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  Zyncro Blog 9:00 am on May 24, 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ComunicaME ( 9 ), ComunicaTE ( 2 ), events ( 52 )   

  Zyncro brings together 350 executives at ComunicaTE Madrid to discuss Enterprise Social Networks 

  Estimated reading time + video: 8 minutes

  On Monday, May 6, we gathered at Casa de América for ComunicaTE Madrid 2013, the sixth edition of our Master Class for Executives at which we discussed Enterprise Social Networks and integrated communications.

  During the day, with almost 350 attendees, 10 speakers, and thanks to the support of our 13 partners, we had a chance to reflect and analyze with top-class professionals and speakers the transformation processes in companies that already understand the benefits of being social organizations and that have successfully implemented social strategies to transform their business processes.

  After a brief introduction and welcome by Lluís Font, CEO at Zyncro, and Patricia Fernández, VP Marketing at Zyncro, we started the master class where we discussed the benefits of social business collaboration, the ROI of social business tools, the latest trends in management 2.0, and looked at real case studies of social companies.

  ‘Strategic vision of social software and integrated communication in Telefónica’ with Carlos Rabazo, Telefónica Key Accounts

  Carlos spoke about a change in the communication model in people, where social networks have become the channel preferred by a large part of the population, and how these new communication channels can also be applied to communications within companies. According to Rabazo, it has been shown that social networks are a favorable environment for working and sharing, and now the challenge has been set to export the use of these communication systems to the business environment.

  ‘Integrating Systems in Companies from a Social Perspective’ with Francisco Gracia, Manager at everis

  Francisco gave us some interesting information. 93% of internet users use social networks; 65% of users have contacted a company through social networks, and 25% have interacted with companies through this channel. This data shows that social technologies form part of our daily lives and companies must recognize this fact. This means they need to align these tools with the company’s strategy and there must be greater collaboration between IT and business.

  ‘Reinventing the Company in Consumerization. Mobile Technologies in Enterprise Social Networks’ with Juan Polo, EMEA Enterprise Client Marketing Manager at Intel

  Juan spoke about the growing importance of mobility and its major penetration in almost all sectors. This mobility provides benefits and differentiation for companies in terms of information accessibility, the incorporation of new applications, speed in decision-making, and the optimization of resources. Employees require more mobile devices and this, together with the Bring Your Own Device trends, require organizations to opt for mobile apps. Juan explained how Intel does it with its own architecture and Windows 8, responding to business requirements.

  Success stories with Zyncro

  During the rest of the afternoon, several success stories were presented of companies that have integrated their technology with Zyncro with excellent results. Joaquim Segura, CEO at Captio, presented their tool to attendees as an option to improve productivity with a mobile, social and cloud-based app.

  Antonio Ramírez, Product Marketing & Business Development Manager at Konica Minolta, gave the key ideas to social document management in the cloud thanks to its integration with Enterprise Social Networks.

  Sonia Ruiz Moreno, CEO at PrideCom, advanced some of the main ideas of the ‘Zyncro method’, a method designed to guide companies that want to implement an Enterprise Social Network in their organization and whose first output was the whitepaper ‘How to Convince Your Boss’.

  Finally, three projects developed with Zyncro were presented. Rosa María Martínez, M2M Business Development Manager at Telefónica, explained the development and operation of the APP ON project for Telefónica Latin America, now also available for Windows 8; Arantxa Martínez, Director of Organization and Systems at The EatOut Group, traced their journey from the idea to the roll out of the Enterprise Social Network for their employees; and Eva Collado, HR Development Manager at Venca, closed the session by talking about the benefits achieved with the implementation of an internal network in their organization.

  

  

  

  

  
  

  

  

  

  

  
  

  

  

  

  

  
  
  

  
  
   

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  Jose Manuel Perez Marzabal 9:00 am on May 23, 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: data protection, personal data protection   

  The future of data protection and how to adapt to it 

  Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

  The recently held #bigdataweek reminds us that monitoring data processing is a critical aspect of most strategic decisions and internet business models. We are faced with the widespread use of apps in mobile devices and in contexts with a major potential for data handling, such as the big data phenomenon, the Apache Hadoop software framework, or the emerging quantum computing.

