It’s great to see the people sharing their talents
“…Talent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing…”Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Whether you need help around the home, at work, in business or you’re just looking to expand your repertoire of skills there’s a growing range of time and talent on offer.
Creating opportunities for others to help
Now, everyone likes to be able to help other people because it’s a good thing. Yet apparently we are not so willing to give others the opportunity to help us.
True fact though people; every single one of us has something to learn from others. If you aspire at all to helping other people please consider this.
One of the kindest things you could do for another person may simply be to help them feel needed by allowing them the opportunity to help you.
With time trade one’s own motivation to help others comes second. It’s about putting the needs of others before myself by focusing less on the need to be needed – who can I help?, how can I help? – and more on outcomes that can only be secured by enlisting the time and talents of others – how can another persons talents, skills and time help me and others?
It would be great to see every member contribute at least one Time Request in an effort to provide others the opportunity to help.
Thanks to your feedback
And on that note I have to say again a big thanks to everyone that has offered feedback on the beta site. I’ve added all your thoughts to the user voice forum We are working on implementing you’re suggestions so keep them coming. This week thanks to your feedback:-
The loop hole that allowed people to create multiple responses on a single trade has been closed. Now when you view a trade in the Marketplace that you have offered or accepted time on you will have a link to “view open trade”.
We have added a “My Posts” page to your Workspace to make it easy to view and edit all the trades that you have posted. It’s pretty basic right now but it’s the basis for an evolving history of all your trades.
Changes to Work Flow
Where as before you could begin trading simply by hitting the “offer time” or “accept offer” buttons we think it makes sense to begin by starting a conversation, right? So you now create a message before you hit the button.
By default trades remain visible in the marketplace but you can now hide or display listings instead of deleting and creating new ones. There’s now a link in the right hand column visible on your trades and posts.
There’s an old school mantra that advises “do not underestimate the competition” because knowing your competition is necessary in order to build strategic advantage. Yet from a Gen Y perspective, many of those same competitors are potential collaborators.
If we were to offer a mantra of advice in regards to competition it would be to “seek opportunity to collaborate rather than compete” which makes it ever more frustrating that the older generation, people we would also like to collaborate with, continue to deny the talents and capabilities of my generation.
Even an over educated, under experienced MBA student knows that success comes from being able to climb the greasy management pole. You don’t do that by trumpeting that you know it all or that Facebook is the interface proxy for enterprise applications.
Try that in this economy and you’ll be at the head of the queue when the next round of pink slips are distributed (sic). You can only know that from having worked in enterprises, experienced the nuances of management practice and negotiated the politics of power. Source
This comment completely fails to recognise that management hierarchy’s are not the future. While they might have worked for the industrial revolution, entrepreneurship, collaborative, mobile, networked teams are the future of our knowledge economy.
Political Hierarchies vs Collaborative Teams
Sorry, old guard but we don’t actually need to climb your “greasy management pole” because with today’s technology we can connect and circumvent your traditional hierarchy’s to collaborate and build businesses of our own.
Rather than politics, power and vainglorious titles we aspire to work together as co-founders in recognition of our interdependent need for each others talents, skills and trust.
Our entrepreneurial spirit makes us increasingly willing and able to take risks, our education has armed us with knowledge and insight and today’s technology allows us to connect, share and collaborate in new, more effective ways.
Dismissing the fact that we are tech natives, and assuming that we need to be “employees” fails to recognise that we are creators of our own future.
Love us or hate us 10 years from now we will represent almost 40% of the New Zealand workforce. Perhaps it’s time to accept that aspects of our work ethic, like our collaborative spirit, may be the best form of work organisation for a knowledge based economy.
I am a fan of the solution orientation of think small as a way to address national issues and this morning, reviewing the ever popular issue of “The Recession” I came across the following solution which necessitated a supportive yet alternative response, except I ran out of room there to comment so decided to share my thoughts here…
Some graduates may have found lately that in their respective field they cannot get a job. As the economy is as it is, companies are more reluctant to hire even experienced staff as they do not feel they can afford it, which unfortunately means it’s very difficult for an inexperienced university graduate to get a job. To this end, it may be wise if you are in this situation to consider going back to university and doing a post graduate degree, not only will it give you something to do to fill your time, but it will also give you that advantage over other candidates when the economy settles down and companies are looking to hire again.
