Week 5: The Professor and the Snap Shot -- Living in a Networked World

I recently enjoyed a conversation with a faculty member at our institution.  He has served the university as a professor of business and economics for over forty years.  He sauntered into my office perplexed by a recent confrontation with a student.  He was teaching a business ethics class and had just drawn an elaborate schematic to highlight various choices and coinciding values and philosophies that supported each potential choice.  He spoke animatedly of the complexity of this particular lesson and his aspiration to truly engage students in a thought-provoking discussion of business ethics and tradeoffs.  He repeatedly wondered why students were not taking notes, either on their computer or in their traditional notebooks.  On five separate occasions, he suggested that this was content for the upcoming test.  And then it happened, at the end of this thoughtful, well-articulated lecture, several students asked him to step to the side so they could take a picture of the elaborate schematic.  Within milliseconds, the students captured the essence of the lecture, imported the picture to their notes and sauntered out of the classroom.  This particular professor found himself caught between the ease of technology in capturing information and his concern about how much the students really internalized during the lecture.  Was it merely enough to photograph the schematic, or did the student miss something by not engaging the material in a more intentional manner?  This incident necessitated a discussion of the pros and cons of living in a flat world.  I reminded him that he could merely take a picture of the schematic and beam it up through the projection system sparing him of the work of elaborately drawing this all out on the whiteboard.  Then he suggested, merely taking a picture failed to capture the critical thinking gained through repetition, Socratic engagement, and questioning of the schematic and the process.  So began an intriguing discussion of the pros and cons of the networked world and its implications on learning and organizations.    

Friedman (2007) constructs a strong argument for the flattened world, first by introducing the ten flatteners and subsequently by illustrating the power of the triple convergence.  Clearly, organization’s benefit from the expanding use of technologies that strengthen teamwork, collaboration, and communication across the organization regardless of location, time or space (Pew Research, 2008).  Moreover, business is no longer confined to physical spaces, and networks now transcend the organization (Friedman, 2007).  Information remains instantaneously accessible, whether at work or at home.  Knowledge-sharing appears greatly enhanced by the growth of networked workers.  However, as with all advances, without clear organizational leadership that defines productivity expectations and provides timely feedback, these technologies may yield less robust outcomes than originally projected (Pew Research 2008).  The data suggests that networked workers find technology distracting.  The propensity to check email, quickly gather updates on breaking news, communicate with personal friends, or check our social networking sites yields decreases in focus and productivity (Pew Research, 2008).  Personally, I have found it necessary to establish personal habits about technology use to ensure appropriate work-life balance.  Without vigilance and discipline, I can easily become consumed by work and neglect important time with family, friends, and other responsibilities.

As Friedman suggests, “there is absolutely no guarantee that everyone will use these new technologies, or the triple convergence, for the benefit of themselves, their countries, or humanity.  These are just technologies.  Using them does not make you modern, smart, moral, wise, fair or decent” (2007, p. 536).  Friedman’s argument suggests again that the technology is only as effective as the leadership guiding the use of the technology or as the individual choosing to create disciplined approaches to the use of technology in one’s personal life.  Living and working in a networked world requires a new model of organizational guidance that clearly defines expectations and outcomes and gives appropriate feedback to ensure workers are aware of organizational expectations.  Similarly, leaders must equip teams to sort through a myriad of information to discern which knowledge may be reliable, valid, and useful for the organization.  Technology can enhance the effectiveness of the networked worker, but the technology alone remains incapable of determining how to best convert the information to useable knowledge. 

Thus, much like the professor in the opening story of this reflection, technology should not be confused with leadership or learning.  Technology may enhance both, but it still requires the human to sort through, process, discern and disseminate what is valuable for the organization.  Technology can crunch thousands of data points, but humans must still be able to critically analyze the data and draw conclusions.  Is taking a snapshot sufficiently capturing the learning in the class? Perhaps, but arguably, the student must take the picture and develop the skills to apply the learning gleaned through the process of thinking critically about the choices in the diagram.  A mere picture captured by technology fails to prepare the student or the worker for the true demands and balance required while living in a flattened world.   