  Against this backdrop, the European Commission presented its Proposal of the General Data Protection Regulation on January 25, regarding the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data (henceforth “Regulation”), which will replace the current Directive 95/46/EC.

  The Regulation (as opposed to the current directive that requires a transposition process to make it applicable in national law of the Member States) will be directly applicable, will be hierarchically superior to Spanish law, and undoubtedly will have a major impact on the operations of the industry in general, and more specifically, on Internet companies and start-ups.

  Among the new general aspects incorporated, the Regulation includes the tightening of sanctions for non-compliance, the increase in the principle of transparency in companies, the need to reinforce the level of personal data protection, the right to data portability, and the principle of accountability.

  Aspects of the Regulation applicable to data processing in Internet companies

  1. On a conceptual level

  The Regulation designs a security architecture that takes into account both the technological process and the solutions offered for data protection by design –focus developed successfully by the Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ontario (Canada)- and by default. This new approach to data protection means that data protection is contemplated in the technology design phase of business models and risk analysis and management methodology are enhanced, as well as including the control panel for users as a privacy interface or other security technologies.

  2. At an authority level

  The new regulation introduces the key figure of the “data protection officer” with a wide spectrum of functions such as supervision, implementation and application of internal policies, auditing, information of the interested parties, and applications presented in exercising their rights, and monitoring document management.

  3. Regarding processes

  It establishes the impact assessment that must be carried out prior to data processing and proceeds to regulate the so-called “right to be forgotten”, both in search engines and digital footprint, in line with the Spanish ARCO rights. In other words, it specifies that public personal data on the Internet, such as hyperlinks or specific data, must be canceled by the controller when they are accessible in communication services that enable or facilitate their search or access.

  Similarly, it includes a contingency plan in the event of data breach, which establishes the obligation to notify a personal data security breach to the supervisory authority within a period of no greater than 24 hours and, where feasible, to the interested parties.

  Finally, mention should be given to other major developments introduced by the Regulation, such as the modification of the minimum age of minors to under 13 years of age regarding the direct offer of information society and social network services. On this point, it will be more important to sufficiently highlight the data protection and privacy policy on home pages and in registration forms in HTML format.

  Conclusion

  To sum up, I suspect that the legislator has once again made an assessment of data protection dissociated from the technological context, maintaining an asymetrical exchange between the fast technological evolution and legislation. In particular, regarding the evident tensions between regulation and the dynamics of the Web 2.0 that generate bilateral business models based on the exploitation of user data.

  Although aspects such as account release, privacy by design and default, and the assessment of impact encourages the IT security culture in companies and operational criteria focused on risk management and the implementation of compliance programs, it is yet to be seen how regulatory solutions will evolve and what technical innovations will be introduced in the future.

  Jose Manuel Pérez Marzabal (@jmperezmarzabal) is a lawyer who specializes in Internet and e-commerce at MTNProjects. Furthermore, he is a visiting professor at BES La Salle and a teaching consultant at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). He has a Master’s degree in International Law (LL.M) from WWU Münster and a Diploma in Advanced Studies in International Law and Economics from the University of Barcelona.

  
  
   
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  Carlos Zapater 9:00 am on May 22, 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: business social networks ( 8 ), collaboration networks ( 7 ), enterprise social networks ( 95 ), social networks ( 32 ), video ( 10 ), zyncro ( 184 )   

  Once upon a time… there were social networks 

  Estimated reading time + video: 4 minutes

  Humans are social beings. Communication is a need to relate to others that we carry in our DNA. That need for communication applied to the business world is what has made us evolve from closed, boring and unparticipative ways to the new Social Networks that have emerged thanks to the Internet.

  But how did we make that journey from the birth of the Internet to current collaboration, management and shared knowledge tools of the social web? Discover with Zyncro the history of the Social Networks and their evolution up to the present day. We tell you all about it in this video.

  The new communication tools have transformed our way of working and have demonstrated that being social works! Want to start to work socially in your company? Try Zyncro and tell us about your experience.

  
  
   
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  Manel Alcalde 9:00 am on May 21, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  The strength of weak ties 

  Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

  It may not sound very serious, but in some ways, mass communication was invented thanks to wine. In the 15th century, when Johannes Gutenberg invented modern movable type printing, he did it because he decided to apply the concept of the wine screw press to the world of book printing. That German blacksmith created a link between two different universes and changed the future of human communication forever. Arthur Koestler said that what sets geniuses apart is not the perfection of their work, rather its originality, “the opening of new frontiers”. And Gutenberg knew how to open them.

