A Compound of Alchymie

Blended Networking

I attended an interesting workshop in Birmingham last week organised by BLU (Business Link University) which focussed on the development and use of peer-to-peer learning networks. BLU is a UK government funded organisation that aims to support those working in the SME support sector - primarily government and EU funded organisations that are tasked with raising the capabilities of start-ups and other small businesses. As something like 90% of companies are classified as SMEs it's a critical area for driving economic performance but actually getting value for taxpayers cash is hard because of the sheer number of businesses which operate in this sector. Until now the support input has been largely advisory, mixed with some basic training and development activities but recent changes to the structure of publicly funded business support has resulted in a range of fresh approaches. One of these has been the realisation that small businesses often learn a lot simply by getting together and talking about their businesses with each other. Clearly business people have always networked - and networking is regularly seen as a key way to promote your business - but the idea of networking specifically to learn things is less well understood.

The workshop was led by a mix of Business Link people and BLU Associates (contracted to work with BLU on various projects) and was heaviliy participative - to the extent that it was hard work for all of us poor participants. That's the secret of good facilitation - you get to spend as little time up-front as possible. And as a refreshing change not a single PowerPoint slide to be seen - that felt quite weird actually - when I first selected a seat I tried to work out the data projector and screen arrangement. Paul Jackson led the event supported by Jim McLaughlin and others.

Though the event looked at various ways in which networks could both promote and support peer-to-peer learning I was primarily interested in how offline and online networks could be used to support each other. I therefore selected a couple of sessions which looked specifically at using online learning networks. In those sessions we touched on some of the following issues:

Cultural dimension - it's hard to get those who aren't into social computing onto a PC - networking to many people is about meeting face-to-face. There are other cultural issues at play as well - for example no women attended either of the online sessions!

Chicken and egg - do you need to meet face-to-face before you can participate in an online network or can online networks act as a catalyst for face-to-face networks? We shared examples of each.

Give and take - learning networks need to balance give and take. Frequently people expect to take and aren't prepared to give. Successful networks need to manage this expectational mismatch.

During our discussions we decided that a balance between online and offline was probably the most sustainable approach - and we coined the phrase blended networking - which borrows from the language of e-learning,  where blended learning is used to indicate learning that balances both online and offline elements.

A search on Google reveals only 93 pages for the phrase blended networking and none of those sites appear to use the term in the context described above. I've created  an entry in Wikipedia to celebrate this historic event!

ExLink: BLU Leadership

 

Project Management Simulation

Last week I participated in the European launch event for a new project management simulation called Cayenne.  At Hitachi's Conference Centre at Sefton Park, close to London's Heathrow airport, five teams battled it out to be the most successful at running a project on time and within budget. As might be expected not all teams made the grade - our team ended up over budget but at least we completed  within time. In the real world nearly three quarters of all projects either overrun (average overrun is  222%), exceed budget (average overspend is 189%) or get cancelled before completion (see Standish Group CHAOS Research). 

It's well known that projects struggle to deliver on time and within budget hence the emphasis on project management tools and methodologies such as Microsoft Project and Prince 2. But most of the research shows that the devil isn't in the detail but in the wider context of the project - in the big picture. User involvement, executive support, clear business objectives and strong teamwork are all much more important than complex plans and critical path analysis. And that's where Cayenne comes in; it helps project teams and project stakeholders see the bigger picture and involve them in key issues within a typical project lifecycle. Cayenne can be used prior to the start of a project to uncover potential issues and develop a shared understanding of common stumbling blocks or as a generic tool to support 'harder' project management programmes such as those based on Prince 2. The strength of Cayenne is its big picture approach - it isn't just for experienced project managers (though as a project manager myself  I found its insights extremely valuable) and requires only a basic understanding of the language of project management. Celemi actually position the simulation as 'a tool that prepares people for better project work' and i'd agree that it would be useful for all types of teams that are working in a project type environment - if not actually within a formal project.

Cayenne is loosely based on a technology project but the technology elements are fairly low key and with good facilitation the issues can easily be related to most project scenarios - whether they involve technology or not. If ICT projects represent your bread and butter then you'll love Cayenne - I can't wait to demonstrate it to some of my high-tech clients.

Like most Celemi simulations the underlying design is first class and though the simulation mechanism is fairly linear participant involvement is excellent. People really do learn from these simulations. The materials are excellent and Cayenne can be run easily over the course of a day (including a short intro presentation and a slightly longer action planning final session).

Though Celemi always plays down the competitive element the desire to run the most successful project really focuses people's attention and is supported by an excellent software tool which is used by the facilitator to feedback a range of compative performance measures as the simulation progresses. There's nothing like seeing your project recover from a couple of poor decisions and head back up the performance league table (in the end we finished a very close second)!

Crucially the simulation also balances tangible and intangible performance measures and overall success comes only when attention is paid to all five key indicators - time, cost, client, organisation and team. That's a key foundation of the simulation - and of project management generally. We all 'know' that but it needs tools like Cayenne to help us articulate it and explore the issues that occur in the interface between clients, stakeholders and the project team.

Neuromarketing

There's lots of talk about the 'new marketing' but one area that is clearly causing a stir is 'neuromarketing' - a discipline where neuroscience meets marketing and which attempts to figure out how customers minds work  in an attempt to figure out what they like and why they like it.  I guess it's clear that as we learn more and more about the human brain we will be keen to exploit any commercial opportunities that arise from our new knowledge. Apparently people's brains 'light up' when they drink Coke - not because it tastes good (it regularly fails taste tests when compared to Pepsi) - but because they associated Coke with good things!

ExtLink: Centre for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics (CCLE)