If You Really Want Communities to Work, Encourage Them!

The Harvard Business Review recently ran a well written and well argued article on how to “harness your staff’s informal networks” (subscription or purchase required) that was thought provoking, but a little too involved for my liking. While the methodology may be appropriate for many organizations, it violates the KISS principle. You don’t need an eight (plus) pronged methodology to make communities work. It can be as simple as one-two-three.

  1. Provide a home for the community.If you’re a multinational, make sure the participants have the online tools and technologies they need to meet and collaborate. If you’re a small company in a single building, make sure there are rooms available on a regular basis. There’s no one-size-fits-all home, so it’s important that you buy the right one for the community you want to create.
  2. Enable participation.Don’t just encourage participation, enable participation. Make sure your people have the time to contribute. Take a lesson from Google, and make sure your employees have 10% to 20% of their time free to focus on community projects and initiatives. That’s how you create communities that innovate and generate real results.
  3. Recognize and reward contribution.Recognize those who maximize their community contributions and those who go beyond the required commitment levels, regardless of whether their contributions get used or not. The true value of a community materializes over time as it’s collective knowledge, and knowledge base, enables and inspires others to greater heights. Even an almost-there solution has value, especially if it contains a distinct idea or process that can be applied to a similar problem that arises down the road.

That’s all there is to it. Really.

Share This on Linked In

Is Decision Making Really a Seven Step Process?

While some decisions are difficult, I always thought the process of decision making was itself pretty straight-forward:

  1. Identify the Decision that Needs to Be Made
  2. Identify the Alternatives
  3. Select the Best Optionconsidering the advantages, disadvantages, facts, and goals

but according to a recent article in the Supply Chain Management Review, “putting the structure in decision making” is a complex seven step process:

  1. Frame and describe the situation about which a decision is to be made.
  2. Define the objective(s) of the decision and the criteria that define the objectives.
  3. Extract obligatory criteria.
  4. Creatively identify decision options that meet all obligatory criteria.
  5. Gather information on decision alternatives, and develop the judgment table.
  6. Assign weights to the obligatory criteria.
  7. Rank alternatives.

Wow! No wonder some organizations can never make a decision! If they even make it to step for, they’re too exhausted to continue!

Identifying the alternatives and figuring out which is best overall against multiple criteria is often hard enough — don’t make it harder than it has to be!

Share This on Linked In

The Most Overlooked Risk in Your Energy Supply Chain Just Got Worse!

And I’m still not talking about volcanic eruptions — which could bury or clog your production facilities with ash, a terrorist attack — which could blow up a pipeline, or plain old management incompetence — which could result in a poorly maintained drilling station blowing up, but suicidal Sciurus Carolinensis, who, over the past few months, has knocked out substations in Ohio (Cleveland.com blog) and Florida (NWF Daily News).

Now it seems that these organized little critters have figured out that they can’t always do it themselves and have recruited procyon lotor to help with those “well-protected” substations that need some extra muscle. A few days ago, in Memphis (WSVN.com), an acrobatic and mean-spirited raccoon climbed over more than 30 feet of barriers to short-curcuit a switch on a substation and knock out power to 8,000 customers, including two hospitals the newspaper, for over five hours.

It would appear that things are getting dangerous over the hedge now that squirrels and raccoons are working together. If you’re not ready, your energy supply chain could be next!

California Squirrels

Hammy falls asleep while watching MTV …

To the tune of California Gurls*1 by Katy Perry and featuring Snoop Dogg.

