Social Ecosystems
(Group, Team or What??)
Eating Our Own Dogfood
Vs
Being Our Own Dogfood
In nature, success is about capability
In Ecosystems,
connection lives at the core of this success.
Highly connected networks – Ecosystems
breed astonishing capabilities
And astonishing success.
Same in
business
In natural ecosystems and semantic
ecosystems, interconnected wholes become
greater than the sum of their parts
Capability …
•
•
•
•
•
•
Thrive in highly competitive environments
Adapt to and capitalize on rapidly changing scenarios
Better access resources.
Discover new opportunities.
Perspective that informs winning decisions
Get it right.
Intelligent Data Structures
Natural
Artificial
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•






Flocks
Herds
Schools
Colonies
Forests
Reefs
Brains
Tribes
Communities
Companies
Businesses
Enterprises
Corporations
Teams
Task Force
Systems:
“Greater than
or different
from the sum
of their parts”
Group vs. System
Group
System
It’s all about the connections
Motivating Questions
What capabilities might be possible if OUR
connections were strong, vibrant, plentiful,
diverse?
If we were not just a collection of people, but
an ecosystem. A whole. A “body”
What happens to the capabilities and health
of an ecosystem (or a semantic network)
when the connections don’t exist or are
weak?
Why? Rationale
A Semantic Technology for Social Connection
• Create “triples” of interpersonal connection
• We are the “dataset” and the “triplestore”
• Make connections explicit vs. implicit
• Intentionally increase connection:
 Quantity
 Quality
 Strength
 Vibrancy
 Frequency
 Diversity
What if?
What if “social triples” exist that are:
•
Undiscovered?
•
Unconstructed?
•
Hidden?
•
Unreachable?
•
Un-queried
•
Un-queriable?
•
Uncategorized?
Blockers
• Lack of Awareness
• Isolating Social “Norms”
• Inhibition (appropriate and not)
• Lack “Need to Know”
• Unknown Categories
• Task vs. Process Focus
UX
“Social Artistry”
Antidote or “Solution”?
• Build Possibility of Connection
• Cultivate Awareness of Connection
• Observe/Notice Connection
• Facilitate Toward Connection
• Use Connection
• Maintain Connection
Take Home Message
• We often measure our “size” and contribution
individually. When we do it as a connected
system we measure of our emergent capacity
• We build capacity as an organization when we:
Orient toward connection, open to impact, reflect
and share impact.
• Feedback: Elicits, facilitates, develops and
sustains the emergence of a “self” in a system
Take Home Message
Circumstance impacts us individually and collectively.
Our openness and attention to each other allows us to use
the energy involved in impacts consciously and creatively.
•
Because we are different, there is always unintended
difference between impact and intention
•
Conscious choice to engage in the midst of difference
•
Differ “with” rather than differ “from”
•
Use these differences as resources to produce the things
and experiences and states that we value
Matrix Leadership Principles
• Establish and develop “Ground of Health”
• Connect person to person in “eyes and ears” of the
whole
• Inclusion of marginalized individuals, roles and
perspectives
• Facilitate capacity for differentiation in connection - from
internal habits, from each other, from social norms, from
influential systems
• Using Difference as Resource
• Distribute roles, conflicts
• Create high feedback environment
Quality
Quality
• Value Proposition
• Capabilities
• Relationships
Quality Definitions





Meet or Exceed Specifications
Meet or Exceed Requirements
Meet or Exceed Customer Needs
Meet or Exceed Customer Expectation
Meet or Exceed Customer Desires
Quality
Robert Pirsig – Philosopher, Author
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Care
“Quality is the trace left in the world by care”
• Value Proposition
• Capabilities
• Relationships