Community Thought Cultivation (part II)

Are you primed for this?

This is a continuation of a prior discussion.  More are to follow and they all will be tied together once published.  Enjoy.

So, the main question is:  Are you and your organization in a position to capture some of this cheap thought energy?

The answer comes from a few different consideration sets:

-         Your organization

-         Your mission

-         Your audience (real or potential)

Your Organization

Are you ready to expose yourself, and your ideas?  Can you handle the thought of letting non-employees wrest with some of your decision points and business problems?  Will doing any of this cause too much political upheaval for the organization to handle?

On the other hand; are you open to letting others see your ideas and, to some extent, the way that you work?  Is that exciting and is it exhilarating to see if others can grasp the vision and run with it?  Are you open to the vision being taken in different directions that might actually work?  Is the organization and staff open to such input?

There is no spin to these questions.  To a certain extent, each applies to any given organization at any given time.  Some aspects are going to change more fluidly than others.  The scope of the idea and the allowance for outsiders to see the internal mechanisms; these are more fluid aspects that may or may not extend for any organization to allow to expose.  Organizational positions, however, are going to be more static and resistant to change.

Your Mission

Is your mission truly groundbreaking?  Is that new ground for the organization or for the mission itself?  Is the mission not being carried forward elsewhere, or with proper support?  Can your organization not tap into any existing mission community?

Or on the other hand; would your plans duplicate existing opportunities that are already advancing the mission?  Is your mission currently too broadly defined?

If there is a vibrant community in place concerning your mission, there will be a greater challenge in starting a new community focused on that mission.

Your Audience

Is your audience willing and able to be participatory in this realm of media?  Are they enticed by intrinsic rewards?  Is their message bigger than the medium or the carrier?  Are they willing to continue in good earnest?

Or on the other hand, is the message being sent in too many places already?  Is the user overly-engaged*?  Is the user not engaged enough in the focused effort?  Will they lose interest over time?

If you end up with a passionate audience, committed to the effort, and with enough focus, they will reward you with passionate input or discourse.

Community Thought Cultivation (part 1)

Introduction

Historically, organizations with a need to continually advance thought within a specific directional framework have had to rely primarily on paid thought leadership.  With the maturation and realization of the Internet into a multi-directional interface tool, harnessing the power of a committed user base to generate at least some of this needed thought progression is an enticing possibility.

This is good news to organizations who cannot afford the (typically) high outlay of human capital expenditure necessary for topical thought progression.  This approach is also employable when such needs are sporadic.  It should be noted that in most campaigns, this approach should only be an augmentation to paid thought leadership; some stewardship is still necessary.  However, these resources can become functional administrators while contributing their intelligence to a problem.  At all times, some moderation and administration will be needed.

Determination of thought topics that can benefit from this approach must derive from a few considerations.  Potential community support and composition, employable technologies, and scope of topic are just a few.

Concerning scope, a topic should be fairly tactical and focused.  Crowdsourcing thought leadership does not lend itself well – in terms of individual implementations – to strategic goals.  However, multiple topics can form a wider, more strategic whole.  Once a tactical direction is pursued, an increase in scope may be possible, but a scope too large to garner focused support of the community is doomed to fail from the start.

The maturation of Internet technologies that are centered on the end user equates to a larger, cheaper toolset that can be used.  Determining which tools to use in a particular implementation depends less on budget anymore and more on the community, the topic, and the brand essence of the organization.  Recorded chat may be too fluid for an older user community, while some configurations of message boards may be too rigid for more adept users.  Almost always, a blend of technologies will be needed to best enable the community to progress.

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Yo B!

Wading back into Blog land here.  I created my first blogs in 2000 or 2001.  I believe just having them was one key reason of being hired to SI-International.  However, I found it to feel to egotistical at the time.  I still largely feel that.  

I don’t want to rush headlong into Gutteral Uterrances.  

I fear that I’d be part of this massive one-way conversation where everyone is talking past one another.  

I think that I’ve seen an animation that shows such a world.  Everyone talking and no one listening – or listening with a primary hope of talking back.  

Anyway, I hope to write things of value for myself, my family, and my friends – in that order.  I realize the fact that – in that order – only they really want to see pictures of my kids.  

I plan to write about being:

• A father
• A husband
• A member of an extended family (in all directions)
• A friend
• A coworker
• A supervisor
• Passionate about my interests (food, music, gardening)

Basically – what makes up my life.  However, I plan not to write in a journal format but rather with value as much as possible.  

We’ll see how this goes.