Own It….

Today, it was made very clear, again, the importance of “conversation”. On one of the social sites, which features blogging, I frequent now and then a post was made regarding the “relevancy” of web conversations. The writer used several corporate luminaries to make the point that corporations should engage their audiences in an ongoing conversation, to which I whole heartily agree. He went on to describe a conversation that he was having with a “$60 Billion” global company which wanted assistance with education and related issues.

“The executives were surprised (that their Alexa score was lower than the social site that the post was made on) and indicated they need to work on Search Engine Optimization to increase the traffic to their web site, so the blogger wrote. The blogger in question then responded “no, you need to learn how to have meaningful conversations and create relevant content that appeals to your customers, suppliers and employees.”

What makes this so serendipitous for me is that I recently read C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy’s “The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers”. Their book’s purpose is to establish a “…guide [for] business leaders in their search for new strategic capital, helping them to break out of their old entrenched ways and discover new ones” through conversations with the same audience the blogger in question suggest.

In addition, I am in the process of writing on the subject of how authentic leaders should establish both a comfort in social media conversations personally (which might include blogging or might not, but surely includes joining or even forming social networks that they participate in fully) and a framework for them to adopt. Therefore, this opportunity regarding conversations is a perfect topic for me to posit some of my ideas for testing.

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It is traditional to categorize enterprises as business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), decidedly putting “business” first and taking a firm-centric view of the economy. This premise – firm-centric- is what makes the above mentioned executive’s surprise understandable. Most people in these firms believe in just the same way – firms produce value and the consumer exchanges money for the value. So the phenomenon of consumers and the firm involved jointly creating value that is unique to the individual consumer and sustainable to the firm has some convincing and spreading to do before it becomes a “given” such as the firm-centric idea has.

The challenge to this traditional notion of value creation - namely that firms create and exchange value with consumers - I am suggesting that, increasingly, the joint efforts of the consumer and the firm - the firm’s extended network and consumer communities together - will co-create value through personalized experiences that are unique to each individual consumer, and this outlines the conversational stage that I believe the blogger is suggesting that the firm needs to engage.

This does not suggest, at least from my perspective, that one day all firms’ will simply “flip the script” – not by a long shot. What I am suggesting is that situations and certain leaders will emerge so as to affect the change it takes. This view underscores my rationale for linking leadership to the production of social media – developing a strategic personae and corporate stand. Hence, educational programs that produce outcomes that are purposed to the ends stated in the corporate stand and by leadership through an authentic voice.

Why Should A Leader Develop A Network?

Networks deliver three unique advantages: private information, access to diverse skill sets, and power. Executives see these advantages at work every day, but might not pause to consider how their networks regulate them.

Private information, the currency earned from your reputation, is gathered from networked personal contacts – virtual or otherwise, who can offer something unique that cannot be found in the public domain, such as the release date of a new product, unpublished software code, or knowledge about what a particular interviewer looks for in candidates. Private information, therefore, can give a leader an edge, though it is more subjective than public information because usually it is not verified by an independent party, such as Dun & Bradstreet. Consequently, the value of your private information to others—and the value of others’ private information to you—depends on your reputation and creditability that exists in the network of relationships

Highly diverse network ties, therefore, can help you develop more complete, creative, and unbiased views of issues. And when you trade information or skills with people whose experiences differ from your own, you provide one another with unique, exceptionally valuable resources. Linus Pauling, one of only two people to win a Nobel Prize in two different areas and considered one of the towering geniuses of the twentieth century, attributed his creative success not to his immense brainpower or luck but to his diverse contacts: “The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.”

Leaders don’t demonstrate power head-to-head anymore; they go network-to-network. That makes each role more complicated, as the ancient Chinese board game Go demonstrates. The object of the game is to occupy territory and capture your opponent’s stones by surrounding them and removing them from the board. The board on the left shows a traditional grid; the board on the right shows a grid hypothetically designed for a complex network, with large hubs, small clusters, and long-range links. On the left, traditional strategies call for economies of scale, or deriving advantage from a greater number of adjacent stones. On the right, new strategies call for economies of scope, or deriving advantage from long-range connections between cleverly placed clusters.

So what is the Social Media platform actually?

A “social network site” is a category of websites with profiles, semi-persistent public commentary on the profile, and a traversable publicly articulated social network displayed in relation to the profile.

To clarify:

1. Profile. A profile includes an identifiable handle (either the person’s name or nick), information about that person (e.g. age, sex, location, interests, etc.). Most profiles also include a photograph and information about last login. Profiles have unique URL s that can be visited directly.
2. Traversable, publicly articulated social network. Participants have the ability to list other profiles as “friends” or “contacts” or some equivalent. This generates a social network graph which may be directed (“attention network” type of social network where friendship does not have to be confirmed) or undirected (where the other person must accept friendship). This articulated social network is displayed on an individual’s profile for all other users to view. Each node contains a link to the profile of the other person so that individuals can traverse the network through friends of friends of friends….
3. Semi-persistent public comments. Participants can leave comments (or testimonials, guest book messages, etc.) on others’ profiles for everyone to see. These comments are semi-persistent in that they are not ephemeral but they may disappear over some period of time or upon removal. These comments are typically reverse-chronological in display. Because of these comments, profiles are a combination of an individual’s self-expression and what others say about that individual.

At the same time, it’s critical to point out what social network sites are most definitely NOT. They are NOT the same as all sites that support social networks or all sites that allow people to engage in social networking. Your mobile phone, your email, your instant message client… these all support the articulation of social networks (address books) but they do not let you publicly display them in relation to a profile for others to traverse. MUD s/MOOs, BBS es, chat-rooms, bulletin boards, mailing lists, MMORPGS… these all allow you to meet new people and make friends but they are not social network site.

While it’s great to talk about all of these things as part of a broader “social software” or “social media” phenomenon, there are also good reasons to have a label to address a subset of these sites that are permitting very particular practices. This allows academics, politicians, technologists, educators, and others discuss how structural shifts are prompting different kinds of behaviors. (What happens when people publicly articulate their relationships? How do these systems change the rules of virality because the network is visible? Etc.) Because of this, I don’t want the slippage to be too great because people are using terrible terms or because people want their site to fit into the category of what’s currently cool.

What’s the currency in this Social Media stuff?

The well springs of influence initially arises from a cohort that recognizes your name or handle. What we learn quickly is that who we are is, in the virtual world as in the physical world, the sum of whom or how many others describe us as being. You wonder from one site to the other displaying this feature or that, but never “you” – never how the selected interest operates in relationship with other interests to compose you: the art piece!

Oh my, but do you fear that if they saw the complete picture, would there be more or less creditability in your account. Are you Dorian Grey, Medusa, or some other monster? Would you rather leave this image to chance, never known or stood for, but only inferred? Or are you prepared to work with and incorporate your cohort in the establishment of a lasting reputation – this you can do in a combination of either hard tactics (coerce – bribe, tic-for-tac, market share dominance, … etc) or soft tactics (conversation – mutual interest, collaboration, friendship, …etc) or, as I think prudent some mixture between these two tactical options.

What is the definition of reputation according the Corporate Reputation Review?

