Buy the Book: Organizations Don’t Tweet, People Do

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Blogging, Books, Business, Featured, Management, Social Media, Society, Strategic Thinking, Web Technology  Comments Off
Jan 302012
 
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Practical advice for managers on how the Web and social media can help them to do their jobs better

[source: Amazon]

I first heard Euan Semple speak about Social Media at a BCS (British Computer Society) ELITE event at BT Tower (in London) back in 2008. What differentiated him from others writing and speaking about the subject?

  • Experience: he has a very credible background in collaboration and communications, formerly at the BBC and latterly as an ‘independent consultant’ with blue chips and niche players.
  • Hype realism: a recognition of the need to drive real value from social media, delivering business outcomes, not ‘digital noise’.
  • Adoption complexity: it takes ‘10 seconds’ to sign up on Twitter, and less again to start using it in an ineffective and potentially damaging way. Forces such as consumerisation and social web have created mind shifts in business. Euan sets out simple, effective, engaging and sensible advice which will inform CxOs, marketers and communications professionals alike.

If you have an interest in the social web and optimisation of communications using social media, this book is a must buy.

Further Info

[source: Amazon]

Today′s managers are faced with an increasing use of the Web and social platforms by their staff, their customers, and their competitors, but most aren′t sure quite what to do about it or how it all relates to them. Organizations Don′t Tweet, People Do provides managers in all sorts of organizations, from governments to multinationals, with practical advice, insight and inspiration on how the Web and social tools can help them to do their jobs better. From strategy to corporate communication, team building to customer relations, this uniquely people–centric guide to social media in the workplace offers managers, at all levels, valuable insights into the networked world as it applies to their challenges as managers, and it outlines practical things they can do to make social media integral to the tone and tenor of their departments or organizational cultures.

    • A long–overdue guide to social media that talks directly to people in the real world in which they work
    • Grounded in the author′s unparalleled experience consulting on social media, it features eye–opening accounts from some of the world′s most successful and powerful organizations
    • Gives managers at all levels and in every type of organization the context and the confidence to make better decisions about the social web and its impact on them

Euan Semple is one of the few people in the world who can turn the complex world of the social web into something we can all understand. And, at the same time, learn how to get the most from it.

Ten years ago, while working in a senior position at the BBC, Euan was one of the first to introduce what have since become known as social media tools into a large, successful organisation. He has subsequently had five years of unparalleled experience working with organisations such as Nokia, The World Bank and NATO.

He is a one-man digital upgrade option for us all to download.

This world is changing fast, but he makes sense of it because he understands that the core basics remain the same: community, learning, and interaction. He is a master story-teller who offers a host of practical tales about how this new world can work for real people in the real world.

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Cognitive Workout for January 2012

 Posted by at 7:30 am  Books, DECISION, Economics, Enterprise Architecture, Featured, Psychology, Strategic Thinking, Systems Thinking  Comments Off
Jan 072012
 
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There is a gap in the market for ‘grey cell exercise DVDs’, so in the meantime here are a few recommendations for the January commute:

1. Edward de Bono – Six Thinking Hats

SIX THINKING HATS is a de Bono classic, used by businessmen worldwide to develop techniques of creative thinking in the boardroom. The Six Hats method aims to make the fullest use of everyone’s intelligence, experience and information. De Bono has comprehensively updated his bestselling text for this new edition.

2. The Decision Book – 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

One of my favourite reference books on Strategic Thinking models. Very accessible, each model is explained in simple terms with an accompanying example.

Most of us face the same questions every day: What do I want? And how can I get it? How can I live more happily and work more efficiently? A European bestseller, The Decision Book distils into a single volume the fifty best decision-making models used on MBA courses and elsewhere that will help you tackle these important questions – from the well known (the Eisenhower matrix for time management) to the less familiar but equally useful (the Swiss Cheese model). It will even show you how to remember everything you will have learned by the end of it. Stylish and compact, this little black book is a powerful asset. Whether you need to plot a presentation, assess someone’s business idea or get to know yourself better, this unique guide will help you simplify any problem and take steps towards the right decision.

3. 50 psychology ideas you really need to know

I particularly enjoyed the chapters on Personality and Society and Rationality and Problem Solving.

