Friday, May 28, 2010

Surviving in the new economy

The nature of employment is changing.  Jobs are disappearing and they won't be replaced, at least not with full time employment.   Most people will become contractors or temporary staff - flexible workforces engaged in "staff augmentation".  Many jobs will disappear entirely.  Economist call this structural job loss.

Individuals and organizations need to acknowledge, understand, and ultimately embrace this fundamental change in our working lives.  This change is so foundational that it will literally be "sink or swim" for many people.

Over the last twenty plus years we have seen the change from long-term employee/employer relationships, to a more transient work life, and now to the rise of the 'contractor'.  The contractor isn't an employee, but they do all the things that a traditional employee would do without the real and perceived benefits of being an employee.

The NY Times had an article on this very topic a few weeks back - In Job Market Shift, Some Workers Are Left behind.

As this change gathers steam, organizations can minimize the negative impact on individuals and the organization by working at leveraging the collective knowledge of their employees, contractors, consultants and customers.  This can be accomplished by providing processes that enhance knowledge flow, technology that facilitates both knowledge capture and reuse, and developing work environments that encourage greater interaction and a sense of belonging.

 

Collaboration 2.0 - Implementation Tips & Best Practices From the Pros

http://bit.ly/bn5Jh7

There is a special FREE webinar coming up that David Coleman is doing with Akamai. In David's part of the presentation he will:

  • Explain why collaboration supported by today's technologies does not work!
  • Reveal some new data from our recent "State of Collaboration" research. I will talk about Holistic Collaboration (people, process and technology), and why the 2000 collaborative tools today all fail.
  • Talk about "The Collaborative Shift" an idea that can make or break collaboration success.
  • How to identify which of the critical processes in you company have the most "Collaborative Leverage" and the greatest ROI. How to identify and fix broken business relationships.
  • How fixing your enterprise relationships can add 20-40% more productivity, and positively impact your bottom line
  • The 6 biggest benefits of good corporate relationships
  • A new methodology and Holistic Collaboration tools that can fix your broken corporate relationships

Monday, May 17, 2010

pii 2010

Privacy Identity and Innovation 2010 conference will take place in Seattle Washington, USA on 17-19 August 2010.

It's an all-hands-on-deck conference where industry executives, technologists, consumer advocates, policy experts and other stakeholders will come together as a group to examine critical issues like:  

  • How emerging technologies & business models are impacting the way data is created, shared and aggregated
  • Effective approaches for building online trust with users
  • Ways in which user preferences and social norms are shifting
  • Changes in the regulatory landscape, in the U.S. and internationally
  • The role of anonymity and the future of reputation management on the Web
  • The latest developments in user-centric identity management

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Blacklisting Companies

An interesting phenomenon is taking place and I am all for it.  It's called blacklisting companies.

This started because job seekers were/are tired of being ignored by company HR departments. Yes, HR departments are probably inundated with resumes these days, but that is no excuse for not politely responding with a "thanks but no thanks" communication.

As  economic conditions rebound, knowledge workers should and will consider carefully the companies they seek employment with.

My own personal check list is as follows:

  1. Does the company encourage and support open and honest communication and collaboration?
  2. Are reasonable collaboration tools provided and used?
  3. Is non-business related internet access blocked, screened or monitored?
  4. Does the company support and use social media to connect to their employees, customers and business partners?
  5. Do overly restrictive security policies  detract from or enhance productivity?
  6. Do the majority of employees have a passion for what they do and a belief  that the organization is providing value to its constituencies?
  7. Does management embrace knowledge management and continuous learning?

Knowledge to do what?

Can your organization answer the question; knowledge to do what?  That should be the starting point for any organization embarking on a new ...