Friedman, T. (2007).  The world is flat.  New York, NY:  Picador.

Madden, M. & Jones, S. (2008).  Networked workers.  Pew Internet & American Life Project, Washington, DC.  Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org

 

Redefining Work in the Knowledge Era

As the knowledge, web-based economy replaced the industrial economy, new frameworks evolved to redefine work, business strategy, and market opportunity.  Where the industrial economy was dominated by hierarchical command and control organizational structures, competition for scare resources, and the acquisition of physical infrastructure, the emerging knowledge economy reshapes these traditional economic assumptions.  Rather than hierarchical organizational structures, the knowledge, web-based economy values collaboration, networks, teamwork and access to information.  Similarly, the knowledge economy transitioned from a reliance on scare resources such as land, labor and capital to a new boundless, open and renewable resource:  information.  The knowledge economy shifted the business model from physically defined locations to vast, evolving global networks.  Organizations became adaptive, intelligent and self-regulating.  The impact of this global economic shift changed the nature of our work and our responsibility as leaders (Friedman, 2007). 

In the industrial age, the assembly line shaped the nature of work.  People honed a specific skill and repeated the task in a routine manner each day.  In contrast, today our work is “de-routinized” (Gartner, 2010).  Analysts argue, “the core value that people add is not the processes that can be automated, but in non-routine processes, uniquely human, analytical, or interactive contributions that result in words such as discovery, innovation, teaming, leading selling and learning” (Gartner, 2010).  Ideally, the knowledge economy values risk-taking, creativity, and a worker’s ability to learn and develop new skill sets. Successful knowledge era workers embrace flexibility, continual learning, and high performance work teams. 

Today’s workforce is more aptly described as a global ecosystem of skills and talents prepared to seize opportunities for emerging companies.  Teams of people, rather than single individuals, grapple with different challenges and opportunities on a daily basis.  People build off the ideas and lessons learned by others.  Collaborative knowledge is leveraged to enhance learning and strengthen the organization’s effectiveness.  Social networks facilitate global connectivity.  Friedman suggests that “the best companies are the best collaborators” (2007, p. 457).  Therefore, organizational leaders prepared to embrace the new model of work in a flattened world may more readily reap the benefits of the knowledge economy by developing organizational cultures committed to continual learning, team work, collaborative technologies, and institutional agility (Husband, N.D.).

To develop cultures prepared to embrace these attributes, leaders must first model such behaviors themselves.  They must model continual learning and foster strategic conversations with leadership teams about emerging trends.  Leaders must act to facilitate the transfer of knowledge between all levels of the organization.  Embracing horizontal structures that reward collaboration strengthens organizational effectiveness.  Moreover, leaders must also examine the viability of strategic partnerships and outsourcing as strategies for enhancing the organization’s pool of available resources.  Friedman asserts that strategic partnerships are not mere cost-saving measures, rather they enhance innovation and strengthen organizational outcomes. 

Perhaps it is ironic that the traditional citadel of knowledge creation – the university – finds difficulty in understanding its evolving role in a knowledge economy.  Arguably, the traditional university environment remains relatively similar to the university environment of four-hundred years ago.  Agrarian-oriented semester systems supported by traditional lecture-oriented classes remain the hallmark of most undergraduate education.  However, the emergence of the web-based economy of the past decade forced many institutions to rethink the traditional framework for the delivery of education.  This class, for example, models new pedagogical approaches delivered without the constraint of time, distance, or location.  Students engage in facilitated dialogues, cross-pollinating their knowledge base through interactions with class members who possess distinct and different skill sets.  As a university leader, my goal remains focused on facilitating through professional development, mentorships, partnerships and new interdisciplinary taskforces a redefined framework for both the content and delivery of a university education.  Agility and adaptability must define our organizational structure and culture in order to seize emerging opportunities.  Requiring the adoption of new technologies for communication and collaboration enhances the effectiveness of new teaching pedagogies and improves the vitality of the strategic conversations shaping our institutional strategic plan.  Furthermore, our institution is close to signing an agreement to collaborate with an international university in the developing world to deliver targeted adult education in areas of healthcare, basic communication, and small business management to meet specific and emerging needs within their regional economies.  These partnerships strengthen our faculty and students global connection to people from around the world, while simultaneously improving the educational base and economic opportunities of people in the developing world.  A knowledge-oriented economy fueled by a participatory, open and evolving web has dramatically altered our traditional models of work. 

