Monthly Archives: March 2013

Redefining Social Networking by James Fabricant

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Just as the words “computer” and “email” have become part of our every-day speak, the term “social networking” is simply part of our culture. And its obvious why – social networks are not new – humans are fundamentally gregarious and have always organized themselves into groups, forming strong and weak links. It’s the same behavior, just with new tools. Social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are by now so engrained into our personal lives that it is only a matter of time before they become part of our work lives. This revolution is already happening and is known as “social business” or “enterprise social networking.” The question for businesses is no longer being whether to implement it, but how.

Have you ever been swimming in the ocean only to find yourself being pulled in one direction from a strong current? No matter how hard you try, you can’t make any progress when swimming against the tide. Similarly, while social networking may have its issues in the workplace, and in particular security concerns, the key to success is not in fighting against it but, rather, figuring out to harness its potential while staying in control.  Just like swimming in the ocean, the best approach is to stop fighting and swim with the tide until you reach the shore.

Redefining Social Networking

When it comes to adoption, the initial resistance in the enterprise seems to be that social networking isn’t typically associated with working. To put it bluntly, there are laggards who think that if it’s “social,” it can’t be business. Changing the way we talk about it by using the terms “social business” and “enterprise social networking” will re-align the way we think about social tools in the workplace. In turn, the minds of those aforementioned laggards will begin to open and see that social can have a place in business.

Simplicity and Ease of Use is Key

Introducing a social business environment should make life easier, not more complicated. At the heart of social business is simplicity and ease of use, which is why there’s a huge problem with some of the really complex tools available. The ideas behind them are nice, and they certainly seem comprehensive enough to fulfill the needs of the enterprise, but if it’s too difficult to figure out and actually use, adoption will be low. The iPhone is a great example of simplicity done right. All of the basic functions that people want are readily available and incredibly intuitive– like making calls, checking email, downloading a new app, searching or texting. Because of that, it’s very popular. The same is true for rolling out a social business environment, it must be intuitive and secure or it will not thrive. 

Social is Enhancing, Not Fixing

Generally the enterprise is looking to solve a problem when adopting new technologies. This mindset works against social business adoption since it’s really not solving anything, per se. However, it is enhancing the way things already work, which is just as valuable. Think about the car – when Henry Ford invented the motor vehicle, we already had means of transportation via horse and buggy. But with the car, we can travel faster and for longer distances over a shorter time. Similarly, there’s always room to improve processes in the enterprise. So, in the enterprise, we can already communicate and collaborate, but there’s a way to do it more efficiently with enterprise social business. Research from McKinsey[1] shows that social business offers companies the potential to improve productivity of highly-skilled workers by 20 to 25 percent. It is simply taking a process that is already in place, and making it better.

Understanding Business Value

While social networking tools may be about enhancing rather than fixing, users will be slow to adopt these tools if they don’t understand the value. Organizations must first recognize the business value and communicate to users exactly how social business will advance current processes and activities. If a user knows they can save time or improve an existing process with the help of social tools, they will be much more inclined to get on board.

Serious Consideration

In light of these barriers, I believe that the enterprise is beginning to seriously consider integrating social business as part of its normal every day. Historically, the enterprise is very slow to adopt, often lagging about four to five years behind the consumer. Think about the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend, for instance. Consumers started working on their own devices remotely without authorization, and once adoption got really deep within the organization, the IT department or CIO in charge realized it was not under control and lacked certain securities. This is how BYOD evolved to have more standard practices, and social business is following suite.

Already the enterprise is beginning to see how social business benefits such as structured conversation and simpler communication have value. These realizations are backed by research, too.  For instance, McKinsey reported that companies that use social media internally can reduce, by as much as 35 percent, the time employees spend searching for company information. They state that additional value can be realized through faster, more efficient, more effective collaboration, both within and between enterprises.

While this is undoubtedly compelling, we’re in the early stages of ROI and more quantitative results will likely be needed before enterprise social networking becomes the new norm. As businesses come to fully understand how social networks will propel their organizations forward, I predict adoption rates will surge. I look forward to the day when business and social meet and, until then, am certainly enjoying the ride.

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Maddie is supervising our visitors. Not much of a hunting dog is she?!

Finding the Humor in Stressful Situations

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(The following is a true story I experienced over a year ago and wrote about on one of my other blogs)

I was asked to help a friend who is having a colonoscopy today. She needed a driver and I am free to help. So, here I sit waiting for the doctor to come out and tell me about the procedure. Before my friend (who will remain anonymous) was called back for her procedure, I noticed a sign in the waiting room that reads, “Please be respectful of our patients. No food is permitted in the waiting room.” I read it out loud to my friend and started to giggle. She hasn’t consumed anything for two days other than a very high powered laxative.

