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Filed under: social intranets

Social Intranets and Managing Remote Teams courtesy of ThoughtFarmer

via thoughtfarmer.com

If you have about an hour to spare and haven't bumped into the theory and advice around the management of virtual teams before (something I haven't written about specifically since I moved my blog off Blogger) then this is worth watching. The Webinar features Nancy White and ThoughtFarmer bring this theory up to date in the context of using a social intranet to support virtual teams. BTW see my brief guide to successful virtual teams for my take on this (written in 2008).

Why Australian companies need to become Connected Companies

The Reserve Bank of Australia has been critical this last week about the depressed attitude in industry towards the state of the Australian economy. Like the rest of the developed world, there is obviously no way Australia can entirely avoid the competition of cheap labour overseas or the impact of global financial markets. But there is also a risk that Australian businesses use this as an excuse - research published last year highlighted that only a small proportion of Australian businesses are employing progressive management practices. This wasn't some wonky marketing survey, but a piece of serious research highlighting that:

"high-performing workplaces are up to 12 per cent more productive and three times more profitable"

In a related piece of work, my Dachis Group colleague Dave Gray has been looking at what characteristics define long-lived, successful companies. He was shocked to find that the life expectancy of large companies has fallen from 75 years in the 1930s to only an average of only 15 years. Dave's conclusion is that these companies are collapsing under their only dysfunctional weight. Right now, the logical reaction in some businesses to this "weight" problem is to downsize and outsource. Others on the other hand are embracing this challenge (that 12%).

I come into contact with some of those progressive organisations primarily from a technology perspective, although some are also attacking it from a broader social business level. What is interesting for me in this process is to observe that here in Australia, unlike say the US, our issue or need for concepts like Enterprise 2.0 isn't so much about overcoming dominant command and control structures; rather we need to embrace social technologies so we can:

  • Use them as a force multiplier that allows local companies to punch well above their weight in a global economy (social technologies are fantastic levellers).
  • Enable these companies to turn ideas, insight and innovation into action more effectively (great idea, but what are you going to do with it?).
  • Engage staff so that they voluntarily maximise their own productivity and professional development (carrot, not stick).
  • Deliver better products and more personalised levels of customer service (get people to buy Australian because its simply better).

In our government too there is an opportunity that has been mostly missed to date in the Government 2.0 conversation about enabling those inside government and those involved with service delivery to use these same technologies to also work more progressively. This is a missing piece in a puzzle that has spent more time focusing only on the veneer of citizen engagement through social media.

Of course, I'm not claiming that social business tools like software for workforce collaboration and social intranets trump the global and local financial and economic factors faced by Australian businesses. I'm simply saying don't ignore the evidence about how to be more productive and profitable. When wrapped up with the right implementation approach, these tools provide a critical technology platform for helping this to happen.

Social Intranet Software Showcase Webinar on 28th Feb

About this Webinar

Intranets may not be naturally social, but the people who use them and organisations where they exist certainly are. Many organisations are now recognising the importance of social intranets for workforce engagement and productivity.

If you are thinking of deploying a social intranet or want to add social features to an existing intranet there are now many mature software options available to you, but which tools should you be considering?

Headshift | Dachis Group's workforce engagement practice has helped many firms bring their existing IT systems to life by adding a social layer that helps people get their work done more effectively. In this 40 minute showcase Webinar, learn from our practical experiences about:

  • What is a social intranet.
  • What are the key features of a social intranet (and the problems they help to solve).
  • Get an overview of the best-of-breed social intranet software tools.
  • Find where and how SharePoints fits.

Agenda

  • Defining social intranet software.
  • Key features of social intranets.
  • Vendor overviews.
  • What about SharePoint?
via socialintranetsfeb28.eventbrite.com

I'm hosting a short 40 minute Webinar on 28th Feb at 11am (AEST - Sydney time) to provide a quick overview of social intranets and the leading software tools in this space. This is very much a technology-focused session to help people learn a bit more about the options that are available in the market.

Confluence 4.1 makes it even easier to be a wiki ninja

via blogs.atlassian.com

Back in September, with the release of Atlassian Confluence 4.0, I thought the new text editor was one of the particular highlights of this major version update.

Now with the release of 4.1 this week, there are further improvements to the new rich text editor including:

  • Build richer pages, faster with Autoconvert (it automatically embeds content like Confluence pages, YouTube videos, Skitch images, Flickr photo streams, Vimeo videos, and Google maps when you paste a link). 
  • Enhance documentation with Image Effects (see the screenshot). 
  • Make bulk changes to pages with Find & Replace.

As well as enhancements to Confluence, the fast pace of ongoing improvements to Team Calendars also continues.

Finally, don't forget to get your Confluence Origami Necktie, a fashionable quick-reference guide. Make it, snap a pic and share it on Twitter with the #confluencetie hashtag :-)

My panel discussion about KM on Sky News' Technology Behind Business

Last week I was invited by Nigel Freitas to participate in a panel discussion about Knowledge Management (KM) for Sky News Australia’s Technology Behind Business show.

Technology Behind Business examines trends and analyses key IT concepts. Each week an expert panel focuses on one type of technology or strategy, explaining its use without the jargon, outlining the pros and cons and providing tips for all types of businesses. The panel in this episode included Felicity McNish from Woods Bagot and Gerhard Voster from Deloitte.

You can watch the entire panel discussion on the Sky News Website.

via headshift.com

Cross posted from the Headshift | Dachis Group Asia Pacific blog.

If you are interested in this topic, I've written a reasonable amount about it over the years including a couple of book chapters and magazine articles - most of it accessible through my archive.

Of course, robust discussion on what KM is and if it failed is most welcome! ;-)

How to show leadership with intranets? Continuous improvement and simple ideas

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via steptwo.com.au

The other day I blogged about 3 Intranet Truths.

Looking at my first Intranet Truth ("No two intranets are the same. If they are, you are doing something wrong - stop benchmarking and start leading") its worth reflecting on the first two themes from Step Two Design's Intranet Innovations 2011 awards:

  • A culture of continuous improvement; and
  • Innovations that are based on very simple ideas

One of the examples they share that embodies these themes is computer animation house, Framestore:

The intranet team created a tool to project manage the visual effects they produce for movies such as the Harry Potter series. Built in-house and displaying data from a third party system, the company’s artists can access tabbed views of complex data about every scene and shot.

Framestore's success isn't based on nice to have features or "best practices" blindly copied from others, but by designing an intranet solution specifically for their users. If you want to replicate their success, show leadership by focusing on learning from their method not their design.

You will also see this same mindset in the way Headshift | Dachis Group approaches our projects, including examples such as Reynolds Porter Chamberlain.

ThoughtFarmer 5.0 is... mobile and extendable

 

via thoughtfarmer.com

Coming off the back of their annual social intranet conference, the ThoughtFarmer guys have announced the release of ThoughtFarmer 5. This release includes a new mobile-optimised version and an improved API.

I haven't played with the mobile version yet, but it looks well executed. I'm also really interested in the Integration Kit (TIK). No social intranet exists in a vacuum, so the ability to extend and customise ThoughtFarmer means you can use it as a true social workplace platform.