When I was five, my family and friends gathered to celebrate my birthday.  I remember on that day, my mind wasn’t focused on fun and games, cake, gifts – things most five-year-old kids relish in. Instead, I was focused at this early age on change.  I ran around the yard approaching everyone with the dramatic presumption that after next month, I would never see them again.  My family planned to fold-up the farm which I had spent the past five years of my life growing up on.  We were moving West, to the land of sunshine and The Beach Boys.  I had just started Kindergarten and, being a kid, I obviously didn’t want any part of this.  I was angry at my parents and unsure of what lay ahead.

Thinking back on it, my experience as a five-year-old is not much different than the experiences of many in today’s workplace when change is imminent.

Reality is: we get comfortable. We make friends, become competent at our jobs, create routines and stick to them. This comfort, however, breeds stagnancy when it comes to evolving as a human or as an organization. People become set in their ways, innovation falls by the wayside, and, for the most part, people drudge through their workweek,  dodging corporate bullets and looking forward to their upcoming vacation. And retirement.

Seth Godin begins LINCHPIN by proclaiming “You Are a Genius”.  This is a concept that gets lost when we become comfortable.  And, worse yet, most corporate systems are not set up to foster change toward embracing one’s genius.

What if it were different? What would happen if you embrace change when the opportunity arises instead of hiding or running away from it? We would love to hear your thoughts and join you in conversation around this topic.

• How can you harness change for the betterment of yourself?
• How can you embrace change to help transform your organization?
• What can you do to demand change in a toxic, un-evolving organization?

No, Twitter didn’t announce their new ad platform. Yes, Foursquare and Gowalla had a breakout conference with more people checking in everywhere, annoying their friends and loved ones left behind. No, there was no new Twitter. And, yes, the future for digital technologies and Social Media is still very bright. But it’s time to shake up conferences like SXSW.

While some talks were insightful (Clay Shirky and Jaron Lanier come to mind), most panels didn’t rise above the mediocrity of typical Interactive conferences: Many unprepared panelists, content didn’t match advertised topics and, most importantly, too much talk about “joining the conversation”, “transparency”, “authenticity” and other tired buzzwords.

I went to SXSW and all I got was a Social Media 101 for beginners?

While the networking opportunities continue to be tremendous, all of us need to up the content game. We need to talk more about ROI, adoption of new technologies and Knowledge Management. We need to talk frankly about failures and successes and share them through case studies. Isn’t it ironic that everybody praises failures but nobody wants to share their failures so all of us can learn from them? And, most importantly, we need  to let people outside of the industry in. We need more input and insights from sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, small businesses, Fortune 10 corporations and (insert your idea here).

In short, we need to leave the technology and Social Media echo chamber and let some fresh air in. The air at SXSW 200 felt stale and sometimes almost pungent with Social Media celebrity self-importance fueled by breathless fanboys and the always present booze cloud above us all. This post is not directed at the organizers of SXSW 2010. They did a fantastic job by delivering a flawless conference. A small point of criticism: Maybe less crowdsourcing panels (fueling the echo chamber), more crowdsourcing topics, themes and objectives of participants.

No, this is a wake-up call to all of us: Let’s open the echo chamber and let’s learn from and with others. The sessions from wecanendthis.com were a good start: Getting people from all walks of life together to end hunger in America. That was a good start. But while we thought, discussed and collaborated about solving a serious problem, the majority of visitors were busy checking in at various parties. While they thought they were busy checking in, they were busy checking out.

In a world driven by human and intellectual capital, traditional Org Charts, Employee Handbooks and most traditional tools that used to help enterprises to run their business have become increasingly unreliable and ineffective. High performance and value creation doesn’t originate from to traditional enterprise tools or new technologies, it originates from focusing on the human side of business.

Jack Welch had it right when he said: “The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important – and then get out of their way while they do it.”

Enterprises face the biggest challenges to humanize their business since their organizations are driven by spreadsheets and shareholder value. As we’ve learned throughout the Great Recession, many companies leveraged their future away by focusing on short-term gains, destroying long-term value over time.

While shareholder value will remain a dominant metric, businesses have to focus their attention more and more on their relationships with customers, employees, partners, and all other stakeholder groups. By investing in these relationships, businesses will be able to create long-term value and, ultimately, shareholder value.

