Be an Office Nomad, It Pays Dividends

I had something else planned for today but I scrapped it in favour of simply sharing the following quotation from a Forbes article I read, its probably the most important thing I've read in a couple of weeks:

On the people front, the behavior of leaders matters—big time. In our initial study on disruptive innovators published with Clayton Christensen in The Innovator’s DNA, we found five “discovery skills” that distinguished innovators from non-innovators. Innovators ask provocative questions that challenge the status quo. They observe the world like anthropologists to detect new ways of doing things. They network with people who don’t look or think like them to gain radically different perspectives. They experiment relentlessly to test new ideas and try out new experiences. Finally, these behaviors trigger new associations which let them to connect the unconnected, thereby producing disruptive ideas.

Helping people form new associations has been my bread and butter since I first started working in this sector 5 years ago; it can be yours too.

It's a little tricky, but I'd just like to go on record as saying being an office nomad often pays dividends.



Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.casubscribe/connect

MBR: Wait: The Art and Science of Delay

I decided I was going to read a book a week every couple of weeks for a year, here's a quick review of this week's book.  You can see the ongoing list here.

Basic Info

Wait: The Art and Science of Delay by Frank Partnoy

Why I read it

The giant 30% off sticker caught my eye in the book store; I flipped it over and Dan Pink had a blurb on the back endorsing the book, that was enough for me.


How it connects to the Public Sector

The book is essentially about how moving/acting/reacting as late as possible to a given situation is likely to produce the best results and that success is determined by the effort and knowledge expended in the lead up time before the action is required.  In other words, delaying until the last possible minute to pull the trigger on something doesn't mean that you are slacking off but rather building the capacity to understand precisely how to move quickly when the situation finally merits it.


What I got out of reading it

If you buy into the the argument that upstream effort makes you nimble and allows you to reap significant downstream benefits than you may also need to accept the fact that work - the real rewarding work of decision-making - only comes in fits and starts and that if we are to continue to find meaning in our work we must learn to derive it not from the crucial decision making nodes but rather the preparatory work that goes into getting us there.

In closing, I suppose its worth mentioning that I took over two weeks to read this book (maybe it has something to do with the title). I read it slowly, and was initially unimpressed with it, but as time passed and I dug deeper into the book, it steadily got better.

If you're interested in some concrete examples on how delaying decision making leads to better results across a bunch of different scenarios you may want to consider picking up a copy of Wait.


Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.casubscribe/connect

The Office Challenge

I've often argued that a little levity in the office goes a long way. It's why I made a web comic a while back on the Kubler Ross Model of internet blocking, why I sometimes advocate guerilla tactics in the workplace, and why I launched Gov + Memes.

you! by dhammza

It's also why I'm bringing you the Office Challenge; a list of totally absurd yet funny things to try to pull off in the office. They are neither intended to significantly distract from the workday nor be offensive to your colleagues. They are simply a way to have some fun in the office.  You remember fun don't you?Random Challenges

• "Make it rain" Monopoly money in a budget meeting (bonus points for if its done while presenting a Treasury Board Submission)
• Use Comic Sans font instead of bold to add emphasis to a briefing note
• Put up a variant of this poster on the shredder in the office.
• Change your email signature to "Stay Frosty"
• Rickroll someone with a hyperlink to this Rick Astley Classic in a briefing note and/or email
• Replace your chair with a hammock
• Make a window in your cubicle by removing the panels (I've actually done this btw)
• Do this in the elevator.
• (leave your own in the comments below!)

You know that old NRA bumper sticker saying "guns don't kill people, people kill people" well you can say almost the same thing about cubicles, namely that: "Cubicles don't bore, people bore people".
I for one find it sad that something as simple as a little levity seems so outside the norm for so many of us that the tongue-in-cheek suggestions above can seem outrageous rather than humorous.
I'm not saying don't do the work, I'm just saying that there is room to have a little fun while doing it.Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.casubscribe/connect

I'm calling shenanigans on 'the $1.3 trillion price of not tweeting at work'

Listen, it's easy to sharp shoot someone else's writing. Especially when you don't know them from a hole in the ground. I generally steer clear of such tomfoolery, but to be honest, I read an article yesterday on FastCompany entitled "The $1.3 Trillion Price Of Not Tweeting At Work" and it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Title inspired by Cow Days episode of South Park

The article derives its outlandish title from the McKinsey report I pointed to last week and wrongly positions a single social platform (Twitter) as equivalent to the broader term "social technologies" used in the report and (wrongly) recasts the estimated value of employing these technologies (in the global market) as the the cost of not tweeting at work.