• Derivative, iteratively between you and the organization you represent
• External reflection of an individual’s internal identity - itself the outcome of how others make sense of your activities from their worldview.
• Developed from prior resource allocations and histories and constitute mobility barriers that constrain both the individual’s own actions and rivals’ reactions
• Summarize assessments of past performance by diverse evaluators who assess individual’s ability and potential to satisfy diverse criteria.
• Derive from multiple but related images of the individual among all people with a stake, and inform about their overall attractiveness to employers, consumers, investors, and local communities. Simplifying the complex construct of performance helps observers deal with the complexity of the market place.

To summarize: reputation is embodiment of two fundamental dimensions of individual’s effectiveness: an appraisal of the individual’s economic performance, and an appraisal of individual’s success in fulfilling social responsibilities.

Standing for the Organization and It Standing for you

So your role as leader is entwined with the organization you lead. The way it behaves reflects on you and what you do is reflected on it. Now we can return to our earlier concern for organizations engaging in conversations with its customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. No longer random talk about matters of little consequences for the leader him or herself but immanent to the formation of their personal reputation.

The first issue for the firm is to establish a base case to satisfy – the traditional reputation notion states:

1. When the quality of a company’s products and services is not directly observable, high-quality producers are said to invest in reputation-building in order to signal their quality.

1. In contrast, low-quality producers avoid investing in reputation-building because they do not foresee repeat purchases.

This leads me to suggest that there is a threshold of value that has to be crossed before an organization leaves the view of low-quality to explore other options such co-value creation. Even after crossing this imaginary line what’s the point that a conversation should produce. It is said that when a product brand is tightly associated with the job for which is meant to be hired its called purpose brand.

In this sense the purpose brand directly relates the reputation of the firm and its leader. So the conversation, if it is an aspect of the marketing program, then also needs to be judge by this standard. The beauty of the internet is that metrics can be measured in real time. So if marketing, product development, or some other department needs to test this idea of that it can learn from the social media strategy what it needs to know.

In summation, the conversation that we begun with can be justified based in a leader’s reputation with the stakeholder’s to the firm and his or her own personal state of value as well as in the firm’s attempt to improve its products purposing process. In either case, the leader needs to be secure in the approach.

The next step in this process is to define the process that the leader can have confidence – that’s providence of a strategist, such as my self. If you have an interest in pursuing such a strategy conversation I invite you to send me an email and we can explore the opportunities for conversation that makes sense for you and your organization.

A conversation about leadership at the Harvard Business School centennial celebration with John Doerr - venture capitalist, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Jeffrey Immelt - chairman and CEO, General Electric, Anand Mahindra - vice-chairman and managing director, Mahindra & Mahindra, Meg Whitman - former CEO, Ebay and James Wolfensohn - former president of the World Bank

The conversation ranged from the global difficulty that American Leaders face - the nature of the education that leaders should accrue in order to face the situations that we face - the need for innovation to be supported by government and the reality that government will have to grow just to cope with the world’s financial situation.

Levy Rivers, the Principle of Phronêsis, works with organizational leaders to develop their authentic voice. Through this understanding together they establish organizational goals. His practical, results-driven approach, combined with his insightful feedback and straightforward communication, facilitates and enables rapid behavior change. Clients can rely on his deft questions to clarify what is important about and how to improve your reputation, as well as identifying actions that will generate growth and create structures to sustain the reputational frame chosen - resulting in metrics that will show up in how others see and respond to you as a leader.

As a result, his clients develop ways of leveraging their best opportunities, obtaining clarity concerning the unique processes that support their goals, and then getting into an orientation to achieve these goals. Levy brings sales and marketing acumen, personal insight, intuition, and a sense of humor to all of his relationships.

Prior to founding Phronêsis, Levy held several managerial positions at Xerox, United Methodist Pension Fund, and Wellington Avenue Local Development Organization (WALDO). As Branch Major for Xerox Levy directed sales, service and systems analysis personnel. For the United Methodist Pension Fund he held the position of Strategic Planner and Project Manager implementing cross functional organizational pension redesign and then assisted in the campaign to convince the denomination to adopt the suggested major reforms. As the Executive Director and Founder of WALDO, Levy work with community groups to assist them in organizational efforts to reclaim their communities from blight and despair.

An illusion is a distortion of the senses, revealing how the brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. While illusions distort reality, your reputation is the distortion that is shared and spread like a virus. The point of this site is to spot liight the strategies, tactics and tools to formulate, spread and maintain a reputation that makes a difference. The site is broken out by section by reverse date. We describe reputation by writing post based on the following principle information flows:

1. Leadership voice - the tone, character and content used to respond to its customers, organizational members, and others
2. Organizational listening - the methods by which voices of dissatisfaction are engaged directly by management rather related to product, operation or personage
3. Organizational stand - the orientation towards the co-creation of value between the firm and its customers.

The course of action suggested through this site is for the leader of the organization to establish a corporate “voice” (speaking, listening and stand) that represents the organization’s authenticity in a strategic conversation with stakeholders and civil society alike.

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Phronêsis names the characteristic of someone who knows what is due him and takes pride in clamming this due. Own It - is the acknowledgement of the pride taken in owning the corporate reputation that is the outcome of strategic conversational efforts. Phronêsis Inc. is a diversified strategic planning and organizational development consulting practice, established in 1986. Phronêsis, Inc. consist of a highly talent and diverse staff of professionals within a network of specialists who provide services to individuals, organizations (private, non-profit and governmental) on an as needed and as requested basis. Our success is bound to the concept from which we take our name

MSNBC reported this week that the Bush Administration will leave at least half of the $700 billion bailout fund for President Elect Obama’s people to deal with. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has stated that he intends to leave $350 billion of the funds to be distributed according to the wishes of the incoming Obama administration.

Remember when passing this act was so urgent they were freaking out about waiting ‘until Friday’ to pass it? Remember when it was so urgent John McCain suspended his campaign to get in on the conversation?

I guess it wasn’t all that urgent after all. Or was the mere idea of economic stability the urgent component?

(Of course, this was all leaked on the condition of anonymity as the sources were not authorized to disclose the information.)

How to Spend $700 Billion

It may not be that Paulson and company aren’t interested in spending the money. They just might not have time to get it all done by Inauguration Day. According to MSNBC the bailout money is available as follows:

• $250 billion available immediately
• $100 billion can be spent without congressional approval
• $350 billion can be spent only with Congressional approval

The $700 billion package, which was to be used to purchase troubled assets that banks were carrying on their books is now up for grabs. Paulson declared last week that in fact none of it would be used to buy so-called ‘toxic assets’. Instead, the Treasury Department is looking into investing in banks for partial ownership as well as possibly lending money to failing American auto makers.

Does it seem to anyone else like the Bush Administration is passing the buck - $350 billion of them?

Congratulations President Elect Obama! The mess now belongs to you.

The lesson for the rest of us? Beware of those who claim the sky is falling!

Image Credit: Ricardo Carreon, Flickr

This is a guest post by HR Wench’s Jenn Barnes.

Here’s a story, of a lovely lady:

I was in the process of being laid off, but my managers kept saying different things. So I brought a voice recorder to work (during the last days) and recorded all conversations just in case something legal came up. I managed to hide the recorder under my sweater during meetings and thought no one was the wiser. One day I went on a break and left the recorder at my desk. When I returned, all of the content was erased. Was it legal for me to record conversations (without the other parties knowing) in the first place? Was it illegal for whoever erased the tape to do that?

