NOBO Business Drivers

This blog explores global business drivers for NOBO. In essence there are four aspects to be considered;

Transparency - An old force with new power is rising in business, one that has far-reaching implications for most everyone. Firms that embrace this force and harness its power will thrive. Those which ignore or oppose it will suffer. The force is transparency. People and institutions that interact with firms are gaining unprecedented access to all sorts of information about corporate behaviour, operations, and performance. Armed with new tools to find information about matters that affect their interests, stakeholders now scrutinize the firm as never before, inform others, and organize collective responses. The corporation is becoming naked. Corporations have no choice but to rethink their values and bahaviours - for the better.
( Extract from "The Naked Corporation" by Don Tapscott and David Ticoll )

Emerging Technology - Within a decade, the major population centres of the planet will be saturated wuth trillions of microchips, some of them tiny computers, many of them capable of communicating with each other. Some of these devices will be telephones...some devices will read barcodes and send and receive messages to radio-frequency identity tags. Some will furnish wireless, always-on Internet connections and will contain global positioning devices. As a result, large numbers of people in industrial nations will have a device with them most of the time that will enable them to link objects, places, and people to online content and processes. Groups of people using these tools will gain new forms of social power, new ways to organize their interactions and exchanges just in time and just in place. Tomorrow's fortunes will be made by the businesses that find a way to profit from these changes, and yesterday's fortunes are already being lost by businesses that don't understand them.
( Extract from "Smart mobs: The Next Social Revolution" by Howard Rheingold )

A New World of Organizations - The Internet allows even the smallest of companies to have a global presence and contract for work anywhere in the world. There is a variety of digitally enabled business networks for marketing, locating materials and resources, and expanding distribution, all providing value for their participants. There are also social networks, political networks, professional networks, and networks for communities and enthusiasts - all purposeful, all providing value for their participants. The centre is moving. It is moving out from corporate hubs to more diffuse and distributed webs of business relationships and alliances spreading across the globe.
( Extract from "The Future of Knowledge" by Verna Allee )

Sustainability - Globalisation, the knowledge economy, technology, deregulation, e-business, sustainabililty and accountability - this is the new business reality. How companies respond to these challenges and opportunities will determine whether they succeed in the early years of the new millennium. Business has had a profound impact on the environment. There is hardly a CEO that does not recognise that our rivers, air, forests and oceans are under severe threat. There are also many company executives that see their own survival and prosperity linked to solving some of these pressing environmental and social problems. A new business paradigm is emerging where trade-offs between environment, community and business interests is no longer sustainable. Corporate environmental and social performance is now seen as an important business issue that needs to be evaluated against other competing strategic decisions.
( Extract from "Sustainability: The new business reality" by PricewaterhouseCoopers )

NOBO Business Challenges

The nature of contemporary business poses certain challenges to NOBO knowledge workers organising for productivity and prosperity. With reference to "The Wisdom Network" by Steve Benton and Melissa Giovagnoli I believe the following are the key NOBO business challenges;

• A higher degree of integration -Different backgrounds, cultures, races, sexes, experience levels, or any difference among people provides the atmosphere for innovation to thrive. When too much like-mindedness is prevalent, new thoughts are hard to come by.
• The need for speed - A results-focused world often requires compromises to get work done faster, cheaper, and more cost effectively. This may mean resources are allocated to direct, short-term ways of making or saving money rather than to the less-direct, longer-term effects of social entrepreneurship.
• Quality - When communities form around topics focused on clear business goals, information turns to knowledge, and knowledge that is acted upon turns to wisdom. When communities form around topics that are not in any way connected, organizational wisdom cannot flourish.
• The shortage of skills - NOBO communities are hampered by individuals who are stubborn, egotistical, and unwilling or unable to work well with others. They may be brilliant, but they keep that brilliance confined in their heads or share it on a limited basis.
• Changing technology - The Internet and its technologies are evolving rapidly causing many interesting problems for enterprises trying to implement social software technologies. To succeed NOBO should take stock of how they implement these technologies and develop a plan to manage constant changes with users acting as co-developers.

Social Computing

This blog describes the seventh and last step in the NOBO Virtuous Circle. It takes a look at how thriving alliances leads to social computing.

Social computing is the key enabling tool for NOBO knowledge workers and their alliances. It includes technologies such as social networks, wikis and blogs. These technologies support social interaction and communication. The tool heralds a new age whereby building and maintaining online business relationships can enhance productivity and prosperity across the globe.

