I’ve been defiant and it got me into trouble with whoever had the authority over that particular domain at that particular time. It created a contradiction in me because defiance made me feel alive, powerful and real. But the cost was very high so I feared it at the same time.

Its different now that I’m aware of it, and can define it as: Discernment Discipline + Natural Aggression = Conscious Defiance. I still get in trouble and although I don’t like it, I can be present with the resistance I meet.

My favorite conscious defiance metaphor is “Stick it to the man.” from the great movie School of Rock with crazy-defiant Jack Black.

But how do you stick it to the man in the midst of The Big Shift, Great Recession, The Reset, or whatever they call the massive changes we’re in. Pretty much everyone and everything looks like and acts like “the man”?

I think Eckhart Tolle’s Present Moment Reminder helps answer that:

“Change is absolutely necessary in this world, and the dissolution of many of the ego-based structures is necessary for humanity to survive. What’s happening isn’t ‘dreadfully bad.’ It needs to happen; the intelligence behind phenomena is doing it, so it’s a good thing.”

In other words, align with evolution, defy the temptation to do anything less and leave the rest to the field.

The recent results on ongoing genome studies, report that they have far less predictive value than believed, or as one geneticist commented “The information has little or in many cases no clinical relevance.”

So this is my layperson’s oversimplified, reading between the lines interpretation: the genome race is largely based on building complex risk models using shaky data. The industries and businesses that use these models make their revenue and profit by selling products and services that hedge health risks that probably don’t exist because the models are bogus.

For me, as I read this, there’s an eerie sense of similarity to the hubris-driven financial industries that pushed the global economy off a cliff “because we can”. One can imagine a human DNA Ponzi scheme.

Bill Clinton eloquently warns us “Don’t bet against America.” We need to go further. We need to stop betting against nature with our scientific and technological advancements and use these gifts with reverence to advance our civilization.

Many would shoot down reverent capitalism as an oxymoron. I’m not buying it, and neither is nature.

Photo credit: Wessex Archaeology's photostream (coastal and marine set) on Flickr

I get asked over and over by some people about what kind of coaching and consulting I do. They seem to have a preconceived notion, or perception of it and then attempt to reconcile my explanation to somehow fit their worldview. Sometimes I can’t figure out if they’re curious and trying and wanting to understand, or just not listening.

But now I’m realizing that people are pulled out of their comfort level when they’re in the depths, and the depths is my space.

I work with people at the level of often hidden assumptions, expectations and beliefs. In organizations, its collections of those – the culture. I use metaphysical metaphors to support the change facilitation process. I shouldn’t be surprised that people want to stick their toe in the water many times before they risk getting a touch of the bends.

I’m blogging this because I’m getting a sense that there’s a growing desire, or movement, or response to series of crises, to go deeper: in life, business and self-awareness. I think its a great sign that people and businesses are showing willingness and readiness to move beyond the surface of their experience, and with a leap in faith, take the plunge into what’s deep and unknown…that with which we identify but which contradicts what we want and where we want to go.

I don’t believe that “going deep” is only within the realm of professionals who focus on “people” issues. Accountants, consultants, health professionals, lawyers, technology professionals, etc, can practice recognizing opportunities to serve clients at a deeper level. It starts with allowing more space for conversation and sharing, being present without an agenda, and being willing to think differently about everything we and our clients think we know.

Uncertainty is the new reality for our clients. We can help them make it their pivot point of power from which they can create and direct their change and growth, if we dare to be different.

Social Media and Business:Computing Shift

Business Users & Social Media:Creating Natural Influence

There’s little doubt that the coming explosion of social media will greatly impact how businesses will interact in the future. The problem is that many of us who will influence businesses through our consulting, speaking and writing are mostly talking to each other and preaching to the choir so to speak.

The general consensus is that authentic communications, not technology, must drive social media initiatives. I agree with that. But the more I talk to traditional businesses of all sizes, the more I hear concerns about the short and long-term integration of internal and external social networking with their enterprise systems.

