Social Media: Learning From Slime Mold

Much of the buzz about social media has been about how to utilize it for marketing.  As you might expect, there a lot of spaghetti getting thrown on the walls as people try to determine what works. For some good guidance on the subject, check out http://customersrock.net or www.thesocialgathering.net.   The numbers are astounding.  If you haven’t seen it, check out this YouTube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

Convinced?

But these numbers aren’t getting generated because everyone thinks this is such a great marketing vehicle.  This is happening because of social media’s innate power to connect us to each other in ways not even imagined two decades ago.

We are interested in social media not because it offers a way to accomplish marketing goals, but because it offers organizations a way to evolve to their true nature.  One of the main points in our book is that organizations should not be thought of as machines, but as living, evolving complex adaptive systems.   Just like slime mold!  Like beehives and ant hills, slime mold offers some great lessons about adaptive systems.

One of the characteristics of healthy complex adaptive systems is that there is a seamless flow of information and immediate feedback between the individual cells, or modules.  While traditional organization structures served to stifle the flow of information, social media offers organizations a way to let the information flow uninhibited between parties.

While there are horror stories of viral communications spiraling out of control, the connections are happening whether you like it or not – you can’t control it.  However, you can embrace the potential.  Enabling your people to connect without filters and restrictions frees the organization.  If you have good people, they will do the right thing.

Learn from slime mold – let them connect.

Scott

Not Your Parent's Retirement

OK – the recession is officially over. Glad that’s past us.   So why such high unemployment?   One reason is that the earnings that have partially restored the stock values have been based on cost cutting, furloughed employees, and aggressive financial restructuring.  Maybe the bleeding has stopped, but we don’t have lift-off yet.  Based on the stubborn reluctance of the financial industry to reinvest in their customers and businesses to shed the fiscal conservatism that saved their skins, this recovery may be a long slow ride. 

The impact on those Boomers facing retirement will be profound.  We know that the financial crisis took a bite out of retirement savings.  While some losses have been recouped, this was still a generation with the lowest savings rate in history.  In short, a great many people were really unprepared for retirement and will have to work longer than planned.

The good news is that the economy will need them.  Because the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a shortage of prime aged workers (25 to 54 years), companies will have to find ways to retain these workers.  For some companies, the impact will be profound.  It is estimated that 65% of Boeing’s workers are eligible for retirement in five years!

The options to keep aging Boomers productively engaged will be many.  The migration to free-agency, the reduced need to be physically present, the outsourcing of rote labor, and the adoption of technology will create a much more flexible and capable senior workforce.

One of the main strategies for reducing cost has been to offer packages to the higher cost, senior workers.  It worked!  Unfortunately, many businesses may soon have to turn around and figure out ways to keep the ones they will need to grow the business when the market finally turns.

Scott

The Deep Roots of “Control”

In my last blog post I talked about how much opportunity there is in shifting from a desire to control our surroundings, to instead view chaos as a reality to embrace. While the dynamics of chaos can feel confusing and sometimes frustrating, it brings with it great energy. It's also a real hothouse for innovation.

I was recently reminded of both how pervasive our view of creating a logical, orderly world is, as well as the opportunities that can emerge if we can just let go and love the chaos. The New York Times science section had an article that described some forms of cancer that broke with the normal pattern (and expectation) of "linear growth." Apparently, researchers had tracked a variety of tumors which shrank or disappeared on their own, defying the medical belief that cancer has a natural, continuous progression of negative mutations. As they puzzled to understand this finding, they ultimately concluded that their underlying thinking was flawed. Cancer isn't linear, it's a dynamic process. Its growth isn't simply a function of the immediate cells that surround it, but rather is a result of interactions with the entire human body, setting the stage for unexpected and sometimes positive changes.

The critical implication is that rather than treat cancer as an isolated entity that can be controlled through surgery or chemotherapy, it needs to be healed in context of the entire system. Scientists need to study more deeply how cancers interact with the immune and endocrine systems, among others, and then devise holistic treatments. And other variables, such as nutrition, stress and exercise may also play far greater roles than medicine typically considers, as just one resulting example.

So the medical profession, like business, is starting to understand that thinking in terms of linear processes may not be the only way to view the world. And by actively considering the reality—and the value—of the chaos around us, we may uncover exciting new ways to solve difficult problems and make powerful changes in our lives.

Jennifer

It’s Time to Love the Chaos

Left-brained, linear thinking is pervasive in our culture. Many of today's professions, including business, law and all the sciences, are based on a foundation of knowledge creation through data collection and analysis. With the right amount of information and careful thought, every problem can be solved and every task can be organized into an orderly process. We can smooth out the chaos and create control.

But as our world becomes increasingly complex, we're finding our ability to tame the chaos has its limits. Our processes start to fail so we add more steps, but then they become too cumbersome to manage. Our data seems insufficient so we collect more, but its volume overwhelms us. We build in quality checks and balances, but before long we have a bloated bureaucracy. How, then, do we get our arms around the craziness and create the order that we desire?

The answer is: you don't. The new game in town, especially in business, is to let go of control, let go of the chain of command, let go of step-by-step thinking and instead embrace all the energy and insight that chaos has to offer. We live in a complex world, and by designing systems that leverage, rather than fight the chaos, we create flourishing enterprises that bring out the best in our business. And even better, it brings out the best in our people.

Does this mean we abandon our systems and let things go wild? Not at all. But instead of making processes the center of our business and expect people to adapt, we need to make our people the heart of our business, and offer resources and tools that uniquely suit them. We need to trust in the intelligence and ability of our people. Only then can we expect to work our way through the tough problems that we're all facing in today's environment.

So instead of thinking about how to get rid of the chaos that occurs in a dynamic business environment, we need to see it as a positive reality, something to embrace and draw energy from.

It's time to love the chaos!

Jennifer