Soaking in Samsara

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Enterprise 2.0 Angels and Demons - Active Anita « The SiliconANGLE

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Musings on the Enterprise 2.0 Conference

I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston earlier this week.  While the trip started with an 11-hour journey from Denver to Boston (yes, on a direct flight), the remainder of the adventure was highly informative and thought-provoking.  It is a rare occurrence that I am in one place for almost two full days and immersed in the subject of enterprise social computing. 

NewsGator announced Social Sites 3.0 at the show, introducing  capabilities that affirm social computing as the new operating system for business.    You can read the press release for more details (insert hyperlink).  We were especially proud as we listened to our customers discuss their real world case studies at several conference sessions.  Much more so than last year's conference, this year's show focused on how social computing is being deployed and adopted within large corporations and government agencies.     

I won't attempt to summarize everything I heard, but the biggest takeaway seemed to be the recommendation that social computing within the enterprise should be used to solve real business problems.  You don't say?  We have known this for a while, which is why identifying appropriate business challenges is Step 1 in our Roadmap to Successful Social Computing Adoption methodology.    A few of the other tidbits I particularly enjoyed:

• People don't share unless there is a trusted connection.
• Connecting people is a fundamental value, even if the ROI associated with it is not concrete.
• Corporate performance metrics should already have line items for collaboration and knowledge sharing.  Social computing just makes those activities easier.
• Executive leaders have to set a good example, but top-down mandates almost never work
• Users might do "stupid" things, but a sound community will police these inappropriate activities.
• Instead of updating your status to reflect what you are doing, update it to reflect what you are learning.

I can't wait until next year when we will hear stories from many companies who will have 12-18 months of experience in this area.  We're looking forward to helping our customers be at the forefront of this rapid evolution to social computing nirvana.

Caring for Customers

That is a seriously cheesy title for this post, but I am a customer care exec so the topic tends to be on my mind a lot.    While most of my career has been focused on software product development, I have been managing customers for many years.   What have I learned?

 

 

• The people you serve are just…people.   You don’t serve Corporation X.  You don’t manage Project Y.  You help Susan and Mark and Vanessa and Sam.  Just like you, these individuals will have good days and bad days.  Some of them will be mostly kind  and cooperative.  Some of them will be mostly cantankerous and surly.  Most will be somewhere in the middle, but will swing to either end of the pendulum depending on the level of service your company is providing.  Or simply because they are having a bad day that has absolutely nothing to do with you or the company you represent. 

• Because they are just people, personal connection matters.  Sales people know this.  That is why they spend the time to offer lunch, dinner, a round of golf and tickets to a Nuggets game.  Well, if they are offering that final option this week, you have one heck of a great vendor.    Taking that extra time to get to know a customer personally goes a long way.  We learned this first hand recently after what ended up being an, um, “expansive” night of drinks and dinner with a very important customer on the East Coast.  They were quick to acknowledge that this event helped various staff members to bond and get to know one another in a way that makes them all feel more a part of a unified team.

• “Find the best in everybody; no matter how long you have to wait for them to show it” – most of you probably recognize that quote as coming from Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture.   This quote haunts me and I try very hard to use it as a mantra when I am personally dealing with a challenging personality.  I hope that people who find me challenging are using it as well.     From the perspective of managing customers, I can’t count the number of times this lesson has proven itself to be true.   Continue to go above and beyond, act with the utmost professionalism, keep a sense of humor and over-deliver when you can.  I’ll bet you just about anything that your most difficult customer will come around.  It may take months or years….but, it will happen.

Now, how about the flip side?  As a customer, what can you do to make me feel cared for?

 

• Do deliver what you tell me you are going to deliver.

• If you can’t deliver, give me an honest answer as to why you can’t now and when you will.

• Don’t talk down to me.

• Don’t try and make up for shoddy service or products by treating me to a round of golf or buying me a gift basket.

• Feel free to buy me a round of golf or a gift basket as long as you are delivering quality services and product.

• Make up for mistakes.  Quickly.

