From Command & Control to CrowdSourcing

02-Sep 2010
A version of this post appeared first on TNMcoaching.com

What is Crowdsourcing?

First coined by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired magazine article “The Rise of Crowdsourcing,” crowdsourcing refers to the increasing ability, especially facilitated by new media technologies, to leverage the knowledge, talent, expertise and interest of large groups of people — customers, employees, audiences, interest groups. ”It’s not outsourcing; it’scrowdsourcing,” says Howe.

“When you look at the future of companies I think you’re about to see the most fundamental change in businesses and government on a global basis that you’ve ever seen, moving from command-and-control to true collaboration and team work, and it will be a combination of the two. The result of that, enabled by technology especially around visual connectivity, will allow for a generation of productivity and new models. Which companies and which countries lead in this will have the highest standard of living.”  Cisco’s John Chambers October 2008 speech at MIT

Around the same time, Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams were writingWikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Wikinomics is based on four core concepts: Openness, Peering, Sharing, and Acting Globally. The kind of mass collaboration described by crowdsourcing relies on free individual agents voluntarily working together, cooperating to create something, improve a given operation, or solve a particular challenge.

Before that, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More was based on an idea first articulated by Clay Shirky and popularized by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 Wired magazine article, in which he mentioned Amazon.com and Netflix as examples of businesses applying the strategy of reaching a far greater number of customers with lower volume per item sales of a far greater number of items. We’ve also heard the term The Long Tail refer to accessing, listening and responding to a far greater number of customers or clients for product and process feedback. That’s where crowdsourcing and The Long Tail meet.

Mass collaboration is used successfully internally and in external communication to generate new ideas, facilitate workflows and develop new processes, build cross-functional teams and better addresses the needs and desires of customers.

In this video, Chambers shares a snapshot look at the benefits of dispersing leadership throughout Cisco’s teams and organizational structure:

As for the Long Tail concept, an Amazon.com employee reported, “We sold more books today that didn’t sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday.”

Online marketplaces from eBay to Etsy may be considered part of the phenomenon, so is Internet-facilitated microfinance as seen on Kiva.org, President Barack Obama’s grassroots online fundraising and voluntary viral campaign promotion are evidence that creative, voluntary, new media-driven contribution is transforming not just the way we do business but the very world in which we live. PepsiCo’s DEWmocracy and Refresh Projects highlight the democratization of business:

How do we train & develop for crowdsourcing?

Listening is more important than ever before. Here are some ways to listen:

1. Set up a social media listening station for your brand or organization.

Gen Y Social Media Guru Amy Sample Ward provides simple instructions here for setting up a listening dashboard for your organization.

2. Train leaders to listen more than command.

Our client companies use coach training across all leadership levels from frontline leaders to the C-suite to develop and embed new leadership and communication styles, techniques and skills. Going from command-and-control to crowdsourcing marks and organizational shift; it also requires individuals in the organization to lead and interact differently. TNM helps facilitate that shift globally.

3. Create listening times, systems and structures for them to do so.

Command-and-control to crowdsourcing can be an organizational shift of gargantuan proportions. Creating new practices, norms and strategies will further embed new behaviors into the organization. How can you smooth the way for better performing cross-functional teams? Which current organizational practices and standards keep command-and-control management in place? How can you replace those? How can you best access and respond to customer needs? These are crucial questions to answer.

Engagement and activation are more valuable than ever before.

This is good news! There are myriad examples to consult as you consider how to best move from command-and-control to crowdsourcing. Contests, crowdcasting, grassroots fundraising and microfinance, dispersed leadership and socially networked working groups all provide valuable feedback and opportunities for growth, paving the way toward organizational sustainability in the new Crowdsourced World.

Crowdsourcing is good consumer-facing marketing; it’s good for employee morale, retention and innovation. From philanthropy to Pepsi, the shift from command-and-control to crowsourcing is well underway. What does your organization need to do to keep up?

