Plaintalk

Free Range Innovation

My house is in the middle of nowhere. We’re about 100 miles south of Atlanta and enjoy 10 acres of pine trees and adjoining rolling farm land. It’s a very relaxing atmosphere after a week’s worth of work in the city.

Like many of our neighbors, we have a few non-traditional pets, including chickens. Yeah, I know. That probably qualifies my place as a small farm and me as a true redneck. But so be it. We like our chickens. They add a certain something to the rural lifestyle we’ve come to enjoy.

After I mow the yard on the weekends, we let the chickens out of their pen for a little “free range” time. They strut around the yard and the house, digging in the flower beds and checking out anything new that has appeared since their last romp. It gives them some freedom and excitement from their normal lives and lets them stretch their wings, legs and minds with new and different things to do.

As I was sitting on the back porch with a cold beverage watching them do their thing, I got to thinking about this whole free range thing and how powerful a concept it is for any group, be it flocks of chickens, classes of children or departments of engineers. This notion of giving free time to think and wonder and innovate is crucial to the success of an organization.

Because, let’s face it, most of us spend at least eight hours a day working on those things that have to get done. Rarely do we have ample time to work on those things we think ought to get done. We spend so much time working in the business that we ignore our need to work on the business. And it’s time spent working on the business that drives the organization forward and helps it to create new and exciting processes, products, services and revenue streams.

Free range innovation is rooted in the concept that everyone in the organization is capable of having a good idea that can have a real impact on the business. It’s crowdsourcing turned inward. There are a number of companies who use this method to drive innovation from the inside out to uncover new and different ideas from the very people closest to the operations of the company: employees.

Just look at Dell’s amazing Ideastorm concept to see how they allow employees to generate ideas then allow the whole group to vote on whether to promote or demote the idea based on its merits. The best ideas rise to the top and, most importantly, are implemented. Starbucks has a similar program in place for their employees. And Crowdcast has recently released a game-oriented approach and forecasting dashboard to employee crowdsourced innovation.

The idea of letting employees generate innovations for the business isn’t a new one. But new technologies and ways to improve the process of collecting, voting on and implementing these ideas have changed how these programs work. It’s infinitely easier now to get your employees involved in working on the business and driving innovation at every level of the organization. And who better to tell you how to make improvements to your business than the people who work in it every single day?

As for the chickens, they dutifully return to their pen to roost once dusk starts to settle in. Then it’s back to the daily grind of the established pecking order and delivering eggs like they’re supposed to do. But they remain optimistic knowing that in a few short days they’ll get the chance to free range around the yard again, uncovering new and different things. If I could just get them to innovate rather than just scratch the ground I’d be on to something. Though I’m not sure the world is ready for poultry-based idea sourcing.

Too Much of a Good Thing is a Bad Thing

A friend's son turned one over the weekend. She shared with me a photo showing the birthday boy up to his elbows in cake and icing. I have the same photo of my son doing the same thing on his first birthday. I bet those of us with kids all have that same photo. There's just something about giving a kid a giant cake with lots of icing and letting him get beyond messy with it.

Today on Twitter I participated in a chat about internal communications and how we as communicators are both experiencing and contributing to a similar messy situation in our workplaces: information overload. It's tough realizing we're both victims and offenders in this situation.

But I'm afraid that, in lots of workplaces, it's true. In an effort to thoroughly communicate, we have a tendency to overcommunicate, leaving employees to the dirty job of filtering through all of the information to find the important pieces of data. Here's your newsletter, emails, e-newsletters, intranet site, videos, town hall meetings, instant messages, texts, blogs, voicemails and Twitter/Yammer feeds. Good luck keeping up.

In fact, my firm just completed a communications survey with a client's frontline managers. More than 55 percent of the respondents indicated that they "do not have the time they need to share important information" due to information overload. In the commenting section, one manager put it this way: "what you expect me to share, give me the time to share." Another said "we need info that is direct, easy to find, and easy to pass on to my employees; we have about five minutes to pass any information we have prior to dispatching my crew."

Clearly these folks are up to their elbows in cake and icing. They barely have time to get their "real" jobs done, much less their communications responsibilities. And we've helped contribute to the problem by throwing all of these communications tools at them without clearly thinking through how to use all of these tools and whether they're all needed. Don't get me wrong: I can be just as guilty of this as the next person. I love cake and icing, especially all of the shiny, new stuff that's out there.

