In a recent Nielsen study, “member communities” like Linked in are now used more (67%) than email (65%).  The social network landscape is changing quickly.

In my former survey research business, we were fighting the fact that American households were cutting off their phones in droves.  At last count, 17% of households have no land-line telephone.  Technology is re-shaping our world right in front of our eyes.

How is your organization using new tools to better connect your employees, and customers to increase collaboration — and ultimately performance?  I’ve heard a number of entrepreneurs complain that applications like Facebook are a time sink and have limited access by employees from their network.

I would propose that social networks and other cutting edge applications are merely tools that, if used in the right way, can help your organization better compete by providing your people with better access to information.

Social Networks – using applications within your company can help increase visibility among your staff around critical functions such as product expertise, specialized knowledge or special interests.  Using these applications increases collaboration and communication — particularly if your organization has locations across multiple geographic areas.  In addition, if you have virtual staff - this is the perfect application to keep everyone connected.

Wiki- using wikis is a great way to share standards and knowledge across the organization.  By building wiki platforms around problem identification and problem solving, you will increase your organization’s ability to adapt to the ever changing business environment.

Podcast – when you place training programs online, you insure that when a staffer is trained on a procedure or standard that everyone gets the same information, delivered in the same manner.  This results in more consistency.

Organizations can either resist the changes that are happening around us or embrace the new technology and find the best way to use it for every one’s benefit.  Please share your examples of how you’ve used web 2.0 technology in your business successfully.

Example #1 – Makin’ Bac’n

How do you take something as simple as bacon and turn it into a business? I’d like you to meet Scott Kventon – the biggest fan of bacon I’ve ever met.  This week, Scott shared his story of the fast track start to his first business that went from concept to revenue in less than two months.  It’s the epitome of what a small group of passionate entrepreneurs can accomplish.

Scott’s the founder and inspiration behind the coolest site about bacon I’ve ever seen… http://bacn.com/.  In fact, it’s the first website about bacon I’ve ever seen.  Scott’s passion for the pig, coupled with his knowledge and endless energy, have resulted in a sustainable business that started from his garage.

So, what did I learn?  First, I learned more than I could have hoped about bacon.  He had me at “hello,” as I’ve been a fan of the pig for quite some time now.  More importantly, what I learned was that if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, you’d better watch out because there will be someone who is — and it’s likely they will kick your ass.

The next generation of entrepreneurs is a unique group of individuals.  They talk fast, they think fast, and they ACT fast!  On top of it all, they’re having fun.  If you can’t see this from BACN.COM, then you should unsubscribe from this blog and never come here again.  If it’s as clear as the nose on your face, then you get it.

Example #2 – Energizer Bunny

Take an empty office building, add a dose of brilliance — and you have NedSpace.  Josh Friedman and his partners are onto something big.

NedSpace is a new concept to me — providing rented desk space for young start-ups on the cheap.  The thing makes this such a value is not the $175/month desk but the ENERGY that you feel by being around other driven entrepreneurs.  By renting offices and desks to serial entrepreneurs, they provide an atmosphere that can’t be replicated by working from home.   NedSpace is a great concept which takes advantage of the glut of office space that’s out there, while creating a great environment for start-ups to work and collaborate.  My only question is — why don’t I have my office here?  Nicely done, Josh!

We are beings driven by our conscious and sub-conscious minds.  Our behaviors are directly linked to our thoughts.  We control more than we realize.

I’ve been a huge fan of R. Buckminster Fuller for many years.  In his first book “Nine Chains to the Moon” Fuller coined the term ephemeralization – which refers to the ability of people to use technology advances to continuously do more with less.  His vision was that ephemeralization will result in an ever-increasing standard of living for an ever-growing population despite finite resources.

Here’s a simple illustration of this idea.  In 1520 Magellan spent 2 years sailing in a wooden boat around the globe.  350 years later steam ships could navigate the earth in just 2 months time.  75 years later an airplane, made of alloys, took  2 weeks to fly around the world.  35 years later a space capsule, made from exotic alloys, needed one hour to circle the earth.  The rate of advancement is increasing at an exponential rate.  

