The world of business is complicated at the best of times and it seems pretty clear to me that we are not in the best of times at the moment. I was thinking about how we work together - as individuals, employees and businesses and I wanted to share this story with you.
In my portfolio of work I coach groups of young people on Space Unlimited projects. Since September 4 schools have been working on a question set by their client - Historic Scotland - and on Wednesday of this week they came together to report their findings and ideas. I was responsible for coaching 2 of the 4 school groups and one of the questions I was asked right at the start was “Is this a competition”. When I answered that it wasn’t one of the young people joked, saying ”We’ll be the best anyway!”
As time went on each of my schools asked how the other were doing. There was no reason why they shouldn’t contact each other but in practical terms - particularly in the time available in school - it was not possible. So when they came together on Wednesday they were not only making their presentations to the client ( and the Minister for Culture - who spent ages asking them questions) but to each other. They were now mingling freely as one big group of young people brought together for a common purpose.
The ideas and suggestions presented by each school group had similar threads - which was interesting bearing in mind that they had worked in isolation from each other. And it became clear that a blend of those ideas might be attractive to the client who asked if they would be willing to chat with her when it comes to developing them further. There was an overwhelming positive response to that.
So in working on this project these groups had considered and were possibly driven by the competition element ( despite what I said!), saw how their work could complement the work of the others and have an invitation to collaborate in future developments.
Many people work this way intuitively, others have woken up to the potential and are trying it out. I am wondering how we might reach those who are still to be convinced? I think that not only would the business world benefit - but the world in general.
I have been keeping up with the Scottish Learning Festival stories from various sources. John Connell mentions the work of Charles Leadbetter and I need to find out more as I am intrigued by the explanation that John gives that according to Leadbetter today’s young people are
“….a generation infused with an attitude of ‘I can’, and not the attitude of ‘i want’ or ‘I hope’ that perhaps typified earlier generations.”
If this is the case many of the workplace issues that managers comment on regarding Generation Y and the challenges in managing them might make sense. If “I can” and, just as importantly, “I will” is their way of thinking then why would they settle for what is already there if it doesn’t fit their aspirations?
Obviously I need to read some more. Will return to this when I have!
I was interested to learn about a recent initiative by Strathclyde Police in tackling gangs and related knife crime. According to a report on the radio yesterday they have police cadets - young people aged 16 who are interested in joining the police - to search bebo and youtube - looking for postings which can be used to identify those boasting about their weapons.
The senior officer interviewed said that as young people are far more “internet savvy” than older officers they were the best people for this job. They can find pages of pics and follow the related chat. And they have had considerable success according to this report.
I am hoping that Strathclyde Police are asking their cadets and younger officers to train and support other members of staff to give them at least a basic working knowledge of social networking. But that great idea of using the right person with the skills needed is surely the answer in many cases!
According to an article by Martyn Sloman in the CIPD quarterly update “Impact” here in the UK
- “only” 20% of organisations use Web 2.0 technologies for recruitment purposes
- in a survey of 1700 employers 79% had disciplined one or more staff for using social networking sites during work time
- in that same survey many had banned the use of such sites
None of that surprises me. Amongst the reasons given in the article for not engaging with Web 2.0 is
- lack of understanding at higher level ( in this case civil servants are quoted) therefore lack of high level support
- risk of damage to brands and general loss of control
- lack of data about costs and certainties of various media
- limitations from IT departments defending their systems
Again - no surprises there.
What I did learn though was that Enterprise 2.0 means using Web 2.0 technologies inside organisations. So creating and running a social networking site accessible by employees and maybe even their customers.
Now many of your reading this might be saying “C’mon Jackie. You should know this already”
Well yes I do. I had just not latched onto the label. ( Sometimes you don’t know what you know)
But - and I think this is the most important thing for me - how did I learn about it? I learned from the 16 year olds I worked with recently. They even mocked up what an Enterprise 2.0 social networking site would look like and showed how it would work.
They just might be the best advisers in the potential of this technology!
The young people I have been coaching through the project for Oracle have included their story in the final presentation to the client.
In the early stages, when things were a bit - *ahem* - chaotic ,I pointed them to Tuckman’s “Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing” theory (amongst others) and I was delighted to find that they had used this as a structure for the tale of their team. Because they have been working on this project for a specific period, for a specific purpose it has been relatively easy for them to track the stages. In the world of work though edges get blurred and timescales sometimes slip and it is harder to see.
It has been great to see a theory proved in action.
I understood the Forming part - sometimes that is organic and suddenly you find you are in a team - sometimes it is manufactured to fit a purpose by a third party - sometimes collaborators pull one together too formalise their working arrangements. At this stage members are still working as individuals and relationships of trust and depending on each other are developing.
The Storming part ( as the name suggests) is the tricky one though. My role as coach was to be there but to be non-directive. So I observed and asked questions at the time without offering any sort of solution. It was uncomfortable to watch but I am glad that I resisted the temptation to interject with my ideas or that could have thrown their progess off course. The group of individuals were competing for attention for their ideas. Loads of great suggestions were made at this stage but they had to agree and focus some and reject others. Some team members saw the rejection of their ideas as rejection of them and they removed themselves from the team. I did suggest at that point that the team needed to identify their leader - and they chose an election to do so. The duly elected leader then took hold of the project by the scruff of the neck and they were off!
They have been in the Norming stage for the past few weeks. They have not had much time but they have created the rules of operation, set up a wiki for communication and found a way to work effectively.
And finally - tomorrow - they get to Perform. Well actually -in their story - they consider that they performed half way through the project when they made an interim report to the client. And indeed they did - they pulled it together in a short time and supported each other to make it happen. That sense of unity collapsed for a short time but they appear to be back there now.
The young man whose role it is to tell this story mentioned that there are other stages in Tuckman’s theory - specifically Adjourning - or breaking up. It can also be known as Mourning. I will certainly miss working with them - I wonder how it will feel for them.