Rule numero uno about lay offs: There will be wars, rumors of wars, lies, damn lies and maybe even some statistics thrown in for good measure. It’s a lay off and crap is flying every which way.

Expect to hear several different versions of the same story. Think of it as FUBAR or even SNAFU. Sometimes executives don’t even know what is going on–don’t expect your manager to be in on the haps.

I’m not a lawyer (I don’t have the luxury of making decisions & recommendations in a vacuum) but I’d be willing to bet that in most states, recording a conversation without the other party’s knowledge is probably illegal. Further, what could possibly be gained from suing a company that is going through lay offs?

Sure, if there is blatant evidence available for a class action suit for age discrimination (i.e. only employees over 40 are laid off) or something similar, then go for the gusto. But if all different “kinds” of people from across the company are being laid off and it is based on performance, tenure, or last in/first out, then you are wasting time & aggravation by attempting to catch your soon to be ex employer in “something (il)legal”.

Bringing an audio recording device to work may even be against a company policy. Think about R&D departments, trade secrets, legal documents, the eleven secret herbs and spices in the Colonel’s chicken. Some companies are even banning cell phones with cameras from their property.

A few years back some guy who worked for Microsoft took a picture of some boxes at work & posted it on his blog. Guess what? He was almost instantaneously fired. If Bill Gates could have appeared before him in a puff of smoke to do the firing himself, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Companies are competing on a global basis. They take this stuff seriously, yo.

When you know you’re going to be laid off, you really only have two choices:
• Ride it out (if it’s worth your while - think retention bonus)
• Polish up your resume and start looking for a new job

Don’t try to make a lay off about YOU. It’s not about you. It’s about money, honey. Cut your losses and go find your own green…elsewhere.

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HR Wench Jenn Barnes has worked in Human Resources since 2001 and loves to hate it. Feel free to email your HR questions to: hrwench at gmail dot com. She’s one of three Partners at HRM Today, LLC. Check them out at http://hrmtoday.com.

The powers of Presidents are often over-exaggerated. They are not, as many people seem to believe, king of the country. Our 3 branch separation of powers places firm limits on what the President can unilaterally do or change. This means that even if a President wants to change something, he may not have the “political capital” - that is, the support of those in Congress - to get it done alone. Still, we rightly look to the President as the most powerful person on Earth and at least hope he will try to change things for the better. In that vein, here are 25 things that President-elect Barack Obama should at least try to change.

1. Get us out of Iraq

Though many Democrats have overstated the necessesity to end the Iraq war, it does need to end. What began as a noble quest to depose a terrible and potentially dangerous dictator has metastasized into an open-ended sinkhole of American lives, time, and money. Unlike past legitimate wars like World Wars 1 & 2 (or even Desert Storm) there appears to be no clear goal or end-game in Iraq. No one knows what we are waiting for to declare victory or defeat. President Obama should either define such a goal and promptly meet it, or begin withdrawing our troops. If Republican pundits want to call that “cutting and running”, so be it. As John T. Reed writes, “adults do not make life-and-death policy based on whether “one of the other kids” will call them chicken.

2. Jump start the economy following the financial meltdown

Obama spent the latter part of his campaign stating that the current 2008 financial meltdown is the worst economic problem since the Great Depression. Maybe. Regardless, the onus is clearly on President-elect Obama to help jump start the economy and rebuild consumer confidence. One of his plans for doing this is offering tax cuts for “working families”, which Obama defines as the 95% of Americans earning under $250,000 per year. His “Making Work Pay” tax credit would give $500 in tax relief to singles or $1,000 to married couples filing jointly. Most economists agree that tax cuts do indeed boost economic activity, so hopefully, these will become law.

3. Eliminate capital gains taxes (at least for small businesses)

Another specific proposal for jump starting the economy is eliminating capital gains taxes, which are levied on investment income. While Obama dislikes rich people and big businesses (and so will most likely not eliminate capital gains taxes for them), he has promised to eliminate capital gains taxes for “startup and small businesses to encourage innovation and job creation.” Singling out one economic class for a significant tax cut while still subjecting another class to it is seemingly a class warfare tactic to curry favor with voters, but any elimination of capital gains tax will do the economy good. Hopefully this will get done!

4. Ease the burden on low-income seniors

The last thing low-income seniors need in a time of economic turmoil is a crushing tax burden. Accordingly, Obama has pledged to eliminate all income taxation of seniors who earn less than $50,000 per year. According to his campaign website, this would end income tax for some 7 million senior citizens, good for an average savings of $1,400 per year, per senior. In all, the website claims, 27 million American seniors would not even need to file an income tax return.

5. Simplify the tax code for all Americans

Another major headache we all face is complying with the maddeningly complex tax code every April. With the government’s never-ending maze of tax credits, incentives, loopholes, deductions and exemptions, it’s almost impossible to do your taxes without specialized software or professional help. Obama, according to his campaign website, will end this difficulty by “ensuring that the IRS uses the information it already gets from banks and employers to give taxpayers the option of pre-filled tax forms to verify, sign and return.” Experts believe that this would save Americans some 200 million hours of tax preparation work and as much as $2 billion in fees each year.

6. Ease the transition of dislocated manufacturing and service workers

Globalization is an inescapable reality in twenty-first century America, and it’s not going away anytime soon. That said, the government arguably has a responsibility to assist workers in industries that are being outsourced. President-elect Obama has promised to help displaced workers adapt by creating “flexible education accounts” and offering retraining assistance. This would help the displaced workers develop new skills that will allow them to find new, similarly-compensated jobs and ease the turmoil from losing their prior job.

7. Incentivize companies to create American jobs

While outsourcing is not the paragon of evil, capitalist greed that leftists claim, it still doesn’t hurt to encourage companies to create more US jobs. One of Obama’s plans (which he already introduced legislation for as a Senator) is to offer tax credits to companies hat maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in America relative to those overseas, keep their corporate headquarters here, provide health insurance, help workers prepare for retirement, and otherwise support their American employees.

8. Encourage continued research, development, and innovation

The above mentioned challenges of globalization (as well as the energy crisis) demand that we continue innovating. In recognition of this, Obama has promised to make the Research and Development Tax Credit permanent. This will send a clear message to startups and existing businesses that the tax credit is there, can be depended on, and will not be phased out before they launch their next blockbuster product. Such strategies are exactly what are needed to encourage innovation, and this should, hopefully, pass through Congress with ease.

9. Invest in clean cars

One of Obama’s more ambitious promises was to put a million plug-in Hybrid cars (which can get up to 150MPG) on America’s roads by the year 2015. Additionally, Obama has pledged that these million cars will be produced here in America, which appears to be part of his campaign promise to create 5 million “green jobs” in the quest to lighten our load on the environment. By this point, few sane people doubt the importance of switching to more eco-friendly vehicles. This simply must get done.

10. Increase the percentage of renewable, domestically-generated energy

Sadly, we are still relying overwhelmingly on oil for our electric and heating needs. President-elect Obama plans on changing that, promising that 10 percent of our overall electricity comes from renewable sources by the year 2012, and upping that percentage to 25 by 2025. It is commonly though that wind and solar will accomplish this, but these are actually not as cost-effective yet as many people think. An excellent interim solution would be to use nuclear power, which France is happily and cheaply using to power their entire country.