The proof's in the pudding (here are the first three paragraphs verbatim):

On June 6, Larry Ellison--CEO of Oracle, one of the largest and most advanced computer technology corporations in the world--tweeted for the very first time. In doing so, he joined a club that remains surprisingly elite. Among CEOs of the world’s Fortune 500 companies, a mere 20 have Twitter accounts. Ellison, by the way, hasn’t tweeted since.

As social media spreads around the globe, one enclave has proven stubbornly resistant: the boardroom. Within the C-suite, perceptions remain that social media is at best a soft PR tool and at worst a time sink for already distracted employees. Without a push from the top, many of the biggest companies have been slow to take the social media plunge.

A new report from McKinsey Global Institute, however, makes the business case for social media a little easier to sell. According to an analysis of 4,200 companies by the business consulting giant, social technologies stand to unlock from $900 billion to $1.3 trillion in value. At the high end, that approaches Australia’s annual GDP. How’s that for a bottom line?

If that's not reaching, I'm not sure what is. It probably also worth mentioning that the article's author is the CEO of Hootsuite; meaning that the obvious subtext (at least in my reading) is that Hootsuite can help you get a slice of that juicy $1.3 trillion if only they could meet with your "Twitter-phobic CEOs".

I won't bother with the rest of the article as it offers up little in terms of understanding, applying, or challenging the findings of the McKinsey report. But I do want to close the loop on the issue of just how important (or unimportant) it is for your CEO (or in the public sector your Deputy Minister) to be tweeting.


Whether or not you CEO tweets is completely irrelevant

I could think of a hundred things off the top of my head that are far more important activities for my Deputy Minister to be engaged in than tweeting. In fact, I would position any of the hundred decisions they are likely to make during the course of a week as more important than the decision to tweet or not.  Furthermore, if anyone out there can show me a direct causal relationship between a private sector CEO tweeting and an increase in that firm's revenues (or in the public sector better outcomes) I will gladly eat my hat!


Whether or not your CEO is open to change is paramount

What CEOs (and again by extension heads of public sector agencies) need to be aware isn't how to tweet or why but rather the transformative nature of new communications technologies, how they affect information flows, how they can help the organization tap into it's  cognitive surplus and how the openness they engender disrupts their traditional business models.

Those at the top need to be paying attention to the likes of Clay Shirky, Don Tapscott, and, for a healthy dose of scepticism Andrew Keen; not jumping onto Twitter on the advice of profiteering social media hucksters (no offense).


My advice

Don't trust anyone who's selling the sizzle.  Don't throw money at tools before understanding the environment within which they operate.

Always put strategy before tactics and understanding before strategy because understanding informs strategy and strategy informs tactics. This isn't about learning how to blog, wiki or twitter, this is about learning how to be more adaptive to change.

While the former can be easily purchased on every corner of the web, the latter is much harder to come by and as a result will always serve you better in the long run.


Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.casubscribe/connect

MBR: Overqualified by Joey Comeau

I decided I was going to read a book a week for a year, here's a quick review of this week's book.  You can see the ongoing list here.

Basic Info

Overqualified by Joey Comeau

Why I read it

It was recommended by a friend whose literary chops I trust; she made the suggestion via this comment on a previous MBR.


How it connects to the Public Sector

I'm not sure it does explicitly, but damn this book hit the spot.


What I got out of reading it

The book slowly reveals the history of its protagonist through a series of increasingly absurd cover letters. Having never read a work of fiction for a MBR I found reading Overqualified as part of the series a much needed reprieve from the world of business books.

I can't tell you much more about it other than I read it in a single day, spread over 3 separate sittings; and when I wasn't reading the book, I was looking forward to the next time I was going to.

Thanks for the recommendation Chelsea, I'm passing it along to everyone here.


Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.casubscribe/connect