Over the past several months I’ve being piecing together strands of insights and learning about where I am as a practitioner within the social media/business landscape. I came across writings about social artistry and discovered how others are pondering similar questions.

Michele Martin, a blogger I’ve being following for some time, also was attracted to this emerging  area of working and learning called “social artistry’ . We both felt that organizing an online space for broadening the dialogue and learning more about the skills of social artistry might be of interest to others.

Michele has posted the announcement and invitation to participate in our online cafe on her website.

Here is Michele’s announcement in its entirety.

Announcing: The Virtual Knowledge Cafe on Social Artistry

Brent MacKinnon and I are organizing a 9-week Knowledge Cafe that we plan to run online, starting February 20, 2012.

It’s open to anyone who’s interested in learning with us about the skills and talents of social artists and who wants to explore how social artistry might fit into their professional practice.

We’ll be adapting David Gurteen’s Knowledge Cafe model and Bo Gyllenpalm’s Virtual Knowledge Cafe as a learning framework.

A few things you should know:

• There will be no instructors, no learning objectives and no formal curriculum. The group will work together to decide on the topics we want to explore, based on our interests and passions. Each of us will take the lead in directing the learning through the questions we ask and the knowledge and resources we share. If you are looking for a formal course in social artistry, we are NOT the group for you.

• We are building this plane while it’s flying. We will be providing an online “home” for the Cafe and some basic structural framework, but the content and practices we develop will evolve as we go through the process. We think this is an exciting, interesting way to learn about a topic like this, but it can also be a little challenging for people who are used to more “polished” products and structured learning. If you participate in the Cafe, be ready for some messiness.

• We have no idea of the outcomes for the Cafe. We’re hoping that the Cafe can be the start of a Community of Practice for people who are interested in social artistry. We’re thinking there’s a possibility that through the Cafe we might identify some cool projects or ideas to work on together. But we really have no way of knowing what will result from the Cafe. And we’re OK with that. If you join us, you will need to be OK with that too.

This is an experiment in using some of the tools and techniques of social artistry to learn about social artistry. As with all experiments, it has the potential to be a rousing success or an abysmal failure. But either way, we will learn something from it.

If you’re interested, check out our course invitation here and sign up here.

Here’s to learning together!

Related Posts:

Creating My 2012 Business Position Statement: A gyroscope to support my highest aspirations and keep me balanced,

Coming Home as a Node in the Network

Left Brain – Right Brain photo by Invisible Heartstrings

My first approach was to create a few New Year’s resolutions to help me get started. I soon realized that New Year’s resolutions weren’t going to get me my position statement. I knew that I wanted much more than a few pithy promises to improve. Rather, I wanted a concise business position statement that would guide my work and help me stay focused on my core business goals. Having worked in my youth as a hard rock miner I likened my task to drilling and blasting high grade mineral deposits. I would extract the richest minerals, process  the  high grade ore into a few key words and then use these selected words to represent what I stand for as a consultant in my field.

I gained inspiration for this task from a book I enjoyed this past year. It was called Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions by Guy Kawasaki. One of Guy’s recommendations is to set a three to ten word (maximum) slogan that defines or stakes out your position in your field of work. He suggests that your slogan not be a syrupy    marketing promise, full of ego and claiming to be the best in the business. Rather, it should be a carefully thought out position statement totally owned and created by you.          Ideally he recommends you use action words that are concise, honest reflections of what you do and what you stand for as a professional.

So I took up Guy’s challenge to create a brief slogan that would capture the essence of my work and learning identity. After much reflection and testing, I created my own four word position statement. It was then that I began to understand why Guy recommended this exercise.  These four words, taken either together or individually, contain an energy that’s uniquely personal to me and that dynamically supports my highest aspirations. The words are like a gyroscope keeping me upright and balanced, while embracing the uncertainty       of our emerging complex, networked world. The following image and description explain why the words I chose are meaningful to me. Each word can stand on its own or be part of a synergistic flow, with each word complementing and supporting the others.

One of my community roles is Chairing the Harm Reduction Coalition of York Region. We are group of York Region non profit organizations strongly committed to the harm reduction philosophy and policy practice. We were asked to present in a local conference and jumped at the opportunity to raise awareness about harm reduction to attending practitioners.

Patti Bell from Blue Door Shelters and Lori Kerr from LOFT Crosslinks Street Outreach Services Network presented at the conference hosted by York Support Services Network.

Their presentation was filled with very useful information about harm reduction. Patti and Lori talked about the current state of harm reduction in York Region and the challenges of implementing a structured harm reduction practice in organizations. Patti and Lori talk over the presentation with Radha Bhardwaj (center), Executive Director of the AIDS Committee of York Region.