  Stories like that are used frequently to set an example of how important interdisciplinary contact, the mutual “contamination” of “naturally disconnected” areas or with theoretically “non-essential” relationships, is for innovation. Although we are not trying to be geniuses, the level of circulation and exchange of ideas and knowledge in an organization conditions its creative or innovative potential.

  Sociology has come to support this approach with works such as that of Mark Granovetter, American sociologist at Stanford University, who in 1973 formulated this theory on “the strength of weak ties.” While many systematic models until then had looked at primary, small and well-defined groups (in which solid relationships had prevailed), Granovetter decided to focus his studies on the relationship between subgroups or subcultures with major differences and weak ties. And though that study took place during the 1970s and used urban communities as its research focus, its conclusions continue to be applicable nowadays and are often used to explain the tremendous potential of social networks.

  Granovetter’s theory maintains that the relationships between individuals with weak ties generate more innovation that those held between individuals with a more constant and related relationships. The reason is that they act as a bridge for transmitting information and knowledge among closed communities and add more ingredients to the innovation stock pot, required for the continuous circulation of ideas to produce a good stock.

  The groups that are closely tied and share a value system tend to be more inclined to a consensus without questioning, a rather unfruitful scenario for ideas. “The fewer indirect contacts one has” – says Granovetter – “the more encapsulated he will be in terms of knowledge of the world beyond his own friendship circle.” While, conversely, “those to whom we are weakly tied are more likely to move in circles different from our own and will then have access to information different from what we receive”. Logically, Granovetter continues, “one can be a liaison between two network sectors only if all his ties into one or both are weak”.

  And there lies the paradox and the value of those ties, which were seen rather differently until that time by sociology. Louis Wirth, American sociologist of the Chicago school who had studied in the 1930s the differences between rural and urban life, reached the conclusion that the relationships between individuals in cities were secondary (pure “weak tie”) and, hence, superficial and “producers of alienation.” Granovetter’s approach added an important nuance to that thinking, trying to explain that those “trivial” relationships can be valuable as they contribute to breaking down profoundly anti-creative structure barriers.

  In the modern business world, cultivating those weak ties becoming vitally important. The permeability between areas and departments is more than just a style in a time where collaboration is prevailing as the antidote to daily difficulties. Emphasis is usually placed on the idea that the employees who are capable of providing innovative solutions are those that share information “beyond their cubicle”, as they act as “bridges” and share that type of weak ties. However, in order for that to happen, the context needs to facilitate it.

  Here several factors come into play, including enterprise social networks. Without a doubt, they represent meeting places for different “subcultures” in a company, which can give rise to innovative convergences. However, in organizations that have been installed with a traditional operating system, there are barriers that cannot be broken down by merely implementing an application or redistributing the space. As Ana Asuero pointed out in a recent post on this blog, “Tools won’t dictate whether a company is social or not; that is something defined by the company’s “being”.”

  Weak ties have a major innovative potential and enterprise social networks are here to help them emerge, but promoting them and taking advantage of all of their possibilities is not a question of procedures, but fundamental, a question of corporate culture. Is your company culturally prepared to encourage those weak ties? How are you going about it? Tell us about it in the comments!

  Sources: GRANOVETTER, Mark S. (1973). “The Strength of Weak Ties”, en American Journal of Sociology; vol 78, nº 6. (pp. 1360 – 1380). Johns Hopkins University.

  Manel Alcalde (@manelalcalde) is a creative writer and audiovisual communicator. On his personal blog, Nionnioff, he writes about the world of creativity and communication.

   
   
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  Ana Asuero 8:00 am on May 17, 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: enterprise social network ( 68 ), infographics ( 12 )   

  [INFOGRAPHIC] 7 types of internet users you encounter when using an Enterprise Social Network 

  Today it’s World Telecommunication and Informacion Society Day 2013, declared by the United Nations in 2006. Its aim is to raise awareness about the possibilities of new technologies for society.

  To celebrate it, we wanted to give you something special on the blog today. When you move about the internet and social networks, you’ll encounter many types of different users: from those that walk without glancing up from their cellphone screen to those who still send you text messages to meet.

