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 January 26, 2010
During the IABC/Washington panel discussion on 2010 trends, I posed the following question: Is 2010 the year we break down silos? In retrospect, I asked the wrong question.
Breaking down silos is critical, but it’s not about whether we do it–it’s about how. In the communications world, I’m finally hearing more conversation around “integrated” again, but I still see media separated from PR separated from marketing within organizations. Agencies are often worse (think digital practice groups, for example).
When will companies be ready to stop organizing their operations around tasks? And how might this new look take form?
Photo by accent on eclectic (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Business,
Innovation,
Silos,
Workflow
by Daria Steigman on January 5, 2010
I’m taking a page from Chris Brogan this year. He annually identifies “three words that I use as guidance for how I should conduct my efforts in the year to come.”
My three words for 2010: incubate, endorphins, and endurance. I’m going to use them, hopefully wisely, to guide my business.
- Incubate—While I’m not particularly rash, I am prone to scattering my efforts and trailing off in new directions. This year, I’m resolving to let my ideas take form before I take action. After all, there’s not much sense in digging in before you’re ready.
- Endorphins—I’ve described being a solopreneur as needing to be innovative, to know how to identify and seize opportunities, to be a risk taker, and—of course–to be independent. For me, this works best when I’m forward-focused. Endorphins give you a natural high, and I’m resolving to keep them flowing to keep me on track.
- Endurance—Owning a successful business requires being committed for the long haul and accepting that it requires hard work every day. Now that I’ve hit 20 years, I’m targeting 25. I have a mantra when I’m running any significant distance. It’s forward motion, and it’s all about understanding that if you keep going, one step at a time, you’ll find your success.
What are your guiding principles for 2010?
Photo by Son of Groucho (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Business,
Chris Brogan,
Entrepreneurship,
Workflow
by Daria Steigman on January 4, 2010
I intended for my first blog post of the work year to focus on my overall approach to 2010, but instead I find myself looking backwards. Not to 2009 per se, but to the actions I took during my two weeks of downtime that have given me a running start into the new year.
You see, while I blocked off my calendar and did no billable work, I actually got a lot done:
- Set up a new computer, including transferring all my files from the old one, getting the network connection operational, and downloading TweetDeck, Skype, and other critical programs.
- Discovered the Sticky Notes utility program, which will nicely replace some of the physical post-it notes for to-do items. (It helps that I have a big, wide-screen monitor now, so that a sticky note can sit at the edge of my desktop without taking up valuable real estate)
- Closed my 2009 books, meaning every invoice, expense, and receipt has now been accounted for and all I have to do is print out the ledgers come tax time.
- Implemented Operation Inbox Zero. Well, technically Inbox 7, but they’re all items that will be acted on today–and then they’re toast.
- Sorted through e-mail folders, which involved skimming through old client files and deleting over 1,300 e-mails dealing with past projects, tasks, and the like.
- Implemented Operation Clean Office. This involved ruthlessly tossing all the books, papers, computer disks, and backup tapes from years past that had at one time fallen into that pesky “keep for now” status. A 4×4x2.5 pile of items into the dumpster later, I have shelf space, filing space, and a clutter-free desk.
I enter the new year with three takeaways:
1) Each of these tasks takes only 2-3 hours (except for the computer set-up, which ended up being more of an all-day affair. But that’s largely because I took advantage of the ritual to organize files, delete obsolete stuff, and so forth.)
2) Don’t think you can do everything at one. I tackled these tasks one-at-a-time over the two-week period, and then spent the rest of my day doing fun stuff. That made each task less daunting, and every day I made progress.
3) You have to schedule this stuff. A lot of the back-end administrative stuff gets out of hand when I’m busy with client work and/or business development. I was reminded (again) that I need to schedule time to handle these tasks on a weekly basis, much as I schedule everything else in my business. That way I’m hoping they take only 30 minutes a week and I keep my office under control.
So that’s where I find myself this first work day of 2010. What about you?
Tagged as:
Business,
Workflow
by Daria Steigman on December 28, 2009
I was talking with a representative from Sales Genie at a conference recently, and our conversation turned to the roots of list making.
My first prospecting list, in the days before information was online, was a labor of much labor. Having identified my target market (at the time, Washington offices of large companies in the agriculture and/or energy sectors), I spent several days at the public library meticulously writing down on index cards contact names, titles, addresses, company data, and any other information that I thought might be useful.
It turns out that Sales Genie, in its early days, used pretty much the same process. Which makes sense, of course, because why should everyone reinvent the wheel?
Has the process changed today–or is it just easier to access data? What does your list-making process entail?
Photo by rocknroll_guitar (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Business Development,
Sales Genie,
Workflow
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.
