Digitally disrupted spaces

I have just returned from Sydney, where I met with my colleagues and industry partners in the Digital Disruption Research Group, which was chaired by Kai Riemer, before attending and presenting at the Community, Work and Family Conference at the University of Sydney. Our conference symposium, chaired by Kristine Dery, also focused on digital disruption, especially as it pertains to 'digitally disrupted spaces,' which my colleagues, Kristine Dery, Pascale Peters and I describe below.

Digital disruption is a term used to describe deep changes to current organisational practices brought about by the digital revolution. “It is a neutral term; a description of what is happening,” according to Deloitte (2012). The digital revolution began with the emergence of the Internet; it was further spurred by the proliferation of mobile technologies and is today taken deep into markets and organisations with the rise of social and cultural changes, such as the wide-spread adoption of social media both outside and inside of organisations. 

Digital disruption affects most organisations in a wide range of industries in a multitude of ways and challenges old paradigms, resulting in new ways of understanding work itself.  Digital innovations open up unprecedented possibilities: changing markets and economies, reinvented relationships between organisations, new ways of understanding relationships with customers and suppliers, and new ways of thinking about our individual ways of doing work. The disruptions caused by these innovations are profound. It is not merely about speeding up communication, it is about fundamental changes to the very nature of consumption, competition and markets. “More profoundly, it is also driving a significant shift in the balance of power between organisations and individuals. The explosion in connectivity and the availability of information is putting today's consumers, employees, citizens, patients and other individuals squarely in the drivers seat” (Deloitte report, p6). 

These paradigm shifts are particularly evident when we consider the disruption caused by mobile connectivity. The growth of smartphones is exponential and continues to maintain momentum with somewhere between 650-730 million devices sold globally in 2012 ( a 40-45% increase on 2011) with further growth expected in 2013 (albeit at a lower growth rate). Currently, more processors are produced for mobile devices than for PCs, marking the end of the PC era. Mobile technology has enabled new ways of working: increased mobility of workers and of work itself, increased flexibility around when and how work is performed, new understandings of what is work and non-work, and new ways to connect through a multiplicity of channels including social media. Engagement with these new technologies has resulted in practices that challenge our understanding of spaces and the traditional boundaries between work and non-work.

Digitally disrupted spaces refers to the way in which technologies, in particular mobile technologies, have redefined our way of understanding the nature of work and the increasingly permeable boundaries between work and non-work activities. For some the disruption represents a nirvana where the workplace is individualised according to professional and personal needs, while for others the redefining of spaces has resulted in work seeping into all corners of life and is met with resentment and burnout. The digital disruption itself, however, is evident in all corporate arenas. Our challenge is to understand more about what this disruption means, how we are redefining work space, and how we can better manage new ways of working to achieve effective outcomes for the organisation and the employees.

Given its technological, organisational and social nature, research in this field requires inter-disciplinary research efforts Our symposium pulled together researchers from Australia, New Zealand, UK and Europe who have been looking at the impacts of mobile connectivity in organisations aver the past 5-10 years. We share a particular interest in the impact of mobile connectivity on new ways of doing work from a range of different perspectives. 

Clare Kelliher’s work on remote workers examined the way in which work space is being redefined as technology increasingly enables work to be taken into spaces traditionally used for recreational or personal use. Her findings suggest that it is individually constructed routines rather than physical office space that establishes “work space” and this has significant implications for the management of remote workers. 

Kristine Dery and I examined the effects of mobile connectivity in high performing work environments, in particular the factors that influence how executives interact with technology to define their work and non-work spaces, challenging the idea that workspace is clearly defined and something from which executives connect and disconnect, but rather we suggest that a process of 'connective flow' is used to create a more individualised understanding of work space, which is more fluidly aligned with non-work space. 

Pascale Peters and her colleagues in The Netherlands challenge our understanding of boundaries, suggesting that the apparent paradox between being flexible and establishing boundaries between work and non-work time and space, is critical to the effective management of more flexible work spaces. In their quantitative study of Dutch workers adopting 'New Ways of Work,' they found that there were significant benefits to those who adopted ‘bounded flexibility strategies’ to manage digitally disrupted spaces. 

Thinking about digital space and 'flow,' I revisited Manuel Castells' commentary and theorizing on the notion of 'spaces as flows' in his classic volumes on the Network Society.  Writing more recently, Castells observes that, 'Space does not reflect society, it expresses it.'  Thus, if we are living in a network society as Castells suggests, then our use of space--for work, play and family--is an expression of that networked society.  If we look at the spaces and places where people are working ('homes on the run as much as offices on the run'), instead of disruption and fragmentation, through the lens of a networked society, we see individual actors connecting, disconnecting and reconnecting within networks (social, professional and community) then we see 'flow.'