  Tell us, which one do you identify with? Which do you think is the most common user in your personal and work environment? If you want, you can share it on Twitter with the tag #diadeinternet.

  
   
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  Jeroen Sangers 9:00 am on May 16, 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: collaboration ( 56 ), collaboration networks ( 7 ), communication ( 32 ), communication 2.0 ( 60 ), internal communication ( 23 ), multidisciplinary collaboration ( 5 ), productivity ( 22 ), team management ( 29 ), teamwork ( 23 )   

  Working out loud 

  Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

  I’m a freelancer working from home. A large part of my day, I don’t have anyone near, but I don’t work alone. On a daily basis, I’m in contact with my clients, my providers, and my partners with whom I collaborate on various projects.

  However, at times I miss the office’s coffee machine, where I could comment the latest news and laugh with my co-workers. These co-workers were also a major source of feedback related to my work.

  But there are also things that I don’t miss, like weekly meetings to discuss the status of projects.

  Now I only have my partner to have coffee with and comment the news. The rest of my communication has gone digital.

  Collaboration 2.0

  Nowadays, there are many tools to collaborate without needing to be in the same location, from email and Twitter—I still remember the interface at the beginning that went: “What are you doing?”—to complete platforms like Zyncro.

  When partners and co-workers aren’t in the same location, internal communication becomes even more important to generate results.

  Whenever I collaborate in projects remotely, I apply two habits that Bryce Williams identified in his post When will we Work Out Loud? Soon!

  Working out loud = Observable work + Narrating your work

  Observable Work

  This concept simply implies that the intermediate result of my work can be accessed by my co-workers. Instead of saving the document I’m writing in the folder My Documents on my computer, I use online platforms where my partners can see and comment on the progress and even edit the document.

  Based on this feedback, I can correct the focus of my work as soon as possible, and get better results in a shorter time.

  Modern collaboration platforms display in real time what each member of the team is working on. Each time I edit a document, my colleagues can see a notification in the system, even a summary with the changes made. What’s more, all the material is centralized and indexed in order to find the required information quickly.

  Narrate Your Work

  Similarly, I keep a public diary (blog or micro-blog) where I explain openly what I’m doing, what problems I encounter, what solutions I have found, and how I feel. I also share relevant articles I have found and obviously there is space for a joke once in a while.

  Finally, when working on a big project, I try to communicate each day at least these points:

  1. What I have done today
  2. What I have been unable to do
  3. What are the risks I have identified that will affect the project planning
  4. What my plans are for tomorrow

  During the day I keep a document open where I gradually answer these points. At the end of the day, I just have to publish it.

  If everyone in the team narrated their work openly, we wouldn’t need any meetings to assess project status and we would gain a lot of time.

  People who are already familiar with collaboration tools perfectly understand the benefits of working out loud. Others simply need to try it for a while to learn that they can collaborate efficiently remotely.

  Jeroen Sangers (@JeroenSangers) is personal productivity consultant and author of the blog El Canasto. He specializes in modern techniques to manage time, actions and attention, and provides training, consulting, and keynotes on a more intelligent way to work and live.

  If you want to enjoy the benefits that collaborating has for your productivity too, why not try Zyncro free?

  
  
   
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  Dioni Nespral 9:00 am on May 15, 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: business culture ( 2 ), culture 2.0 ( 10 ), enterprise 2.0 ( 90 ), organizational culture ( 13 ), people ( 12 ), social business ( 13 ), social technologies   

  The Business Revolution is called Social Business 

  Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

  Editor’s note: Today we would like to start by welcoming a new contributor on our blog. Dioni Nespral (@dioninespral) is Social Business and Digital Innovation Manager at everis. Dioni is an expert in business innovation and sociodigital strategy. With a degree in Business Administration and Management from the Universidad Antonio de Nebrija, he also holds an Executive MBA from the Instituto de Empresa and a Master’s degree in Marketing and Sales Management from the ESIC.

  Fear of change is universal and has been around since the dawning of time. No one likes their surroundings to change and we all dream of the greatest stability possible. However, the era in which we live is established in permanent change and with a differential feature: the speed of change is exponential. Nothing happens at “our own speed”, everything takes place dynamically and somewhat unpredictably. It is the greatest challenge of our era: we live in a world that is instantaneous.

