productivity – InnerVentures

After dissolving the business I had started (more on that here: Birth of Enterprise Social) I continued using the brand to create a platform for thought leadership. I originally had some thoughts around thought leadership (funny that :) in an enterprise environment but decided to put it into practice for myself – see diagram for some quick notes on my thinking.

Essentially a blogging platform which I made available to a group of contributors and thought leaders. Mostly they were friends or colleagues who I knew were good writers and extremely knowledgable on the subject of enterprise social which we were all in at the time, i.e. social networking, innovation and collaboration in the enterprise.

I’ve added this project to the technology solutions category but it was much more than just about technology. We wrote about change management, culture, methodologies, etc. All of the things that make for the real success behind social technology adoption and implementation within the enterprise.

The platform I created was based on WordPress using a multi-author magazine site theme. The video shows different elements of the site:

Home page with aggregated content including featured and recent content filtered by category
A page to show authors / contributors and a sign up page if you wanted to become one
A landing page promoting specific events and activities linked to from an ad in the side bar of the site
A page with aggregated videos integrated from YouTube with automated updates every time you added videos to a playlist
WordPress admin view with calendar plugin to manage post scheduling and author contributions

I’ve written two trend reports so far, both available on iBooks only. I chose iBooks because of my intended audience – senior executives who are most likely to have the devices that can access them. The process of publishing for iBooks is also super easy by using iBooks Author – software that manages the creation and publishing side of things.

The context for both is Work of the Future and they are part of a series. My third is currently in progress here.

Below is the first I wrote:

Mindful over Mind Full

Technological innovation is advancing at breakneck speed. We are inundated with choices and overloaded with information. The pace is outstripping our coping mechanisms. Can technology itself help us catch-up or is it time for a new approach?

Mindfulness practice has its origins in the East and is based on ancient Buddhist practice rooted in meditation. It is more than 2 thousand years old and calling Mindfulness the “latest self-help fad” totally ignores how the practice is gaining acceptance among those who would otherwise consider meditation a bit flaky: Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Pentagon chiefs, FORTUNE 500 titans, among others.

Individuals and organisations are cottoning onto the benefits of Mindfulness practice which can be completely secular in nature. Organisations have understood that it’s a means to healthier and happier employees which leads to better results for the company. Employees are happier, more focused, stress free and more productive, making better decisions for themselves and on behalf of the organisation.

There are many ways you can create a more mindful organisation through team practices or by making space for individuals to practice on their own. This report is full of examples about how to go about doing this. Examples are shared of what leading organisations and leaders are doing already with dramatic results and what you could do too.