So I’ve been following Microsoft’s direction as they re-position their business and enterprise systems for social computing on the server platform, the cloud platform and combinations of those. I don’t approach projects from the technical side but I’ve come around to the importance of aligning social media strategies with corporate computing strategies. That means understanding how both are evolving and corresponding, as well as following Microsoft’s direction.

The graphics show my preference for shifting power to end users by giving them the choice, independence and synchronized data inherent in cloud models. Although this is an ideal, its likely a long way off for most traditional businesses. I don’t need to be in I.T. to understand the implications and that none of these proposed enterprise system change models are simple.

But I do think that an effective traditional business social media strategy must incorporate the clients’ enterprise systems: what they have now, what they plan for the long-term and Microsoft’s social computing direction. For business social media initiatives, technology doesn’t lead, but it matters.

RedShift Social Media-Network Model for Business

Businesses across all industries are paying more attention to social networks which are predicted to explode worldwide. Although clearly there’s tremendous opportunity and potential it can be overwhelming to grasp the rapid disruption happening and the voluminous information getting pushed out.

Decision makers need help discerning what’s valuable from what’s hype and in taking a direction that makes sense for them. My goal is to help them do that with a unique 4-stage map that is more strategy than tactics and more visual than wordy.

My posts on stages 1-3 are:

• Social Networks Part 1: Community Segmentation

• Social Networks Part 2: Integration

• Social Networks Part 3: Qualitative ROI

The purpose integral to my model is that businesses of all size increase their natural natural influence by using social networks to expand their social capital, brand awareness and sense response skills and abilities.

The quantifiable return in my model is the sum of actionable metrics that follow the qualitative experiential learning of the earlier phase. Its nearly impossible to assign a dollar figure to every social media action. Its more reasonable to present ROI as a story of the benefits of your social media initiative. What’s most important in the very organic world of social networks, is patiently directing the movement, or progression from one stage to the next and not losing commitment to authentic community relationship-building in the quest for ROI.

I developed this model to support a practical approach to social media with recommendations including:

• Determine if and how social networks can help you grow your business and/or improve profitability.

• Accept the disruption resulting from a shift from seller to buyer power.

• Involve people in the decision making process who will challenge assumptions and habitual responses to change and disruption.

• Understand that it will take two years to measure returns on integrating social networks, whether external, internal (behind the firewall), or both.

• Model natural and authentic communications both offline and online and give incentives for participation.

• Don’t wait, over-plan, over-control, micro-manage or over-analyze. Adopt a test and learn approach to social networks.

• Be open-minded and creative about results and metrics you choose to track, knowing that you could get an unexpected equivalent result, or something even better.

• If the above don’t convince you, consider the cost to your business of doing nothing.

Return on Natural Influence - RO(n)L

In previous posts I’ve talked about Social Networks: The Pre-requisites, a model for Social Network Community Segmentation, and also Integrating Social Media and Networks (using RedShift as a case study).

Clients, of course, want to understand the ROI, in quantitative metrics, of their investment in social media and networks. That’s understandably important to them.

But its helpful to first understand ROI from a qualitative perspective to ensure that there’s a success path that makes sense and that can be simply and effectively communicated to gain support and participation. If you can’t do that, you could go the wrong way and reach a dead end when you try to quantify the return on your social network investments.

Its important to understand that the link between your investment and the quantifiable return is “indirect”. You need a map to get from one to another.

Three major roads on the RO(n)I map are:

• Social Capital: shared information, support and strengthened ties that facilitate business actions and inter-actions.
• Brand Awareness: the cumulative trust-building effect of proving the brand promise, demonstrating the brand message and building the personal/business reputation.
• Sense Response: unique individual and collective skills and abilities that result from practicing a new way of listening and interacting so that you respond to change before it happens and unmet needs before they’re expressed.

The map may have different signs and paths, depending on your specific business and industry. But having one is critical to avoid getting lost in a failed social network initiative.