Castells sums it up as follows, '...the key reminder is that we move physically while staying put in our electronic connection.  We carry flows and move across places.'   He also wisely adds that, 'moving physically while keeping the network connection to everything we do is a new realm of the human adventure, one about which we know little' (2005, p. 54).

References 

Castells, M. (2005). 'Space of flows, space of places: Materials for a theory of urbanism in the information age.' In Sanyal Bishwapriya (Ed.) Comparative Planning Cultures.  New York: Routledge, pp. 45-66.

Email charter - cleaning up our collective in-box

It's been a quiet week on the Internet.

This morning I heard about an organization that limits its employees to no more than 3 recipients to any email.  This may seem a bit restrictive, but someone has to start email reform.  There are at least two good reasons to start changing our email behaviour.  First, there is too much of it and much of it is used for the wrong reasons. And, second, future generations are not interested in using email as a communication channel.  They only use it when they have to, but when they are in charge, we'll all have to change.

Relatedly, a friend sent me these clever and insightful guidelines for email use that will save us all time and energy.  See the E-mail Charter.  As you will have freed up an extra few minutes not sending emails, you might click through links explain the how and why some individuals and organisations have so much trouble with email.  For example, they explain why it (counter-intuitively) takes more time to read email than write it.  And, how this is a 'tragedy of the commons' problem.  Worth a look.

BTW, I got this linked to a (brief) email, with the tag: 'Why so brief?'  A nice way to spread the word.

Other stories on email clutter:

Messages galore (NY Times)

Out of Africa - innovative work-arounds

Innovation often takes place at the edge.  In this inspiring TED Talk, Juliana Rotich tells how the infrastructural challenges in Africa, including the common lost of electrical power, are being overcome with technology that leads the way on multiple dimensions.

This is a story of entrepreneurship and the spirit of innovation under trying conditions, to say the least. As her team says, if it will work in Africa, it will work anywhere.  Their solution looks like a great idea for any geography.  Basically, they have created a modem (called BRCK, pronounced 'Brick') that works even when the power cuts out and a multi-sim device which switches mobile providers when one drops out and/or to take advantage of the best mobile rates, where cost is often much higher than developed markets.

In Juliana's words:

"What I find amazing is that Africais transcending its geography problem.Africa is connecting to the rest of the world and within itself.The connectivity situation has improved greatly,but some barriers remain.

...

Out of adversity can come innovation, and how can we help the ambitious coders and makers in Kenya to be resilient in the face of problematic infrastructure?  ...for us, we begin with solving the problem in our own backyard in Kenya.

...

I will close by saying that, if we solve this for the local market, it could be impactful not only for the coders in Nairobi but also for small business owners who need reliable connectivity, and it can reduce the cost of connecting, and hopefully collaboration within African countries.

The idea is that the building blocks of the digital economy are connectivity and entrepreneurship. The BRCK is our part to keep Africans connected, and to help them drive the global digital revolution."

Requisite connectivity often requires 'work-arounds' as we say in our definition of the term:

"Requisite connectivity is the state of having robust and reliable communication and/or transportation media/modes, with operable alternative work-around options, so that contact may be initiated or maintained at the rate, richness and intensity that we desire for a given task or social outcome" (Kolb, Collins and Lind, 2008, p. 182) (emphasis added).

As often is the case, our desire to stay connected under challenging circumstances may lead the way to great innovations for other or all circumstances.

Hero's journey 2.0

As an Outward Bound instructor (I worked at the Colorado School in the 1980s), we often heard from our students that the most powerful part of their 28-day expedition was the 'solo,' the period of time (up to 3 days) spent alone to reflect on their experience in the mountains, their group's dynamics and ultimately on life and its meaning.  In this beautiful, austere setting, with basic shelter and minimal food, students were given the opportunity to live more simply than most have ever done in their lives.

The solo aspect of an Outward Bound voyage, in particular, and the overall experience in general is metaphorically based on the 'hero's journey' archetype in Jungian psychology, wherein the hero (self) must leave the comfort of home, encounter a (metaphorically) dangerous world and return home with a sense of confidence and clarity to serve as servant leader.

Of course, not every trip is a hero's journey, but travel of all sorts can provide perspective, including separation from the familiar, encountering the 'dangerous' or different world with the prospect of new wisdom. But, now we also have the prospect of bringing 'home' with us on our journeys.  And, by doing so, we are less likely to confront our self or the meaning of life.

We bring others with us on our journeys through our social media, video calls. But, by checking in along the way, we can easily fall into translating the challenging and sometimes 'ugly' journey into a series of complaints, thereby missing the chance to draw strength from adversity.  Alternatively, there is the temptation to create a lovely unreal world of smiling, happy photos, wherein the hero is transformed into Narcissus (an entirely different myth).