My Comment
“We are already the most highly educated generation in the workforce (+) yet the study work transition dilemma still exists. Further education doesn’t solve the problem for graduates it merely postpones it. Wait to be hired!? Guys, we need to think Entrepreneur vs. Employee. Why wait in line to be employees when we can determine our own future?
While education is undeniably an advantage the issue which compelled me to comment is simply that the problem as stated “it’s very difficult for an inexperienced university graduate to get a job” is not solved by telling them to continue on the same path, further education.
We need education applied in combination with our natural strengths our entrepreneurial spirit and tech know how.
As a combination we then have:
With education – the knowledge to create and transform ideas;
With entrepreneurship – the ability to risk and achieve and;
With technology – the tools to find connect and work together in new collaborative ways
Why be dependent on traditional “employment” when we can determine our own future in the workforce by becoming the next generation of talented entrepreneurs vs. employees? With the right team and a good idea building a company need not be as risky as it has been made to look. Begin by finding and connecting with talented others, somewhere like a talent community
With John Keys announcing a $152 million package to create new work, education and training opportunities for unemployed young people we’re feeling even more confident that our vision around helping the youngest working age generation transition into work will find support on many levels. Well, we hope that it does but at the very least we’re reassured to learn that our mission aligns with the concern of our current Prime Minister who said yesterday:-
I am concerned for our young people.Those aged 18-24 are the fastest growing age group on the Unemployment Benefit, representing a third of all those who receive it.
The number of young people who wanted a job but couldn’t get one has more than quadrupled in the past year, leaping from less than 4000 in June 2008 to nearly 17,000 by June this year.
My concern is that for a young person starting out in their working life, a long period of unemployment could be very damaging. Source
Quid Pro Quo: Using Time Trade to Encourage Young People to Volunteer
When we looked at solving problems relating to work it was quickly evident that young people are the demographic most in need of solutions. So we got together to identify ways we could help them transition from study to work.
Lacking the work experience needed to gain value from our contractors’ marketplace we focused instead on ways that we could help them build the necessary work expereince, skills and references.
By incorporating unpaid work into our formula and encourage volunteering through the concept of Time Trade, we identified ways to:-
1) provide a measure of value and recognition for the development of a peer mentoring scheme, using time credits.
Enlisting alumni to mentor upcoming graduates about work life and career paths. Those graduates, in turn, trade their time to perhaps tutor fellow students who in turn again volunteer in their community and build valuable work skills.
2) provide incentive and reward to encourage more young people to volunteer, using time credits.
We believe volunteer work develops a service orientated work ethic and skills that assist the study to work transition. Some of the skills we know volunteers can develop include:-
Leadership & team building skills
Relationship building skills
Communication skills
Negotiation skills
Creative thinking skills
Organisation & time management skills
As Social Development and Employment Minister Paula Bennett points out encouraging Gen Y to become involved in our communities creates win-win situations. Her comments about the Community Max Scheme could as easily apply to Worknow:-
“This is all about providing opportunities – we see this as a very positive approach to addressing youth unemployment while helping fund useful community projects… I believe this is a win-win situation.”
Where we differ is that we intend the growth of youth volunteers to be a permanent fixture of tomorrows communities hence the development of out Time Trade platform.
Time Trade aka Time Banking is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community.
In recognition for your contribution you receive one Time Credit which you can then gift or trade, with other members of the community, in exchange for their talent and time. It’s a simple idea, but it has powerful ripple effects in building community connections.
Here at Worknow we are building an online system to automate the transfer of time credits between Community Members. Our Time Trade system comes online August 2009. For more information check out these links:-
Being Maori, I was raised with a cultural notion of collective and collaborative action.
As a child my mum and her brother and sisters would spend hours developing their collective world view. To onlookers it could have seemed that they simply talked and argued, often, about the same issues.
