Do Open-ended Questions lead to conversations?

Alright, so you have allowed employees to bring their devices of choice.  Now what?  

You first need to provide some governance and allow for some input from those outside IT and Security to help balance security and usability.  We are not going to talk about “device management” (However, there are mature tools available).

We are discussing your challenges to providing methods for communication and interaction beyond phone calls, text messaging, and email.  These types of interacts are generally “closed” conversations or “private”.   

By providing some additional controlled methods to communicate creating higher transparency and encouraging broader collaboration to improve processes, increase revenue, giving others a voice to sharing ideas and thoughts.  

I ask, if you have seen the Movie JOBS; he challenges his team to provide him with a device that can play music with no constraints, do you believe Steve Jobs was encouraging collaboration.

By providing a place for employees to start a conversation (outside of email) in an “open” area or “public”; you may even want to include some business partners outside your company as part of your extended team.

Give it try!  Post an open-ended question about increasing revenue, reducing costs, or seek productivity improvement ideas.  Then, encourage and reward engagement through some specific controlled questions back to those engaged.  You might be surprised with some of the responses especially when your audience is provided a channel directly into your decision makers.

Consider this hypothesis:  What if you post a question such as; “Please share your ideas to increase revenue for (a product or a service)?  Pick something related to your companies’ ability to generate revenue.  Give it try; what question did you post to get your company engaged to increase revenue?  Did you follow up with a controlled question to sharpen your sword?

6 Requirements mapped to SharePoint

Requirements listed with some quick links to more details:

Requirement	Capabilities
Give us a place to put all files (possibly including CAD)	Document Library – working with document libraries
Allow us to search for a document based on keywords found inside the document or in the file-name?	Crawling and crawled properties
Allow us to categorize documents based on certain criteria (accounting, customer name, etc) for faster searches?	Content Type workshop and planning for logical and physical configuration
Allow for archiving or purging old documents?  As we add more and more documents the storage needed will grow.  At some point we will need to purge.	Information Management policy
Allow for revision control of files so we can easily see and maintain multiple versions of files	Version control planning workshop for logical and physical configuration
Allow for easy access to files/folders for users across the WAN (small 1 meg connection)?	SkyDrive Pro or Office Web Applications including Browser support planning and mobile support planning along with overall capacity planning

Yesterday, today, tomorrow – 6 ways to enable innovation?

A quick history lesson – leadership has traditionally controlled who was allowed:

1. …to have a chair with arm rests

2. …a telephone on their desk

3. …a personal computer on their desk

4. …to send email to persons outside the company

5. …to use a cell phone

6. …to use a tablet

Are these 6 ways to enable innovation?

The focus from top down corporations controlling keeping a low transparency until employees were ready. Here comes the “always connected” generation! They have chairs with arm rests, cell phone, and tablet. This generation has been innovating ways around parents and teachers for years now.

Once this generation begins to enter the workforce; which has already begun. Is leadership to continue a top down focus controlling transparency? This is one option; likely to have the “always connected” generation along with others finding ways to work outside these constraints.

Today…

Let not take about TECHNOLOGY; let’s talk about embracing self-service; enabling; transparency; educating; and identifying types of information. Who goes to the gas station and waits for the tenant to come pump your gas? Do you use the self-service check-out lines in a grocery store? Do order product from a website to have it delivered to your door or pick it up later today? These self-servicing; enabling; transparent options are available.

Image for a moment, if a platform similarly could provide a self-servicing; enabling; transparent to employees for a Hospital, Construction Company, Logistics Company, Retail Stores, a Law Firm, Financial Services Company, or a small start-up company seeking assistance. A platform connecting ALL employees toward a common goal (“Success”) working in concert a ONE organism (similar to a large ant colony; have you seen some of those ant hills?).

How can this be done? In our history lesson; we understood these were likely costing cutting measures. Keeping the number of assets manageable. If we step back and look at the trees through the forest; what we see is what? The “always connected” generation already owns assets such as cell phone, tablet, or ultra-books.

Ok, so we lean into this generations desire to allows be connected using current “evergreen” devices; proven by those standing lines or pre-ordering online a new XBOX ONE, PS4, or the next generation iPHONE. These assets are already in the hand of our next generation leaders.

SHORT STORY: My son 23 is a Manager of a store. He uses text messaging to alert his employees. His employees alert him when they are unable to make it to work. My son has an alert on his mobile phone to alert him while walking about to send updated numbers and issues to upper management; he can quickly use SKYPE to video conference (a personal touch by management, who could be visiting another store or at corporate) to talk about strategy for troubled employee, share ideas for next year’s strategy, quick bring to their attention “anything” wherever his management is; my son is able to quickly and transparently communication as ONE.

Is your company ready for this type of transparency? Perhaps IT is scheduling meetings to plan how much CAPITAL is available to spend; meeting after meeting figuring out what’s in and what’s out. Likely using some requirements which have gathered over the past 6-8 months. Like my Son’s company and management; would you be more interested on focusing on revenue and seeking innovative strategies learned by those in the line of fire?

Consider this hypothesis: What if you enabled your employees to purchase a device of their choice and provided a “service” for the device which they are able to connect from anywhere at any time for web conferencing, instant messaging, collaborating on different types of information, or transparently sharing thoughts and ideas without judgment?