How has ephemeralization affected what is possible?  Talking and thinking about what is possible starts with you, and it starts with me.  We define how and what we can do to make our world different.  Maybe it’s simply spending 1 hour a day thinking about what’s possible for your life, dreaming of what will make your life better for you, your family, and your fellow humans without any limitations.  I do know that we cannot turn back time and change the place we find ourselves living in today.  We’re being carried to the doorstep of “necessity” – as it becomes increasingly clear that our past and current ways of dealing with our crisis won’t yield the desired results.  Today we have the opportunity to elevate our culture, our society, and ourselves beyond our primal urges.  We can exchange greed and fear for collaboration and acceptance.   And, we do this simply by our actions right now.  Perhaps a starting place would be to think about one small thing you can do today – now — that will begin to make your dream a reality.   Inaction is our only means of failure.

I recently posted a blog discussing the difference between team work and collaboration.   I thought it would be nice to provide you with a concrete example. 

Two of my favorite blogs I read recently had posts about recruiting for your business.  Individually, either blog is an excellent resource which will improve your efforts.   But if you combine them the results can be even better. 

MINDdrift

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Re: Focus:

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Even Better!

I’ve really started to appreciate the benefit of “blending” ideas together – just another form of collaboration.  Thanks Simon and David!  If you have other ideas or examples please throw it in the blender for the rest of us!

Hill wrote this in 1937 – Think and Grow Rich.   As much as we may want to believe that we’ve made progress as a society I can’t help but think we really haven’t.  We seem to be struggling with the same problems, and if we really believe that using the same solutions will result in different outcomes, we’re just kidding ourselves.  Maybe it’s time to use a different approach.  Maybe it’s time to use a different model. 

Teamwork is when someone must subordinate personal aspirations and the leader wins.

Teamwork is a joint action by 2 or more persons or a group, in which each subordinates his or her individual interests and opinions to the unity and efficiency of the group.  This does not mean that the individual is no longer important; however, it does mean that effective and efficient teamwork goes beyond individual accomplishments.  The most effective teamwork is produced when all the individuals involved harmonize their contributions and work towards a common goal.  In order for teamwork to succeed, one must be a team-player.  A team-player is one who subordinates personal aspirations and works in a coordinated effort with other members of a group, or a team, to strive for a common goal.   Businesses and other organizations often go to the effort of coordinating team building events in an attempt to get people to work as a team rather than as individuals.

Collaboration – there are no leaders.  Everyone wins.

Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together toward an intersection of common goals — e.g., sharing knowledge, learning, and building consensus is an intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature.  Collaboration does not require leadership, and can sometimes bring better results through decentralization and egalitarism. 

This is an image of a structure that was used to create a philanthropic organization based on the idea of collaboration.  Project Red Dot (www.projectreddot.org) was established in 2008 as a way for individuals to work towards a common goal – in this case, to help people in Ghana, Africa connect to the world.  It has produced incredible results while using a minimal amount of resources because the model is based on collaboration.

I’ve recently reconnected with Doug Mendel and I’m attempting to set up a similar structure to help his orgainzation (www.dougmendel.com).  By combining the right combination of talented, motivated and resourceful people, a tremendous amount of progress can be made while using little or no resources.  In the case of Project Red Dot, they’ve been able to re-deploy laptops that would have ended up in a landfill.  In Doug Mendel’s case, he moved a fire truck from Colorado to Cambodia.  Both used the same model.  Both yielded amazing results.

My question is – how can YOU use this model to reach your goals and aspirations?

Panasonic Mood Phone

What if there were a way to systematically gather feedback from people within your organization that would provide you with immediate information on their mood – specifically, the level of energy they are exhibiting, their trust in the company and their peers, and how focused they are on their work at the moment?  Think of it as the ultimate feedback loop for organizations.   

Say you were able to walk into someone’s office and immediately know their mood (based on physiological functions), and then adapt your approach to fit their current state.  Does that seem like a far fetched idea?  Maybe it’s not so far off.

In late 2006, Panasonic and NTT DoCoMo designed a cell phone called the “Feel Talk.