jan de man

Mallorca update

Weather has been great. Heading for Barcelona on Jan 2. But first New Year's here in Palma. 

//jan

Christmas holidays

Thanks for following my blog. Hopefully it is worth your time. It certainly is for me. Blogging is a wonderful tool for me to reflect, speculate and explore. My chosen theme - the new world of work - seems to offer all the creative and intellectual space needed to create engaging and meaningful discussions. So, I'm all focused on continuing on that track next year.

I'll be taking two weeks off now and go visit my dad in Spain. There might be the odd post or twitter from my iPhone but essentially I'll try to disconnect. 

I wish you a merry christmas and a magical 2009.

Jan

Networks make hierarchies nervous

A couple of times every week I get involved in conversations about networks and how they can improve things in traditional organizations. Speed up internal communication... Build new client relationship structures... Improve projects... Increase employee participation... 

Increasingly I'm starting to see flaws in this reasoning. I sense more wishful thinking than actual improvements. More charades than real network action.

As I see it hierarchies are really good at one thing - driving out and eliminating variation. This is essentially what hierarchies are designed for. Just picture Henry Ford's assembly line. Or the function of a military structure. So, anything that generates variation, i.e. networks, makes a hierarchy nervous and will unsurprisingly create reactions.

The reaction might be to embrace networks, and then subconsciously sabotage them. Or openly confront the "informal and uncontrolled flow of internal information". Maybe even restrict employees from "unauthorized participation" in external forums that discuss a company's products/services.

Why is this? Well basically social networks tend to expose and erode power structures and encourage self-organization. And hierarchies in contrast build and harbor power structures and encourage command and control. 

An unhappy match indeed.

//jan

How to be creative

An old post from Hugh McLeod still worth reading. There is a short version and a long one. For the long one, I'd suggest you draw up a fresh cup of your favorite hot drink, sip and indulge.

//jan

Blown away...!

Brilliant. I hope I in my lifetime will have the chance to put together such a compelling story - and also have a suitable budget to go with it ;-)

//jan

Original content

I'm struggling a little with myself to find the routines and time slots to create som original content around the new world of work. I have lots of stuff in my head but days tend to be so fragmented that I find it difficult to alot enough time and focus to write them through. Instead I find myself linking to other people's work (which is fine in itself) or just throwing out short snippets that really don't go very far.

Insight is the first step to change, I've heard...

//jan

Selling ideas

Seth has a thoughtful post on selling ideas to large organizations.

//jan

Nanobots

Mikael sent me a link with an interesting article in Sloan Management Review. Nanobots is an acronym for Nearly Autonomous, Not in the Office, doing Business in their Own Time Staff. Now this is serious new world of work lingo! The authors are from New Zealand. Is the future of work being invented there...? Have no idea but does kind of make sense that they would sneak up on us from "below". Further investigations on New Zealand need to be done.

//jan

What happened to climate change?

Seems the issue of climate change got lost in the current economic downturn. Why is this? Personally I think the issue was losing attention already. Because it is complex and it is really difficult for the average person to relate to and do something about. 

I would say economic issues of today are just as complex but they give more immediate feedback to the individual. Rising atmospheric temperature is less direct than losing your job or having the banks say no to a planned loan. And the paradox of the last few weeks is that petrol prices have come down a lot - making people think that the last price hike was "unnormal" and this level is "normal". So, off we go in our cars again...

Now, any reflecting person knows that this is something we have to address. Suspending personal CO2 reduction intiatives because you've lost your job or the cost of living has gone up doesn't make sense. Life in a complex system is never seldom or, instead more often all of the above. 

This post could be seen as a commentary on climate. But I'd rather you see it as an example of the challenges and changes we humans face and how they in turn will come to define "the new world of work". If we are to address complexites of this sort, we will need to approach work differently. And many already are.

//jan

Couldn't resist

This is exactly my sense of humor!

/jan