Greetings loved ones
Let’s take a journey

I know a place
Where the grass is really greener
Warm, wet and wild
There must be something in the water

Sippin’ berry juice
Laying underneath the palm trees (chillin’)
The coons
On the move
Trying to surf the mighty waves (all day)

You could travel the world
But nothing comes close
to the golden coast
Once you party with us
You’ll be falling in love
Oooooh Oh Oooooh

California squirrels
We’re unforgettable
Shirley Temples
Umbrellas on top
Sun-kissed fur
So hot
We’ll melt your popsicle
Oooooh Oh Oooooh

California squirrels
We’re undeniable
Fine, fresh, furry
We got it on lock
West coast represent
Now put your hands up
Oooooh Oh Oooooh

Fun on the beach
We got sand in our palmettos
We freak
In my jeep
Snoop Coony Coon on the stereo (oh oh)

You could travel the world
But nothing comes close
to the golden coast
Once you party with us
You’ll be falling in love
Oooooh Oh Oooooh

California squirrels
We’re unforgettable
Shirley Temples
Umbrellas on top
Sun-kissed fur
So hot
We’ll melt your popsicle
Oooooh Oh Oooooh

California squirrels
We’re undeniable
Fine, fresh, furry
We got it on lock
West coast represent
Now put your hands up
Oooooh Oh Oooooh

Toned, Tanned
Fit and ready
Turn it up cause its gettin’ heavy
Wild, wild west coast
These are the squirrels I love the most

I mean the ones
I mean like they’re the ones
Don’t diss ’em
Or parti pris ’em
They’re lots of fun

The squirrels are freaks
They form their own cliques
The coons on the beach
They’re okay
They won’t play
They love the Bay
Just like they love LA
Venice beach
and Palm Springs
Summer time is everything

Homeboys
Hangin’ out
All that fur
Hanging out
Zucchinis, tankinis, martinis
No weenies
Just a king
and a queen-ie

Hammy, gone glam-ie
(yeah)
now look at ’em, Vern-ie
(uh huh)
We’re all up on ’em
Cause they representin’ California too
(ohhh yeah)

California squirrels
We’re unforgettable
Shirley Temples
Umbrellas on top
Sun-kissed fur
So hot
We’ll melt your popsicle
Oooooh Oh Oooooh

California squirrels
We’re undeniable
Fine, fresh, furry
We got it on lock
West coast represent
Now put your hands up
Oooooh Oh Oooooh
(California, California)

California squirrels
I wish they all could be
California squirrels
(California)
I really wish
You all could be
California squirrels
(California, squirrels*2)

*1 Sourcing Innovation is not responsible for any effects, adverse or otherwise, that result from watching the video.

*2 the doctor is not sure what’s worse, California Squirrels or Terror Squirrels!

Forget the Champagne – The Real Gift is the Visionary White Paper

In conjunction with the IFPSM (International Federation of Purchasing & Supply Management), BravoSolution just released a brief 18-question survey determined to deduce the current state of sourcing and procurement initiatives globally. If you take just a few minutes of your time to fill out the survey and define the priorities driving your organization’s initiatives, the level of integration that currently exists between your organization’s procurement/sourcing and ERP systems, the applications you currently use, the services you currently use, the benefits you have seen, and the level of value you expect to see, you get entered into a draw to win a free bottle of champagne.

And if you are also willing to fill out an 8-box registration form, you can get exclusive access to the new Sourcing Innovation white-paper on The Future of Optimization!

Even if you are a visionary early adopter who is leading the way in the use of decision optimization who thinks she has a firm handle on where optimization is going, I guarantee you’ll learn a lot from this paper. Even though decision optimization in strategic sourcing has been around for ten years, which would make it a mature technology, in many ways it is still in its infancy. Most solutions barely meet the four pillars that define the basic requirements. Despite the increasing number of players who have started using the term “optimization” in recent years, the doctor still only recognizes six providers as having true strategic sourcing decision optimization solutions. Furthermore, the average solution doesn’t handle complex Bills of Materials, multi-variate trade-off objectives, or true make-vs-buy analysis, which would now seem to be a basic requirement for complex (outsourced) manufacturing. But even this is just the tip of the opportunities iceberg.

So take the survey, fill out the form, get your copy of The Future Optimization, and be the first to get some groundbreaking insight on eight directions that strategic sourcing decision optimization is likely to take in the decade ahead!