Category Archives: Management

Don’t Throw the Good Ideas Out With the Fads

Posted on October 18, 2012 by christian

I had a conversation yesterday with a person who feels that the use of social technology in organizations is a passing fad, much like other fads supporting the importance of “innovation” and “collaboration.” It got me thinking about why good … Continue reading →

Posted in Design Thinking, Innovation, Management, Strategy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Questioning Best Practices

Posted on November 29, 2011 by christian

There is still a lot of talk about best practices for digital marketing, measuring social media ROI, constructing an online brand, etc. The implicit assumption is that there are actually best practices at all. Implicit in that assumption is a related assumption … Continue reading →

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Kinship-Like Practices Are Important In Complex Times: Lessons from a Merchant of Venice

Posted on November 1, 2011 by christian

In the absence of sufficient ability to control [1] a complex situation, humans tend to fall back on personal kinship networks as a means of improving their chances. The jilted lover returns to his parents for comfort. The wounded professional … Continue reading →

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Great Managers are Digitally Fluent (Reason 2)

Posted on October 31, 2011 by christian

Reason 1: Understanding Employees Reason 2: Decision Making A C-Level person in the 1970′s who had never watched television, or a manager in the 1940′s who had not used a telephone, or a business leader in the 1990′s who had … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Fluency, Digital Fluency, Management, People, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Great Managers Are Digitally Fluent (Reason 1)

Posted on October 26, 2011 by christian

Reason 1: Understanding Employees Most of your employees live in digital culture [1] outside of your organization that tends to lean toward the development and use of open source software, the use of massive collaboration, the viral spread of videos, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Organization | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Why Your Org Chart Might Be Distracting from Strategy Execution

Posted on April 30, 2011 by christian

I have been spending a decent amount of time recently with political scientists, behavioral economists and their research. Why? Because they study how groups of people make decisions and get things done. During a talk on group behavior this afternoon … Continue reading →

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Fear of Twitter?

Posted on February 13, 2010 by christian

I have spoken with lots of people over the last couple of years about the interplay between new media and organizations, and i have received lots of different responses, ranging from blind optimism (“Social media is the future of business!”) … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Organization, People | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

The Red Coats Would Have Scoffed At New Media Too

Posted on January 19, 2010 by christian

I have spoken to a significant number of business veterans who are afraid of the potential legal, cultural, brand and other ramifications of loosening up their restrictions on the employee use of new media for internal and for external communications. … Continue reading →

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Management's Mental Models of Media

Posted on November 30, 2009 by christian

I have fairly recently come to hate flying.  Having lived all over the country and served at different times in roles that require mobility, if have darkened the doorway of many airplanes.  If i really think about it, though, my … Continue reading →

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