Mass collaboration (think Wikipedia, and the term Web 2.0) on the web is and has been a hot topic for the past few years. Time magazines recent crowning of You as Person of the Year (read the article here) is just one example of media attention this topic is receiving. One thing that is for sure is this social phenomenon is changing the face of business. One of the latest releases on this subject, “Wikinomics” sets out to argue the benefits of the open source, mass collaboration model for businesses.

The authors are now organizing The Wikinomics Playbook: A Peer-Produced Guide to Business in the 21st Century. From the Wikinomics.com website:

“Wikinomics has 11 chapters, but only ten have yet been written. Chapter 11, The Wikinomics Playbook, will be written by you: a community of readers and experts like yourself who will share ideas about how to embed key Wikinomics concepts and principles in 21st century organizations and business enterprises.

Like Wikipedia, The Wikinomics Playbook will run a wiki: a revolutionary piece of software that enables anyone (including relative novices) to collaboratively edit the content of a Web page. Whether you’re a world renown expert in your field or an aspiring business school student you’ll have the opportunity to help write the definitive guide to strategy and value creation in the new era of mass collaboration.”

The wiki is set to open to the public Feburary 5th. Keep that date in mind if you are interested in collaborating.

Related Links:

• We Are Smarter Than Me - MIT Center for Collective Intelligence is publishing a collaborative book on how the emergence of community and social networks will change the future rules of business.
• Collective Intelligence blog - Not updated that frequently, but contains information surrounding CI
• What is Web 2.0? - Technology guru Tim O’Reily explains the concepts behind the ‘new’ version of the Internet

Books related to this subject:

• Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge by Cass R. Sunstein
• Collective Intelligence: Mankind’s Emerging World in Cyberspace by Pierre Levy, Robert Bononno
• The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom by Yochai Benkler
• The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few by James Surowiecki
• The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All by Tom Atlee, Rosa Zubizarreta

Maybe your idea of management and teamwork doesn’t first conjure imagery of the Seven Dwarfs and Snow White, or maybe you think that you can’t find any deep, meaningful business commentary while walking down Main St. at the Magic Kingdom.

Think again.

Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson (at http://www.capojac.com) have spent nearly 30 years researching, investigating, interviewing, and summarizing their findings on the way that the Walt Disney Company was run. The Disney Way presents their findings in a succinct manner, and also highlights seven inspiring companies who are enjoying immense success while utilizing the same principals that catapulted Disney to the top.



Chief among these principles lies the mantra of Walt Disney himself: Dream, Believe, Dare, Do. Read on for more explanation…

• Dream
  Whether you’re building the next iPod or improving your department’s file-storage process, it is important to begin every project with a dream and ask, “How can I improve this for everyone?” When trying to build something new or working to fix a process, it is vital that you have the end user in mind.
• Believe
  In order to increase the success with which you achieve your dreams, it is important (obviously) that you believe in yourself. But more importantly, realize that you can’t do everything yourself. Collaborations and partnerships can push your ideas further and yield results that are beyond even your initial, wildest dreams.
• Dare
  Quite simply, if you’ve got a dream and people that you believe in, go out on a limb and try something new. According to Capodagli, this is probably the most difficult facet of the 4-step process for most companies & people to “get”. The ability to dare is truly what can separate mediocrity from greatness.
• Do
  Capodagli suggests that often, success does not come from a product or idea itself, but rather from the implementation or process behind the idea. Thus, it’s crucial that you Practice, Plan, and Pay Attention to Details. Disney made sure that every detail of every project he worked on was immaculate and in order. It was this process that led him to success; he even said at points in his career that he didn’t think he was an expert at animation, or even that great of a story-teller, but rather a master of his process. (For more explanation on how it’s not always about the “Great Idea” but the process behind it, check out this article at IWillTeachYoutobeRich)

As an extra highlight, Bill Capodagli was gracious enough to offer BizBookTalk an interview to accompany this review. The following is a summary of our discussion…

Question: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Answer: Bill has been in the consulting business since the early 1970s and has helped a plethora of companies implement the Disney principles. He gives seminars all over the world on these topics and enjoys helping companies reach higher results.