Friedman, T. (2007). The World is Flat (3rd ed.) New York: Picador.

Gartner. (2010, August 4).  Gartner says the world of work will witness 10 changes during the next 10 years.  Retrieved from http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/1416513

Husband, J. (N.D.) What is Wirearchy? Retrieved from http://wirearchy.com/what-is-wirearchy/

 

A Triple Convergence?: Converting Information to Useful Knowledge

In the World is Flat, Thomas Friedman highlights the impact of the “triple convergence” on how the world creates, collaborates, and performs work (2007).  Specifically, Friedman maintains the first principle of convergence emerged in the development of the World Wide Web (2007).  This technology created a level playing field in which anyone had access to a vast array of knowledge regardless of geographic location or language.  The second convergence occurred as companies embraced a new organizational structure that emerged when knowledge became globally accessible.  Companies were no longer bound to geographic barriers or physical structures.  Rather, technology enabled companies to become vast global networks of people connected across continents, designing products and services to meet new consumer demands.  The final convergence occurred as the first two convergences yielded opportunities for individuals to compete for business on a global scale.  Applying the benefits of a flat economic environment, individuals and organizations could seize new opportunities created by the flattening of the world marketplace.   Friedman discusses how nearly three billion individuals suddenly had access to the global economy.   People began creating, collaborating, and networking to capture new opportunities, innovate, and penetrate new markets.  The vertical infrastructure of organizations, communication flow, and knowledge delivery collapsed next to a new horizontal model which brought knowledge, networks and collaboration to a whole new population of individuals while simultaneously redefining community (Friedman, 2007). 

With the proliferation of knowledge, leaders were challenged to discern strategies for harnessing the knowledge for improved productivity.  Nancy Dixon highlights the evolution of knowledge management.  Initially, she asserts that leaders saw knowledge creation as the capturing of “specific analytical content” (2009, May 2).  Initially, theorists suggested that knowledge creation was confined to the highest level of the organization.  Researchers attempted to identify functional best practices to standardize across all industries, thereby creating economic efficiencies.  However, this model failed to appreciate the vast knowledge resources at all levels of the organization.  Overtime, reliance on vertical models of knowledge creation limited the potential for a multi-layer, horizontal recognition of the knowledge assets at different levels within the organization.

Furthermore, Dixon (2009) suggested that while technology enabled knowledge to be accessed, sorted, and analyzed, humans were required to discern what makes knowledge useful.  Effective leaders recognize that we are no longer simply “capturing knowledge” rather we are “leveraging knowledge” through collaborative and collective conversations spanning social networks both internal and external to the organization.  Dixon posits that organizational leaders must learn to listen and leverage the “knowledge that is derived from the confluence of diverse perspectives and data from across an organization…that is brought to bear on important organizational issues” (2009, July).  Leaders must create environments supportive of creative conversations, innovative adaptations, and cognitive diversity (Dixon, July, 2009).  In this context, all members of the organization become co-creators of the future of an organization.  Knowledge assets enable organizations to seize evolving opportunities as they emerge in a flattened marketplace. 