Now, I am not proposing that you leave the smartphone, tablet or laptop at home.  I would suggest, however, that travel of all types offers us an opportunity to temporarily disconnect and reflect.  It is also an opportunity to connect with fellow travellers, be they pilgrims on the path to an exotic temple or someone serving us coffee or sitting next to us on an airplane.  I find it hard to work on airplanes as I always choose a window seat when flying over land, which gives me a chance to look out the window imagining what life might be like down there on the slice of the planet we are cruising above.  I call the perspective one gets while disconnecting from our day-to-day worries and floating above the Earth 'airplane religion.'  As the digital disconnect associated with air travel disappears, i.e., Internet access is available on more flights and more classes of air fares, the traveler will face the dilemma: to connect or disconnect.

In reality, most of us will do a bit of each. We will keep in touch with those back home and we will also take advantage of some separation, for adventure and reflection. The modern hero's journey is still about confronting ourselves as one of the dragons we must slay.  Some of this must still be done alone, and part of the journey--as always--is a matter of connecting with others we meet along the way, when we look up from our screens.

Happy trails!

See my post on 'loneliness vs. isolation.'

My colleagues Toby Ruckert and Nathan Zeldes have written insightful reflections on disconnecting while travelling.

Toby's post on 'un-location'.

For more on the hero's journey, see Bill Moyer's interviews with Joseph Campbell, The Hero's Journey.

Social media in China

A graduate class was recently impressed by a student's demo of Weibo, the Chinese social media app.  It did amazing things, and did them very well.

China has more Internet users than any country in the world (over 500 million, compared to 245 million in the USA), although in percentage terms, the US leads China in ratio of users to population (74% vs. 38%).  And, like most places, in China in 2012 Internet searches on handheld devices surpassed PC searches, according to Mary Meeker's Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers 2013 report on Internet use.

While this may or may not surprise you, it is important to note that in China, as in many developing markets, the use of social media is far higher than in developed nations.  A recent McKinsey report on social media in China suggests that 91% of Chinese participants in Tier 1, 2 and 3 cities report visiting a social media site the past 6 months, compared with 67% in the US and only 70% in super-connected South Korea!  And, the Chinese are twice as likely as US participants to reveal 'most everything' or 'nearly everything' on-line, according to the KPCB report mentioned above.

From a business point of view, McKinsey and Co say this is particularly important because social influence and impressions strongly guide consumer behaviour in China.  For more on the future of economic development in China, see another McKinsey special series here.

F.Y.A. For Your Attention

Information is cheap.  Attention is priceless.

Information is global. Knowledge is local.

And, mindfulness makes a difference anywhere.

"The great challenge of our age: to not only live connected to one another through technology, but to do so in ways that are beneficial to our own well-being, effective in our work, and useful to the world."

The quote above appears in Arianna Huffington's excellent post on the Wisdom 2.0 summit.  The quote is from the web site of Soren Gordhamer, conference founder and author of Wisdom 2.0: Ancient Secrets for the Creative and Constantly Connected.  

In addition to Huffington herself, the 2013 guest speaker list is impressive (see list on Huffington's post). Her point is a good one, namely that it is techno-phobes, but rather the very techno-aware that are calling for us as human beings to stay connected to our inner selves and to connect with each other in meaningful ways, i.e., to give each other attention, not merely information.

Joining the likes of Nicholas Carr (The Shallows: How the Internet is changing the way we think, read and remember), Daniel Goleman (the EQ guy) writes in Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, a new book he'll publish this fall: "Overloading attention shrinks mental control. Life immersed in digital distractions creates a near constant cognitive overload. And that overload wears out self-control." (see my Reading List).

We know that too much information reduces our ability to pay attention to what really matters to us personally.  But, giving our attention to others is also extremely important to their motivation, as illustrated in this 20-minute TEDx Talk by Dan Ariely, 'What makes us feel good about work.'

Other posts on distractions at work.
'There's something wrong with the way we work'
'Hamlet's BlackBerry'

First Professor of Connectivity

Google was lost for words.

No results found for "Professor of Connectivity" on 31 May 2013.  Zero.

Today, 1 June 2013, I am taking up my new position of "Professor of Connectivity" in the Graduate School of Management at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

I am grateful for this honour and excited by the notion of being the first person with this title (as far as we know) in  the world.  It is wonderful to be associated with an issue of such relevance for our time.

‘Connectivity’ captures the essence of what it means to be connected on multiple dimensions—from physical space and face-to-face interaction to wired and wireless communication environments.  In short, connectivity incorporates all the ways that we technically, socially and economically engage with others. Historically, this has involved physical travel and trade, but increasingly we ‘travel’ and trade via information and communication technologies, which are rapidly evolving and greatly affecting every layer and level of business and society.

‘The great driver of scientific innovation and technological innovation has been the historic increase in connectivity.’ In short, ‘chance favours the connected mind.’

Steven Johnson, author of Where good ideas come from: The natural history of innovation