How different are men and women’s brains? Does altruism really exist? Are our minds blank slates at birth? And do dreams reveal our unconscious desires? If you have you ever grappled with these concepts, or tried your hand as an amateur psychologist, 50 Psychology Ideas You Really Need to Know could be just the book for you. Not only providing the answers to these questions and many more, this series of engaging and accessible essays explores each of the central concepts, as well as the arguments of key thinkers. Author Adrian Furnham offers expert and concise introductions to emotional behaviour, cognition, mental conditions – from stress to schizophrenia – rationality and personality development, amongst many others. This is a fascinating introduction to psychology for anyone interested in understanding the human mind.

4. Nudge – Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness

A classic ‘marmite’ book, and a must-read for those interested in behavioural economics and choice architecture (by which of course I mean any self-respecting innovator and architect!).

By Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. The book draws on research in psychology and behavioral economics to defend libertarian paternalism and active engineering of choice architecture.

The book received mixed reviews. The Guardian described it as “never intimidating, always amusing and elucidating: a jolly economic romp but with serious lessons within.” But The Sunday Times called it a “very, very dull read” and others contended that the many policy proposals it contained became “a bit wearisome”. It was named a “Best Book of the Year” by The Economist.

5. Mind Maps for Business – Revolutionise your business thinking and practice

A couple of years old, but a great book from Mind Map inventor Tony Buzan. There is an excellent chapter on Mind Maps for Strategic Thinking covering Scenario Planning, PEST, SWOT, Balanced Scorecards, Porter’s Five Forces Framework, BCG growth-share matrix, Porter’s Value Chain, McKinsey 7-S framework, and the 4-P’s (marketing mix).

6. A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowd Sourcing

Edited by Paul Sloan with twenty five chapters authored by different figures from the Open Innovation (OI) world. The forward is by Prof. Henry Chesbrough (‘the father of Open Innovation’). Stefan Lindegaard writes an interesting chapter calling for Open Innovation to be Fast, Open and Global. Contributors from NineSigma, Spigit and other interesting practitioners make this a very compelling read.

Open innovation and crowdsourcing are among the hottest topics in strategy and management today. The concept of capturing ideas in a hub of collaboration, together with the outsourcing of tasks to a large group of people or community is a revolution that is rapidly changing business culture. A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing explains how to use the power of ideas and people outside your organization to turbocharge your innovation. Failure to embrace these approaches could mean getting left behind.

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Enterprise Architecture Book Recommendations: Architecture Principles, The Cornerstones of Enterprise Architecture

 Posted by at 1:01 pm  Books, DECISION, Enterprise Architecture, Featured, Principles  Comments Off
Dec 312011
 
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This book is a very useful primer on the purpose of Architecture Principles, their specification and governance. The Principles Catalogue in the Appendix is also a very useful resource if you have never written Enterprise Architecture principles and are looking for an accelerator or some examples. There is also good coverage of the lifecycle of principles and how principles should be linked to business goals (with practical examples).

Defining and Mapping Principles to Business Goals

I find the most productive approach to be:

  • Work with the client to develop agreed business goals
  • Review the business strategy and Target Operating Model and look for gaps in the former articulation (or if it doesn’t exist, formulate as first step). Note watch out for the ‘Mission Statement Strategy’ Anti Pattern. Principles need to connect to Business Goals. If they cannot be mined from the strategic view, they will need to be elicited / brainstormed. This will delay creation of the Principles
  • Initiate stakeholder review of Business Goals (i.e. is this the correct foundation on which to map the Enterprise Architecture Principles)
  • Using existing Principles if they exist or samples from a reference catalogue, create Principle set hypothesis. Tailor Principles to client terminology, circumstances etc.
  • Map to business goals
  • Are any goals not linked to a Principle? If so, there is something missing
  • Are any Principles not linked back to a goal? Why? Is it regulatory? Something implicit in the business strategy, but not articulated as a business goal explicitly?
  • Define metrics for each Principle
  • Hold stakeholder review of hypothesised Principles and their mapping to Business Goals and Strategy
  • Use a Systems Thinking technique to surface additional Problem Statements and tensions and on this basis suggest refinement or addition of new Principles
  • Refine, and obtain sign-off on the Principles from the stakeholder community

I recommend periodic SWOT analyses of the Principles as well as keeping a close eye on metrics and waivers. If a Principle is constantly being ‘broken’ then it is really useful (or does this point to governance problems)?

Product Description

[source: Amazon]

It can be argued that architecture principles form the cornerstone of any architecture. The focus of this book is on the role of architecture principles. It provides both a balanced perspective on architecture principles, and is the first book on the topic.