11. Restore America’s tarnished reputation in the eyes of the world

No matter how you feel about the current President and his administration, it’s tough to deny that America has taken a beating in the public eye. Much of that can be blamed on the blunder of the Iraq war and how it was carried out, but that is over and done with. What President Obama must now do (and says he will do) is engage in diplomacy with world leaders about terrorist threats and other issues. We must re-establish the habit of talking before fighting.

12. Ensure that Iran does not develop or use a nuclear weapon

One of the major, specific goals of engaging in diplomacy must be ensuring that Iran does not become a threat to us. Whether Obama opts to use direct talks, multi-party talks, sanctions, or a combination of the above, the goal of pacifying Iran is an absolute must. Despite the public’s lack of support for President Bush or the Iraq war, Obama has an unquestionable mandate from the American people to ensure our safety in the face of that dangerous regime.

13. Offer aid and support to Africa

Recent years have shifted our attention to the suffering and atrocities taking place in Africa, from the genocides in Darfur to the widespread disease and poverty that characterizes the continent in general. Obama can and must make this a priority. Fortunately, he has pledged to double our annual investment in foreign aid from $25 billion to $50 billion by the end of his first time. He also wants to make the Millenium Development Goals (cutting extreme poverty in half by the year 2015) into American goals. Many Americans support this type of aid.

14. Promote free trade throughout the world

Economists rarely agree on anything, but virtually all of them agree that we are better off with 100% free trade with all the world’s nations. Buy whatever you want from whomever you want, in any country. Obama has made some promises toward achieving this vision, preferring to support “fair trade” of excluding countries who tarrif our goods and such. He should abandon fair trade and support completely free trade instead. This alone will do more to ease the financial burden on Americans than 100 government giveaway programs and tax credits combined. Let supply and demand function!

15. Help ensure that all Americans have health insurance

An overwhelming number of people in America support a universal healthcare system. While this is questionable from an economic standpoint, the government can certainly make it easier and cheaper to purchase health insurance. One way of doing that is offering a tax credit that lets Americans write off health expenses like doctor visits and prescription drugs. Obama has also proposed creating a second tier of the healthcare system that lets people stay in private healthcare plans or, optionally, purchase it at a lower subsidised cost via the government. Some combination of these plans will no doubt make health care more affordable.

16. Allow us to import safe generic drugs from other nations

It is currently quite difficult to import safe, generic drugs from developed nations like Canada. President-elect Obama has correctly pointed out that this is an outrage, something being done to protect American drug companies from foreign competition. Obama has sworn to make it easier for us to import generics from other nations, thereby lowering the prices we all pay for prescription drugs and lightening the healthcare burden ever more.

17. Improve the appalling state of healthcare our veterans receive

Most of us are, by now, familiar with the Walter Reed scandal of atrocious healthcare that our veterans were recieving at that facility. As Obama has noted, this is an outrage and a monstrous injustice to the brave men and women who have devoted their lives to the cause of American freedom. To fix the situation, Obama has committed to strengthening VA care and upping federal funding for the treatment and comfort of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. All but the most heartless would agree that this is urgently necessary.

18. Clean up the culture of corruption in Washington

A comical e-mail has made the rounds in recent years asking something along the lines of “there are 200+ men, many of whom are convicted felons, drug abusers, wife beaters, child porn addicts, and repeat criminals. Are we talking about a pro football team? No - we are talking about the US Congress!” While the e-mail was intended as as joke, it is anything but funny. Since Obama ran on a campaign of change and a pledge to clean up the culture of corruption in Washington, he must do just that. One excellent proposal of his is creating an Internet database of lobbyist reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings allowing us to keep tabs on our leaders.

19. End excessive corporate welfare

In light of the recent financial bailout, everyday Americans are up in arms about “corporate welfare”, the practice of giving huge, immensely profitable corporations tax breaks, interest-free loans, and outright cash gifts for nothing but their own private gain. Obama has stated that he will end or reduce this practice by exposing special tax breaks to greater scrutiny, questioning the value of putting taxpayer dollars to work for private gain and ensuring the government gets what it pays for from its “investments.”

20. Prevent the Constitution from being amended to ban gay marriage

The far right has long been itching to impose moral code into the Constitution. This is not the purpose of the Constitution and would distort its purpose in a fundamental way. Additionally, this would be an unconstitutional outrage if it came to pass. It would arguably violate the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause, not to mention the ever-important separation of Church and State. Ultimately, under our form of government, this is an issue that should be decided at the state level.

21. Invest In A New, Redundant and Robust Flex-Grid

One of the biggest issues with alternative energy is transmission. Getting energy to the places that need it most. It turns out that the best sources of alternative energy tend to be in places with lower population, not in high-population centers where the energy is needed most. It is time for a fundamental restructuring of our country’s energy grid to improve long-distance transmission and also enable a sophisticated, redundant and robust network of energy users and providers, similar in structure to today’s Internet. There is no reason that our regional energy grid’s should be so vulnerable. It is a national security issue.

22. Allow the free, uninterrupted progress of science and stem cell research

Another religious crusade that conservatives refuse to give up is trying to get stem cell research banned. While many simply oppose federal funding of stem cell, others oppose it alltogether and wish to ban the practice of it. Clearly this is unjust, and to his credit, Barack Obama realizes it. His plan supports not only allowing stem cell research to develop at a scientific (as opposed to a political) pace, but calls for increasing its funding. Since we are discussing technology with the potential to cure vast suffering, this is most admirable.

23. Restore the ideal of “government by the people, of the people, and for the people”

As a charismatic populist, Obama should encourage the return of the “government by the people, of the people, and for the people” ideal. One way he has suggested doing this is to hold “21st Century Fireside Chats” in which he and his cabinet will hold periodic, nationally-broadcasted town hall meetings to discuss issues, plans, and approaches to the challenges we all face. The chats would be broadcast both over television and high-speed broadband connections via the Web.

24. Allow citizens to hold government spending accountable

In 2008, there is no excuse for us not to be able to track government the way we track news, sports, and finance. To bring government into the twenty-first century, Obama should (and has promised to) create a “Google-like search engine to allow regular people to approximately track federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and loans online.” This comes at a perfect time, coming off an election where 90% of the public participated and interest in government seems to be enjoying a resurgence.

25. Strengthen the education system

Last but not least, Obama should focus on cleaning up the disastrous after-effects of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. The education system is in shambles, which cannot continue if America hopes to stay competitive in the global economy. Luckily, Obama has said that he will fix the school system, hire better teachers, pay them more money, and make it easier for students of all income levels to attend college if they want to.

This is a guest post by Paul Hebert, who blogs at Incentive Intelligence.

The market has been a seesaw lately. Wild swings up, wild swings down. No one needs to tell you that though. As an employee you’ve watched your 401K get queasy with the ups and downs and as a Manager, you’ve worried one day about laying off your staff and the next about your own job. No one has to tell anyone there is fear out there.