Social computing is principally about people but there are four perspectives which help to define the essence of the concept;

• Web as platform - The web is transforming the business landscape. It allows even the smallest of companies to have a global presence and contract for work anywhere in the world. Business is moving. It is moving out from large organisations to more diverse and distributed webs of business relationships. Tim O'Reilly provides a good overview of Web 2.0
• Collective Intelligence - O'Reilly says an essential part of Web 2.0 is harnessing collective intelligence, turning the web into "a kind of global brain". Collective intelligence promises to transform the traditional business ecosystem into a NOBO ecosystem: an ecosystem embracing emotional intelligence, social responsibility and sustainability. However there are many forms of collective intelligence and correspondingly, many "tribes" of its practitioners. This is an abbreviated overview by George Por.
• No formal hierarchy - Web 2.0 is about people and Enterprise 2.0 will be less about less top-down structure and more about structure developed freely through lower-level interactions, say Harvard Business School Associate Professor Andrew McAfee and Socialtext CEO Ross Mayfield. Low-level interactions create pattern and order enabled by Web 2.0 technologies.
• Online Community - The quality of community in tomorrow's wired world is an important concern says Howard Rheingold, a veteran of online comminity. "In order for a virtual community to succeed, the software must have a usable human interface". Equally significant, O'Reilly asserts trusting users as co-developers of social software has become a core competency of Web 2.0.

It is important to stress again social computing is a very powerful tool for knowledge workers in the 21st century. Rheingold observes "Intelligent and democratic leadership is desperately needed at this historical moment, while the situation is still somewhat fluid". It is a significant opportunity for leaders especially pioneering leaders as communities of practice.

My next blog will consider the business challenges facing knowledge workers organising for productivity and prosperity across the globe.

Alliances

This blog describes the sixth step in the NOBO Virtuous Circle. It considers how knowledge workers in value networks build alliances.

The Internet enables knowledge workers to consider alliances as a new kind if strategy opportunity. The value proposition of an alliance is collaboration for a common good. "Participants form a community that designs or makes useful things, creates and shares knowledge, or simply has fun together" writes Don Tapscott et al in the book "Digital Capital:Harnessing the Power of Business Webs". Alliances represent not the usual commercial sense of the word but more sharing and development of collective intelligence.

How do you guide these alliances? This article by Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott and William M. Snyder describes seven principles on cultivating communities of practice:

• Design for evolution - because communities of practice are organic, designing them is more a matter of shepherding their evolution than creating them from scratch.
• Open a dialogue between inside and outside perspectives - effective community design is built on the collective experience of community members.
• Invite different levels of participation - people participate in communities for different reasons—some because the community directly provides value, some for the personal connection, and others for the opportunity to improve their skills.
• Develop both public and private community spaces - dynamic communities are rich with connections that happen both in the public places of the community—meetings, Web site—and the private space—the one-on-one networking of community members.
• Focus on value - rather than attempting to determine their expected value in advance, communities need to create events, activities, and relationships that help their potential value emerge and enable them to discover new ways to harvest it.
• Combine familiarity and excitement - lively communities combine both familiar and exciting events so community members can develop the relationships they need to be well connected as well as generate the excitement they need to be fully engaged.
• Create a rhythm for the community - the rhythm of the community is the strongest indicator of its aliveness.

The next blog describes the seventh and final step in the NOBO Virtuous Circle. It takes a look at how thriving alliances leads to social computing.

Increasing prosperity through Value Networks

This blog describes the fifth step in the NOBO Vituous Circle. It examines how knowledge workers can increase prosperity through value networks.

"The emerging knowledge economy and networked world of enterprise have the potential for dramatically increasing economic and social prsoperity in a much different way than we have experienced in the past" writes Verna Allee in her book "The Future of Knowledge". Allee asserts that by viewing an enterprise as a value network brings greater understanding of the web of relationships that generate both tangible and intangible value. The bigger the network of knowledge workers...the greater that value is to the knowledge workers themselves.

For NOBO what might this value be? Etienne Wenger in his book "Cultivating Communities of Practice" tables the benefits for individual community members and for the organisation as a whole. Individual long-term benefits include:

• forum for expanding skills and expertise
• network for keeping abreast of a field
• enhanced professional reputation
• increased marketability and employability
• strong sense of professional identity.

Organisation long-term benefits include:

• knowledge-based alliances
• emergence of unplanned capabilities
• capacity to develop new strategic options
• ability to foresee technological developments
• ability to take advantage of emerging market opportunities.

The next blog describes step six of the NOBO Vituous Circle. It considers how knowledge workers in value networks build alliances as a new kind of strategy opportunity.