Question: What was your first Disney experience?
Answer: Bill still remembers watching the “Wonderful World of Disney” as a young boy every Wednesday night. His second memory is when he took his 3-year-old son to Disneyland and just remembers how *everything* about the park pulled him into the experience. All aspects of the park, cast, and rides were built to fully immerse you in the world of Disney and imagination.

Question: How did you pick Disney as a model for your consulting company?
Answer: Early in his consulting career, Bill was working with large companies and benchmarking the “best of the best” companies; Disney consistently rose to the top of the pile. After meeting Lynn Jackson while working at a university, the two of them discussed starting their own business multiple times, but finally DAREd to do it in the mid-1980s.

Question: As a follow up, what’s the general reaction when you tell a company that you’re about to rock their business world by suggesting Disney concepts?
Answer: Usually, the first hurdle to get over is that despite its reputation as an entertainment company, Disney is also in many other businesses. They run the largest laundry facility in the United States and they’re partnered in the retail business with stores across the country among other things. Once those details start to come out, clients generally start to realize that it’s more about the process and the *way* that Disney is run, not the product it produces. The business aspect aside, Bill said that he can then usually appeal to clients’ nostalgia for Disney

Question: At BizBookTalk, we review a lot of business books — what are some of your favorites and why?
Answer: FISH! (John Christensen), because he embraces the concept of fun: work hard and play hard! Any Tom Peters book: enough said. And finally, The Disney Way Fieldbook, which has 40 exercises for anyone or any company that is trying to apply the principles from The Disney Way.

Question: Finally, how can someone who is just starting out in corporate America look to instill the Disney concepts into his corporate culture?
Answer: Bill’s foremost suggestion before anything else is to ask yourself what values you live by and what you want to do in life. Afterwards, begin living by a consistent set of morals and values and then you can think about taking them into your corporate culture. Bill pointed out a quote from Roy Disney which states it quite elegantly — “When values are clear, decisions are easy”. Very true

If you would like more information about The Disney Way, or any of the concepts presented within, you can check out the book The Disney Way or Bill and Lynn’s website. Again, many, many thanks to Bill for the privilege of interviewing him and for allowing us an advance copy of the updated book

Patrick Lencioni’s book, “The Five Dysfunction of a Team” is excellent on many levels. Not only does he write an excellent story to showcase where teams fail, but he wraps important lessons within the characters interactions. It takes great skill to be able to be a storyteller, and Patrick has mastered it. In Five Dysfunctions, we get introduced to a self-destructing management team. The team and the company is on the brink of failure, when Kathryn Peterson, the new CEO enters the scene. Throughout the rest of the book we learn the pyramid model for why teams fail. The include (in order from top to bottom of the pyramid):



• Inattention to Results
• Avoidance of Accountability
• Lack of Commitment
• Fear of Conflict
• Absence of Trust

Each dysfunction, starting with Absence of Trust, will build up and lead to the others if not handled properly. The good news is Patrick included tips and advice on how to handle this. At the conclusion of the story, Patrick goes through some exercises to break down the problems dysfunctional teams face and advice on how to eradicate these problems. If you are on a dysfunctional team and want to build a successful one this book is a must read.

Patrick runs his own management consultant company The Table Group. Check out the company site for resources such as videos, audio, and articles of Patrick discussing topics covered in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

Sometimes it’s the failures and mistakes of others where you can learn the biggest lesson. Bob Pritchard, CEO of Logos Bible Software has made his fair share of mistakes in his 14 year career as an entrepreneur. In his book, “First Someone Today”, Pritchard not only explains when to fire someone, he includes advice about other subjects which are important to entrepreneurs: cutting costs, understanding the vital role cash plays in your business’s success, the importance of understanding contracts, and the importance of having good systems estabished in your business.

