources, teachers packs and feedback forums.

It’s not just must-see TV – it’s a model for the future of what content publishing should be.

Questions for a Better Future at #gathering11

Conferences, Innovation

I’ve just spent the last weekend immersed in the deep thoughts and creative actions of a hundred or so social innovators and business activists at the inaugural Gathering11. Organised and curated by the unstoppable David Hood, it brought together people from all around the world – Ralf Lippold, Venessa Miemis, Christine Egger, Michel Bauwens, Jean Russell, Annalie Killian, Tim Longhurst, Stephen Johnson and a host of others (more links, names and ideas to come).

It was one of my personal highlights to spend time with the brilliant and personable Ray Wang and business strategy guru and big wave surfing passionista, John Hagel. I even got to brainstorm with Adam Bandt during a World Cafe workshop.

There was much to enjoy, think about and act upon at this two day conference. I am still processing much of it – but one thing that I liked was the chance to articulate, raise and express the questions that we have for the future. Where does the environment fit in? What will our work and personal lives look and feel like? What’s the role of governments and institutions?

Many of these questions came from the participants themselves – and were captured in photography by Courtney Crow below. Do these questions resonate with you? Was there something we missed?

Over the coming days I will be sifting through my notes and thoughts and writing up some ideas. There’s more to come. Don’t forget to check out the Gathering11 site.

Beyond Innovation – Vibewire’s fastBREAK

Conferences, Creativity, Good Works, Innovation

I love a TED talk or a TEDx video as much as the next person. These videos that capture the speeches given at the annual TED conferences in Long Beach/Palm Springs and Edinburgh, feature some of the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers. Each speaker is challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less).

But time is short, and often I don’t need more, I need less. Sometimes even that 18 minute talk is a luxury that I struggle to squeeze into my day. As Clay Shirky suggests, what we often experience is not a glut of information but a failure to filter the information in a relevant way. And often that means that even the best TED talks receive short shrift.

But perhaps more than this need to zero-in on the essential elements, I find that I am increasingly interested in not just the hero story – the path to success, the riches achieved or the way it was done – but in the personal story that is the back story of the hero. I want to know the person behind the mask. After all, every great success costs us something as does every great failure.

This is where Vibewire’s fastBREAK innovation series breaks much needed ground.

On the last Friday of every month, Vibewire in partnership with the Powerhouse Museum, showcases five young innovators in five minute long talks (notice how quick they are?). The focus is on the personal journey that these pioneers have undertaken. Sometimes it’s fun. Sometimes it’s heartbreaking. And sometimes it takes your breath away. But it is ALWAYS inspiring.

Just take a look at these two talks and you’ll see what I mean – one from Leanne Townsend, CEO of the NSW Reconciliation Council and Courtney Tight, Media and Marketing Coordinator of the Young UN Women Australia Sydney Committee.

fastBREAK is a core component of Vibewire’s charter – to ensure that young people are included (and able to participate) in conversations that matter – at local, state, national and even global levels. The events are produced by a team of young volunteers. The speakers are carefully selected and coached. The themes are brainstormed and promoted. And each quarter the stories are gathered and published as an anthology.

As the chair of the Vibewire Board, I am proud of the quality and the consistency of these events – and the hard work of Annie Le Cavalier and Hala Hubraq and her team. But the most exciting part of these events is seeing some of the Vibewire interns, volunteers and workspace residents step out of the audience to share their own stories.

So now, tell me, have you had the chance to come along to a fastBREAK event? What did you think?

The State of Community Management, 2011

Community, Innovation

The community manager often lives at the sharp end of business practise – which means balancing the demands of your bosses and the expectations of your community members. It can be exhilarating and exhausting as Scott Drummond has explained previously. Somewhere in this sandwich of innovation topped with a lettuce leaf of frustration is the diversity that constantly attracts curiosity seekers to these roles. But what is the business of a community manager? This report from the Community Roundtable does a good job of explaining the state of play – with contributions from respected practitioners working in agencies, in small business and in the enterprise.

The report a little too US-focused for my liking – and could do with a healthy dose of input from Europe, Asia and Australia. But one of the challenges of community management is – as the authors point out – that the complexity of the discipline is often at odds with an organisational view of it. (Maybe we need to have some of those smart marketers give community management a makeover!)

Jokes aside, this report provides business innovators with plenty of ideas for improvement. And no matter whether your business embraces these opportunities on a large or small scale, it’s clear that there are competitive advantages on the offing. Take a read, and then get to work.

The 2011 State of Community Management

View more documents from The Community Roundtable