I’m organizing marketing material for a new business product my partner and I are developing. The product is an easy to manage, low cost web platform that can be easily set up to help organizations tap into and support the collaboration and innovation resources of their staff. My marketing task includes integrating a few examples from my 25 plus years working as an employee in a wide variety of management roles in the non-profit sector.

As I reflected on the many roles I’ve held, a new insight about my current role identity has emerged.

Throughout my successful career in the non-profit sector, I held roles with a title and a set of responsibilities. Operating as a consultant for the past 3 years has given me a new perspective about my early role identity. Before I became a consultant, I was constantly moving from one non-profit contract to another, holding down very challenging roles but firmly entrenched as an employee in a hierarchical, command and control work structure.

Looking back, I characterize my role identity in the non-profit sector as a time when I had a J.O.B. mindset. A lot has changed over the past few years. I am not attached or operate with that mindset anymore. What now makes the most sense to me is recognizing and accepting that my role identity is one of functioning as a node in the network.

What are some of the factors brought me to my new role identity?

Like many others I was totally enamoured with using social web technologies to further my professional development and learning needs. I also introduced these powerful communication and connecting tools in my organizations and in the programs I managed.  It was very apparent to me that these social tech tools were vital for organizations if they were to stay relevant and sustainable in our new networked, connected society.

When my last employment contract ended (project funding only lasts so long), I knew deep down that my J.O.B. mindset days were over. I saw a new role ahead as a consultant, helping groups use social tech to meet their business goals. Equally important was helping staff use social tech to enhance their professional development, collaboration and innovation skills as they worked on business projects.

Looking back, I clearly see that I fully bought into and accepted the beliefs and assumptions that make up a J.O.B. mindset. These beliefs and assumptions were ingrained or immersed in the work culture of the organization. In hindsight, I recognize how conditioned I was after 25 years of working with a J.O.B. mindset.  Let’s not leave out my 20 years of conditioning in the educational system. I believe that the pervasiveness of this heavy systemic indoctrination kept me in a state of learned helplessness and tethered to the notion that the J.O.B. mindset was the only option available.

It has taken me considerable time to transition from my old role identity with a J.O.B. mindset to a node in the network mindset. As a node in my network, I sustain my learning and livelihood through my network relationships.  My network is active both online and off, dynamic, always in varying stages of forming and emerging. In my network, relationships can be informal or ones that are based on shared experience and trust. I’m solely responsible for the strength of my network. Nurturing and contributing to my network is one of my primary roles.

Having a node in the network mindset is helping me move forward in my career and learning. I think a person’s mindset or an organization’s mindset is one of the most crucial factors that determine how well you will meet the challenges of the 21^st century.  With this insight I am better equipped to help organizations function as a node in their networks.

It’s taken me several years to understand my new role identity mindset. Fortunately, nobody’s keeping score. It’s starting the journey that counts.

Great references to ponder:

It’s the Network – Harold Jarche, Internet Time Alliance

Managing in a Networked World, Harold Jarche, Internet Time Alliance (slideshare)

As I’ve spent most of my life in that sector. Reading Jane’s posts on workplace learning gives me stronger language in my discussions with Executive Directors about how their organization is responding to the realities of living in a hyper connected, digital world.

Jane’s posts focus on performance outcomes, not social tools or technology period.What a relief. I can focus on real tangible outcomes that matter to Executive Directors.

I know that many Senior managers and Board Directors are challenged to make sense of the endless array of technology options available to the organization. In truth, the myriad number of tech options is not the issue. How their employees are learning, connecting, creating solutions and innovating is the issue.

Consumers are more advanced than the organization’s staff at using (and expecting) technology to choose services and add value to their everyday lives. If Executive Directors understand how their communities are changing, I believe they must change their work place culture to match the new realities in the marketplace.

Here is the rub – no surprise. Like the commercial sector, the default culture of the non profit sector is characterized by a top down, command and control system for running the organization.  In small to medium size non profits there is no Learning and Development Department. Workplace learning is “catch as you can” and a workshop or two each year – if there is a budget for the workshop.

The management’s mindset is what determines the learning culture of the organization and typically workplace learning is not a high priority (or just not on the radar).

I really like how Jane frames the mindset needed by organization leaders. It’s “encourage & engage” that will drive the organization in the 21 century, not command and control.  Visit Jane’s website to learn more about the New Workplace Learning and the Smart Worker posts that break things down into bite size chunks.

Thanks for your provocative posts Jane. I look forward to your new book.

Brent

I’ve put together a list of goals that are fairly common for any organization that is seeking improvements to its business outcomes, practices and purpose:

These goals are generic to any organization regardless of social media. As you integrate social media as a method to achieve those goals, the results can be exponentially realized.