Entrepreneurship

This blog describes the fourth step in the NOBO Virtuous Circle by exploring how the art and practice of the learning organisation in the knowledge economy can bring about social entrepreneurship.

In the last few decades, especially in the US, the dominant view of business has become that its only legitimate goal is to make money for its stockholders. However more and more people take into account their non-financial values in deciding how they want to work and invest their money hence this view is no longer sustainable. Social entrepreneurship is gaining credence.

“Social entrepreneurs differ from traditional entrepreneurs not only in terms of their motives with respect to profit and personal wealth but also with respect to their time-frames, being more concerned with long-term capacity building than with short-term outcomes. Equally they are different in terms of their ‘scavenger-like’ use of resources, recognizing that most communities have under-utilized resources that need to be harnessed for the good of society. Whatever, there is an increasing interest in this form of entrepreneurship…” says David Kirby, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Surrey, England and author of “Entrepreneurship”.

Structural changes in the economy have also exacerbated knowledge-based acrivities. Globalisation has increased competitive pressure on manufacturing firms which has led to a shift in production capacity to low cost countries. These changes have led to opportunities for new entrepreneurial initiatives particularly in the area of knowledge work and associated services. However, the capacity to adapt to economic change is crucial for competitiveness. To become the most competitive and dynamic, knowledge workers in a learning organisation need to develop social entrepreneurial competencies and act on the following;

Exploit creativity and innovation – Social entrepreneurship is first and foremost a mindset. It takes creativity and innovation to enter and compete in an existing market, to change or even to create a new market.

Learn from the best - in many aspects of social entrepreneurship some knowledge workers may outperform others and might serve as inspiration. It is wise to learn from each other on the basis of 'winning by sharing'.

Develop ‘wisdom’ networks – Identify the people who share their expertise consistently and effectively. Build and maintain networks of people who share NOBO values.

Knowledge workers in organisations of the future need to foster social entreprenerial drive more effectively so the next blog will describe how knowledge workers can increase prosperity through value networks.

The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation

This blog describes the third step in the NOBO Virtuous Circle by showing how a shared vision can support the art and practice of the learning organisation.

Peter Senge popularised the concept of the ‘learning organisation’. His idea of a learning organisation as a group of people who are continually enhancing their capabilities to create what they want to create has been deeply influential. This paper explains the five disciplines Senge sees as central to a learning organisation. The five disciplines are systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision and team learning. This blog focuses on the significance of building a shared vision in network-centric learning organisations looking at generative learning, systems thinking and leaders’ stewardship.

“Shared vision is vital for the learning organization because it provides the focus and energy for learning. While adaptive learning is possible without vision, generative learning occurs only when people are striving to accomplish something that matters deeply them. In fact, the whole idea of generative learning – ‘expanding your ability to create’ – will seem abstract and meaningless until people become excited about some vision they truly want to accomplish.” (Extract from Peter Senge’s “The Fifth Discipline) The practice of shared vision creates increased clarity, enthusiasm and commitment.

Senge also believes that the discipline of building shared vision lacks a critical underpinning if practiced without systems thinking. “Vision paints the picture of what we want to create. Systems thinking reveals how we have created what we currently have.” Systems thinking in network-centric organisations transcends linear thinking in traditional hierarchical organisations thereby increasing the possibility of the realisation of a shared vision.

Peter Senge also argues that learning organisations require a new view of leadership. He identifies three aspects – leader as designer, leader as steward and leader as teacher. Within the context of building a shared vision leader as steward is the most critical. “In a learning organisation, leaders may start by pursuing their own vision, but as they learn to listen carefully to others’ visions they begin to see that their own personal vision is part of something larger. This does not diminish any leader’s sense of responsibility for the vision – if anything it deepens it.” Senge believes being the steward of a vision shifts a leader’s relationship toward her or his personal vision. It ceases to be a possession and becomes a calling. You are part of the shared vision as much as it is yours.

The learning organisation is able to adapt to change and move forward successfully by acquiring new knowledge, skills, and/or behaviours. By building a shared vision a learning organisation can transform itself. The simple fact is a shared vision in a network-centric learning organisation becomes a living force whereby people truly believe they can shape their future.

The next blog describes step four of the NOBO Virtuous Circle. It explores how the art and practice of the learning organisation in the knowledge economy brings about social entrepreneurship.

Changing Conversation in Organisations

This blog describes the second step in the NOBO Virtuous Circle and begins with an extract from Arthur Battrams's "Navigating Complexity" to set the scene for NOBO...

