2012_09_17 Community Management IMG_0841 (Photo credit: joelogon)
OK, so I’m stepping away from the fire hose for a moment. I’m today wrapping up, if that even makes sense when you’re on the road, week #5 in my new gig as Senior Community Manager at SDL. Collecting and prioritizing my thoughts and experiences will likely take some time, if only because so many of them do not categorize very simply.
Image by Bohman via Flickr
Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to sit in on a quarterly meeting of some of the hardest working folks I know. My company calls them Product Planners. The difficulty of what they do is hidden by the simplicity of their title…if you’ve never worked in an enterprise that is tracking released products, fixing them as needed, and then planning new ones with the added uncertainty of forecasting their popularity, then you aren’t aware of the tricky dance these folks do. Years ago while watching one of my favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000 movies, I remember Crow T. Robot remarking, upon seeing a credit for someone tasked with Planning, “Oh, that’s what I want to do….I’ve always wanted to Plaaaaaan!”
I thought it was a bit odd too, at the time. Now I know better.
You’ve heard it before…
You’re in a meeting and someone is presenting an idea or proposal that they’ve placed an enormous amount of time and effort into. This is their BABY. It’s obvious they’ve done some research, talked to some experts and influencers. They got the data, did the analysis and did all the right things. There are some gaps, maybe…..perhaps a blind sport or two. Then it happens:
“What about XXX!?” (XXX = name of gap or blind spot goes here)
“That’s just obvious!” “How could you miss that?!” “Well, that’s no good…” “You’ll have to do better than that to convince me!” “We just need smarter people on this, apparently!” [Yes, I’ve heard that in meetings…]
“Don’t take it personally….it’s just business.”
I’m sorry, no. It’s never just business.
Image by César HZ via Flickr
A few nights back I was fortunate enough to attend a performance of the group Spyro Gyra at Jazz Alley in Seattle. I’ve been listening to their work since their first album (remember those? 
) in 1975, but this is the first time I have seen them perform. First I want to say I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Their music and style have evolved quite a ways from their early work in the 70’s. Their maturity as artists and desire to stretch what they can do together was evident.
While I was awash in the music and watching the band I became aware of a level of collaboration and team-focused performance that I began to mull over concerning how this looks in the world of other teams, businesses and organizations. A lot can be learned from this group.
My first impression is that this is truly a group. It isn’t “Jay Beckenstein and Spyro Gyra”, or anything like that….it is Spyro Gyra. They have an identity as a group that was evident throughout the show. This identity showed itself in a number of ways. For me the signifier was that each member was as absorbed in the work of the rest of the band as they were in contributing themselves. There were definitely five talented individuals on stage, but the individuality was clothed in the vision of the music. It reminds me of something I have written on my whiteboard in my office which says, “It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about the music.” This helps remind me of the vision and the goal as I work to accomplish all the things I do while working to keep ego out of it. It’s not easy, but it is worth it.
Image via Wikipedia
Today I opened the box and found a towel. My thoughts almost immediately raced to Douglas Adams‘ book "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" the the assertion that a towel is the most mind-bogglingly useful thing one can have. It has comforting properties, has innumerable uses and is still fairly non-exceptional in presentation. I tried moving away from these qualities (if only because the book has so many other enticements for my imagination that I might likely get permanently derailed). The more I thought about these things, though, the more they made sense for what I’m considering.
In this analogy, what does a towel represent? Good question. It could be a member of your team. It might be a tool or set of tools you use everyday that has become second nature and integral to your productivity. It might be a set of principles you work or live by. I could be a methodology you use or set of habits you have developed to get stuff done. It could be a best friend or mentor that you rely upon (and who relies on you, too).
Take some time today. Discover what your towel is and reaffirm that it is, indeed, amazing. Don’t take it for granted.
Image via Wikipedia
Today I opened the box and found a towel. My thoughts almost immediately raced to Douglas Adams‘ book "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" the the assertion that a towel is the most mind-bogglingly useful thing one can have. It has comforting properties, has innumerable uses and is still fairly non-exceptional in presentation. I tried moving away from these qualities (if only because the book has so many other enticements for my imagination that I might likely get permanently derailed). The more I thought about these things, though, the more they made sense for what I’m considering.
In this analogy, what does a towel represent? Good question. It could be a member of your team. It might be a tool or set of tools you use everyday that has become second nature and integral to your productivity. It might be a set of principles you work or live by. I could be a methodology you use or set of habits you have developed to get stuff done. It could be a best friend or mentor that you rely upon (and who relies on you, too).
Take some time today. Discover what your towel is and reaffirm that it is, indeed, amazing. Don’t take it for granted.
Image by aussiegall via Flickr
In my earlier post about the “glue” of collaboration, I spent the time describing the area of discussion and none about the actual measurement. That wasn’t exactly by design, as much as it was a realization that measuring collaboration means establishing some ground rules and accepting some risks and vagueness.
The ground rules are both simple and tough. Define what it is you’re trying to measure. I’m involved with that right now on my team and it is not easy. Objective measurement, as well as methodology, of collaboration and/or teamwork means setting up scales, deliverables, degrees of importance or weight (“So, was that assist worth a 5 or a 7?” and what does that mean?). There’s also the issue of whether this measurement applies to the group or to individuals and how you measure individual collaboration in a way that reduces the ability to game the system (“I’ll give you a +5 in the assessment if you give me one as well.”). Messy stuff….
Image by aussiegall via Flickr
In my earlier post about the “glue” of collaboration, I spent the time describing the area of discussion and none about the actual measurement. That wasn’t exactly by design, as much as it was a realization that measuring collaboration means establishing some ground rules and accepting some risks and vagueness.
The ground rules are both simple and tough. Define what it is you’re trying to measure. I’m involved with that right now on my team and it is not easy. Objective measurement, as well as methodology, of collaboration and/or teamwork means setting up scales, deliverables, degrees of importance or weight (“So, was that assist worth a 5 or a 7?” and what does that mean?). There’s also the issue of whether this measurement applies to the group or to individuals and how you measure individual collaboration in a way that reduces the ability to game the system (“I’ll give you a +5 in the assessment if you give me one as well.”). Messy stuff….
Authentic Voice 