"Let's take that online" -- Boston KM Forum

Lovely day spent with the Boston KM Forum's "Leveraging Virtual Teams & Social Tools for Business Advantage: Blogs, Wikis, Twitter, et al. Here's the group, snapped with my phone, just as Jeff and I started our tap dance on virtual teams.

We were followed by WBUR's New Media Director, Ken George, who showed how blurry the lines have become between different kinds of media. Here he asks whether what he's pointing to is a radio program or a web page. The answer? Both - plus a lot more because it's also a place for listeners to participate.

Next up, Suzanne Minassian who took us inside IBM's social media developments. I looked around the room while she was talking and realized that social media had taken over the crowd as a number of people were tweeting as she spoke (including yours t.). Narry a laptop in sight. A big change from just a year ago, when live blogging was the advance guard at this event.

After lunch, Sadie Van Buren from Knowledge Management Associates got best-in-show for her truly beautiful slides. Her four rules for social media are worth repeating (which I tweeted in real time, natch): reciprocate, meaning that it's wise to acknowledge all that comes your way, socially speaking; comment on what you "like" when perusing social sites because this adds to the ongoing promotion of good stuff out there; follow back/accept friend requests/link when people do the same for you (within reason, she pointed out, because the self-promoters will always be out there selling you snake oil); and give it away, meaning post, provide, share, and all the other positive tendencies that are in our nature when we're feeling good about ourselves.

Now to the reason for the title of this post: after our presentation, someone came up to me (apologies to whomever it was and please comment should you see this) to talk about a key point I made about conference calls. Status reporting, research indicates, is one of the worst uses of conference calls. Precious real time should be saved for the tough stuff - disagreements, decisions, conflict resolution, that kind of messiness. Whoever the brilliant person was who spoke to me pointed out that when things get tense on a call, people often say, "Let's take that offline," which led us to agree that the tendency should be just the opposite. Instead, best practice should be to "take that online," air the differences, and move beyond the problem as quickly as possible.

Thanks, all. Great day, and a big round of applause for Lynda Moulton and Larry Chait, who do the heavy lifting for these events.

Comments

[Doug Cornelius]

Jessica -

It sounds like a wonderful a day. Sorry I missed it. Thanks for conveying some of the key points.

[jessica lipnack]

Yes, Doug, it was a good day and we missed you.

[Mike Gilronan]

Great day and great presentation, Jessica! It was a pleasure meeting you, and I look forward to exploring your slide deck (some great tips about facilitating remote and in-person meetings), and following you on Twitter.

[jessica lipnack]

Thanks, Mike - glad to hear the presentation connected and look forward to "connecting."

[Gian Jagai]

Hi Jessica,

Great to meet you at the Boston KM Forum. I'll take credit for the "Lets take it offline" comment. It came up as we were discussing your presentation during a break, out on the patio. I already got a copy of your HBR article on virtual teams. Thanks again for the great insights.

[jessica lipnack]

Gian! Of course! How could I have forgotten. You'll forever get the credit for that now. And thanks for the nice words.

[Sadalit Van Buren]

Jessica, thanks for the props! It was great to meet you on Tuesday. I will definitely be using the tips from your and Jeff's presentation to get my virtual teams to move from storming to performing.

Please allow me to credit the graphical inspiration for my deck, Michael Edson, whose beautiful presentation "Imagining a Smithsonian Commons" you can see here: http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/imagining-a-smithsonian-commons-presentation#
I found his presentation so inspirational in spite of the obvious challenges he is facing bringing that organization into this web 2.0 world.
Cheers!

[jessica lipnack]

Sadie! Thanks for the pointer (and for the nicies on our preso). I've taken a look at Michael Edson's beautiful work and agree that others should too. What got me most, after his gorgeous visuals, was a simple statement from Boing Boing editor Cory Doctorow, saying that he gives his books away and benefits economically from doing so. While I'll refrain from making the "benefits" statement, I can state that Jeff and I have posted all our books online and I don't think it's hurt our book sales one little bit. In fact, I think it's helped them. To The Commons!

[Travelster]

Thank you for the ideas. This Forum really works in developing programs to support personal and professional growth.

[Hoogmamuh]

Car accident and drunk drivers are the most pressing problems of our everyday life.
According to the World Health Organization, each year 1.2 million people die and nearly 50 million of people are injured or became disabled in car accidents. The cost of road traffic injuries for each country is almost 518 billion dollars per year, which is from one to two percent of their average Gross National Product. By 2020, the car accident will be the tenth leading cause of death in the world.
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Car accident
• a flexible and adequate legislative framework for the organization of traffic;
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The main focus of foreign legislation system, to avoid car accidents on the road and provide its safety is the violators’ liability.