In Good Company; how social capital makes organizations work by Cohen & Pusak

I had to stop and check out the publishing date of this book. Heavens, it is ten years old, yet seems as fresh as the this morning's dawn. What impressed me was its ability to focus on the social without getting lost in the technology aspects of social. That was my heads up to this book being written before the advent of the "bright and shiny" social networking (as in on-line) era.

The authors focus on the concept of social capital. Their definition of this is "Social capital consists of the stock of active connections among people; the trust, mutual understanding, and shared values and behaviours that bind the members of human networks and communities and make cooperative action possible".

The chapter on trust made more sense to me than most of the consultancy-type frameworks that proliferate. They explain how it is the key to social capital and how it is a demonstrable social system behaviour.

Networks and communities are a fashionable topic and have been since the onset of debate about communities of practice. These authors focus on the role of social groups, the basics of communities and networks, as well as the value of the networks. I wonder how much we know about our organizational networks and whether we have stopped to value them?

I loved the chapter on space and time to connect. In these impatient days of quick fixes, rapid cycles of change, the flurries of new ideas on how to do something, we can all do with a refocus on what it is that is the glue in the system. This glue is of course the social capital. Social capital is a by product of many processes and structures, and most importantly needs attention to time and space. When last did you calculate the return on investment of your lunch half hour away from your desk sitting at a table with some colleagues. The trouble;l with this book is I agreed with everything and in the same instant felt the impossibility of it all. Nevertheless there are some thought provoking issues to consider. For example there is no point in exhorting storytelling as a method of engaging staff in change unless we personally experience story telling, walk the talk, take the time to tell stories and more importantly to listen to other people's stories. The chapter on social talk and storytelling is a must for any leader who is evoking this as a method for change.

If you're not convinced so far then the chapter on the challenge of volatility is crucial. Here we learn how social capital can transcend and transform, against all circumstances.

In case you think they missed the boat by not considering the technology opportunities the chapter on the challenge of virtuality says it all, without getting lost in the technical details.

This is another book that has languished on my bookshelf. Something triggered me to buy it all those years ago. Having read it I felt affirmed and inspired. I'm going to reflect and work on my social capital. And you?

PS there are some great books written by Laurence Prusak - check out his website. There are also videos by him on storytelling and knowledge management.

You can't order change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing - Peter Cohan

I was attracted to this book because the title said what I have always thought yet doesn't seem to be what I get involved with doing! I spend a lot of time on Boeings so I felt I had an interest in knowing what they doing and how they are doing it.

A while back Boeing was in a mess - stockprice was down, staff were complaining, revenue was not as anticipated, key people were leaving, lawsuits abounded and generally everything was on a downward trend. Enter CEO Jim McNerney who gained a reputation of requiring results to speak for themselves rather than putting himself on a pedestal.

This book takes you through the CEO perspective and actions in turning around a self-destructing monolith. The view I got form the book was the importance of people stuff, relationships and leadership in times of trouble. Sounds obvious but in my experience I see organisations go down the route of more rules, process redesign and the like when the crunch hits.

Cohan interprets McNerney's approach as expressing what is required from leaders in the organisation, working with people so they jointly own these leadership attributes and encouraging communication at all levels. He also got rid of the people who didn't make the grade while investing in those who were growing into leadership roles with the right skills and capabilities. After people, the big message is the importance of the person who manages the finances. Then there is also the piece about customer involvement.

Written in summary here all this looks like the standard stuff of management and leadership texts. However, Cohan does explain all these actions in the context of Boeing. Still - to me, much of the diagnosis ended up a bit samey. Maybe that is more a reflection of my expectations - was I looking for something unique? Maybe the answer to large scale change in large organisations really is simple - the difficulty is in applying the tactics.

Overall - nothing new in here and maybe that is what is new.

New Age of Innovation; Prahalad & Krishnan

If you're interested in large scale change and innovation then you'll find this book fascinating. On the one hand it felt like there was nothing startlingly new to me yet on the other it was neatly put together in a readable way that made sense.

A key premise is the current trend of personalisation and how value is based on the unique experience we all want. The authors refer to this as N=1. Current technology drives this, social networking, web 2.0 etc. How can we co-create value with our users and consumers? What are the challenges with managing who owns the knowledge? All good questions. They also suggest we need to make the most of collaborative networks, electronic and face-to-face, be flexible and ensure scalability. I liked the section on scalability and in my mind there is more in here than what they covered. This is a key element and is also linked to their second premise.

The 2nd key premise is the one that resources need to be global and they use another little formaula: R=G. Here they suggest the issue is that access to resources is more importnat than providing products; namely it is the solutions that matter rather than the kit or pieces. I think I agree with this. Again, scalability comes up.

They mention social movements and how they figure int he process as well as organisational transformation. There was nothing much new in the organisational process other than the context of the infomrational technology infrastructure - well, that is rather new and for some people rather perplexing.

If you've not yet engaged with Web 2.0 and new technology then this is definitely worth a read.