Posts Tagged ‘Hybrid Organisation’

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The Super User at Home

Friday, October 15th, 2010

In our personal lives, it seems we have figured out how to make technology really work for us. Sure we may bitch and moan when we hit problems, but broadly, most of us are incredibly productive and successful at using technology to make our lives easier.

Think about it. Most people (and that’s not to down play the challenges we face in this country around the Digital Divide the continued existence of which is a huge barrier to our collective success as a society), but most people go home to better technology than they are provided with at work.

superusersmWeird isn’t it? But it’s true – go back into your organisations and ask them – you’ll be amazed to find that the same people that you worry about in terms of IT literacy will quite happily be at home, shopping on-line with Tesco or Amazon (other on-line retailers are available), communicating with their friends and family via email, instant messaging and social tools like Twitter and Facebook.

The problem is, this success in our personal lives, creates a different expectation for our professional lives. We go from being “super users” at home to “dumb users” at work – and this is beginning to become our weakness.

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Posted in Consumerisation, Hybrid Organisation, The 6 Themes | No Comments »

Technological Change–Above and below the water line

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

In the final instalment of our systemic view of the changes that surround us we com to the area we talk most about, but perhaps understand the least – how technology has changed around us.

When I started my career (and I suspect it is the same for many of you), the only place I would see a personal computer was in a place of work or a place of study. Think about how different that world is now. We are surrounded by technology, much of it has become so pervasive to our everyday lives that it has started to become invisible.

When was the last time you thought about how the internal combustion engine actually works? Apart from a few petrol heads which are undoubtedly reading this, what do you do when you get in your car? Do you sit and think, <nerd voice> well, turning this key activates the fuel pump which even as I sit here is preparing the correct amount of fuel to be compressed in the cylinders and ignited at precisely the right moment, the resulting explosion creating sufficient force to drive a powertrain supplying the correct amount of longitudinal force to each of the driving wheels </nerd voice>. Of course you don’t, you get in turn the key and crack on with getting to your destination.

TechChangesmIT is becoming no different. Although the way in which we use it becomes increasingly sophisticated, we care less (or we should care less) about the specifics of what makes it work. This is a good thing. In my book, a minute spent thinking about the tool is a minute wasted as it should have been spent thinking about the task.

I like to think of it as a water line that we continue to push up as we are able to effectively “commoditise” the core elements of technology. Above the water we see the graceful, pretty technology that helps us be productive. Below the water, we know there is a complex eco-system that drives it, but we don’t necessarily need to understand every intricacy of what makes it work.

Increasingly, understanding and using this commoditisation will be the difference between success and failure.

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Posted in Cloud, Consumerisation, Hybrid Organisation, Innovation, The 6 Themes | No Comments »

The changing workplace

Monday, October 11th, 2010

Changing-WorkplacesmIn the next part of our series of posts looking at how the world is changing around us we look at how the work environment is changing around us. With the evolution of mobile technologies and the ever increasing bandwidth that is available to us (in terms of both location and capacity) we are afforded truly different options in how we work.

The Hybrid Organisation studies showed that on average we spend only 45% of our time at our desks – that’s an incredible statistic, not only does it provide a hint at areas that we may make some major savings, but it is also incredibly telling about the way in which we now carry out our professional lives.

We’re moving to a world where the term “work” no longer defines a location, but is centred purely in the activity itself.

Working in this way offers not just greater flexibility for us in how we blend our personal and professional lives, but also provides a great opportunity for us to spend more time outside with our customers, peers and even strangers – all of which combine to make us more successful and more innovative and better still, more effective both at home and in work. The days of the binary work life balance are gone, some people seems to think this means working 24/7 but to me it’s about empowering individuals to choose where and when they want to get things done – equipping your people to be productive wherever they chose (or have to be) is the first big step down the path of success.

In our Dutch office, we reduced office space by 30% effectively pushing our people out into the big wide world – the results – 50% increase in sales and a much happier workforce.

How dull would I be (or rather as my wife reminds me, how much more dull would I be) if all I did was spent my time within the Microsoft bubble? I’m a far richer, more innovative and productive individual if I get out a bit more and spend time with people like you and your teams – even with people who care less about technology, it’s all constructive input and food for thought that goes to make me far more useful and valuable to my employer.

But companies need to change in order to truly get the most from this opportunity, especially in a knowledge based economy, we need to move to a more outcomes based measurement, far too often, we measure people on process not on what they achieve – this alone forms one of the major barriers between those that will taste success and those that don’t.

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Posted in Agility, Cost Reduction, Hybrid Organisation, Innovation, The 6 Themes | 2 Comments »

It’s about the Economy stupid–but it’s not what you think

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

I’m not going to dwell too much on this as it is a challenge that I know is at the forefront of everybody’s mind, but what is crucial, is that we must never lose sight of the fact that our currently challenging economic climate continues to be one of the most important factors in providing a real, substantive need for radical action.

EconomysmalWe know we cannot go on as we have in the past. We know we must save money, but equally we know we must find a way of delivering at least equivalent service if not superior.

The challenge I know you all face on a daily basis is about providing “more for less” an overused slightly tired cliché that summarises the situation. I would argue that we need to move beyond that and embrace wherever possible the challenge posed by the economy and use that as the catalyst for some really innovative thinking that can transform the way in which we do business.

To me, saving money is like being told you need to lose weight – as an individual, I have a couple of choices, I can chop off one of my limbs and voila – even the Lighter Life diet will find it hard to match that kind of weight loss to time ratio… Only problem though, I can only do that so many times or worse still, it leaves me weaker, less responsive and bleeding to death.

Alternatively, I could get myself on a proper diet, endure some regular exercise. Sure the savings will take longer but will put me in a far better place to make further savings for the future and are infinitely sustainable.

The economy is the single biggest reason for us to do what we have been talking about for the last 10 years, transform, I’m talking proper transformation, not some mickey mouse “playing round the edges transformation” that basically means the same stuff just slightly better.

But the economic situation alone cannot get you there, you have to understand the other changes if we are to be truly successful. Over the next few posts we’ll look at these and how they combine to provide the single biggest opportunity for real transformative change that we’ll ever see in our lifetimes.

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Posted in Cost Reduction, Hybrid Organisation, The 6 Themes, The Digital State | 2 Comments »

Work/Life Balance – Yesterday’s News?

Monday, May 17th, 2010

worklife Working off the back of the Hybrid Organisation reports we recently released, we were invited to talk with Peter Whitehead from the FT’s Digital Business podcast to discuss the concepts that we think will shape the way in which we live, work and play in the future.  It was a great opportunity for Prof. Michael Hulme, Philip Ross and myself to discuss the reports focusing on the potential impact and those all important 20 golden rules for business in the digital age. 

It’s a great overview and expertly edited _down_ to a mere 16 minutes – genius!

You can find the podcast here…

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Posted in Agility, Consumerisation, Hybrid Organisation, Innovation | No Comments »

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