  I’m sure you’ll have heard of many executives talking about growth, improvement, change, and even innovation. You’ll have heard about it on numerous occasions, but are we really getting the best out of our organizations? Are we getting the maximum potential of the people and the talent who work with us? The answer is obvious: No. A big No at that. Once again, we can’t see the wood for the trees. And the wood is immense.

  In such dynamic environments, leadership with a clear vision and an ordered administration is required. We have created fans of the perfect administration that have gradually destroyed (and continue to destroy) different visions that enable us to face incremental changes. The vision-administration mix is more than advisable, because we have become too used to the organization prepared for “no-change” in a world of constant chaos. I suspect that many organizations are not reflected by these words and are looking to start to change towards incremental improvement, growth, diversity, and perhaps, towards innovation.

  A connected society commands a socio-connected organization

  Social Business emerges as one of the greatest solutions for achieving greater speed in companies. When living in such a connected environment, adaptation is essential, and adopting solutions based on the Network philosophy and social technology is the driving force. The speed of change in companies is becoming faster. The behavior of users, citizens, customers, in short, people, is changing in gigantic leaps and this means organizations need to have open constant bridges of connection that are flexible and dynamic.

  Out of this arises the socio-connected organization, which must be one before appearing to be one. Its members need to be connected, it needs to be collaborative, open, digital and innovative. And obviously, in tune with its market’s demands. A company from a dynamic sector is not the same as one in a more traditional market, and hence, the speed of change is slower. Knowing the right speed helps to move fluidly on the business highway of each market.

  And yes, it’s about people. It seems obvious, but change won’t take place if we don’t put talent at the center of our organizations. How easy it is to say this and how complicated it is to put this into practice. This is understandable, as no one has taught us to do this. At the center of the organization, there always needed to be processes, standards, protocols, management. Now, when we look inwards, and try to find how to drive our talent, we don’t know how to do it, because we need to place differential elements that are not as predictable and much less manageable at the center. But that is our challenge and the pending (r)evolution.

  Social Business affects strategy, culture, processes, people, and technology. The impact of the social side is so strong that it reaches each and every corner of the organization, requiring a single sociodigital implementation model for each case.

  Social technologies together with open, horizontal, collaborative and connected communication enable, when used in the company, its adaptation to traditional processes in the organization, favoring tangible benefits like for example, reduced number of processes, improved customer service, generate incremental ideas and innovations, unveil differential talent or intelligent knowledge in the behavior of customers thanks to the analysis of their experience and processing relevant data.

  Initially, changes are organizational and cultural, as the first major decision is to look inwards and promote level structures where people can connect and communicate more easily. Because most new ideas, those that lead to innovation and enable incremental changes, come from the people in the organization. And these individuals need to find a highway that provides a constant and adequate flow.

  Welcome to the next revolution. Welcome to Social Business.

   
   
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  Jose Miguel Bolívar 9:00 am on May 14, 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: collaboration ( 56 ), collaboration networks ( 7 ), culture 2.0 ( 10 ), knowledge ( 8 ), knowledge management ( 6 ), organizational change ( 7 )   

  Knowledge Networks: Life After the Organizational Chart 

  Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

  Editor’s note: The new ways of the enterprise 2.0 transform companies and mean a change that affects even hierarchies and organizational charts. Today we’d like to share with you this post that José Miguel Bolívar posted a few days ago on his blog which we think is highly interesting. Thank you, José Miguel, for letting us share it.

  In a recent post, Ximo Salas asked himself where is my organizational chart? and, among other things, he stated that “organizational charts haven’t died” and suggested the need to invent an organizational chart 2.0. Unfortunately, it’s true that organizational charts aren’t dead… Yet.

  However, without knowing exactly what Ximo understands as being “organizational chart 2.0” and what type of organizations need one, I think the concept “organizational chart”, or at least in its traditional sense, has no place in the type of organizations we talk about and that we undoubtedly will become, no matter how slow we are in becoming one or how far away they seem at present.

  On the other hand, the death, present or future, of the organizational chart is not a new topic. Much has been written, and well done at that. Like for example this post by Manel Muntada and this other one from Pedro Muro.

  However, apart from the above, the big question for me continues to be: are organizational charts necessary or not in post-industrial organizations or, as I prefer to call them, in knowledge organizations?

