networking; past present and future; and the importance of personality

http://www.edmitchell.co.uk

Hello

2000…..………2002…………..2004……………..2006……..…..2007…… 2008..

I am a professional network and community advisor and multi-domain ‘facilitator’. In other words, I help groups of people do the things that they want and/or need to do.


Here’s the plan

• Networking: why, what• Quick timeline: past, present• Present: humans: social everything?• Quick diversion via KnowledgeBoard: did and learnt• The four Ps• Humans and personalities• Not so implicit messages in technology• Quick timeline: future• Tools to make it better• Future


Why do we network?

• Learn something new• Learn more about something they know• Share stuff about what they know• Give something back to the organisation• Build their status in a community• Meet like-minded people• Help to make positive change• Organise things:

• e.g. global teams• Local groups• Event teams

From work with VSO, Feb 2008


So networks need to…

• Offer us learning opportunities• Help us give something back• Respect our time• Provide us with interesting people to meet• Help us make the connections we want to make• Link us to the rights organisations effectively• Respect our personalities

• Provide the managers with a suitable spaceto do all the above


What do we think networking is?

And a definition from the facilitator

Expanding one's social network or sphere of influence by initiating mutually advantageous new relationships with people.

One’s ability to make contact with others in obtaining research, information, and services about career fields, organizations, or job industries in order to enhance career goals. (Tamara Gittelson)

From a network networking event, London VoluntaryServices Council, Cascade meeting, 14/02/08


A quick timeline

Past Present Future


A quick timeline: past

Primary networks: Organisations: producers of stuffand networking

Networking: • Style: Closed• Behaviour: Possessive• Value: Hidden• Technology: Book, Phone• Conferences

Past


A quick timeline: present



Primary networks:Emergence of external networks:Consultants with big org experienceConsultants with no big org experienceSocial enterprises with open networksCommunities/Crowdsourcing

Networking: • Style: Wide open• Behaviour: Flaunting it• Value: Prominent• Technology: Social networking• UnConferences and blended facilitation

Past Present Future


Present: humans: social everything?

Networking: • Style: Wide open• Behaviour: Flaunting it• Value: Prominent• Technology: Social networking• UnConferences and blended facilitation

ParticipatoryCollaborativeCo-creationKnowledge networkingEngagementOpen SpaceSocial this that and the other… Un-everything

From Media Sandbox community launch, Bristol, 2007



What happened to just doing a good job?



ParticipatoryCollaborativeCo-creationKnowledge networkingSpeed networkingOpen SpaceSocial this that and the other… Un-everythingNetwork expertsKnow everyone…



EmotionalParticularPeculiarDifferentSpiritual Individual ShyTemperamentalHappy SadContextual…?

“…We judge ourselves by what we think we can do. Others judge us by what we have done…(Australian Trucker mag my friend Tim found for me)


What did we do on KnowledgeBoard?

Facilities to attract:Published contentCommentingQ & AConversationsFacilitated environment

Publishing articles and encouraging discussionHosting interest groups and encouraging discussionSending newsletters and encouraging discussionMeasuring … the discussion

Social structures to build trust:Co-creation of shared spaceEvents (physical and virtual)

Realise-able results from input… Touch points along the relationship

Workshops at conferences and our own conferences3 x Community booksResearch partnerships and papers


One thing learnt from KnowledgeBoard

Good lord we’re all different…Not everyone wants to discuss stuff publicly..What does that mean?For whom? How can we plan for that in the future? How can we measure that?


The four Ps

Public

Personal

Private

Political


Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality questionnaire designed to identify certain psychological differences according to the typological theories of Carl Gustav Jung as published in his 1921 book Psychological Types…

While many academic psychologists have criticized the indicator in research literature, claiming that it "lacks convincing validity data… proponents and sellers of the test cite unblinded anecdotal predictions of individual behavior…

In a similar way to left- or right-handedness, the principle is that individuals also find certain ways of thinking and acting easier than others. The MBTI endeavours to sort some of these psychological opposites into four opposite pairs, or dichotomies, with a resulting 16 possible combinations. None of these combinations is 'better' or 'worse',…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator

Humans and personalities


Humans and personalities: Ed is ENTP

• I’m bound to get on someone’s nerves and vice versa• Some networks may be entirely un-suited to me • Couldn’t networks and the tools be suited to us as individuals? • Will we see the same things in different networks? • What is the balance of people types in networks? • Should I behave in the way you think I should? • But does that mean you have to behave in the way I think you should?