• Don’t make me contact you 5 times before you return my emails and/or calls.  Unless I am being a jerk and sending you emails or leaving messages every half hour.

• Appreciate my preferred method of communication and try to use it, e.g. don’t return every email with a phone call.

 

Oops…way too much time on this blog post.  Back to our customers!

NewsGator Social Sites 2.7 - A Few of My Favorite Things

Yesterday, NewsGator announced the release of Social Sites 2.7, which includes among many other great features, a new innovation management capability called Ideas.  As someone who uses our product internally all day every day, I thought I would share my enthusiasm for the features that I am most enjoying.

• Ideas – this is the highlighted feature for this release and its utility is vast.  In the past, I would start a discussion to vet ideas.  Discussions are a great means for collaboration and I still use them heavily.  But, having the ability to easily and quickly start a brainstorming session within an existing community is awesome.    We are now vetting product enhancements from employees using Ideas in our Product Management community.    As mentioned, we used to do this in discussions, but find that we have more participation and can monitor support for any feature request by the number of votes it gets.    Perfect use case!

• Activity Stream Email Digest – my activity stream has become the component that organizes my daily connection to my colleagues, content and communities.  I am a self-proclaimed Activity Stream addict.    I use our pop-up desktop notifier when I am in the office to stay on top of activities.   On the weekends or when I am traveling, I turn on email digesting and can stay abreast of new activities on my iPhone. 

• Easy addition of blogs and wikis to communities – with an easy click on a checkbox, I can add a wiki or a blog to my communities.  As a result, I am now documenting best practices and usage guidelines in a wiki, which is a perfect choice for this use case. 

• NewsGator Usage Dashboard – I’m also digging this new addition to our reporting capabilities.  I can see a graphical representation of usage patterns for communities, users and overall activity for the last 7 days.

Leadership Lessons, Part 2

In November, I posted a blog post on leadership lessons I have learned over the past 20 years of leading and being led.    In an effort to demonstrate that I am still learning, I am posting a few more.  I find that the very practice of publishing helps to keep the lessons top of mind and offers a record to which I can return. 

 

• Err on the side of openness and transparency - this is one of those cultural transformations I discuss with clients who are starting to deploy enterprise social computing applications.    This topic is usually brought up as one of the critical changes a company should consider if they wish to call themselves a practitioner of Enterprise 2.0.  But, this is a very difficult transformation at both macro and micro levels.    On a personal level, I try to manifest this trait by arming my employees with as much information as I can legally and ethically share.  In no way am I suggesting that you violate corporate governance.  However, knowledge that is often not at all confidential is still hoarded for reasons of ego or power.  Or because the trust in the employee really doesn't exist.    Both reasons are dysfunctional - the first on the part of the manager and the second…well, probably on the part of the manager as well.  The second may be because the employee has proven not to be trustworthy, but this is a performance management issue.  See my previous leadership post.

• Taylor your communication appropriately to the employee and the situation - I tend to use a sense of humor extensively (excessively?) at work and this provides for a fun environment and guides me through some challenging times.  But, playful ribbing may not be taken in the same way by all people.  It is also the case that the same playful ribbing which was fun the previous day is taken more personally on a day when someone is experiencing their own personal or professional challenges.    It is prudent to be aware and mindful of how your words are perceived by others.  While true for everyone (including your close family members), this is particularly true for your reports, as any interpretation of discord from the manager holds more weight than the same interpretation from a co-worker.

• Take the time to address issues of importance to your employees - we are all busy.  We all believe what we are doing at any particular moment is the most important thing in the world.  And, we really think those activities are important when they affect personal gain and ego stroking.  But, your employees have their own needs and it is your job to address them.   Does an employee need to vent and just wants you to listen?    Is a performance review pending and you keep putting it off, because it is not important to you or you expect there to be some conflict?   Does an employee need your input on an important issue to get the job done?     I saw a great quote the other day (can't remember the source) - The way you are treating your employees is the way your employees are treating your customers.  Wow.  As the person responsible for customer care at NewsGator, this one really caught my attention.  It drove home the point that you should be as diligent about treating your employees well as you are about making sure your customers are happy.  So, I challenge any of my staff to remind me of this last bullet point when I am getting too uppity and think I don't have time to listen.

