Friday
Oct152010
Give your best percent
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 9:00AM
If you are asked to do multiple tasks - your performance will be the average of your capacity over those tasks. If you only do the few things you are best at, your performance improves incredibly. This is the effect of crowd-sourcing.
Photo by Orin Zebest Flickr CC
Twitter
One way of looking at Twitter is as a super-email. One tweet and immediately you reach many who both help and critique, it works both ways, as Jeanne Meister talks about at the Harvard Business Review guest blog.
According to the article at HBR, Best Buy used Twitter to ask for help in defining a work description for a management position. A description that appealed to customers but looked nothing like something the HR department of a major corporation would have achieved:
Let us say that you have a restaurant and like to improve. The typical way is that you use your own judgement and try to figure out what you can do, maybe look around at other restaurants in the area, and do some changes that will make you look more like the others. Actually, all businesses have the tendency to become more and more like the competition over time... which makes it much harder for customers to choose where to go, since you lose your competitive edge - and your fans.
The crowdsourcing way is to Twitter your fans. It is a little like setting up a sign outside the shop, describing the challenge. I'm an engineer, when I walk past your sign I would suggest things about organization, the workflow etc. My wife is a designer, she would suggest things close to her heart, things like colors, ergonomics, friendliness. If a journalist walked by, possibly he would suggest how to get your message out. Maybe you have a friend who is a vegetarian and would suggest new menu items.
The important thing is that we would all volunteer things in areas where we are best. We would respond, not with the average of our total capacities but with our "edge", things where we are engaged, things closest to our hearts.
You might answer that crowdsourcing takes time, and that it is faster the old way. And I would agree that the decision making process is faster, and add that you would get lost much faster to. It's a bit like golf, the longer you drive the ball, the further out in the rough you get. Better to stay on the course, it is easier and faster.
My appeal here is to strive for continuous improvement of all business processes, and to engage more than those involved on a daily basis with the process at hand. Who says that the people in the office don't have brilliant insights on how to improve sales pitches, or machine maintenance?
What is your thoughts on these steps towards radical openness? Do you have any experiences to share?
Photo by Orin Zebest Flickr CCOne way of looking at Twitter is as a super-email. One tweet and immediately you reach many who both help and critique, it works both ways, as Jeanne Meister talks about at the Harvard Business Review guest blog.
According to the article at HBR, Best Buy used Twitter to ask for help in defining a work description for a management position. A description that appealed to customers but looked nothing like something the HR department of a major corporation would have achieved:
For instance, the revamped job description included a requirement that the Senior Manager "understand the following acronyms: RSS, SEM, SEO, PPC, CPM, CPC, LOL, IMHO, WTF, API, B2C, B2B, CTR, IM, PV, RON, WWW, TTYL, LMAO, ROTFLMAO, WYSIWYG and, most importantly, RTFM."
Crowdsource your challenges
Let us say that you have a restaurant and like to improve. The typical way is that you use your own judgement and try to figure out what you can do, maybe look around at other restaurants in the area, and do some changes that will make you look more like the others. Actually, all businesses have the tendency to become more and more like the competition over time... which makes it much harder for customers to choose where to go, since you lose your competitive edge - and your fans.
The crowdsourcing way is to Twitter your fans. It is a little like setting up a sign outside the shop, describing the challenge. I'm an engineer, when I walk past your sign I would suggest things about organization, the workflow etc. My wife is a designer, she would suggest things close to her heart, things like colors, ergonomics, friendliness. If a journalist walked by, possibly he would suggest how to get your message out. Maybe you have a friend who is a vegetarian and would suggest new menu items.
The important thing is that we would all volunteer things in areas where we are best. We would respond, not with the average of our total capacities but with our "edge", things where we are engaged, things closest to our hearts.
Faster positive results
You might answer that crowdsourcing takes time, and that it is faster the old way. And I would agree that the decision making process is faster, and add that you would get lost much faster to. It's a bit like golf, the longer you drive the ball, the further out in the rough you get. Better to stay on the course, it is easier and faster.
My appeal here is to strive for continuous improvement of all business processes, and to engage more than those involved on a daily basis with the process at hand. Who says that the people in the office don't have brilliant insights on how to improve sales pitches, or machine maintenance?
What is your thoughts on these steps towards radical openness? Do you have any experiences to share?
Reader Comments