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The Rules of the Game Change Everyday – If you are playing the game by the rules of yesterday it is clear you will not win the game of tomorrow. YOU MUST CHANGE. YOU MUST FORCE CHANGE IN YOUR ORGANIZATION. Past success is in no way an indicator of future performance.

Let them write columns

The digitally illiterate Yes, there are people who don’t have access to the Internet and there are people who don’t know how to use it or use it effectively.   But I’d argue that these people won’t be increasingly disenfranchised because much of the real digital engagement is an as well as and not instead of .  However, there will be a real and widening gap between those who weren’t already connected in and those who have new channels of access via the Internet. Of course, as public servants we must find ways to help people get engaged and use new and existing paths to empowerment.   We will never reach full success, and we must never stop trying.  But whatever we do, we must not ignore tools because some people don’t have them yet.  And we definitely must not ignore those citizens who are already gathered online and ready and willing to engage, critique, join-in and collaborate on the services and issues that matter to them.

The digitally empowered Last night,  James Cousins, a councillor, was Tweeting from a Wandsworth council meeting.  That’s where I live.   I thought it was kinda cool to get a glimpse, 140 characters at a time, of what was being discussed about my local area.  It’s certainly more than I’ve ever had before.  I’ve never attended a local council meeting even though it’s a public meeting.

Social Change and the Connected Age

Connectedness does not come from technology but is facilitated and strengthened by it. The greatest challenge for nonprofit organizations and their leaders in the connected age is recognizing that using social-media tools is easy compared with adopting a new mindset for social change. Today, nonprofit groups are part of a larger network or ecosystem of people, organizations, resources, and information. Relying on old-fashioned, top-down management approaches for setting activist agendas and designing fund-raising and volunteering efforts will lead inevitably to disappointing results. Power is shifting from institutions to individuals throughout society. We have seen what happens when people can barter and sell goods without a middleperson on eBay, and when we can watch what we want, when we want, through YouTube. The same sorts of shifts are happening quietly in the nonprofit world. Anyone can create and post a video of what they think their Congressional representatives do all day as part of the "Congress in :30 Secs" campaign organized by the Sunlight Foundation. Volunteers can document the connections between campaign contributions and legislation as part of the Genocide Intervention Network. Donors can pick a school and a specific project to support as part of the DonorsChoose Web site. Successful connected-age organizations are those that facilitate broadly representative networks of social activists — not necessarily organizations with the biggest membership lists or the most money in their coffers. These days, young people, in particular, are not likely to join behemoth membership organizations. Instead, they go online to express their views and instantly connect with individuals and communities interested in their issues and concerns. They also self-organize for social action as so many did in joining the immigration marches last spring.

"In this scrambled up world of work there are no rules and few walls. And that means the key to business success is totally up for negotiation. It’s time to rethink the best skills to have in any executive or entrepreneur’s toolbox. Forget an MBA from a flash business school, a talent for spreadsheets, or an aptitude for social networking. Think Juggle!"

Stories, Storytelling, Story-Selling in Business

"Good stories fascinate us all. They always have. They always will. At this moment in our nation’s history, we are seeing two epic stories evolving—in terms of our new President, and in the state of our economy. The story of Obama many believe is epic, and certainly the story of our nation’s recession and economic downfall is also a burgeoning epic tale. Stories move societies forward. They inspire, engage and initiate change through their telling and re-telling. Basically, there are two types of stories: Truth Stories and True Stories."

“Learning Agility, which has four dimensions—Mental Agility, People Agility, Results Agility and Change Agility—is a key to unlocking our change proficiency. In fact, research studies by CCL, Mike Lombardo of Lominger, Robert Sternberg and his colleagues at Yale University, and Daniel Goleman point to Learning Agility as more predictive of long-term potential than raw IQ. Learning Agility is a complex set of skills that allows us to learn something in one situation and apply it in a completely different situation. It is about gathering patterns from one context and using those patterns in a completely new context so that we can make sense and success out of something we have never seen or done before.

The single most important building block of successful relationships at work (and at home and play) is trust. Without trust, relationships are put in jeopardy and people disengage, pull back, and resist connecting. Without trust, people feel unsafe - physically, emotionally, mentally, or psychologically.

In other words, mindset and attitude count.

How Social Networks are Disrupting Everything you Know About Business