“Because complex systems have built-in unpredictability, the certainties of the ‘command-and-control’ approach to management no longer hold true. The implications of complexity theory for organisations are massive.... Dialogue is the tool which we can explore the complexity space. It is a special kind of conversation and requires people to listen at the same time, which isn’t easy. As a result dialogue requires the application of simple rules which allows one person to speak unchallenged while others listen and seek clarification of their understanding." Dialogue is a valuable tool for leaders to bring forth new and previously hidden meanings and understandings.

Along with dialogue, NOBO leaders need certain capabilities to effectively change conversation in organisations. These capabilities are described in this MIT Leadership Centre paper “Leadership in the Age of Uncertainty”.

Briefly the capabilities are:

Sense-making: making sense of the world around us. The act of sense-making is discovering the new terrain as you are inventing it. In the very process of mapping the new terrain, you are creating it.

Relating: developing key relationships within and across organizations. Leadership is not an individual sport, and in out networked age the ability to connect and build trusting relationships is a key competency. The core capability of relating centres on the leader’s ability to engage in inquiry, advocacy, and connecting.

Visioning: creating a compelling vision of the future. While sense-making creates a map of what is, visioning is a map of what could be. Visions are important because they provide the motivation for people to give up their current views and ways of working in order to change.

Inventing: creating new ways of working together. Inventing entails creating the processes and structures needed to make the vision a reality. It involves implementing the steps needed to achieve the NOBO vision of the future.

These four capabilities, along with dialogue, are complementary but they can also create tensions that need to be managed. It is difficult to hold an image of the future and the present simultaneously. Balancing people and processes, action and understanding, individual and collective aspirations, can be challenging. Yet it is inherent in the framework that managing these very tensions is the essence of leadership and changing conversation in organisations.

The next blog describes step three of the NOBO Virtuous Circle. It explores how a shared vision can support the art and practice of the learning organisation.

Pioneering Leaders as Communities of Practice

This blog describes the first step in the NOBO Virtuous Circle by stressing the importance of human values and NOBO...

Placing human values at the centre of NOBO is fundamental for ensuring people not only make money but also realise other needs too. In our world today, especially in the advanced industrial regions, many people’s basic needs are fulfilled. They are searching for a deeper meaning to their lives and look towards NOBO as a way of committing to some purpose larger than themselves.

To support and sustain a values-driven NOBO, a new approach to business organisation and leadership is required. Communities of practice demonstrate that it is natural for people to seek out those who share values, knowledge and experience. As people discover each other and exchange ideas, relationships develop and a community forms. This community becomes a place where collective learning occurs and builds into an incubator where new knowledge, skills and competencies develop around core shared values.

As communities mature leaderships emerges to coordinate and cultivate activities. Supporting and sustaining these new leaders is an imperative in allowing communities to build healthy and robust working practices. How can leaders be helped? Margaret Wheatley describes a framework in “Supporting Pioneering Leaders as Communities of Practice: How to Rapidly Develop New Leaders in Great Numbers”.

In summary, there are four key areas of work that can support the development of new leadership-in-community.

Name the Community. Community forms among people acting from the same values and visions. Their practices are varied and unique, but each practice develops from a shared set of values. In this way, the community is very diverse in its expression, and very united in its purpose.

Connect the Community. A community becomes stronger and more competent as new connections are formed with those formerly excluded, as it brings in those who sit on the periphery, as communication reaches more parts of the system, and as better relationships are developed.

Resource the Community. Communities of practice need to be nourished with many different resources. They require ideas, methods, mentors, processes, information, technology, equipment, money. Each of these is important, but on great gap is that of knowledge – knowing what techniques and processes are available that work well.

Illuminate and Interpret the Community. There is a critical need to tell the stories of this community, to get public attention for their efforts. It takes times, attention, and a consistent media focus for people to see them for what they are, examples of what’s possible, of what our new world could look like. To develop this level of public awareness requires skilful working with the media.

Communities of practice develop from a need to do one’s work more effectively but also, more importantly, to align with shared human values.

“Whatever is important to you, you probably have more opportunity than you may realize to pursue those things in business, even in for-profit companies. You don’t have to be limited by the misconception that corporations always have to try to maximize their profits. Nor must you be limited by what other people think are the social responsibilities of business. You are really only limited by what you can imagine and by what you can find other people to support.”

(Extract from Thomas W. Malone’s “The Future of Work: How the New Order of Business Will Shape Your Organization, Your Management Style, and Your Life”)

The next blog explores step two in the NOBO Virtuous Circle by describing how NOBO leaders can initiate changing conversation in organisations.