“Seasoned GenX Leader Capable of Leveraging the Technically Savvy GenY Knowledge Worker”
On my 40th birthday, I made a point to go to the Grand Canyon to get some perspective. I had been suffering physically from working in a toxic environment (not the work stress, but the environment itself). It was on my 40th birthday that I decided I needed to either make a final play for change in my company or leave. Upon my return, I presented my position on what was stopping the company from achieving its real potential. The company’s reply was that they wanted to remain as is and would no longer require my services. This company had gone through 4 Directors of App Dev in four years and I lasted two (enough said).
So having found myself now unemployed and unemployable in a tight economic market, I decided to use the time to homeschool myself using the best tools available (Twitter and other Social Media options). I was able to attend over 10 international conferences from my couch on a budget of my WiFi, my Apple Touch (gift), and my MacBook Pro (air miles). I was able to learn from these conferences by listening to the back channel and watching the streamed video. More importantly, I was able to reach out and connect to the thought leaders that attended those conferences. Over the year, I went from following their tweets, to connecting to them on LinkedIn, to inviting them into my life on Facebook, and in some cases even having rounds of modern golf playing Modern Warfare and Rock Band with them on XBOX Live. In that year, I went from a nobody to a known entity to those thought leaders without having actually having met them face to face (to this day).
I focussed on four key areas during that year: Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, Social CRM, and Personal Branding. This complimented my existing knowledge in Agile and Leadership. The concept was to share in my findings in real time via The @RLavigne42 Firehose. I then aggregated all my research into over 250 blog entries called The @RLavigne42 Tweet Round-Up. Those 10,000+ entries would become the foundation of my reference material (all logged down to the minute). By using The @RLavigne42 Rear View Mirror, I am going through all that research again to capture and highlight the top concepts that I learned in the last year. These findings are then put into a FOLKSonomy of characters on Facebook as part of my Management 2.0 Fable, #TDGv Racing.
The plan is to use the #TDGv Racing Storyverse as a platform to help guide organizations into using Social Media within the Enterprise to fully scale their organizations. More importantly by applying the concepts of personal branding within the workplace, individuals can better define their value contributions to the enterprise. The theme here is “how searchable are you within your own company.”
There is so much content being generated both within and outside of the organization. It is by applying context to that content that companies will be able to fully leverage on that data. Only by engaging and aligning employees in a more transparent form of communication will this value be realized. Enterprise 2.0 is all about changing the culture and tools in place to remove the silos that have stopped organizations from delivering Real Corporate Value (RCV). Only by truly knowing who your customers and employees are can you properly address the risks and opportunities that materialize often unseen to the 1.0 eye.
Take Care,
Robert Lavigne @RLavigne42.com
"We are at the Intersection of Social Media and YOUR Business" ~Robert Lavigne, @TDGv 