Fear

Fear is wonderful thing – especially when fighting for our lives. Without fear we’d never have run from predators on the Serengeti and evolved to run billion dollar businesses. 300,000 years ago, fear kept us from becoming extinct and today fear keeps us from letting things like the current market situation put us out of business. Fear propels us to take actions – sometimes actions we wouldn’t normally take – but actions that could save our lives or our businesses. But fear has a habit of growing and feeding on itself. Fear can cause you to continue to make decisions and take action long after the need for survival exists.

Quicksand

In the 2000 movie “The Replacements” with Keanu Reeves, “replacement” players come together to play the last five games of the season after a professional football players’ strike. During a team meeting the replacement coach played by Jack Warden asks about the new players fears. “A real man confronts his fears.” says Warden. After a few funny comments about spiders and insects, Keanu says that he’s afraid of quicksand. Quicksand he goes to explain, is the feeling that everything is going well and then one thing goes wrong, then another and then another. Pretty soon you feel as if nothing you can do will help get you out of the trouble you’re in. In other words – you’re in quicksand.

Business has the same issue today. As the markets swing wildly from one extreme to another companies and employees start to do things to remove the fear. Unfortunately, the market keeps bouncing around. You try something different in the hopes it will fix the problem. And then another thing, and then another. Pretty soon you’re in quicksand.

As the old Tarzan movies showed us, the first thing you need to do to get out of quicksand is make sure you fall into it close to a strong vine. Grab the vine and pull yourself up out of the quicksand. But to successfully extract yourself, make sure you don’t struggle too much. Take your time, slowly pull yourself up and you will find your footing.

So where is the vine your business can grab onto to pull itself out of the quicksand?

Company Culture

Too often when faced with a market like we have now, companies try anything to turn their business around and typically, more than one thing at a time. Each department, group, or division initiates programs and plans to regain some control. It’s like an explorer grabbing at anything within reach to pull themselves out of the quicksand, flailing around and sinking in deeper. Unfortunately, they’re missing the big fat vine within easy reach.

Your company’s culture is that vine. Each successful business has a company culture; the core tenants that guide the behavior of its employees. Unfortunately, most companies ignore that vine and grab at the short grass that seems to be within easy reach. Avoid this pitfall.

Take the time to calm down. Identify the three of four things that form the foundation of your company culture. It could be innovation, it could be customer service, it could be a specific process. Whatever the key pillars of your company culture are – that is where you need to focus your attention.

Begin by reinforcing those elements of your culture through company communications. Create ways to focus behavior on those things through reward and recognition. Stamp out those that would ignore those foundational blocks. Don’t let people “try anything” in the hopes it will work. Don’t fall for the quick fix or the principle du jour. Go back to the things that got you where you are.

Simple is as Simple Does

Focusing on the core beliefs and values of your organization will help you do three things:

1. Minimize second guessing. Second guessing is wasted effort. Efforts tied to core values will never be wrong. For every idea put on the table bounce it against your company values. If it is a fit, go with it. If not, bounce it out of the room.

2. Focus behavior. Most companies have only two or three core values. By focusing on these values it eliminates the noise and elevates the signal. It is much easier to make decisions when you only have to worry about a few things. Don’t overburden yourself or your employees with extraneous effort. Focus on the few and you’ll be able to eliminate the flailing around that pulls you deeper into the quicksand.

3. Reinforces the past and establishes the future. Using your core values as your guide during tough times reinforces those values with your employees. When employees feel that the core values they believed drove the company are used to weather a particularly bad time they know you’re serious about them. When employees see you’re serious, they respond in a like manner. You will not only see a payoff today as your business weathers the storm but it will pay dividends in the future as we inevitably go through another cycle. Your employees will remember.

Grab the Vine

It is said that adversity doesn’t create character it reveals it. Focusing on your core values and company culture reveals the character of your company. Grabbing at any solution to pump up sales and profits or cutting critical assets to keep down costs will be seen as abandoning your core business beliefs and your employees (and you consumers) will notice.

Grab the big vine right in front of you – pull yourself out slowly – trust the lifeline you’ve built over time will save you from the quicksand.

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Paul Hebert is Managing Director of i2i - An Influence Consultancy and blogs at Incentive Intelligence.

Switching jobs more frequently has become more accepted, but is it good for your career in the long term? Job hopping has benefits, especially in the short term, but the long term consequences could go either way.

How Often Do You Hop?

According to Krsitina Cowan at AOL News, whereas a generation ago, the average person changed jobs seven times over a lifetime, today it’s more likely to be 10 jobs. And in five different careers. Job hopping is becoming so commonplace among workers in their 20s and 30s that managers are starting to expect people to leave after two or three years. If you stick around longer that’s icing on the cake.

When to Hop

Hop For Money
You will almost always see a pay increase when you switch from one job to another. This is sort of a chicken and egg thing, though because more money is a huge reason people want to change jobs in the first place. Don’t we all know someone who left one company for a big raise and a promotion at another, only to return to the first company for at an even higher rate of pay and responsibility a few years later?

Hop for Networking
The more people you know the easier it will be successful, or perhaps even get that next position - once you’re ready to hop again.

Hop for Professional Development
A lot of people are simple maxed out in their current position or company. A new employer can teach workers new skills and build on those they already have, maximizing potential.

One Oklahoma City recruiter thinks job hopping will become less of an issue as the Baby Boomers begin to retire.

This will create a large need in the marketplace where skills and experience will outweigh company loyalty and dedication. This is also coupled with the fact that those in these new positions of power who will be making these hiring decisions are also those who come from the generation where job hopping is commonplace and more accepted.

When Not to Hop

Employees should never leave a job solely to get out of a situation they are unhappy with. Instead, as Your HR Guy suggests, they should bide their time while preparing for another, better career path.

The solution isn’t to job hop and hurt yourself. That is dumb. People hate biding time so instead of doing this, they switch jobs (into another crappy job where they’ll want to move on) and perpetuate the cycle. It sucks, I’ve seen people fall into it.

You also want to make sure you’ve exhausted all opportunities within a job and a company before setting your sights elsewhere. It may just be that you can hop to another role while sticking with the same firm a bit longer.

The truth is that others’ perceptions of you are going to have an effect on the potential of any new position. If you’re perceived as someone who won’t be around in 6 months or a year, what kind of opportunities do you think will come your way?

When were the best and worst times you hopped?

Image Credit

This is a guest post by Riveting Rosie Reilman.

What woman wouldn’t want to embrace the likes of Captain Jack Sparrow or young Will Turner? What man doesn’t secretly wish they were one of these two? But that’s not exactly what I’m talking about.

What I am talking about is putting an end to doing things the way we’ve always done them. How businesses worked in the past aren’t necessarily what is going to make them work now or in the future. Instead, businesses should take a look at piracy to fuel their company brands and increase consumer support.

I got this idea after reading A Pirate’s Dilemma by Matt Mason, which I started awhile back. The book goes through various creative movements that have all begun by one “pirate” ripping off someone else’s work, particularly large companies. The conclusion that Matt Mason draws is that the whole piracy movement fuels creativity and has great potential in solving major problems.

One example of this is the prescription drugs market. Western drug companies don’t sell AIDS drugs to the developing countries that make up 90% of the people suffering from AIDS because they can’t afford to pay the price. Because of profit, drug companies use patents to ensure that cheaper, generic drugs do not enter into these developing countries as competition. (Page 62 if you’d like to read more about this particular example.)

