Social Media Tools for Work & Learning » 2009

Command & Control to Collaboration – a big business lesson plan

February 27th, 2009

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I found this post on Luis Suarez’s set elsu.net. Luis is an IBM Knowledge Management specialist and a brillant blogger that I enjoy reading. The video is of CEO John Chambers of Cisco Systems and he is interviewed by Harvard Business School Publishing. John speaks elequently about the shift from a “command and control” model of doing business to a more open, transparent, collaborative and teamwork like environment where social computing is a central approach to conducting business.

I liked this interview because it illustrates the value of collaboration and the use of social networking tools to achieve significant results in a multi billion dollar company. If CISCO can do this in a highly structured bureaucracy, perhaps our non profit and educational sector groups can see the wisdom of adopting social media, networking and collaboration tools to tap into the strengths of its people and Mission. CEO Chambers makes a strong statement about the necessity of organizations to utilize the power of web 2.0 to improve performance and address the realities of our global interconnectedness.

Brent Uncategorized

Social Media Workshop – Building Capacity Within the Housing & Settlement Sector in Windsor Essex County

February 18th, 2009

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On Friday, Feb. 14th, I had the pleasure of delivering a workshop in Windsor to workers from the settlement and housing sectors. It was held at the United Way of Windsor Essex County offices and hosted by the Applied Social Welfare & Research Group – York University in partnership with the Homeless Coalition of Windsor Essex County. The workshop was titled Building Capacity Within the Housing and Settlement Sector. We put together an array of social media tools and presented examples of how social media is transforming how we work, learn and communicate with our stakeholders. Read more…

Brent Uncategorized

Strengthening Practice – Building Resiliency with Learning Networks

February 1st, 2009

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Learning how to work more effectively across sectors and building new skills is an ongoing requirement for professionals. As a community and youth worker (and now a social media consultant) I believe people want to be feel connected, they want to belong, they want to feel valued and competent, contributing to their own development and the development of those close to them. Using social media tools help me feel this way and I recognize the same benefits coming to others who publish online and use web 2.0 tools in their work.

The Social Non Profit – My Lens

A social non profit is attuned, responsive and adaptive to the complex factors affecting its constituents and communities. In a social non profit there is an alignment between staff, services, governance systems and online communications. Social non profits value learning and innovation and believe in working smarter by using social tech tools to enhance communication, collaboration and learning amongst staff, volunteers, partners and service users. These organizations believe that strategic use of social media empowers staff, improves services and strengthens governance practices.

Social Web Partners

I'm very pleased to have a number of very capable and talented consultants as friends and partners that work with me from time to time.

Alain Hurtubise (iAutomate.ca) designs and developments web 2. 0 platforms. Alain has over 20 years experience in web design and enterprise systems programming with large corporations. Alain's passion is paying it forward through his work with me in the non profit sector.

Peter Levesque's company, Knowledge Mobilization Works (based in Ottawa) is dedicated to building the capacity of people to create value through knowledge mobilization.

Mark Holmgren (Mark Holmgren Consulting - Edmonton AB) contributes his extensive organizational change expertise along with an array of social media integration expertise.