 

My Powerful Immune System

I was intrigued by and extremely envious of Brad Feld’s Airplane Super Power.   I don’t have that super power – in fact, I can only sleep on a plane if I am very ill and can lay down on three seats.  But, speaking of being “very ill”, the fact that I hardly ever get sick is my super power.  I am blessed with an immune system as powerful as any hero’s super powers.   Even when the entire office is hacking up a lung or I am surrounded by a plane full of passengers gushing liquids from their facial orifices, I don’t get sick.  I am pretty sure I catch some of these viruses and am exposed to nasty bacteria, but they usually don’t develop into full-blown occurrences of misery.    On Friday, I left the office early as I was having aches/chills and my throat was sore.  Ah, here it comes, I thought.  I was certainly more tired than usual this weekend, but I never succumbed to the full-blown virus.  I have never had an ear infection, a sinus infection or any other infections that we would prefer not to talk about in public.  The only infection I can ever remember getting was when I crashed my bike, road 20 more miles with blood running down my arm and then barely rinsed it off before slapping on a bandage.   That was a little irresponsible, I admit.

 

Now, why would I be so resistant to nasty germs?  I think it has a lot to do with my very humble upbringing.  My parents were loving and kind, but…how do I say this delicately….certainly not clean freaks.   The whole notion of refrigerating food prematurely or worrying about a “little” dirt was not top of mind.  Thus, I think I just developed a really strong ability to fight off anything because I probably ingested and/or was exposed to just about every bug you can imagine.    I’m still amazed at how germ-phobic we have become as a society and firmly believe that this has something to do with the bugs getting stronger and us getting less able to fight them off. 

 

Let’s keep the theme going – what is your super power?

My Name is Karyn and I Am a Social Computing Consultant

Figured I might as well just say it out loud and get over this identify nonsense.

 

During the last year, my role at NewsGator has gradually transitioned from overseeing development, technical support and technical operations to overseeing professional services and technical support.  In addition to those management duties, I find myself working yet again as a hands-on consultant.  I’ve managed professional services before and have been both an independent and corporate consultant numerous times in the past.    It occurred to me recently that I actually love being a consultant.  Should I be ashamed to admit that?  :’}   A strong part of my professional identify for the last 20+ years has been my role as a product development and technology professional.    I started my career as a software engineer after earning a Master’s degree in Computer Science back in the dark ages (aka 1987).  Yes, we had computers back then but no fancy handheld devices and the Internet was purely an academic exercise.  Throughout the next 20 years, I transitioned from writing code full-time to writing code part-time and managing.  Somehow, I found myself managing more people, more functions and more department, while doing less and less hands-on programming.  Not only did I become more “managerial”, but I found myself doing many other functions in the software and services industry, including product management (which I love), client services, business development and even (gasp!) sales support.  

 

I’ll admit that relinquishing my role in product development and operations was hard at first because of the solid identity I had formed.  Upon further self reflection, it occurred to me that reinforcing “identify” through a job function was hardly skillful and was simply manifesting habitual patterns that don’t sow positive seeds of karma.    I’ve done and/or managed just about every function related to the software industry and I’ve learned that doing any of them with integrity and authenticity is what really matters.      I’ve also learned that working in different functional areas is very educational and can help you to become more well-rounded in any position taken on in the future.    I’ve become a software industry generalist and that isn’t such a bad thing. 

 

 

My current job function as an enterprise social computing consulting, or coach, is very rewarding and a lot of fun.  I develop all of our consulting materials, do a lot of research on the industry, stay active in social media channels and help NewsGator customers figure out how to successfully launch and manage a social computing project within their companies.  How cool is that?    Oh, well, there is that other part of building and managing the services business, but that is mighty rewarding and fun, too.  So, here on a lovely Wednesday morning in the best city in the US, I consider myself pretty fortunate.

