It was very strange. I had a meeting AT Yammer last Thursday, then the next day I heard they let 40 employees go. Certainly, nothing was mentioned to me  while I was there.

Interestingly enough, Yammer had scheduled a Community Management YamJam today in their O365 Yammer network, which I plan to attend. I am sure the issue of the layoffs will come up.

Larry Glickman

Director Network Engagement  and Collaboration

Union for Reform Judaism

lglickman@...

Doug,

Thanks for the update.

In my experience, when the people who have a passion for the product are gone, the product fades away…

I hope this is not the case and that the Yammer user community continue the great connections work the community managers were doing. Short sighted decision, but that’s the stupidity of big organisations run by bean counters.

I hope you and your colleagues are all OK.

A

Hi Stephen,

I just finished a chapter yesterday that is completely aligned with your sentiments. It explored the shortening of cycles and how efficiency and tactics for outputs has almost drowned out strategic effectiveness/sustainability for outcomes. Perhaps you caught the (justifiably) grumpy bug via my email?  Seems antivirus algorithms don’t detect that type of infection… J

Beware, coffee can fuel adrenalin spikes and calming may not be the outcome (best double check your next email before posting as a safety net).

A good weekend to all (enjoy your coffee slowly and short escape from the rat race).

Hi Bruce,

I strongly support your comments on the benefits of social interactions for learning. I have used a variety of ways of doing this over time and have found blending the learning conversations into the social interactions of the learner networks  certainly enhances the quality of learning.

I am mentoring a mature aged PhD student from Bangkok University who is researching this. She is a former business woman who is now a practicing tertiary teacher who was doing this as part of her natural teaching style. She is generating good support for how this works and how to optimise it.

Howie,

You make a good point about the limitations of how large organizations (don’t) think. They do not compare apples with apples (mainly because they are ignorant of where true value is created).

They measure the cost of supporting the social software in tangible terms because it is easily measured.  Simply add up the number of people involved and multiply by the salaries.

However, because many of the benefits generated are (on the surface) intangible, they are too lazy (ignorant?) to explore the tangible value that flows from  these. How many hours have you saved by securing an answer for SIKM Leaders forum (or any other social forum)- probably many = benefits (and probable ROI). These are not included.

Ask other questions of relevance to enable eliciting of the tangible value created from intangibles…

How many errors have I avoided because I learnt something to avoid?

How much more productive am I because I engage with others (both in terms of elevated capabilities and motivation)?

How much does out social interactions reduce our staff turnover and increase our productivity?

How does our culture with a strong sense of belonging and shared purpose attract the best talent?

Why do I invest my time and effort sharing ideas on social forums like SIKM Leaders?

The list can go on extensively, but the bean counters don’t know the questions and don’t know their value.  Why?

Because they are rewarded on short term savings, not on the growth they generate. They are control and spending focused rather than investment and ROI focused.

Sometimes we are our own enemies too. We claim the benefits for ourselves rather than being humble and thanking the community for our performance. Why?

Because we too are measured on our short term productivity. It is more personally and reputation rewarding to say it was me, than to thank others.

Real leaders say “look at what the team have achieved” (rather than look at the difference I made). If we changed our mindsets (and measured success in terms of longer-term outcomes instead of short-term outputs), we would not be having this conversation.  It would be clear to everyone that removing the community facilitators is detrimental to creativity, innovation, belonging, trust, loyalty, productivity and many other “intangible measures”, leading ultimately overall performance enhancement. Only when we start to measure these things and link them to tangible benefits will the decision makers change their approach.

As Einstein stated:

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.

On that note, Thanks folks- I have always enjoyed our conversations and I have learnt a lot from those who share their ideas (even from those I don’t agree with).

A