From the Back Cover

[source: Amazon]

Enterprises, from small to large, evolve continuously. As a result, their structures are transformed and extended continuously. Without some means of control, such changes are bound to lead to an overly complex, uncoordinated and heterogeneous environment that is hard to manage and hard to adapt to future changes. Enterprise architecture principles provide a means to direct transformations of enterprises. As a consequence, architecture principles should be seen as the cornerstones of any architecture. In this book, Greefhorst and Proper focus on the role of architecture principles. They provide both a theoretical and a practical perspective on architecture principles. The theoretical perspective involves a brief survey of the general concept of principle as well as an analysis of different flavors of principles. Architecture principles are regarded as a specific class of normative principles that direct the design of an enterprise, from the definition of its business to its supporting IT. The practical perspective on architecture principles is concerned with an approach to the formulation of architecture principles, as well as their actual use in organizations. To illustrate their use in practice, several real-life cases are discussed, an application of architecture principles in TOGAF is included, and a catalogue of example architecture principles is provided. With this broad coverage, the authors target students and researchers specializing in enterprise architecture or business information systems, as well as practitioners who want to understand the foundations underlying their practical daily work.

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A Struggle to be Heard, by a true Ulster Liberal

 Posted by at 4:03 pm  Politics  Comments Off
Dec 042010
 
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UUP Peer and Ulster Scots supremo Lord Laird of Artigarvan launches his book "A Struggle to be Heard" at the House of Lords. Peppered with anecdotes, historical / political narrative and an occasional ‘tall tale’, are there overtones of Heaney’s "A Sofa in the Forties?"

Lord Laird in characteristic “chalk stripe”

I popped along to the House of Lords a week or so back for Lord Laird’s book launch “A Struggle to be Heard – by a true Ulster Liberal”. Lords Rogan and Eames were in attendance, I also had a fascinating conversation with Baroness Onora O’Neill, mostly about books on the hunger strikes and the trials faced by her cousin Terence O’Neill, in the latter days of his tenure as Northern Ireland Prime Minister.

(Lord) John Laird is a well-known and very popular Ulster Unionist politician and former Chairman of the Ulster Scots Agency. His book is semi-autobiographical in nature, a fluid, entertaining chronicle of his early life, struggling with dyslexia and perceived lack of academic prowess (now resolutely disproved)! The sad and very untimely demise of John’s father Norman thrust him into a very challenging political role in early life (at the height of a savage IRA terror campaign in Northern Ireland). His role in the Stormont government, the Sunningdale Agreement and the ensuing Ulster Workers’ Council Strike clearly had a profound effect on his political outlook and mistrust of the “apparatus of the southern state.” The book develops in a triumphant crescendo – the personal journey of overcoming tragedy, development of a successful political and latterly entrepreneurial career in Public Relations to ultimate elevation to the Peerage. An incredible life and incredible achievement no doubt fuelled by his adherence to the tenets of “New Light Presbyterian thinking”. At its most “weighty” the narrative questions the ethos of nationalism (in all forms) drawing parallels with fascism and mono-culturalism. Freedom is not about mythical “Mother Ireland” but freedom of mind and spirit (traits extolled by the Ulster Scots pioneers in the New World). Whimsical reminiscences about childhood train journeys (and his love of stream railway) and how these would be enacted in early play, evoked thoughts of Heaney’s “A Sofa in the Forties”.

John has produced a splendid and charming book, packed full of anecdotes and frank observations. My favourites (I admit this with a sense of Machiavellian glee) surround the exasperation of the Dublin administration and his dogged (Ulster Scots Presbyterian) resolution to have fair play and parity applied to development of Ulster Scots culture. A renewed interest and understanding of Ulster Scots culture is now highly developed in Northern Ireland and the work of the Ulster Scots Agency (greatly advanced by John’s efforts) has corrected revisionist ‘Irish American’ history that conveniently ignored the Scots Irish and their incredible contribution, particularly to formative American history.

The tone of the book is characteristically conciliatory, with praise given where it is due (even to political opponents and ‘cultural opposites’). The Ulster Scots simply want fair play and fair treatment. No more, no less. No culture exceeds another in importance. If this sounds reminiscent of the American Constitution, then be assured that the Ulster Scots had more “than a hand in it”.

I commend to you “A Struggle to be Heard” to be read at your earliest convenience.

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