The problem is that many lives could be saved, but fear of losing profit stops these companies from saving those who need it most. Mason suggests companies need to harness this creativity and collaborate with these so-called pirates.

OK, so this is an extreme case but just think about it: What would happen if instead of simply worrying about dollar signs and only the bottom line? Too often companies forget what customers are saying, how they perceive the company’s brand and how the product or service can serve creative thinking and the consumer.

More and more these things are what ultimately will affect your bottom line. Companies are more concerned with manipulating these things on the outside, instead of making a change internally.

Consider this quote about pirates by Chris Brogan. While the post is analogous, the idea behind it supports this point:

We need to focus harder on the goals than we do the infrastructure, the excuses, the labels, and everything else that gets between us and a goal…

Throw away all the excuses. Here’s where we tie in the pirate ships. Pirates didn’t give a rat’s ass what their ship looked like, or even whether it was their ship in the first place. They took whatever floated and could carry cannons and men, and they lobbed themselves at targets. It was messy. It was ugly. It was warfare, but they weren’t ones to fret or struggle with their infrastructure. What defined a pirate ship? That the pirates were aboard it. That’s about it….

This isn’t about chaos. It’s not about throwing everything away. It’s about knowing which parts are vital to moving through the waters, versus the pieces we keep around because that’s what we always did.

Too often corporations are quick to shut down the Scrabulouses of the world just to say they have control over the ‘infrastructure’ as Brogan calls it, instead of harnessing an opportunity for consumers to interact with a brand.

There’s a fine line in having control over a brand and stifling consumers from an opportunity to interact with a brand. An opportunity that could inspire them to act…or to buy perhaps.

Doritos’ Crash the Superbowl ad contest was an example of this idea. Contestants were converted into consumers because they had to go out and purchase Doritos to create an ad. Not only did they utilized their own creativity, but also connected with other consumers through advertising. To do this Doritos had to allow the audience to hijack the Doritos brand.

What’s even more interesting according to USA Today, the ad ranked 4th most liked among the Superbowl advertisements.

In a world where the same old corporate websites and the same old advertising campaigns are just not cutting it anymore, companies are turning to social media to pick up sales from consumers. 75% of online shoppers choose retailers based on social media feedback. It’s the same reason that most social media campaigns fail: because businesses are trying to go about new things the same way they’ve been doing the old things.

Let’s face it, trust in a company–a product, a brand–comes from regular people, people like your consumers. So why not get your consumers to help build your brand? Start thinking outside the box, and embrace your inner pirate. (Or at least make friends with them.)

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Rosie Reilman writes for her blog riveting rosie on social media, recruiting, career issues and branding and is a contributor for Brazen Careerist. You can learn more about her here.

This is a guest post by Alexis Brown, who writes for ActionCOACH.

The American Dream: that life should be richer and fuller for all, according to their abilities. For some, that means turning their abilities into their own business.

With unemployment rates increasing, there’s a lot of talk about a recession being the right time to start a business. The allure is clear: be your own boss, no worries of job security, more free time, etc.

Of course, then come the warnings that 80% of small businesses fail in the first five years.

This fate is even more common during hard economic times, despite the fact that many small businesses are run by obviously highly motivated, smart and successful people (who were usually their former employers’ best and brightest before they struck out on their own).

In the book Billionaire in Training, author and multi-millionaire serial entrepreneur Brad Sugars explains this scenario by pointing out that employees break out of their box by turning their specialty into self-employment. The problem with that, Sugars says, is that they are seeking to prosper from knowing how to make what their ideal company will sell, instead of knowing how to sell what their company makes.

Knowing how to sell, build teams and create systems are prerequisite for anyone who wants to start a business. As simple as that sounds, the amount of self-employed people who have not mastered this is staggering.

As a result, would-be business owners literally ending a job instead of a business.

Obviously, all is not lost.

Many small to medium business owners are learning to seek help for the present, to stay afloat, and to get ahead for their futures. During harsh economic times such as this, the prospect of buying out competition is alluring for business owners. Many take the decision to invest in someone who can also help them strategize to establish more revenues to do just that.

As a result, business coaching is an industry that gets the opposite impact of an economic downturn. According to Entrepreneur magazine, business coaching is one of the top five fastest-growing industries – along with IT.

Business coaching is unlike life coaching or even business consulting. Unlike a consultant, who can be fresh out of college and seeking to use consulting to gain experience and contacts, a business coach should know how to make any business successful from training and experience.

What else might business owners look for in a coach?

1. Congruent commitment, to times and to the actions that are important for coaching

2. Accountability

2. Transference of knowledge - unlike in consulting, where they keep the knowledge and you keep paying them for it - your coach should teach you to spread your own wings

3. Able to be an unreasonable friend

5. Frequent calls and check-ins

Most importantly, a business coach helps entrepreneurs work on, instead of just in, their businesses so they can have more time and lives of more freedom. You can learn more from the free iTunes podcast on the Six Steps to Success, How to Find Opportunity in a Crisis, Using Social Media to Build Your Business and many more … http://www.itunes.com/podcast?id=286221031

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Alexis Brown writes about social media strategies for business owners at ActionCOACH.

This is a guest post by Randy Marshall, a managing director at Protiviti Inc.

In the coming weeks, months and years, we will continue to see regulators make a variety of moves – both to deal with the current financial crisis and to prevent such disruptions in the future. In fact, regulators have already begun to and are likely to consider a wide range of issues including the industry’s operating model, Basel II capital and leverage requirements, liquidity management, stress testing, executive compensation, and the role of rating agencies.

However, even as regulators work out the details, there are things companies should be doing to address current challenges and to prepare for and withstand future market disruptions more effectively. Of course, while not every recommended activity applies to companies in every industry, the reality is that most, if not all, segments of the economy are being impacted by this crisis. Companies in all sectors should, at a minimum, be assessing their cash flow needs in light of the current credit markets and be revisiting their strategic and operating plans to determine what adjustments may be necessary to deal with existing conditions.

So what can companies do during this challenging economic time?

* Undertake a detailed review of the organization’s financial condition, with a focus on asset quality, liquidity, capital strength and financing alternatives

* Re-examine and challenge business and operating models in light of recent events and their expected impact on the future structure of the industry, its regulation and the wider economy.

* Understand and evaluate the options available under various government programs and private sector alternatives and determine the viability of such options.

* Review risk governance arrangements; scope and adequacy of risk identification, assessment and mitigation; and risk capabilities within the business and the boardroom.

* Introduce more extreme scenarios into stress testing of financial models, including resulting credit and market risk exposures, so that management and regulators understand where the breakeven points are on solvency, liquidity and capital adequacy, and also understand the key drivers or causes to those breakeven points.

* Undertake a review of the organization’s current risk management practices and opportunities for enhancing them based on the outlook of the operating environment over the next several years.

* Validate with the board of directors the risk/reward trade-off the organization has accepted and understand how it will be affected by different market scenarios.

* Take action to mitigate unacceptable financial risk.

* Review the structure of remuneration of directors and senior personnel in light of regulatory expectations, good practice indications and recommendations issued.