Over the past decade, the web and other social networks have transformed from being identified solely as a repository of information, to a platform of interactive collaboration designed to generate knowledge and capture new opportunities (Dixon, July 2009).  While many people still use technology and the web for the primary purpose of browsing, searching and monitoring information, others are beginning to see it as a platform for rich intellectual discussion and engagement of complex issues (Gruber, 2008).  Tom Gruber furthers this argument, “We will know we are crossing into the new learning paradigm when we see a qualitative change in the way people think of interacting on the web.  Today that interaction pattern treats the web as an information source…Tomorrow, the web will be understood as an active human-computer system, and we will learn by telling it what we are interested in, asking it what we collectively know, and using it to apply our collective knowledge to address our collective needs” (2008, p. 12). 

Web-based tools assist the leader in sorting, classifying, and collecting relevant data to inform decision-making within the organization.  Similarly, web-based technologies encourage social networking allowing individuals to connect with thought leaders across the globe.  However, technology itself does not yield the benefits of a flattened environment; rather, human interaction with the knowledge acquired through the technology generates creative responses to emerging opportunities.  Without human engagement of the data, the information remains information and fails to convert to useful, applied knowledge capable of transforming individuals and organizations. 

 

Dixon, N. (2009, May 2).  Conversation matters:  where knowledge management has been and where it is going.  Part one.  Retrieved from http://www.nancydixonblog.com/2009/05/where-knowledge-management-has-been-and-where-it-is-going-part-one.html

Dixon, N. (2009, May 10).  Conversation matters:  where knowledge management has been and where it is going.  Part two.  Retrieved from http://www.nancydixonblog.com/2009/05/where-knowledge-management-has-been-and-where-it-is-going-part-two.html

Dixon, N. (2009, July 30).  Conversation matters:  where knowledge management has been and where it is going.  Part three.  Retrieved from http://www.nancydixonblog.com/2009/07/where-knowledge-management-has-been-and-where-it-is-going-part-three.html

Friedman, T.  (2007). The world is flat.  New York, NY:  Picador.

Gruber, T.  (2008).  Collective knowledge systems:  where the social web meets the semantic web.  Journal of Web Semantics, 6, 4-13. 

 

 

TED TALKS: Stretching the Imagination of Leaders

In this week’s Time magazine, Harvard professor, medical doctor, and chronic disease specialist Dr. Paul Farmer discusses efforts to relieve poverty and chronic disease in Haiti.  Farmer declares that our efforts to eradicate poverty, hunger, and chronic disease have not failed because of lack of knowledge or technology; rather he asserts, the failure is due to a lack of imagination (2013, p. 60).  In the Smithsonian Museum of American History, an entire exhibit is devoted to the American spirit of creativity and innovation.  Commenting on the importance of these attributes to the development of America, the exhibit notes, “From science and technology to the arts, a dynamic interaction of ideas, traditions, and talents has fueled new achievements and influenced the national experience.”

More recently, however, significant criticism has been leveled against the American education system for its overemphasis on standardized testing and a general apathy toward encouraging creativity and innovation (Robinson, 2011).  From this lens, in 1984 the first TED TALK emerged as an effort to cultivate creative thinking about our future in a variety of disciplines.  An annual conference began in 1990 and since then each year the TED Talk conference provides about thought leaders from across the globe a twenty-minute forum to share compelling ideas about improving humanity.  A non-profit organization, TED (technology, entertainment and design) provides free web access to these twenty-minute conversations as a “clearinghouse [of] free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers” (TED mission statement, n.d.).  The effort yielded a strong community of followers that began gathering annually to exchange ideas.  These ideas were recorded and placed on the internet for use by people around the world.  In November of 2012, TED Talks reached their billionth view validating the importance of using the internet as a medium for addressing and solving major global problems (TED reaches billionth viewer, 2012).  Arguably, accessing creative thinking through the internet confirms Friedman’s notion that technology enhances opportunity and access to the world’s thought leaders (2007).  Just this week, TED talks conducted its first television broadcast further introducing to the world its provocative, challenging, and compelling ideas for global consumption. 