  The model used by organizations in the Industrial Era as the backbone is the hierarchy, in other words, a structure that arranges its elements according to criteria of superiority or subordination between people.

  This structure starts from a model, bureaucratic administration, that assumes the division of work as its principle of efficiency, expressed as the division of roles and responsibilities and that hence, seeks as its primordial objective to optimize the transmission and execution of orders or instructions.

  If we think about the traditional assembly line, the model makes sense. There are people whose responsibility is to think, assess the alternatives, find solutions, assess the risks and propose options. Other people are responsible for making decisions and taking risks. Others are responsible for transmitting those decisions quickly and effectively and supervising that they are carried out to the letter. And others, finally, are responsible for carrying out those instructions.

  What’s more, to make it easier, the information travels in a single direction, without return.

  But what happens when, apart from “doing”, all people in the organization must also “think” and “decide”? What happens when we want the information to travel in multiple directions and in real time?

  In these circumstances, the organizational chart is not only no longer useful, but it becomes one of the main obstacles for organizational performance.

  Anyone who knows how a knowledge organization works “from the inside” knows that nowadays the organizational chart has become a decorative and costly element; an organizational relic serving the ego of a few; a bastion of the paradigm of control that perpetuates mediocrity and hinders innovation.

  Today, having a specific position on an organizational chart does not indicate how much you know nor how valuable you are as a professional. It only indicates how much you can manage to bother the rest of the organization if you set your mind to it.

  Organizational charts today are Snow White’s looking glass of a management class in the process of extinction. The carrot of “some day this will all be yours” for too ambitious newbies. And little more.

  The future is going elsewhere. In a world with an overabundance of information, of knowledge in transit, organizations will become progressively more complex while, paradoxically, more flexible and dynamic.

  After some years “leveling out” the organizational charts, it turns out that the organizational future is multi-dimensional. Knowledge networks that cross over and superimpose each other, in constant mutation over time.

  Knowledge networks that are generated from a shared interest, like for example learning (sharing and generating knowledge) or a project (applied knowledge). What’s more, a single person can play not only one but many roles and these roles can be the same or change according to the network. Different roles in different networks… The antithesis of the organizational chart. And of course, all in constant change.

  I’m talking about a future focused on people and not on structures, unlike current organizations, in which people are dependent on the structures (and the processes and technology).

  A not-too-distant future in which the most important thing is not how much power you have, rather what you know (you personally and also through your networks), and above all, what you know how to do with all that knowledge and how you are demonstrating it.

  In that future, and the need for tools that help tonavigate knowledge networks fluidly becomes evident.

  Be it a profile directory, a social search engine, or any other technology solution, we need tools that tell us in real time what people know about a specific subject, in which networks they are operating, on what projects they are working, and how to contact themto in turn weave new networks.

  An image that produces vertigo in anyone allergic to change, in organizational zombies, in those addicted to the predictable. But that’s life. Diverse, complex, unpredictable, and constantly evolving.

  Fortunately, there is much life after the organizational chart. What’s more, I’d say that the future is ahead of us…

  Jose Miguel Bolivar (@jmbolivar) is Artisan Consultant, ICF coach, lecturer, researcher, speaker and author of the blog Óptima Infinito, in which he has been writing about Innovation in Productivity and GTD methodology since 2008. With a degree in Social Psychology and Political Analysis from the UCM, a master’s in HR from the Centro de Estudios Garrigues, José Miguel has extensive experience as an executive in highly competitive environments such as HP or Life Technologies. Currently, as Artisan Consultant and Coach, he works to increase competitiveness in organizations, improving individual and collective productivity of its employees.

  
  
   
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  Virginio Gallardo 9:00 am on May 13, 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: communication 2.0 ( 60 ), conversations ( 2 ), management 2.0 ( 28 ), talent ( 7 ), talent management ( 3 )   

  Conversations 2.0: the new way of managing talent 

  Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

  Quality communication is not unidirectional, it’s the conversation that enables us to listen. Quality knowledge is not explicit, that we try to encourage through training, it’s tacit, transmitted through conversations. Innovative culture like any other type of culture is conversations that need to be guided by a new type of leader.