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14-Aug 2010

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8 Ways to Build a Female-Friendly Leadership Pipeline

16-Jun 2010

In mid-2009, for the first time, women made up more than half of the US workforce. On the final day of 2009, a USA Today article noted that stocks of the 13 woman-led Fortune 500 companies were up an average 50% for the year, doubling the performance of the S&P 500 overall. These figures might seem like cause for celebration of the, “We’ve come a long way, baby” type.

Not so fast. On the other hand, in May 2010 Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis was fined $250 million in the U.S. for systemically discriminating against female employees.  Women head up only 3% of the Fortune 1000.  The percentage of women leaders actually declined 1% last year. Women still lag behind men in salary and promotion.
[Read more...]

Fiskars Fuels a Movement

15-Aug 2009

This post appeared first on TNMcoaching’s blog.

Three business trends have converged for us here at TNM, and it’s making for interesting conversations:

- the rise of executive coaching,
- the shift across industries toward more inclusive and responsive communication, and
- the massive increase in the use of new media technologies as tools for both.

One element of executive coaching is meeting clients where they are, dealing with whatever they bring to the table.  That might include questions like, “How do we best motivate people?”  “How do we make the most effective use of new media technologies?” or similar to the Fiskars case I heard recently at BlogHer Business in Chicago, “How do we create a deep, emotional connection with our customers?” Here’s how Fiskars did it.

Fiskars is a 360 year old company.  They make scissors.  Their assumption in 2006 when they asked this question was that scissors are something people want nearby when they need them and don’t think about when they don’t.

The thing is: creating a deep, emotional connection isn’t about products.  Deep, emotional connections with corporations, that kind of loyalty and love, stem from social interaction and existing (or at least traditional) emotional bonds with family, friends, significant others, etc.  How can you create opportunities for that kind of interaction – then honor it, value it and let it flourish?  Disney did that in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s – brought families together to watch The Wonderful World of Disney on tv, its films in theaters, and visit the theme parks together.* Fiskars created a deep lasting emotional connection with its customers quickly by nurturing existing interests and connections.  They created a corps of brand ambassadors, the woman call themselves Fiskateers.

 

It started with just four women Fiskars found online.  They were outstanding craft bloggers; it’s a whole subculture now… blogs about quilting and crafting and scrapbooking.  Even as they connected, Fiskars didn’t understand the magnitude of the existing online community. The four women chosen already used Fiskars and had a following through their blogs.  They are passionate about crafting and scrapbooking.  Fiskateers are numbered as they join, so there’s Fiskateer #1, #2, #3 and so on.  The lower the number the higher the status in the community.  The original program goal was 200 Fiskateers in six months; that was exceeded within 48 hours!  Fiskateers now number over 5000 strong.

Online chatter about the Fiskars brand increased 600% within 2 years.  Fiskateers in 70 countries meet with crafters and srapbookers for virtual, online events and in home and stores face-to-face.  They share new ways to use Fiskars products and gain valuable insight into how consumers are using them and what they’d like to see next from the company.  They’re a test market and the long tail made manifest all at once.  Only the first five lead Fiskateers are paid.  The rest participate out of pure passion. This is Crowdsourcing and The Long Tail at work.

Surf sites associated with Fiskateers and you’ll see love for the brand expressed outright over and over again.  You’ll also see that Fiskars made its products and the program completely accessible to the Fiskateers.  Transparency has been crucial.  It’s created a movement.  Fiskars is beloved.

COACHING LESSON:

How can you tap into existing passions and social connections?

This kind of inclusion is not limited to B2C consumer interaction.  How can your B2B and internal communications benefit? How can you include people, honor what they’re up to and how they use your products or services? Where can you create space for connection?

Coming soon… how to use social networking for internal communication

For more information:

On Fiskars and the Fiskateers, read their blog.

Here’s one Fiskateer’s personal blog – with info on online events.

Brains on Fire helped create the Fiskateers. Here are posts and video from them about the program, featuring Fiskateers.

Here’s one 20 months into the program.

And a few analyses and case studies:

Branding blogger on Fiskars

History of Fiskateers.

A couple of good analyses.

 

* I say this with conviction because my Ph.D. Dissertation was a study of how 53 American families created their relationships with the Walt Disney Company.