Hack:
Why Can't Software Enable Values to Accelerate Management 2.0?
People and the WWW share common “deep values.” Sandwiched in between are Management 1.0 (& aspiring 2.0) Organizations and Software Applications that ride the www. These 4 “layers” need to be aligned to enable Management 2.0 to evolve and organizations to transform.
To Reinvent Management, organizations need to change. How have we implemented “values based” change (such as diversity, teamwork etc.) in a Management 1.0 world? With a battery of costly change initiatives that take years to implement and often with inconsistent results. Our hack is that we believe these value based changes can be implemented faster and more cost effectively to reach a Management 2.0 world if software applications were designed with these values as standards. Software can and should be a key enabler of Management 2.0 principles.
With a new SaaS collaboration tool called Powernoodle, we have seen first-hand the opportunities for new levels of engagement and commitment within organizations when there is values-based alignment amongst the www, applications software, an organization and its people.
Absent this alignment, Management 2.0 will not happen. More directly, organizations that do not embrace this alignment will become uncompetitive in the workforce and their markets.
The Management 2.0 Challenge gave us cause to think beyond Powernoodle. We extended our hack with the idea to engage software developers and their user communities in a dialogue about explicitly embedding the values we’re seeing are making a difference -- diversity, trust & integrity, engagement, respect and buy-in – into their applications. By doing so, the “application layer” will be enabling self-determination and doing its part to help facilitate Management 2.0.
Consider four layers: At the top is the worldwide web, a global infrastructure. Below it are all of the tools and application software that ride the www. The next layer, where applicable, comprises the organizations that would use the bottom two layers, deciding what to use, how to use it and who would use it. The foundational layer is people.
As Gary Hamel suggests, the “deep values” of the www are openness, meritocracy, flexibility and collaboration. In the foundation layer, very few people in today’s workforce would not embrace these.
Questions lie in the middle two layers, specifically:
- What do application developers need to include in their products to extend the values of the www to organizations?
- In their journey to Management 2.0, what trade-offs must Management 1.0 types make to extend these values to people? And, how can application developers facilitate their decisions?
This model also highlights a problem: Individuals, through their personal experience, are experientially familiar with the values, attributes and capabilities of the www and its applications. Management 1.0 organizations will frustrate (are frustrating) their employees and customers and will lose both over time if a bottom-to-top alignment of values is not apparent quickly enough.
In addition, Management 1.0 organizations need to be careful to not use Management 1.0 constructs to plan and execute their transition to Management 2.0. Among these are large, complex, expensive change management initiatives. Consider the “quality programs” rolled out in the 1980s or the “diversity programs” of the 1990s or the “customer service programs” of the past decade.
While there will always be some programs that require major change management umbrellas, organizations must embrace and take advantage of the new lower-cost methods afforded by today’s www. This is one of the paths to Management 2.0.
Organizations which do not do so risk becoming marginal employers and vendors, which in turn becomes a problem of economic viability.
On the other hand, organizations which figure it out, subject to execution, will be well on their way to Management 2.0.
The Values Enabled Software Hack is based on developing a set of industry principles and outcomes that will enable commercial and enterprise software developers with a set of tenets that drive the values of Management 2.0.
When these same principles and outcomes are embraced by management, the managers themselves will have a vehicle in which to Reinvent and paves the way for Values Enabled Software to be adopted within their organizations.
When organizations can implement change cost effectively, timely and consistently then they are Reinventing Management.
We offer Powernoodle as ONE example of how software can implement these principles and become a vehicle for Reinventing Management so that the speed of change, the depth of innovation and engaged stakeholders win the day.
1. Diversity = better, richer ideas and decisions = Innovation
Example: Participants in a Powernoodle session interact anonymously which provides a safe environment from which to share and listen. Anonymity provides a freedom of voice regardless of culture, gender, organizational hierarchy or physical ability.
“We need organizations where … every idea has a chance to compete on an equal footing irrespective of where it came from and where there is a lot of trust and little fear. … Where … contribution matters more than credentials.” Gary Hamel – Mix TV Video – What do Managers Dream of?