Yet, such a simplistic point of view belies the nuances of tribal etiquette that are integral to creating collective purpose. Simple rules that can and should be applied throughout society. For instance:-
When making a decision or deciding on a course of action that affects others, everyone is allowed the chance to voice their opinion.
Inevitably multiple opinions leads to conflict but it is important to recognise this as part of the process, rather than a problem. The discussion should continue for as long as takes for everyone to be heard.
It’s not about majority rule, tribal communities were never a democracy. Leaders must make decisions for others to follow.
Followers need not necessarily agree because in having their voice heard and in listening to others there now exists a shared understanding of why the decision is made.
Tribal etiquette can help build a shared sense of purpose and strengthen teams when we:-
Encourage and support collaborative process that openly allow people to offer their opinion or point of view.
Recognise that conflict is natural and inevitable, it can even be constructive. Note though, it has taken me many years to realise that many people do not share this understanding.
Don’t take conflict too personally, we all have the right to disagree.
Value constructive criticism, what better way to refine and craft ones thinking than to have it challenged.
Worknow is a community and marketplace to help people find, connect and work together
The greater our collective purpose the more shared intelligence we build together the stronger we become.
A wise person once offered me a very simple piece of relationship advice
“…make sure you talk about and discover what you each value…”
Now, I took that advice and to my dismay discovered that this guy that I was into thought “democracy” more important than my most fundamental life values.
This simple revelation was a turning point in that relationship and eventually, try as I might to think “…perhaps it didn’t matter…” the ever widening gulf between our personal values led to the demise of said relationship.
Lesson Learnt.
Finding Common Ground
As a new venture team, one of the most important activities our team undertook was taking the time to sit down and share with each other our goals, our dreams and our values and discuss what we hoped to achieve with Worknow.
We came up with a list of guiding values and our statement of intent which is simply:-
to create a world class business that helps people and effects change.
We also took the time to discuss our strengths and potential weakness’ which, as you may know, have more in common than many people expect and through this process discovered that we are a very strong team.
People. Our Greatest Strength
I can say with confidence that out team is one of our greatest strengths, we are talented, motivated, skilled and experienced but more than that we are aligned. We found our common ground and the shared purpose towards which we, as a team and individuals, aspire.
But it is not just our team that I mean when I say people are our greatest strength. It is everyone that we come in contact with during this process.
In order for our business to work we need to discuss and discover what other people value and aspire to achieve. And in learning these things find a common ground upon which to collaborate and achieve shared goals.
It’s starting to get a bit text book right, but honestly the more people we talk to the more feedback we get, the more questions we are asked and the easier it becomes to clarify and refine exactly how we will achieve our goals.
Worknow Community People
We are gathering a community of talented people that seek new more collaborative and flexible ways to work together because we believe networking technology can help foster and harness the collective potential of existing communities and distributed groups.
Today’s social networking tools will foster and harness the collective potential of existing communities and distributed work groups by helping us to create, connect and collaborate as project teams, regardless of time or place. They need simply be applied by private business’ in conjunction with government to enhance New Zealand’s productivity.
No longer limited by time or place or disadvantaged by the costs of travel, the concept of using networking tools to facilitate government procurement offers SME’s and dispersed project teams the ability to compete with larger corporations at an unprecedented level.
Job Summit Agenda for Action
The Minister of Commerce, in consultation with Ministers of Finance, Economic Development and State Services are looking to lead the rapid reform government of procurement processes to improve access for small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s). Such reform looks to mirror the actions taken by the Australian government to boost production and jobs.
Nearly $4 billion worth of NSW government goods and services including uniforms, cars and even trains, will have to be sourced from Australian companies in order to boost local production and jobs, in an upcoming budget announcement that has been welcomed by Australian unions.
Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Trevor Hanson says this idea should be adopted immediately in New Zealand.
“We have watched the collapse of LWR recently with the loss of large numbers of jobs – so why are we not insisting that Government requirements for uniforms and clothing go through this and other local companies?” Source
At Worknow we support the move by government to reform the procurement process and are developing an online marketplace to help SME’s connect with such work opportunities.
Social networking tools will play an important role in the future of work organisation by helping us to create, connect and collaborate as project teams, regardless of time or place.