In the university setting, faculty members rely on TED talks to promote classroom discussion of innovation, risk-taking, and change. TED Talks can be embedded within power points, videos, online learning modules, or other presentations.  Further, the brevity of the TED talks contributes to their effectiveness.  Students stay engaged in the discussion and the potential for blogging with millions of other viewers fosters collaborative interchange as well as potential networking connections. 

Leaders may use TED Talks to stay abreast of emerging trends related to their particular industry or discipline.  For example, during our university strategic planning discussions, we used several TED talks to facilitate small group conversations on such diverse issues as healthcare developments or new teaching/learning strategies (TED, 2013). 

Moreover, one important attribute of a leader is staying attune of emerging trends.  TED Talks provide a mechanism for leaders in all industries to continually stretch their thinking and connect with more diverse, global perspectives.  The following link provides access to several of the most popular TED talks. http://www.ted.com/playlists/77/new_to_ted.html

 

The TED Talks have diversified to include various focus areas:  women (TED WOMEN); global issues (TEDx); and local issues (TED).  Perhaps, a drawback of TED Talks is that they do not go into significant detail.  Typically, the talks provide a brief introduction to an emerging trend without specifying the details.  Some may argue that this limits the effectiveness of the tool.  Further, many of the ideas presented are philosophical constructs and fail to provide guidance on actual implementation strategies for the concepts. 

Other Technology Explorations and Their Impact in Higher Education

Higher education benefits from the inclusion of numerous digital technologies.  The online teaching faculty at our institution rely on Google docs and other cloud hosting technologies to exchange material and to collaborate on the development of lesson plans, learning projects and service learning efforts.  Furthermore, given my personal struggle with bookmarking content on the web, I investigated the Diigo web tool (www.diigo.com).  This tool enables the user to add virtual highlights, sticky notes, and bookmarks of important web content as well as save pictures of websites, take screen shots and cut and paste graphs and other important content for future use.  The user can then categorize and classify it for organizational purposes.  It is a relatively easy and free tool; however, some of the functions are not compatible with the IPAD. 

Overall, technology tools enable leaders to better leverage important knowledge on the web and use such knowledge in productive and efficient ways to improve the workplace and more importantly to stimulate the imagination to become creative problem solvers. 

 

Friedman, T.L.   The world is flat.  New York, NY:  Picador

Robinson, K. (2011).  Out of our minds.  Westford, MA:  Capstone.

TED:  Inspiring Ideas.  Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/

TED reaches its billionth video view. Ted Blog.  Retrieved from http://blog.ted.com/2012/11/13/ted-reaches-its-billionth-video-view/

 Ten Questions. Time Magazine, May 13, 2013, 60. 

Treasures of American History. National Museum of American History.  Retrieved from http://americanhistory.si.edu/treasures/creativity-and-innovation

www.diigo.com

Is the World Really Flat? Reflections on Week 1

The capacity of global networks to shape economies, political structures, and cultural norms confirms Friedman’s assertion that the world is increasingly flat (Friedman, 2007).  Historically, if one examined the economic and political forces that shaped the development of modern civilization, only a few countries actually made a notable footprint on our current civilization.  Today, the principle of globalization 3.0 suggests countless more nation states and individuals across the world have the capacity to benefit from the global economy, unlike in previous economic transitions, where only a small handful of countries dominated the economic marketplace. 

The distinction between Friedman and Florida lies in perceptions of the relative outcomes of trickle-down economic theory.  Friedman presents evidence from Bangalore, Gurgaon, and Northern China to suggest that globalization strengthens local economies by building a strong middle class (Friedman, 2007).  In contrast, Florida’s evidence from the World Bank and other international organization’s suggests that only a few regions benefit from the trickle down impact of innovation (2005). The most significant distinction between the two arguments lies in one’s interpretation of “opportunity.”  For Friedman (2007), globalization yields greater interconnectivity and thereby provides substantively more opportunity for individual actors across the globe to benefit from globalization.  Alternatively, Florida suggests that while “opportunity” may be more flat, those accessing the opportunity represent a select group of powerful players in the global innovation marketplace.  Thus, Florida argues that the world may more aptly be describe as “spiky” rather than flat (2005, p. 48).   According to Florida (2005), the beneficiaries of Globalization 3.0 are still largely clustered in developed economies.  Their growth continues to expand at rapid rates compared to less developed economies. 