* Assess financing and capital adequacy and options for raising additional capital, if necessary.

* Explore strategic alternatives, including options for mergers, acquisitions and restructuring.

* Review strategic and operating plans and ensure they address all risks and incorporate the lessons learned (and that will continue to be learned) from the current crisis.

Taking the steps to really explore and test the many facets of your company will give you a better understanding of where your strengths and weakness lie and which of them may make you vulnerable to future market volatility. It’s a large undertaking, but one that’s well worth the time and labor expended. For more information about the global financial crisis, visit: http://www.protiviti.com/economiccrisis/

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Randy Marshall is a managing director and leader of the U.S. financial services practice at Protiviti Inc., a global business consulting and internal audit firm.

I’ve blogged about some interesting Twine stats that show positive user engagement trends, that beat several leading sites — here on my Public Twine (which is where I actually do most of my blogging…

Each morning I awake trapped in a struggle between disappointment and joy. This day I am tempted into panic by “politics of gender” – thinking my follow citizens should see as I do the cynical ploy of McCain’s VP choice - calmness is the first step towards a solution for moving with purpose pass the torment of the struggle. This daily bout is all the more haunting especially to those of us with happiness addictions – wanting our world to be just, respectful and bright. Providence hides from us because our will would have it no other way. All be it so beautiful if the last bout would not be forgotten in sleep. It is like that struggle though won yesterday was won by someone else for that joy has been lost to the new day. So hidden it is hard to understand how delicate are the influences emanating from our own mind. The world has not changed. The facts of my life have not changed. Only the struggle is again making the question of my life’s situation anew in torment. What is so difficult? Ask the spirit that would bare much – success, pleasure, status, and my addictions with each.

What is most difficult is I dare to take all things as my will and exult in my strength and deny myself the calmness of Thy Grace. There are great changes that come about in the darkest hours where there is, despite my claims, no memory of hope and the encircling gloom is terrifying to the heart. It is this difficulty where the tussle takes me. Calmness in the midst of chaos, serenity in the midst of feverish activity is on one side. On the other is my ego that takes pride in climbing high mountains to tempt the tempter, feeding on the acorns and grass of knowledge and for the sake of glory suffering a hunger in my soul with a glint of haughtiness. There must be a secret that all commanders know, the secret revealed in crisis, that the soul that is calm with controlled emotion is performing an act of faith – the battle continues.

To encounter these forces I must remember my way back into the very center of my being, to that eternal fountain of replenishment. For it is only there that my happiness addiction can be comforted. Otherwise I block, frustrate, and delay, giving over to a frantic spirit and a mind glutted with panic – my will can not feed my heart. My heart yearns for hope – the audacity of believe in hopes lasting glory. Some sign that work does have its rewards. This is also only a gloss contradicting Grace. Grace is the reward of not forgetting the reward you can not earn. Grace is the battle that need not be fought for because it has been secured by the Innocence of the One. The bind that is again straining in my heart is only the physical conformation that I have failed – my will, ego, intellect have all failed and my body knows it all to well.

It is a hard lesson; perhaps at sixty two it should have gotten easier – NO – Plato lies – it is never easy.

CONSIDER: You have a vision, however vague, of your own sense of godhood. You are bewildered, tired, and impatient – demanding of yourself to be more and go faster – yet human. You are limited to only night quakes or glimpses far between lights of brilliance as you conceive of yourself. The godhood you conceive is it demon or worse – how dare god permit evil. Do you inspire life by pushing all that would make you human to the side or does it slice at your heart with paper and pins so that recovery is sure but the pain is remembered like echoes? What is a day in the life of this god you would be? In this ongoing struggle, you as god need yet a score keeper to balance the time lost without calmness - without pain. In the countless ups and downs of scoreless weeks, your godhood is tested – time can it be stopped – a permanent sleep. Or is it that your godhood is rehearsing some magic spiral in life’s weaves and bends, yea, even as a cloth called time? The struggle persists!! In the deep, inner quietness of your spirit the persistence is that of all avatars, time does stand still—before and after is lost in NOW; there is no movement, no action, even the outer edges of awareness blend into the surrounding calm. Another day has yet been won.

It is this momentary calmness that now you must carry with you into the maelstrom of your hectic days and hunger. Let it be remembered that Grace is your nourishing companion. It is your innocence and even more importantly your forgetting, a new beginning. Time for life!

Networking–is-a-Waste-of-Time! An on going and persistent complaint - ever startling (don’t you think) - I’ve read it - gleaned it from different comments from business men and woman I know - blog post, social networking Q & As, or email “shout” outs – I’ve heard it disparaging - both the virtual as well as the person to person form.

This post is a preliminary look at the role of leadership in the context of social networking and then an analysis of some of conditions which I hope will give some guidance to others that have found themselves wondering about some of these same issues.

Some time ago I published an article on the Sarbanes Oxley Journal which focused on how the board of directors which are governed by S-OX should approach Section 406 of the law and several specific US Supreme Court decisions implementing its response through the leadership of the organization.

This post is both an application of the same logic, as it relates, to social networking and the internal corporate culture that needs to be reinforced to contribute to meeting the demands of S-OX. Because this is a blog post and not an opinion for any specific firm please – seek proper advice if you are in need of detailed analysis.

With that cautionary statement in place what is most important about this subject I simply say up front – have a plan – think your presence out - build it before you need it!!

What is S-OX about?

Codes of conduct have become the norm for public companies – those are the vehicles that for the most part restrict employees networking behavior. So what we seek generally is to reform such pursuant to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act which sets the tone for corporate behavior for the small 2 person firm all the through most prestigious of global organizations. Those directly governed public companies must disclose whether or not they have a code of ethics for their principal executive, financial, and accounting officers and must disclose amendments and waivers to this code of ethics on a Form 8-K or on their websites.

Similarly, the NYSE and NASDAQ listing standards require prompt disclosure of waivers of the code of conduct for any director or executive officer. Organizations that rate corporate governance inquire if one exists. Most companies view the code of conduct as an important component of the internal control system. However, simply having one is not enough. A code of conduct is an integral part of an effective compliance and ethics program, but it is not the only part. Nor is the only answer to speaking – DO NOT!

Despite the Supreme Court ruling that compliance programs under the federal sentencing guidelines are only “advisory”, the crux of the new rules established by the SEC still require “standards of conduct and internal control systems that are reasonably capable of reducing the likelihood of violations of law.”

For the purpose of this post, we have assumed the position that cultural changes produce effective results for eliminating the behavior sighted in the violation(s). The specific areas that matter most to us are those that tend to impact an organization’s “voice”. The information flows to the public effect its “reputation”. In this context, voice is the method by which the firm’s customers or organizational members express their dissatisfaction directly to management, to some other authority to which management is subordinated, or through general protest addressed to anyone who cares to listen.