Vacation Musings

On my last full day of vacation, I thought it appropriate to blog the experience.  If for no other reason than I rarely write to my personal blog any longer given my other work-related social media activities.  

This has been a wonderful vacation and I am particularly pleased that I was able to relax and enjoy every moment.  Well, perhaps not the second round of golf, which was an astoundingly bad display of athleticism.  Golfers will appreciate that one can hit the ball beautifully one day and descend into  horrific regression just two days later.   Besides that little blip, the entire week was wonderful.  We are staying in a lovely beach house in the "city" of Holmes Beach, which is on Anna Maria Island (AMI).   AMI is about a thirty minute drive from Sarasota and has a lovely old-fashioned feel to it.  It brings back memories of my childhood vacations to the east coast of Florida, yet the gulf coast is much more picturesque.  The sand is softer and whiter than any I have ever seen and the water can be pale green and amazingly clear on calm days.    We have experienced windy and somewhat cool temps on the island, so the water has been choppy on most days.  

With the exception of golf, our days have been spent taking morning walks, lounging on the beach and taking short jaunts into the larger cities.  On our first full day, we visited the Ringling Museum of Art (and Circus).  The Ringlings were quite the influential family in Sarasota and the complex which houses the museums and mansion is impressive.    I couldn't help thinking of the book "Water for Elephants" while touring the circus museum.  As you can imagine, the story told in the museum shone a much more positive light on that history.  We quickly moved to the art museum and the mansion, which was my favorite part of the entire complex.

Our favorite dining experience was at The Sign of the Mermaid, a charming restaurant a block from our house.  The house was built in 1912 and was very kitschy in decor.  The food was excellent and will get my highest review on TripAdvisor.   We also loved Ginny's and Jane E's, which is a quirky little gift shop and coffee house.  Finally, Hurricane Hank's in a small strip center had good food and a friendly vibe.    The famous Sand Bar has great cocktails, but the food is just OK.

The question of work arises.  I'd like to say that I never looked at my email and, if I did, I never answered.  I'm afraid that wasn't possible as I have two consulting gigs next week, one in Chicago and one in New York.  So, I had to at least pay attention to what was going on for these engagements.  And, yes, I read every email that came my way.   But, none of this resulted in excessive stress or disturbed my relaxation.     

Finally, I observed that even the mundane things - driving around town, picking up groceries, doing dishes - were more palatable.  Simply because I had that "holiday" mindset.  I pondered this phenomenon and wondered about happiness and contentment.  I read the following passage from the book "One Thousand White Women" (great book) and I really stuck with me.  The quote is from a rough and ready frontier gal in response to a question by the protagonist  in regards to being happy.  

"An' that's exactly the good thing about the Injun life - you don't have to stop and think about whether or not you're 'happy' - which in my opinion is a highly overrated human condition invented by white folks - like whiskey.  You don't have to think about it any more than a bear cub or a pronghorn antelope or a coyote or a damn bird has to think about it.  You got a roof over your head?  You warm?  You got enough food to eat?  You got plenty of good water?  You got a good man?  You got friends?  You got somethin' to do to keep you busy?"

I think that about sums it up.  Yep...I'm pretty happy.

My Web 2.0 Usage

As someone who consults with large corporations on deploying social computing technologies within the enterprise, I realized that my own usage of external Web 2.0 tools has been spotty.  I think this is something like the cobbler’s children having no shoes.  NewsGator Social Sites is a comprehensive social computing solution for Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS).  I use it religiously throughout every single work day, not just because it is “my” product, but because it provides me tremendous benefit.   But, I still have a large circle of colleagues, family and friends outside of NewsGator and I am becoming more and more connected via Web 2.0 tools.  Here is what I use regularly:

 

• Twitter – yes, I am an addict.  I remember about 18 months ago, I was sitting around a table having drinks with some fellow Colorado technology executives.  The topic of Twitter came up and I said “who would actually use something like that other than teenagers?”.   Man, that makes me sound old.  Well, I get it now.  I currently have 2 accounts.  One is @karlgco and that is the account I started with – I now am using it for more personal interactions.  I recently established @karyngerman as a more professional and public personae.  I try to keep personal tweets to a minimum and am establishing a network of like-minded professionals.  I am also trying to follow sound social media practices on that account in order to establish a more “personal brand”.