But as we discussed on Twitter today, a few well-chosen tools of both the push and pull variety populated with honest, transparent, relevant and interesting information can work as hard as you need them to to get the job done. A mad rush to provide everything to everybody in every form possible creates more problems than it solves. Choose your tools wisely and carefully and then let them do their jobs. Evaluate them every once in a while to make sure they're still relevant. But resist the urge to add a new tool just because you can.

All of that cake and icing is tempting. Just know you'll pay the price for it sooner or later.

CEOs Not Immune to Economic Woes

As the jobless rate inches ever higher and the number of "regular Joes" who have been served pink slips increases every day, it's easy to put the blame on the higher ups. After all, the cold, heartless senior managers always stick it to the frontline employees whenever times get tough. It doesn't seem to matter that many of the senior leadership team's decisions got the company sideways in this recession to begin with. It's always the little guy who has to pay the price. Or at least that's how most of the stories go.

While senior leaders do, for the most part, seem to weather tough economic times better than their employees, they certainly aren't immune to the same kind of treatment from their own supervisors, in this case, boards of directors. In today's Wall Street Journal's online edition, there was an article about the increase in the numbers of CEOs losing their jobs as a result of the tough economic times we find ourselves mired in. The article names a few names of some of the high-profile CEOs who've been relieved of their duties because their companies have underperformed. No matter that everyone seems to be underperforming these days. If you're the CEO and things aren't going well at the company, then you're just as likely to see the axe fall as your employees.

The article also goes on to describe how the rest of the senior leadership team then becomes vulnerable as the new CEO comes in and hires his or her own team to lead the company to better fortunes. And as hard as it is to find another $25 an hour job that you've just lost due to a layoff, it's equally as hard finding a $500K a year job as a chief technology officer after there's been a shakeup at the senior leader level. Both losses are frustrating and hard to recover from. The only difference is in the numbers; the pain, frustration, anger, embarrassment and, in some cases, relief are the same.

After all of the job losses during this past year and the senior managers who helped to orchestrate them, there's likely to be little empathy for CEOs who are canned, especially those who are leaving with golden parachutes intact. But the fact remains that being shown the door is painful for anyone, no matter how high up that person is in the organization.

12 for 12K: Are You In?

Here's a simple and effective way you can make a difference in 2009. The 12 for 12K Challenge is the combination of social media and fundraising that aims to change the lives of millions worldwide.

Their aim is to change the lives of millions through this simple challenge:

• 12 months
• 12 charities
• 1200 people
• $12,000 per charity

It's simple to participate and to stay engaged throughout the year. Each person only needs to donate $10 per month for the duration of the challenge. If they reach their goal of 1200 people per month who participate, they'll be able to make the $12,000 per charity donation.

They are using social media and word-of-mouth marketing to spread the word. So if you have a blog or Twitter or are on Facebook, join their cause then spread the word. Even better, if you run a corporate blog within your organization, give them some space in one of your posts. But even if you don't blog or Twitter or aren't on Facebook or do any of that social media stuff, it's really easy to pledge $120 dollars for the year to make a difference in millions of lives.

Check out their website and join up today.

Happy Holidays!

A joyous and peaceful holiday season to all!

Thankful

Just a quick little post to say that, despite all the economic and job turmoil, we all still have much to be thankful for.

Have a safe and happy holiday.

A Bigger Geek than Bill

As you probably know, today is Bill Gates' last day at Microsoft. Here's a link to a hilarious video on YouTube showing what that last day might be like. It's clean content.

I met Bill Gates one time. I used to work at a software company and we got tickets to an after-party during a software trade show. I walked in and there he was, just standing there talking to people, like a normal human being. I had it in my mind that he was some kind of Computer God who came down from the heavens to save us from having to use typewriters and glue to paste up newsletters.