  Now the conversations through social technologies are promoted in organizations, in what we have called conversations 2.0. In Barcelona and Madrid, we held two events that we have called #conversaciones20 because we think we are experiencing a special moment in which reflection on some of the best business experiences of our times is needed.

  After listening to 24 participants, I’d like to share with you five trends that summarize what I have heard.

  Five trends on new ways of managing talent in new organizations:

  1. Tacit knowledge gains prominence over explicit knowledge: Information training is becoming more important than formal training, packeted contents in the form of courses and workshops loses importance to social training. Practice communities and communication generate more knowledge than ever through conversations, a knowledge that can be extremely valuable for businesses. The major issues are how to ensure quality in these new ways of generating tacit knowledge.

  2. Leadership and “trojans” driving new values: The change towards organizations 2.0. is not a technological change, it’s a cultural change. The new values and new ways of managing require both transforming leadership at top management and the complicity of informal leaders, of intra-entrepreneurs, of trojans… The drive of these new values is what transforms organizations into organizations 2.0.

  3. More social, liquid and open organizations: There is an enormous consensus that we are going towards more social organizations where the hierarchy and the functional order lose importance to communities, new more liquid organizational ways that require new ways of managing talent. But what’s more, the organizational border is broken down and the organizations are more open towards the outside: customers, suppliers, innovation managers, citizens…

  4. Talent management serving business and innovation: The new ways of managing talent and the new social technologies are at the service of efficiency, greater productivity, better customer/citizen service, sales efficiency…. The commitment, creativity, flexibility, talent are at the service of improvement and innovation focused on the business from a more strategic perspective.

  5. Digital rupture, the new organizations are the future, but the future is already here. We can already find excellent examples of organizations with best practices, whatever the size, and the sector is becoming increasingly less important, although the best practices are located in sectors where technology has more importance. However for most, this disruption is happening too fast and many companies and professionals find themselves lost, faced with new roles and organizational implications of these new technologies.

  The general impression of this conference is that many have already decided to move towards these types of new organizations and those that have already done it, despite the short journey, not only believe that organizations 2.0 are possible, but are inevitable as the only way of facing the future.

  Virginio Gallardo (@virginiog) is Director of Humannova, a HR consultancy specialized in helping lead innovation in companies and manage the organizational transformation. He is author of the book “Liderazgo transformacional” and coordinator of Liderazgo e Innovación 2.0. This post was published originally on his blog “Supervivencia Directiva”, where you can follow his thoughts.

   
   
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  Joan Alvares 9:00 am on May 10, 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: collaboration ( 56 ), collaboration networks ( 7 ), collaborative environments ( 8 ), collaborative work ( 14 ), multidisciplinary collaboration ( 5 ), project management ( 12 ), team management ( 29 )   

  Liquid teams for liquid times 

  Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

  There’s one question that is usually repeated when you get up to present your company: How many of you are there? At times I say there are three of us, others that there are thirty odd, according to the need to be impressed I see in my interlocutor. And in both cases, I’m telling the truth, because at Poko we work with a basic core of project managers and a liquid team that adapts according to each project.

  I’m one of those who thinks that to do something that makes sense, a team needs to be adapted to the project, not the opposite. Because when a company refuses to leave its comfort zone, when it doesn’t feel the need to involve external talent and explore beyond its own knowledge, normally it’s because it is doing something that already exists, more or less prescindible, that expires, easily Chinesed.

  Today the best restaurants in the world are just that because they had brought cusine closer to fields as diverse as art, science or industrial design; to do that they needed to involve the best professionals in these fields. A talent that a fixed structure surely could not have paid, and that would not make sense having permanently in a kitchen. Tomorrow’s project will be different to today’s, and it will force us to find collaboration with different professionals

  In a constantly changing world, the Internet enables us to build big companies without the need to be big structures. The idea is to create talent ecosystems, capable of detecting challenges in a project and capturing the best specialist to respond. The Internet invites us to discovery, disintermediation, cooperation among professionals with different talents that work in different parts of the world. It’s up to us to accept that invitation.

  In your organization, do you also use collaboration networks for different projects? When you collaborate with disperse team, you need great communication to ensure everything works like clockwork. How about using an Enterprise Social Network for this? Try Zyncro!

  Joan Alvares is founding partner of Poko and lecturer at the Istituto Europeo di Design