We believe that those organization aspiring to succeed in the current socio-economic environment have to understand holistically who their key stakeholders are and what they want. They have clearly defined strategies to ensure that constant value is delivered to these stakeholders. They have implemented processes to support this strategy and understand the necessary capabilities to execute processes. And they have thought through and communicated what the organization needs from its stakeholders – Loyalty, profitability, investment, etc.

Too often, metrics are derived from strategy. It seems so obvious. But it’s a trap. You can go from A to B directly, pass by C or go from A to D to C and end at B. Strategy is not a destination, it’s a choice of one path you’re going to take. Metrics help you track whether you’re moving in the right direction. Most corporate initiatives are focused on incremental improvements – expand your business to a new market, grow your product line, find new consumers. All these initiatives are developed with the belief that they will enable the business to deliver better value to all its stakeholders. That’s why focusing on the stakeholder perspective is imperative to deliver replicable value, choose the right strategy and exact metrics. When formulating strategies, businesses need to consider the wants and needs of all their stakeholders. This is not limited to primary stakeholders, the view needs to be expanded to the general public, special interest groups, legal and regulatory community. If this broad view of stakeholders is not adopted, businesses run the risk failing to satisfy the needs of their stakeholders, opening themselves up for revenge on multiple Social Media channels.

So, what is the best path for businesses to increase stakeholder value?

1) Stakeholder Satisfaction: Who are the most influential stakeholders and what do they desire?

2) Performance Strategies: What strategies should the organization adopt to ensure the desires of stakeholders are satisfied?

3) Measurement: Metrics are required to track if the chosen strategies are actually implemented. Metrics help to communicate strategies throughout the organization. Metrics combined with incentives help to speed up implementation. And, ultimately, metrics help you determine if the chosen strategy was the right one and if not, why. When the measures are consistent with the organization’s strategies, they encourage behaviors that are consistent with the mission and vision of the business.

4) Align processes with strategies: What processes do we need to put in place to allow the strategies to be executed?

5) Capabilities: What capabilities do we require to operate these processes? Today, tomorrow and in the future?

6) Stakeholder Contribution and Collaboration: What contribution does the business require from its stakeholders to succeed? How can we maintain and enhance these capabilities?

This complex exercise will help your business to face the challenging socio-economic environment and adapt efficiently. Or as Jack Welch said:

“An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”

My father worked in the same company for more than 40 years. He started at the bottom, climbed the corporate ladder and retired in his 60’s. His company took care of him. He had a healthy pension, a great social work environment – he felt respected and rewarded by his. In exchange for these benefits, he had to settle: Don’t rock the boat. Keep your head down and do what others tell you. At one point, you can tell others what to do.

This world has disappeared. There are no more pensions. If corporations find somebody cheaper to do your job, you’re gone. No loyalty. No real connection between employee and employer. Just a business deal.

The  sad truth is: you’re on your own.

The exciting truth is: you’re on your own.

If you believe that following orders or going with the flow will get you anywhere, you’re better off try to make a living selling fridges in Alaska. The deal we had is gone. And it won’t come back. That’s why we need to create a new deal.

As an employee, you’re a free agent. You might still enjoy all the benefits of a corporation and the juicy expense accounts but you’re on the hot seat, ready to be  replaced by a cheaper, younger and (insert adjectives here) employee. In order to survive, you need to stand out, tap into your uniqueness. That’s a huge opportunity. Don’t feel restrained by the rules that corporations have bestowed upon you. Those rules are gone. Create your own rules. And change your workplace while you’re at it.

For companies, you need to create an open environment. An environment where free agents feel at home. Enable open communications with all stakeholders, no holds barred. No more meetings where the value of ideas is determined by the status of the employee. No more corporate silos of distrust. No more closed door conversations. Everything should be transparent and accessible.

Corporate culture can be defined as the personality of an organization. It used to guide how employees act, think and feel. Just like the Mayan culture, the corporate is almost gone. We need to replace it with community culture.

Community culture guides the whole organization how to collaborate, innovate and co-create. Develop a community culture that is the living expression of culture in everyday life. Create an environment where all stakeholders take the experiences of their lives and transform them into stories, ideas, innovations – or as some call it ‘expressive culture’.

There’s a bit of nostalgia rattling through my mind experiencing this world of corporate culture disappear in front of our eyes. It used to be the world my father lived in. Let’s make this world a better place by transforming corporate culture into community culture.