Not so implicit messages in technology


Personalities being sold to

In response to the intel ad:

“More Computing Power Means More You”

“…Would I really want to have be more me? A glance at my personality spectrum reveals swathes of my selfhood where there’s already quite enough, thank you – and some aspects, such as the egotism, suspicion, self-pity, pointless regret and maundering envy, that might do with toning down. Would anyone else want to have more me? I suspect my wife would declare ‘Enough husband’…”(Enough, John Naish)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enough-John-Naish/dp/0340935901/


Not so implicit messages in technology


Not so implicit messages in technology…

http://thayer18.livejournal.com/10610.html

“…Twitter is not a popularity contest. Step away from your ego...

Last night I cut down the amount of people I follow. I do this about once a month, after adding people throughout the month. It's something I've always done, and interestingly, every time I do it - it's something that has always caused some grumpiness from a few of those who I stop following…

…If I follow over 80, in particular when I get close to 100, I find it very hard to track my real life close friends - you know, the ones I know personally, go drinking with etc. So I chop back a bit…”


And a few recent news items…


A quick timeline: future



Primary networks:Emergence of external networksConsultants with big org experienceConsultants with no big org experienceSocial enterprises with open networksCommunities/Crowdsourcing

Networking: • Style: Wide open• Behaviour: Flaunting it• Value: Prominent• Technology: Social networking• UnConferences

Past Present Future

Networking: • Style: …• Behaviour:…• Value: …• Technology:…

Primary networks:Rainforest effect:Open Innovation networksOrganisations’ recognitionCollaboration/competitionFormal/informalInternal/external


And a glimpse into the future…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enough-John-Naish/dp/0340935901/

http://www.wethinkthebook.net/home.aspx


Tools: Organisational recognition

http://emekaeme.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/visions-of-km-2-another-draft-of-the-paper/


Tools: Engagement planning

Berry, J, from work on The Open Innovation Exchange, 2007http://www.innovationexchange.net/


Tools: Engagement planning

(Wilcox, D, 2006)http://www.annfacil.com


Tools: Socio-technical mapping

http://www.personalinfocloud.com/2008/01/the-elements-in.htmlhttp://www.nform.ca/publications/social-software-building-block


Organisations and ideas: quote

“…Ideas do not live in the minds of individuals but through a constant circulation as gifts.

In the century to come well being will come to depend less on what we own and consume and more on what we can share with others and create together, especially as consumption becomes increasingly constrained by environmental concerns that mean we have to live more within collectively binding limits…”

http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/cms/xstandard/ChapterOne.pdf


A quick timeline: future



Primary networks:Emergence of external networksConsultants with big org experienceConsultants with no big org experienceSocial enterprises with open networksCommunities/Crowdsourcing

Networking: • Style: Wide open• Behaviour: Flaunting it• Value: Prominent• Technology: Social networking• UnConferences

Past Present Future

Networking: • Style: Purposeful• Behaviour: more knowledge-y• Value: Even more important!• Technology: specific to us• Constructivist conferences

Primary networks:Rainforest effect:Open Innovation networksOrganisations’ recognitionCollaboration/competitionFormal/informalInternal/external


Future

• Design included at birth of networking systems• Systems designed to afford individual vs group balance• Socio-technical systems design to afford individuals’ preferences • Facilitation to understand personalities

• Networking becomes more of a tool as part of a purpose• Community construct will return with networking as part of it• Different personalities will have different options to share/connect• Individuals understand more about Public/Private/Personal/Political• Individuals find their boundaries and life-networking balance• Organisations recognise and reward different behaviours• Organisations recognise different types of networks and outcomes• Knowledge networking will drive technical developments (e.g. twine)

• Conferencing• From unconferences to constructivist conferences with a mix of

more structured opportunities for different personalities to engage• Increasingly refined: personalities as well as knowledge requirements

in advance, during and after


Thanks

[email protected] 737 254


Links

• http://del.icio.us/edmittance/socialnetworks• http://deli.icio.us/edmittance/socialnetworking• http://deli.icio.us/edmittance/facilitation• http://del.icio.us/edmittance/collaboration• http://del.icio.us/edmittance/engagement• http://www.myersbriggstypeindicator.co.uk/mbti_dichotomies.htm• http://www.win.net/insightsys/ALPHABET.HTM• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator• http://www.interweave-consulting.com/pictures/MBTI-Mousepad.gif• http://www.annfacil.com/• http://www.personalinfocloud.com/2008/01/the-elements-in.html• http://www.nform.ca/publications/social-software-building-block• http://www.innovationexchange.net/• http://emekaeme.wordpress.com

networking; past present and future; and the importance of personality

Technology

networking networking

plan networking

present future

network networking event

ones social network

present primary networks

discussion social structures

indicator humans