• Facebook – when I first began using Facebook, I was enamored.    When my fickle self discovered Twitter, I abandoned Facebook for the most part to the lure of something much less demanding in the way of micro-blogging.    But recently, I have become a more active Facebook user for three reasons.  First - NewsGator Social Sites is something of a “Facebook for the Enterprise”.  It is important that I use and understand those features and how they translate to the enterprise.  Second - I accidentally invited my entire email address book to befriend me on Facebook.  While that was horribly embarrassing, I ended up connecting with people I have not communicated with in years!  Third - I have the Facebook application for the iPhone and I am much more likely to stay up to date when I can check out my account at any time.

• LinkedIn – this has long been one of my stalwarts and I always considered this strictly for contact management and networking.  Well, LinkedIn has added some great social computing features, particularly in the way of groups.  I belong to and/or am active on several such groups (Enterprise 2.0, Coolest Women, Denver MOSS) and have made some great connections.  I also suspect that the old stand-alone resume will go the way of the fax for more progressive companies as LinkedIn provides a great public profile.

• TypePad – obviously.  I started blogging in November of 2006, largely to better understand the mechanics of RSS.  My blogging frequency has certainly ebbed and flowed on this personal blog, though I also contribute to NewsGator Daily.  I figure that if I blog at least once per month in either venue, I am doing OK.

 

Would love to hear your stories on the tools you love and use regularly.

A Few Nutritional Tweaks for 2009

I recently finished In Defense of Food, the follow-up book to Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.  Now I am a nutritional sciences geek so I love the subject and will gleefully pore over the paragraphs that may be a little boring if your science affinity comes in other varieties.  But, this book is actually a reasonably quick and easy read with practical advice.

 

Those who know me well would hardly suggest that I am an unhealthy eater.  My knowledge of nutrition is pretty strong - partly due to interest and partly due to my former life as a personal trainer.  About 70% of my diet focuses on lean protein, fruits and vegetables, whole grains and dairy.     But, all things can be tweaked and I have decided to throw in a few additional goals for ’09 and observe the results, if any.

 

The biggest message in the aforementioned book is that Westerners eat very little real food.  We all know that, right?  Our food is becoming  more and more processed, more and more engineered.  I was discussing this in New York while having lunch with some work colleagues.  The discussion was prompted by the calorie counts on the menu at McCormick’s, but that is a whole different issue.   We shared stories about how one could eat in a more “whole-some” manner.  My colleague John mentioned someone he knew who decided to eat nothing that had a bar code.  That’s a pretty good one, but obviously really tough unless you kill and process your own meat (if indeed you eat meat).  Even for a vegetarian or vegan, this would be a daunting task in suburban America.  One of Michael Pollan’s recommendations was to avoid eating anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize.

 

So, after all that musing, I have decided to try a few specifics:

 

• Drinking my coffee black or with milk only.  I have been consuming that nasty non-dairy creamer for as long as I have been drinking coffee (many, many years).   There is no redeeming quality to that swill and it doesn’t even taste good. 

• Cutting down on processed soy.  Ouch.  This one is going to be tough as I much prefer soy lattes to those made with milk.  I also really like all of that fake meat stuff and some would consider it healthy.  But, there is a lot of controversy around excessive soy consumption and especially when it is processed to the point that it doesn’t resemble a bean.  I will try to limit my soy intake to edemame or minimally processed tofu.  Yummy!

• Picking out whole foods first at the grocery store.  This is a lot easier at Whole Foods, but still difficult.  I have gotten pretty lazy and like convenience foods as much as the next gal.  But, I’ll give it a try and see how well I do.

 

What are your nutrition goals for the year?