So being the geek that I am, I decided to go up and shake his hand. Well, when I did, he had to switch his drink from his right hand to his left hand and, in doing so, dropped it. First of all, I had walked right up and stuck my hand out and introduced myself while he was talking to other people. How rude! And secondly, I caught him completely off guard, with no time to think about what was happening. So there I stand, with Bill Gates in front of me and Bill Gates' drink on the floor beside me. That's not how I imagined it would go. I offered to buy him another but he graciously declined. He introduced himself and we shook hands. Then he turned back to talk to his friends while I crawled off to hide in the deepest layer of hell for acting like such an idiot.

That was my brush with greatness. And yes, it proves that even though you may think you know what a true geek is, you can't be too sure until you see someone who acts even geekier.

I still owe him a drink. Maybe one day I'll see him at an all-you-can-eat buffet at 5:30p with the rest of the retirees.

Our New Look

We redid the look of the blog. Let me know what you think, both good and bad. Add your comment below.

The Three Screens

There's a theory out there that says we now have three screens in our lives — a tv screen, a computer screen and now a phone screen — and that through these three screens we'll get most, if not all, of our news, entertainment and information.

It's amazing to watch this phenomenon happen and the impact it has on the practice of internal communication. I hold workshop through the Advanced Learning Institute called Social Media in the Workplace. I gave this presentation last week in San Diego, which is the fifth time I've conducted this workshop. And each time, this workshop is a near sellout. Seems that folks just can't get enough of social media and how it is changing the way we communicate within the organization.

The workshop covers blogs, wikis, RSS (Really Simple Syndication), video and audio podcasts, and social media tools like Facebook and LinkedIn. It's interesting to hear what is working and what still needs tweaking. Blogs and podcasts seem to be the most popular with attendees, in terms of what they've implemented at their organizations. But coming on strong are wikis and Facebook, especially with employee populations that are spread across multiple locations, states and/or countries. And everyone's ears perk up when we talk about how RSS can reduce the volume of email we send and receive. All of these tools are now prevalent due to the persistence of the three screen theory.

Think of how the three screens have changed your daily life. I, for one, get 99% of my information from them. I do enjoy movies, books and magazines, but I find myself spending less and less time with these, especially when the same content is available either online or via my phone. The last two movies I've watched were on my phone during plane rides.

Is this further proof of the death of print, i.e. newsletters and the like? I don't think so. But it is fairly strong evidence that people are moving toward a three screen orientation in their personal lives at a faster rate than they are in their work lives. Which means at some point, employees are going to demand they receive information as effortlessly at work as they can receive it at home.

The ball's in our court for pushing this through in our organizations. The demand is there, the tools exist. It's simply a matter of convincing senior leaders, who may still actually pick up a newspaper, that giving people more modern choices for exchanging information is a solid business strategy.

Old School Meet Nu Skool :) LOL

I don't usually take up space in this blog talking about myself. I'd rather focus on the stuff you came here to read about: what's going on in internal communications.

But I would like to take a minute to let you know how proud I am to have been selected as the professional adviser to the Georgia College & State University's Public Relations Student Society of America chapter.

In case you're not familiar with that organization, it's the college arm of the Public Relations Society of America. It's an organization structured for those majoring in public relations. It offers learning and developmental opportunities through advanced public relations activities designed to supplement the formal learning going on in the college classroom. It also offers an annual competition where teams from chapters from across the country compete in a public relations campaign. The competition gives participants the opportunity to work on their strategy and tactics skills, as well as public speaking and presentation capabilities.

This is the chapter's first year on campus at GC&SU, having just received their charter. Their college adviser, Ginger Carter Miller, and a number of students worked many long hours to receive charter status. There were even a number of graduating seniors who put in time to create the chapter who will move on before the first meeting is even held.

I'm proud of their work thus far and have been impressed by their enthusiasm, knowledge and competitive spirit. I know the odds are long, but it wouldn't be completely out of character for them to win the national competition their first year out of the gate. It's for sure I'd buy the first round of drinks (for those who are legal, of course) to celebrate that accomplishment.

Hopefully this old dog can teach these young pups some new tricks, considering how much things have changed since my college days. You know, back when we used to use typewriters and a cell phone came in a bag and weighed 15 pounds. But I have kept up pretty well; they were shocked that I have a Facebook page, that I blog and text message, and that I use Twitter. I'm not all old school, it seems.

However, for the record, if another student calls me "sir," so help me I'm gonna make them drink Coke with Pop Rocks.