Join
It's time to reinvent management. You can help.

Humanocracy

Blog Posts

Hackathon Pilot: The Global Weave by Steve Todd

By Chris Grams on April 15, 2011
--
A few weeks ago, we kicked off the Hackathon Pilot, an experiment enabling passionate MIXers to collaboratively "write the chapter" on how to enable communities of passion within our organizations (learn more about the pilot here and here ). This is the second post in a series where pilot members have synthesized some of our learnings from Sprint #1. Today's synthesis post comes from EMC's Steve Todd .
--


The Global Weave
by Steve Todd

When Chris Grams sounded the call for Sprint #1 in our MIX community, he asked us to share some of our favorite communities of passion (whether we belonged to them or not).

From my viewpoint as a catalyst for global innovation within my company, I have my own bias as to what inspires passionate communities.

I like to call it “the global weave”.

Are you familiar with the term “shuttle”? It’s a weaving term. To quote Wikipedia , a shuttle is “thrown or passed back and forth through the shed , between the yarn threads of the...

Read more

Hackathon Pilot: The Characteristics of Successful Communities of Passion by Sam Folk-Williams

By Chris Grams on April 14, 2011
--
A few weeks ago, we kicked off the Hackathon Pilot, an experiment enabling passionate MIXers to collaboratively "write the chapter" on how to enable communities of passion within our organizations (learn more about the pilot here and here ). We just finished our first sprint this past weekend and are off to a great start. But don't take my word for it. Over the next week or so, I'll be sharing the ideas of some pilot contributors from across the globe who volunteered to synthesize the large number of contributions we collected into some overarching themes. Today, our first synthesis post comes from Sam Folk-Williams.
--

The Characteristics of Successful Communities of Passion
by Sam Folk-Williams

We had two simple tasks for our first Hackathon Pilot sprint: list five communities of passion that you think are successful and why, and list five communities of passion to which you personally belong. Through these examples, we can all deepen our understanding of what a "community of passion" is, how they come into being, what makes them work (or not work), and ultimately how we can leverage them as...

Read more

Hackathon Pilot Update #3: A design thinking primer

By Chris Grams on March 24, 2011

As I mentioned in a previous update , we are using a process inspired by design thinking for the Hackathon Pilot. Some of you will already be familiar with design thinking principles, but just in case the concept is new to you, I thought I’d write a short design thinking primer.

What is design thinking?

Design thinking is a process by which groups can collaboratively solve problems or explore opportunities by building ideas up instead of tearing them apart.

Because of its “building up” approach, design thinking is quite distinct from the analytical problem-solving process used regularly in the business world. Typically, analytical thinking attempts to break something down into its component parts in order to study it.

Design thinking is a great tool for community-based projects like the MIX because it is optimized for collaboration and inclusiveness. Because the process celebrates all ideas and contributions and allows for the best solutions to come from everywhere and anywhere, it is great way to generate fresh ideas from diverse groups of people. In my experience, design thinking is a wonderful way to engage people in a positive way, and it helps build relationships that...

Read more

Reimagining the organization Wikipedia-style: How a Thousand Volunteers Built a Strategic Plan

By Chris Grams on March 21, 2011

The term “strategic planning” conjures up images of suits in conference rooms diagramming the path to world domination on whiteboards. All too often, strategic planning is an activity reserved for the organizational elite—executives aided by consultants. The top dogs think up all the big ideas—and the “troops” execute the plan.

Not so for one organization.

Last year, the Wikimedia Foundation, a 50-person non-profit supporting Wikipedia and related projects, turned the conventional approach to setting strategy on its head . Against a backdrop of slowing Wikipedia contributions and a declining number of active editors, the foundation turned where it has always turned for answers: to its worldwide community of volunteer “Wikimedians.”

A few weeks ago, the Wikimedia Foundation unveiled the final version of its new strategic plan (you can download it yourself here ). While the vision described within it is compelling, the unique process used to craft that vision contains powerful lessons for leaders and organizations of all types.

Summoning an army of volunteers

In total, more than 1,000 people contributed to the Wikimedia strategic planning project, writing nearly that many proposals to meet the...

Read more

Hackathon Pilot Update #2: Research notes and a hack zone prototype

By Chris Grams on March 21, 2011

Since I suspect many of you won’t have a whole day to spare reading almost 100 Human Capital M-Prize entries , I’ve put together something of a highlight reel for you. My hope is that this will save you some time while also uncovering some possible hack zones for further study during the Hackathon Pilot.

My process? Basically, I tagged all of the entries as I read them with key thoughts and ideas, and when finished, I tried to synthesize these thoughts and ideas into some overarching themes. If you have the time and would like to read the entries yourself to see if you notice similar themes or discover your own, I’d encourage you to test my analysis and share the results with the pilot team.

But if your time is limited, consider starting with the ten M-Prize semi-finalist entries, which Polly wrote a nice summary of here . These are all fantastic, and are only a taste of the great ideas contributed during the contest. I’ve highlighted many of my additional favorites in the five possible hack zone categories I'm proposing for consideration below:

Possible Hack Zone #1: Shared mission, values, and...

Read more

Pages