While both of these texts were written prior to the 2008 economic downturn, recent data from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund suggest that emerging economies represent the highest percentage growth rates in the world (Global Finance, 2013).  While 100 years ago, three or four countries dominated the world trade markets, today emerging economies such as Brazil, Argentina, India, South Korea, China, Tunisia, Vietnam and others are making substantive improvement in economic output and general economic well-being in their respective countries.  Thus, globalization’s impact, while still confined to a limited number of countries does show evidence of expansion and flattening.

Friedman and Florida may actually find common ground when considering globalization beyond purely economic parameters.  Friedman’s argument for global flatness extends beyond pure economic benefit.  Moreover, Friedman’s belief suggests that by flattening global networks, our world inherently creates greater opportunity.  Whether and how people seize global opportunities is reflected in the Florida data, but this data doesn’t deny the fact that global networks still provide substantively more opportunities to connect, create, and collaborate than ever before.  Stanford professor Sebastian Thurn’s trial of a massive, open, online course (MOOC) flattened the world when 160,000 students from 190 different countries enrolled in an artificial intelligence course free of charge (Webley, 2012).  In less than five months, a Stanford education went from an opportunity for a privileged few, to an opportunity for students from across the world.  MOOC’s represent an example of individuals seizing an opportunity presented in a flattened global environment.  Similarly, various social networking tools continue to enhance global communication, collaboration, and business opportunities.  Telecommuting, webinar training, and global interconnectivity enabled countless small businesses across the world to operate in new and innovative ways.  Web sponsored, crowd-based fundraising built enables thousands of NGO’s currently operating in the developing world to secure recognition, resources and monetary support.  While much progress needs to be made to strengthen the economies of these regions, the web has led to resource acquisition and worldwide recognition of NGO’s that previously struggled to even exist.  Organizations such as charity water exemplify this trend.   

The web continues to impact how, what and where we conduct our work.  At our institution, many online teaching faculty connect with our university from across the nation and world.  Their ability to share experiences from diverse backgrounds and varying locations strengthens the experience of students enrolled in our online programs.  Similarly, for some types of institutional job searches, our human resource director relies on social media tools such as linked in to connect to prospective hires.  Finally, professional development has shifted from a once-a-year, travel to a conference or convention model, to substantively more webinars and other interactive web-based professional development seminars.  Thus, the frequency of professional development and the expanded network developed through interactions generated in those webinars further enhances the productivity of many staff within our organization. 

The participatory nature of the web fosters substantive global dialogue but it also has some drawbacks.  For example, individuals stating particular opinions or developing individual news blogs or media sites have usurped traditional media outlets.  Thus, the comprehensive and objective nature of traditional media outlets garners less attention than individual sites backed by limited journalistic investigation.  Similarly, the participatory nature of the web has generated significant content on the web.  Thus, people relying on the web for resources must sift through significant data to discern the accuracy and reliability of the data.  Overall, however, the increasing nature of participation ensures greater access for thousands of individuals to opportunities to improve their work and well-being. 

Global Finance (2013).  World GDP growth by region.  Retrieved from http://www.gfmag.com/component/content/article/119-economic-data/12376-economic-dataworlds-gdp-growth-by-regionhtml.html#axzz2SGQgNqsh

Florida, R. (2005, October).  The world is spiky.  The Atlantic Monthly. 

Friedman, T. L. (2007).  The world is flat.  New York, NY:  Picador.

Webley, K. (2012).  MOOC Brigade:  will massive open online courses revolutionize higher education.  Retrieved from http://nation.time.com/2012/09/04/mooc-brigade-will-massive-open-online-courses-revolutionize-higher-education/

 

 

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