Some key ideas taken away from this book are:

• Visit everyone connected to your business (customers, suppliers, partnerscompetitors) – These visits will liken your chance of positive things happening for your business. A visit to a customer may uncover room for improvement to your product or service which could lead to greater sales / business. A visit to a supplier could strengthen your relationship which could result in better service or better pricing on supplies.
• Read (a lot!) – Reading helps you stay current with trends and the latest happenings in your industry. Don’t limit yourself to your specific industry because there are many ways to incorporate new ideas from other industries into your business. Academic journals are especially helpful.
• Make decisions swiftly – Don’t over analyze decisions. Make them and live with them. In the words of the ancients, “one should make his decisions within the space of seven breaths.”

Check out the Fire Someone Today website which includes Bob’s blog and other reviews of the book!

For those of you not familiar with the Google enterprise structure, they have established a ‘golden rule’ for managing innovation. No, it’s not the 80/20 rule; it’s the 70/20/10 rule. 70 percent of your time on the core business, 20 percent on related projects, and 10 percent on unrelated new businesses. Let’s say for someone working 50 hours a week, 5 hours would be focused on new projects. This is how Google has established itself as an innovator, a leader in the search engine world, and more recently a leader in new technical areas. Google Earth(which is very cool), Local Google, and Google News are just some of the end products of this 10 percent allocation.

To me it would almost seem obvious that other companies would want to copy this rule, as it fosters innovation, which leads to more revenue and possible new business endeavors. You don’t limit yourself for new products or process enhancements coming from your R&D department. It levels the playing field within the company, and anyone who has produced something valuable for the company can bring it to management.

If I was running a company today I would introduce this ‘rule’. Think about it. Maybe those 4-5 hours a week your employee would be spent surfing the web, or chatting away, could be spent working on something they truly enjoyed. Maybe these projects would bring your company savings in cost, new revenue streams, or new business. It would shake things up within; maybe someone producing quality projects with his 10 percent time would be more productive and useful in a new position or department.

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, spoke of about innovation years ago:

“I was recently asked to speak at a conference about the role of innovation in enduring great companies. My first impulse was to decline, for a simple reason: great companies do not necessarily have innovation as a central part of their vision or strategy. They are just as likely to be followers as they are to be leaders with pioneering products and leading-edge services.”
-Inc. Magazine ‘97

This mentality doesn’t survive in the new economy. Companies that stay on top of innovating, whether it be in processes, products, or marketing are going to succeed greatness in today’s economy. Just read The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman to understand. You can count that Google isn’t going to lose its position anytime soon!

This interesting article (quick sign up required, sorry!) at Knowledge@Wharton dives in the world of process management programs and their hindrance on innovation. They can become blinders to your company’s innovation when too much focus is placed on efficiency improvement:

Companies need to balance two types of activities: improving current operations to be competitive in the short term, and exploring for new knowledge for the future. Swinging back and forth between enthusiasm for process management or for new innovation, says Benner, doesn’t achieve the balance. Too much process management across all levels of an organization makes it easier to implement but can strangle bolder, breakthrough innovations. Conversely, it’s difficult to focus on systematic, continuous improvement in quality and cost if the entire organization is focused on big innovations for the future.
- Knowledge@Wharton

Ok, before you think to yourself, “Oh boy, not another review of this book”, please hear me out. This book needs to be reviewed and highlighted because of the possibility that someone stumbling upon this site may not know this book exists. If you find yourself being one of these people, READ THIS BOOK!!

Jim Collins, the author of Build to Last spent years researching companies that have stood the test of time. Collins and his staff took a scientific approach to the creation of this book (which can be viewed in the appendices). They set baseline standards that each ‘great’ company had to meet. The finished product of his research was a compiled list of 11 companies. With the great companies selected, he dissected each one to establish unifying themes found in each company. The end product is valuable information that anyone can use to pursue greatness in their own career or business. When reading this book take special notice to the Hedgehog concept. It’s one of the more relevant fundamentals he discusses in which you could apply to your own career. Mr. Collins has provided us with a book that will definitely be a ‘double-read’ due to all the information contained within! For those of you who’ve read it, discuss Good To Great at our business book discusion forum here.

**Good to Great has now been published for the Social Sector**