1. Improve how employees learn from eachother so they can be better at their job;
2. Improve how employees share their knowledge so that they and the organization can capture that knowledge for documenting best practices, innovating or creating new practices, replication, adaption etc.
3. Improve how employees can connect to eachother across a disparate workforce;
4. Modernize communication systems to increase innovation and advocacy among employees and meet demands of tech savy workers and consumers;
5. Improve user/visitor satisfaction with services and engagement with employees;
6. Improve response time to changing demographics and consumer needs;
7. Improve relationships amongst employess and with consumers, supporters, partners, funders, volunteers (trust & transparancy);

I found some very useful information on the Forrester Research – Forrester Wave: Enterprise Social Platforms Q3 2011 Report. You can get it here but you do need to leave your contact information with Newsgator.

I didn’t make them smart goals as to do that is an a process you follow to drill down into your specific circumstances.

There are others that could be added but 7 seems like a reasonable number. What do you think? If you have a few to add, please put them in a comment.

Photo Credit

I’m a strong advocate of the Open Atrium platform. As a collaboration tool it keeps me connected with my clients and enables me to engages staff in learning new skills, creating content and developing strategies that improve performance results for the organization.

Open Atrium is a free out of the box package. I love it because its features can outperform many high priced similar products designed to help organizations with their collaboration needs.

This is a list of the Open Atrium features:

Atrium Blog

Share ideas and receive email notifications when others post;

Atrium Notebook

Collaborate on documents, compare revisions, and print when you’re done.

Atrium Folders

A file management system for Open Atrium

Atrium Case Tracker

Create and manage projects within each of your groups:

Atrium Calendar

Add events and pull in feeds from other calendars.

Atrium Shoutbox

Share messages and links with just the people in your group.

Atrium Dashboard

See a snapshot of all the activity across your groups.

Atrium Members

Member directory and tools for adding and managing users.

Atrium Reader

The reader lets your share news, image and twitter feeds with your team.

Ideation

Provides a site-wide and group feature in which ideas posts can be created, voted on, and commented

The essence of those activities can be summed up in one word – COLLABORATION.

Here is a graphic that illustrates how Open Atrium enables and powers the organization’s capacity to innovate and create staff driven solutions for business challenges.

Click on Image to Enlarge

Open Atrium is a software platform that can be hosted on the organization’s web site or on a 2nd party site. As an open source product, its free with the only cost being set up and a bit of coaching on using the various features.

I believe Open Atrium is an ideal way to kick start an organization’s investment in social media. The platform gives worker/learners a place to constantly gain mastery of their skills, receive recognition for their creativity and innovation and most importantly find greater meaning in their chosen field as they contribute to the organization’s success.

If anyone is interested in learning more about how Open Atrium, I would be pleased to point them in the right direction. I’m also offering consulting support on Open Atrium implementation and customization, so inquiries are welcome.

To reinforce the importance of collaboration in the workplace, I’ve included a post from IBM that shows the result of a survey of 1500 CEO’s on why they thought Creativity was the most crucial factor for future success.

My view is that Open Atrium gives an organization a private space for creativity and innovation. Thanks to Harold Jarche for the link to this post.

IBM 2010 Global CEO Study: Creativity Selected as Most Crucial Factor for Future Success

Related Posts:

Cooking Up a Collaboration Web Site with Drupal & Open Atrium

Building Networked Social Benefit Web Sites – adding capacity & strengthening community

Picture – http://flic.kr/p/83dbbG

The videos are brief and will give viewers a basic introduction to the working smarter core concepts. The three concepts (more like pillars) are social learning, collaboration and leadership.

The working smarter concepts are not difficult to understand because “it’s all about doing the job  better” (Jane Hart – Social Learning Handbook).

My goal for the video series is to encourage viewers to learn more about how this model can help them improve performance outcomes, in and outside the organization. Any practitioner, manager, Board Director or Executive Director will see themselves in this framework.

Here is how Harold Jarche describes working smarter in the Working Smarter Fieldbook.

Working smarter is the key to sustainability and continuous improvement. Knowledge work and learning to work smarter are becoming indistinguishable. The accelerating rate of change in business forces everyone in every organization to make a choice: learn while you work or become obsolete.

On a personal note, I’m discovering that producing videos is fun but takes a lot of time. What’s even more satisfying is the positive responses I’m getting as I integrate the working smarter framework into my work with organizations.

The working smarter framework is in permanent perpetual beta. Harold Jarche and other members of the Internet Time Alliance are the primary writers and publishers.

You will learn more about how the framework can help your organization meet 21st century challenges by visiting their websites.

Related Posts:

Introduction to the Working Smarter Video Series

20 Questions about Social Learning, Collaboration & Leadership in the Workplace

Resiliency & the Working Smarter Framework: Building on Strengths