by Daria Steigman on March 1, 2010
Remember the Deck of Cards that the U.S. military unveiled after the 2003 invasion of Iraq? In addition to Saddam Hussein, it featured a who’s who of the regime’s inner circle. If you’d diagrammed it, you would have been ended up with a traditional hierarchical chart with Hussein at the top and the lines going down from there.
But that’s not how the military found Saddam Hussein. Instead, Col. Jim Hickey and his colleagues developed a social diagram to understand the Iraqi leader’s network of family, close friends, and tribal ties. (Stick with me here, I promise this post isn’t about politics or military strategy.)
At a recent New America Foundation panel discussion on Social Networks and Modern Warfare, Hickey stressed that filling in the pieces and capturing Saddam Hussein was the result of tremendous teamwork–not just by his troops, but in conjunction with special forces and others operating in Iraq.
Hickey also stressed that:
- everyone worked together to exchange information
- there were no silos
- they worked together to pursue opportunities
- no one asked for permission or ran decisions up the chain of command (i.e., they just went with it)
I’m going to suggest that the way the military pursued its objective offers three lessons learned for businesses:
1. We need to rethink influence. Hickey and his colleagues understood that family structures, not government officials, were the key to finding their man. We still over-rely on traditional org. charts rather than looking at how information truly flows within organizations. This has huge implications not only for how companies operate, but also for how we identify good business intelligence.
2. We need to do, then ask. Best Buy‘s Results-Only Work Environment is a good example. The people who developed the strategy didn’t ask permission to implement it; they tested it and proved it worked–and then sought permission to roll it out more widely.
3. Silos have to go. I’ve written about silos before. Hickey did something atypical of many hierarchical organizations: he shared information, and shares the credit today. Companies also need to let go of their fiefdoms.
What would you add?
Photo by striatic (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Col. Jim Hickey,
New America Foundation,
Social Networking,
teamwork,
Workflow
by Daria Steigman on July 21, 2009
We all know the U.S. economy is entering a jobless recovery, which is really a sanitized way of saying that if you’re unemployed you can expect more of the same. We clearly need a jobs creation strategy, and fast.
So where will the jobs come from? If history is a guide, the answer is entrepreneurs. According to David Gray, director of the Workforce and Family program at the New America Foundation, entrepreneurs and small businesses account for 75 percent of all new jobs. Gray moderated a terrific program yesterday that looked at what needs to happen to pave the way for new opportunities for America’s entrepreneurs.
My key takeaways:
- The Kauffman Foundation‘s Robert Litan pointed out that big firms don’t want to obsolesce what they’re making money on. As a result, all the sexy stuff is created by entrepreneurs.
- Litan cited a study of Fortune 500 firms that found that one-half of them were formed during a recession or a bear market.
- Don’t equate entrepreneurship with venture capital. Litan said that only 16 percent of the fastest growing companies were financed by venture capital.
- Health care is a major barrier to entrepreneurship because people can’t leave their jobs.
- Paul Glastris, editor-in-chief of the Washington Monthly, said that America needs to put “an entrepreneurship lens” around many of the policies being discussed.
- We need to invest in broadband, health information technology, and a smart grid. Glastris said investment in these platforms is key to the ability of the U.S. to create cutting-edge, high-wage jobs.
- Think U.S. broadband is fast? Australia’s broadband system is 4x faster; France’s is 9x faster, and Japan’s is 21x faster.
- So what might these platforms look like? Mariah Blake, an editor at the Washington Monthly, talked about the need to turn the electric grid into a vibrant, interactive network.
- Consider our grid today: There are no tools to manage the flow of electricity or to diagnose problems.
- A smart grid would allow consumers and companies to manage their electricity usage on a micro-level. Blake said that this could spur innovation in dozens of industries. Why? Because consumers will have access to information about their usage, and entrepreneurs will be open to creating all kinds of software and services to help people use energy more efficiently.
- Blake compared the smart grid to the iPhone Store. Apple owns the store, but it’s open in a way that allows for phenomenal innovation.
My final takeaway came via a question from a participant who said that entrepreneurs typically create things you never thought you needed. But here we know what we need. Litan suggested that we had the broad outline, the platform, but we still can’t see the applications.
That’s where entrepreneurs come in.
Tagged as:
broadband,
Entrepreneurship,
health IT,
Kauffman Foundation,
New America Foundation,
smart grid,
Washington Monthly
Remember the Deck of Cards that the U.S. military unveiled after the 2003 invasion of Iraq? In addition to Saddam Hussein, it featured a who’s who of the regime’s inner circle. If you’d diagrammed it, you would have been ended up with a traditional hierarchical chart with Hussein at the top and the lines going down from there.