“This is the first time I feel that I have been heard … and the team picked my idea!” Powernoodle User developing a vision statement on the board of a large charitable organization.
“When I was using Powernoodle I noticed that I started actually caring about people’s opinions.” A grade 12 high school math student Powernoodling as part of their “surveys & statistics” course.
2. Trust & Integrity = speed = Competitiveness
Example: Powernoodle automatically creates an accurate audit trail of all ideas, comments, decisions and actions in spreadsheet format. This report is available immediately (not when the facilitator/organizer finally gets the time to document) so that people can leave a session with the data they need to implement the agreed upon actions quickly.
“In a high-trust society there’s more for everyone. We have more options and opportunities. We interact with less friction, resulting in greater speed and lower cost.” The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything by Stephen M.R. Covey
“In the twentieth century, a company measured success by the number of tangible assets (such as property, plant, and equipment) it posted on its balance sheet. In the Information Age, however, intangible assets rule the day. Intangible assets such as trust, creativity, speed, relationships, reputation, loyalty, employee commitment, brand identity, and the ability to adapt to change determine success.” Frank Sonnenberg, author of Managing With a Conscience http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/07/role-trust-sustainable-business/
3. Engaged People = passion, creativity & bringing other talent to the table = Productivity
Example: Powernoodle is built on the same principles as multi-player games. Real time interaction, a simple and engaging interface and the progression of a Powernoodle session being dependent on the participant’s hands-on interaction drive engagement. The breadth and depth and uniqueness of discussion possible, the speed of consensus building and the commitment to actions excite people and have them invite new participants to new Powernoodle sessions.
“We couldn’t believe how engaged our A-type traders were … and we ran our session virtually.”- Financial Services Executive working with his team to define requirements for their area of the corporate website.
“Powernoodle is an entertaining, fun engagement tool that provides fast correlation of our data for sharing across our stakeholders.” Community Economic Development planner participating in a virtual strategic planning session.
4. Respect = work anywhere, anytime = high value interactions at low cost = Efficiency
Example: Powernoodle respects people because it allows them to work when they feel they are at their best to participate. People do not need to sit through long meetings but rather can spend bursts of a few minutes at a time, when it is convenient for them, to add their ideas comment on other people’s thoughts, weigh in on decisions or commit to actions. By respecting people’s intellect in this way organizations will see this person contribute at a higher level over more projects and with more personal satisfaction. Win-Win.
“We used Powernoodle with a six person team over the course of a weekend to identify and prioritize gaps in business architecture by engaging people for short 5 and 10 minute interactions and at their convenience. Had we not approached these challenges that weekend we would have had to wait two weeks to get everyone together and would have collectively had to spend much more time.” Chairman of the Board for an Electronic Retail Music Instruments company
5. Buy-in = committed resources and project momentum = Results
Example: Buy-In is one of the most magical elements that has been designed into the very framework of how Powernoodle was developed. People begin as individuals vested in their own concepts and views and over the course of the flexible Powernoodle process they begin to value the thoughts and comments of the other participants. In the end, they are still individuals able to share their unique gifts and passions but these are now applied to a stronger richer project or solution that the team has developed together.
“During our annual board retreat this year we ran a number of Powernoodle sessions. At the end of our retreat the various board members commented on the volume of decisions and plans that were not only identified but resourced and … without all the drama that often happens with some of our more vocal and rather opinionated shareholders.” Chairman of a Technology Company
2. Creates a values based collaboration and innovation ecosystem
3. Gives people and organizations a free, simple first step to embrace Management 2.0
At Powernoodle we use our product every day to brainstorm and decide business opportunities and product requirements and we even use it for our management dashboard. Indeed, the core elements of this Hack were asynchronously brainstormed amongst four people. (As a matter of interest, 91 ideas across 7 subject areas were posted over a 6.5 hour period, with no one spending more than forty minutes. The process was simple and not intrusive: the subject areas were defined, at 10:30am, four people received invitations to participate, they posted their ideas at their convenience by 5pm, and no scheduling was required; easy, efficient and effective.)
Here is how we created our Hack!
Drilling down into one of the specific questions in our MIX Hack Powernoodle Session