As workers move toward contracting and business’ take the opportunity to outsource work to increase productivity new methods of organising and facilitating work will arise.
Institutional “containment” as we know will cease to exist and with it the barriers to productivity that stalled the growth and development of our people and businesses.
Networking Tools & Platforms
Today’s social media tools and network platforms have created an environment where communication, collaboration and coordination are already in use. They need simply be applied in business to make it quicker and easier to get work done.
No longer limited by time or place or disadvantaged by the costs of travel, the concept of using networking tools to facilitate projects begins a paradigm shift in the way we think about and accomplish work.
IT and business technology will take center stage in the post-recession economy. The crisis…will sweep away organizations that do not grasp the importance of and utilize social network technologies.
Innovation will be defined by networks, [collaborating to] work with partners or competitors or customers using social technologies. George Colony, CEO of Forrester.
The way we work is changing and with it comes a shift in power, away from the corporate hierarchy that directed and controlled productivity in the past towards the innovative, more flexible contract workers that are ready and able to work, as needed.
Connect & Collaborate with Worknow
Networking tools and platforms give individual contractors and dispersed project teams the ability to compete with institutions at an unprecedented level. At Worknow we support this more flexible, entrepreneurial work ethic and are here to help contractors find, connect and collaborate on project work opportunities..
I came to odds once, with a baby boomer manager, who directed me to “spin” some benefits in a communication to potential clients that I had been working with.
“It’s marketing 101,” she insisted, when I defended my copy as being honest and direct. There were no benefits for the client that I could fathom and when I raised this point she urged that I had best “learn how to spin” marketing copy.
“So you want me to learn to lie,” I thought.
In response I told her that I valued open, honest communication and while I was happy for my draft to be altered, I would not put my name to a communication that I did not support or believe.
Now, we both cared about the project but that I did not “comply” with her direction was solely a values based decision. I did not want to comprise my being open and honest to learn how to “spin” invented benefits for our clients.
I perhaps naively thought such values would be respected but as time showed, she saw me as creating barriers to getting work done rather than being a person of integrity.
Baby Boomer vs Generation Y
In retrospect it is very clear that our generational differences, Baby Boomer vs Gen Y were at the root of our conflict:
[Gen Y are] are less afraid to confront and discuss issues with their peers and their superiors.
And how does this freedom and authenticity translate into the business world? It doesn’t.
It would crush the carefully constructed hierarchical structure to pieces. It’s a strange and obscure network of relationships that determines the real power in businesses.
If everything is said candidly and openly, this network loses its function. People lose their power. Read Source
Gen Y’s need for Authenticity
Because Gen Y want to feel that we work to contribute to something meaningful in this instance the idea of inventing the truth, a.k.a lying, was in stark contrast to my personal need for authenticity yet to my manager it was a learned and acceptable way to convey one’s point.
For me, voicing my personal values, was part of being true to myself but perhaps my manager considered it insubordinate and a threat to her authority.
For my generation (and other people) working together involves connecting and collaborating but many of the old school still adhere to the hierarchical methods of directing and controlling which were once the status quo.
Consequently, to challenge my managers perspective, and assumed authority to direct my “compliance” was to risk my position within the heirarchy.
However, what must be understood about Gen Y is that our need for authenticity is a much stronger driving force than the false sense of security promoted by “employment”.
We are a generation willing to take risks, for ourselves and the things we believe in, which is a symptom of our stronger entrepreneurial tendencies.
Gen Y Perspective
While I am not exactly objective about the scenario related here it is simply a means to discuss what I see as the generational mindset difference between “manager employee” relationships of the past and the more entrepreneurial, collaborative teams of our future.
To qualify my point of view, I recognise that in some industries “employment” will always remain the most effective form of getting work done, retail for instance.
But I believe it is time to recognise that many forms of work in our knowledge economy – web development, design and many creative tasks – need no longer operate as a manager employee relationship.
Indeed, contract outsourcing this type of work will increase productivity and save companies time and money by facilitating a more flexible, motivating work environment for people with specialised talent and skill.
