Because Women Have “Ideas Worth Spreading” : TED2011 Action Steps

February 27, 2011

Tweet The 2011 TED conference begins Tuesday in Long Beach CA. Of the 55 folks who will present “Ideas worth Spreading”, 15 of these speakers will be women. That’s a whopping 27%… no improvement over previous years, and nowhere near gender parity. To celebrate the 15 Women who will take the TED stage, and to […]

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Beyond Positioning: Establishing Authentic Optimal Distinctiveness

February 23, 2011

Tweet Every organization needs to establish optimal distinctiveness – a competitive position within your field, where you are similar enough to other organizations to be seen as legitimate, but different enough that you’re seen as having something unique to offer.  But, optimal distinctiveness is more than being in a competitive place in your field. Optimal […]

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Can an organization be too different?: The Strategic Value of Optimal Distinctiveness

February 18, 2011

Tweet Can an organization be too different? I spend a lot of time with organizations that are trying to strengthen the perception that they are different, so that they can distinguish themselves from their competition. They want their customers to see that they offer something that no other organization can. Because being different is critical […]

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Social Media for Social Change — Inside the Organization?

February 15, 2011

Tweet This post is featured on Social Media Today. How has the activity of organizational change been changed, with the advent of social media? Back when I was an internal OD/Org Change manager in the Soap Plant, we spread ideas about change the old-fashioned ways: meetings, photocopied paper mail, and face-to-face conversations. With the rise […]

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Be My Tweet-Heart? Punny Valentine’s Hearts for Social Media Fans

February 13, 2011

Tweet Some Valentine’s Day fun… . Tweet these to your special online someones!

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CSR that Improves the World But Leaves Your Damaging Business Model Intact: Authentic or not?

February 9, 2011

Tweet How can your organization claim to be making the world better, when your business model depends on making the world worse? This question about corporate social responsibility efforts has bugged me for decades — pretty much since I learned what capitalism was. The question came up again for me Tuesday during the conversation at […]

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What You Can Do about the Gender Gap on Wikipedia: The WWHACKathon

January 31, 2011

Tweet It’s only 9:15 on a Monday morning and already I’ve received six emails suggesting that I blog about today’s New York Times article about the Gender Gap at Wikipedia. What really is there to say, that hasn’t been said before? We know about how men’s self-confidence, geek machismo, and other dynamics of male-ism influence […]

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How Social Media Reveals Invisible Work

January 27, 2011

Tweet Social Media helps us get work done. And, Social Media has a unique ability to show us something about how we get work done that we often overlook. It allows us to see both conventional work and “invisible work”. What is invisible work? Invisible work includes all kinds of energy and tasks that contribute […]

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Your Authentic Social Network: The Identity Graph

January 24, 2011

Tweet You’ve heard about the Social Graph and the Interest Graph. Now meet the Identity Graph— the online network of the authentic, social, interpersonal you. Different kinds of relationships create different graphs. Each of us has our own social network that’s comprised of a hodgepodge of different kinds of connections. We have social connections between […]

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How Social Media Create Organizational Meaning

January 18, 2011

Tweet Social media tools can transform an organization. One of the things I enjoy so much about social media is the chance to be (more often) the person I am, with my specific sets of talents, interests, and goals. Every time I extend myself out on social media, I get to choose what I’ll say, […]

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