What this means is that the leader has the responsibility to define the organizational reality:

• The leader must manage and measure the organization’s meta culture,
• The leader’s team necessarily operates within a context of ambiguity,
• The leader must maintain a balance between transformation and direction, The leader must focus on the dynamics of cultural accountability,
• The leader and the team must come to understand the true nature of power.
• These principles are then extended? By weaving together additional structural elements to create an action-based plan for implementing a compliance strategy grounded in cultural transformation throughout the organization in all it contacts with the world

Meta Culture

As more work has been developed around the notion of social network relations —we see a special synergism taking shape. We recognize that boards need to see both within and beyond the organization to explain the interconnectedness that creates the ultimate goal of compliance, as well as market intelligence. Setting out to transform the culture of an organization begins by creating a means to understand the organization and its compliance culture today. More specifically:

• What does it recognize?
• How does it socialize as to its values?
• In what ways does it reinforce its preferred behavior?
• How the Board learn what others see and say about its values?

Depending on the organizational complexity, an initial discovery phase, could include, assess and documentation of current cultural practices. Primary research includes: interviews with key leaders, middle managers and staff; structured interviews or focus groups with key constituencies; and direct observation of organizational events and meetings. Secondary research includes: detailed review of internal an external websites and publications, secondary source analysis and other anecdotal evidence based upon public commentary. A written summary and follow-up conversation provide the means for validating and extending the discover results.

Context of Ambiguity

The second stage of implementing this compliance based culture and social networking strategic platform is to create a core team (staffing can be as small as one, the leader him or herself up to a full cross organizational team) that will be dedicated to the implementation of the change. The team will have to draw from the leader the capacity to engage in building and being sustained within a context of ambiguity. More specifically, they have to operate out of consistent knowledge that they are simply seeding the change and can not control the result. Before we discuss the details of the team’s work, we need to develop a deeper understanding of the type of experience team members will encounter as a means to begin imagining its potential membership.

The ambiguity the team will experience is, in our model, play (a process of discovery and creativity) within a set of context conditions:

• A context of the organizational history (what has happened)
• A context of expressed intentions (unclear preferences-what do I want)
• A context of technology (unclear means-ends relations)
• And a context of organization (fluid participation.)

The team engages in building and executing the overall transformation plan first by providing their expert experience of existing processes and practices as well as the cultural contexts described above. Working with Phronêsis they will develop and then execute a set of actions that will initiate and then sustain shifts in the Meta culture of the organization. The point that needs rising is the immanence of demonstration the team must continually produce. They have to be in pursuit results confirmed by board. Throughout its work the team will constantly return to the plan as a means of refining and extending it as dynamic shifts occur.

Cultural Accountability

The interconnectedness of organizational culture to social media requires leader’s voice have more than personal traits such as intelligence, honesty, forcefulness, craftiness and yes, even charisma and vision— it requires a leader to be able to demonstrate authenticity. It therefore becomes important to understand why individuals pay attention to some stimuli at the expense of others. It is not a matter of understanding or changing the rules. Specifically, leaders must gain new insight into their own nature and understanding of what is possible for themselves as individuals, for their organization, and ultimately for the constituencies their organization impacts and serves.

Authentic leadership calls for individuals to act according to a goal-based logic of consequence. They need to ask who am I being, what are my preferences, and what are my possibilities? Authenticity disabuses the rule-bound logic of “appropriateness”. Individuals no longer simply chooses to act in a way that complies with the rules and laws of the country, organization, or culture based upon what is appropriate, but rather focuses on a more profound set of tests. The Authentic Leader asks questions as to what kind of situation is this. Who am I being? (What is my identity?), who are we? (What is our identity?), and what possibility for me/us is there here?

Education, trust, and experimentation are the basis for gaining access to this new way of being accountable within transformed culture. Typically, the organization’s leader(s), the implementation team, and in some cases some or all of the organization will participate in a series of learning events designed to open up their ability to access the profound sense of action that results from a transformed view of their ability to change what is possible for themselves and their organization.

Balancing Transformation and Direction

Interconnectedness also means finding the right balance between leader as director and leader as transformer — the blending of two different kinds of leadership. The Director is that person who is able to hold a vision, to articulate it clearly and to communicate it with passion and charisma in order to produce measurable results. He is also a person whose actions embody certain values that serve as a standard for others to strive for. Authentic leadership consists in facilitating the emergence of novelty, unique ideas, and new insights.

This means creating conditions, rather than giving direction, and using the power of authority to empower others to produce results. Both kinds of leadership have to do with creativity. Being a leader means creating

• Vision, - going where nobody has gone before
• Community - create something new, and
• Creativity – emergence of daring

Balanced leadership is the ability to hold a clear vision and execute behavior that produces near-ideal form, or state of affairs, in which individuals freely create the means and ends necessary to achieve a vital and evolving vision for the future.

Understanding and modeling the types of behaviors necessary to maintain an effective balance between direction and transformation is a fundamental requirement for successfully implementing an effective compliance strategy. Specially tailored executive coaching sessions and plans provide regular training and feedback to key leaders within the organization. With effective links to the leader’s development of cultural accountability the coaching provides an unobtrusive but strategic means of enabling those who most visibly impact the Meta culture of the organization.

The True Nature of Power

Ultimately the objective of any social media compliance strategy that proposes to shift the organization’s culture has to analyze, understand, and utilize a certain form of knowledge regarding the organization’s culture, not in terms of repression or law, but in terms of a space for doing—a powerful space. The objective of understanding this form of power is to better understand the terrain on which the conflict of negotiations between the organization and its staff, as well as forces met in the various networks of significance where reputation, take place.

Michel Foucault defines power “as the multiplicity of force relations that shape the processes which, through ceaseless struggles and confrontations, transforms, strengthens, or reverses human tensions…”. He goes on to say, “Power is everywhere; not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere.” We would go so far as to equate power to politics and say as Foucault does “that politics is war pursued by other means”. We say this while still striving to the stratagem of Sun Tzu, “In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good.”

Careful analysis of existing polices, procedures, processes, and organizational structures provide the foundation for understanding the existing framework within which the power relations of the organization occur. Further review of the multi-cultural environment and composition of the organization can also provide additional clues to less obvious but important cultural dynamics that further complicate the web of power relations currently at work within the organization. Based upon the analysis specific strategies and actions can be incorporated into the compliance strategy and the leader’s and team’s plans that can take advantage of or impact these relations as appropriate to achieve the desired change.

Weaving Action into Results

With all this said, what is the board’s strategy for behavior shifting? Given our picture of a compliance team’s context of ambiguity and the demand for a leader to balance transformation and direction in order to produce a platform of operations within specific social networks, we view and understand culture to be composed of the complex and interrelated systems of power within an organization.

We approach leadership and authenticity as means to influence these systems in a way that shifts culture over time by creating an opening for new and evolved relations and expectations to be acquired and utilized by individuals throughout the organization. Buttressing the public voice of an organization through building and ensuring transparency and compliance must ultimately be accomplished through transformed structures of power and new means to engage all the mechanisms of power in a focus on the actions and oversight realized at the level of individual workers both within and outside the organization. The heart of matter is engagement and criticism. Leading becomes an act of creation and empowerment of a new focus on that which enhances reputation and transparency rather than the forceful imposition of a new set of corporate laws.

Phronêsis understands complex systems and works with leaders to design an overall strategy that identifies specific objectives provides a voice of power and trust through tactics that can impact the cultural context in ways that leverage, engage and utilize the existing social fabric and power dynamics. We provide training, coaching, and organization design practices combined with comprehensive planning and implementation capabilities that support the leader, the team, and the people of the organization in creating real and lasting changes in the compliance culture of the business.