The document discusses why project managers should care more about social media. It argues that social media allows for many-to-many communication and collaboration, moving organizations from a hierarchical command-and-control structure to networked structures. This shift mirrors the transition from Industrial Revolution-era capitalism to modern capitalism. By embracing social media, project managers can help lead organizations from Enterprise 1.0 models to more adaptive Enterprise 2.0 models with information and power flowing throughout networks. The document encourages project managers to start using social media like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to learn new communication styles and help drive this revolutionary change.

1. Why Project Managers should
care more about Social Media than
they do (Hint: It involves changing
the world.)
Elisabeth Bucci
Projissima Inc.
December 4, 2013

2. Agenda
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Where are the PMs?
What is « social media »?
Why bother?
Once upon a time in capitalism
Change the shape
Revolution
What I don’t get
Go forth and change the world

3. Where are the PMs?
•
•
•
•
Way back in 2008
Two worlds
One: This stuff will change the world
The other: Twitter is for breakfast and Facebook
is for teenagers

4. Numbers

5. Just a fad.
Sure.

6. What is social media?

7. What is social media?
interaction among people in which they create,
share, exchange information and ideas in
networks
allow the creation and exchange of usergenerated content
builds on the technology of Web 2.0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

8. What is Web 2.0?
allows users to interact and collaborate as
creators of user-generated
content in a
network
beyond the static pages of earlier web sites and
passive viewing of content.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

9. What is Web 2.0?
Web 1.0
Web 2.0
1:many
many:many

10. Pop quiz:
Are email and SMS social media?

11. What does social media look like?

12. user-generated content
What’s happening in
my network
notifications
Status report

13. Timeline

14. So why should PMs care about social
media?
• Communicate better!
• Get out of your email Inbox
• Notifications = what’s important to you
• Streams give us the information we want
when we need it (and not in emails)
• Write better emails when we have to
• short = 140 characters
• catchy titles

15. So why should PMs care about social
media?
• Status reports
• communicate the right information at the right
time to the right people
• Get out of the shared network drive
• organize information better
• find what we need faster

16. But wait! How does this
change the world?
I promised you a revolution…

17. Once upon a time in capitalism
• Second industrial revolution
• 1860s – 1914
• Perfect storm
• communication = telegraph
• technology = interchangeable parts
• technology = electricity
• transportation = railroad network
• making lots of the same thing cost way less
(90%) as long as you keep making them

18. Once upon a time in capitalism
owner capitalism
managerial capitalism
birth of…
factory assembly line
big companies
complexity
managers
and…

19. Once upon a time in capitalism
command-control
hierarchy

20. Once upon a time in capitalism
all well and good for
factories, but what about
projects?

21. Change the shape

22. Change the shape
matrix structure
main purpose is to
manage the complexity
that hierarchy cannot

23. Change the shape

24. Change the shape
PM

25. Change the shape
does this really look like a matrix to you?
PM

26. Change the shape
PM
PM

27. Change the shape
PM
PM

28. Change the shape
from 1:many to many:many

29. Change the shape
from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

30. Change the shape
from triangles to circles

31. Change the shape
from Entreprise 1.0 to 2.0

32. Change the shape
We need to change
the shape
not triangles
not squares
but circles
many circles
all interconnecting

33. Change the shape
from Entreprise 1.0 to 2.0

34. Enterprise 1.0, with command and control, is
limited in its capability by the intelligence and
capability of the Executive team. In 1.0
enterprises, the workforce is there to amplify the
capabilities of the executives. Executives are the
constraint...it is the executives that restrain
growth and capability because the organization
cannot amplify what the executive can't see.

35. In Enterprise 2.0 power and capability flows
the other way — from the network to the
leadership. In Enterprise 2.0, executives
(leaders) inquire and align collective
intelligence and capability. They can access
the collective capabilities of the workforce.

36. Entreprise 1.0
power flows
from
executive to
employee
role of
executive:
to command
and control

37. Entreprise 2.0
role of executive:
to inquire and align
power flows
from networks to
executive

38. Revolution
Welcome to the revolution.

39. Revolution
Remember these words?
create
interact
user-generated content
exchange information
share
collaborate
networks

40. If only we had a technology
that could help manage all of
those networks…

41. You cannot do Entreprise 2.0
without the technologies of
Web 2.0...
and social media.

42. What I don’t get

43. What I don’t get
• We are already good at networks, collaboration,
exchanging information, sharing
• Why? We’ve had no choice
• We know how to get teams to collaborate and
produce results despite the limits of commandcontrol
• So why are we afraid to embrace social media?
• Why are we not leading the charge?
• Where are we??

44. What I don’t get
• We are better adapted to Entreprise 2.0 than
command-control executives
• We can lead the transition
• If we don’t, someone else will

45. Go forth and change the world

46. Go forth and change the world
• Master these communication media
– Join Big 3 Twitter, Facebook, (Google+)
– You’re already on LinkedIn, right?
• Yes. Facebook. Don’t argue.
• Why?
–
–
–
–
1+ billion people
the young employees coming in already do
Whatever comes next will build on Facebook
You can’t drive on the expressway before you’ve
learned to drive in the street

47. Go forth and change the world
• understand
– streams (News Feed), notifications, asynchronous
conversations, all without email
• get used to what many:many feels like
• Twitter: master the art of the status update.
• Figure out how to follow this type of conversation
(asynchronous, short spurts).
• Connect. Share.
• Make it fun. Choose your interests.

48. Go forth and change the world
• LinkedIn: don't just sit there, share!
– what do your community members "like"?
• Share and observe who likes what you share,
adjust (aka ―marketing)
• Bonus points: write a blog post, PMI Montreal
will be launching one in 2014
• Super duper bonus points: start a blog
• Give it 6 months
• Then…we'll have another conversation

49. Recap
• Social media is Web 2.0.
• Web 2.0 involves user-generated content,
networks, interaction, sharing and collaboration
• Command-control hierarchy is a 180-year-old
business model. Let’s stop using it, shall we?
• We need to change the shape: from triangles to
circles; from pyramids to networks.

50. Recap
• In Enterprise 1.0, the executive is the constraint;
role is command-control. Power flows down.
• In Entreprise 2.0, the executive interacts and
aligns. Power flows from the networks
(employees) to the executives.
• You can’t do Entreprise 2.0 without Web 2.0 /
social media.
• Master social media. Consider it training for the
coming revolution.

51. ―We cannot command-control
our way through the pace and
the complexity of 21st century
business and society.‖
The Future of Social Business is Paved with Good
Intentions, CMS Wire, Deb Lavoy

52. Do I hate hierarchy? You decide.
Blog posts:
The managerial hierarchy: decaying,
rotten, broken
A thing for pyramids
Talk: A thing for pyramids

53. Let’s continue the conversation…
asynchronously!
blog: www.thepassionateprojectmanager.com
Twitter: @ElisabethBucci
LinkedIn: Elisabeth Bucci
Google+: Elisabeth Bucci

54. Questions?