The entrance door opens and two people come through it. I am noticing that every person who comes through the door to check in immediately asks for the rest room. Anyone who is sitting in this room right now who does not have someone sitting next to them is affectionately referred to as “the driver”. We are not allowed to leave the room no matter what. We are here to get all the details of the procedure once it has been completed. We are here to make sure they get home OK. We are the ones who are supposed to remember all of the instructions from the doctor. Well, I am observing a particular “driver” in the room who keeps asking questions to others. Questions like: “Is today Thursday?” ”Why are you here?” And, so far my personal favorite, “Are you having a tooth pulled?” I am so very nervous for his family member or friend who is in the back having this oh-so-lovely procedure done and is entrusting their care and well-being to this not-so-lucid individual. Everyone is trying to be so polite with this man, but can’t seem to keep themselves from laughing at his questions.

My friend said earlier she hopes medical advances enough by the time her children are old enough to go through this test that there will be a better, less invasive way to observe the colon. Shoot, I hope by the time I’m old enough to go through this test the advances have happened already. They have 10 years to make it better!!

So, as uncomfortable as the patients are in this room and as bored as the “drivers” may be in this room, I am going to sit here and find the humor. No sense in getting upset that my afternoon is being spent sitting in an endoscopy office. I am happy to help friends when I can as I know they would do the same for me.

Yoga For Runners By Baron Baptiste and Kathleen Finn Mendola

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Although yoga and running lie on opposite ends of the exercise spectrum, the two need not be mutually exclusive.  During the course of an average mile run, your foot will strike the ground 1,000 times. The force of impact on each foot is about three to four times your weight. It’s not surprising, then, to hear runners complain of bad backs and knees, tight hamstrings, and sore feet.

The pain most runners feel is not from the running in and of itself, but from imbalances that running causes and exacerbates. If you bring your body into balance through the practice of yoga, you can run long and hard for years to come. Although yoga and running lie on opposite ends of the exercise spectrum, the two need not be mutually exclusive. In fact, running and yoga make a good marriage of strength and flexibility.

Striking a Balance

Runners who stick with running are most likely structurally balanced individuals who can handle the physical stresses of the workout with minimal discomfort. Yet, many runners don’t survive the imbalances that running introduces. Often, they suffer from chronic pain and are sidelined by injury.

A typical runner experiences too much pounding, tightening, and shortening of the muscles and not enough restorative, elongating, and loosening work. Without opposing movements, the body will compensate to avoid injury by working around the instability. Compensation puts stress on muscles, joints, and the entire skeletal system.

If you’re off balance, every step you take forces the muscles to work harder in compensation. Tight muscles get tighter and weak muscles get weaker. A tight muscle is brittle, hard, and inflexible. Because muscles act as the body’s natural shock absorbers, ideally they should be soft, malleable, and supple, with some give. Brittle muscles, on the other hand, cause the joints to rub and grind, making them vulnerable to tears.

Muscle rigidity occurs because runners invariably train in a “sport specific” manner—they perform specific actions over and over again and their focus is on external technique. This repetitive sports training or any specific fitness conditioning results in a structurally out of shape and excessively tight body.

Yoga’s internal focus centers your attention on your own body’s movements rather than on an external outcome. Runners can use yoga practice to balance strength, increase  range of motion, and train the body and mind. asanas move your body through gravitational dimensions while teaching you how to coordinate your breath with each subtle movement. The eventual result is that your body, mind, and breath are integrated in all actions. Through consistent and systematic asana conditioning, you can engage, strengthen, and place demands on all of your intrinsic muscle groups, which support and stabilize the skeletal system. This can offset the effects of the runner’s one-dimensional workouts.

Body Wisdom

In addition to physically counteracting the strains of running, yoga teaches the cultivation of body wisdom and confidence. As you develop a greater understanding of the body and how it works, you become able to listen and respond to messages the body sends you. This is especially important in running, where the body produces a lot of endorphins. These “feel good” chemicals also double as nature’s painkillers, which can mask pain and the onset of injury or illness. Without developed body intuition, it’s easier to ignore the body’s signals.

Awareness translates to daily workouts, too. You learn through the practice of yoga that each day is distinct, much like each run. Your energy levels fluctuate daily, even hourly, thus it’s important to have a sense of your reserves. The calmness you glean from yoga practice allows you to manage and economize your energy. You can learn to intuit where you are on a given day and what resources you have to give. Therefore, you don’t power drive through every workout mindlessly but rather respect your body’s limitations.

You can, however, maximize those varying energy levels by focusing on another nonkinetic aspect of yoga: relaxation. When you’re able to bring your body into a state of repose, you become more effective at using and conserving strength. If you’re in a contracted state—tight muscles, limited range of motion, chronic pain—your body requires more energy for all activities, running included. Relaxation allows you to burn energy at a more efficient level. The resulting increased vigor means a greater freedom of movement and ultimately, more enjoyment of all your physical activities.

Tension is the athlete’s downfall, and breath awareness is key to reducing it. Conscious breathing and pPranayama exercises, which soothe the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and relax the entire body, can be of great benefit to runners.

Many runners know that improving VO2 Max—aerobic capacity—is vital for running and racing success. Runners with a high VO2 Max have the capacity to pump large amounts of oxygen-rich blood to working muscles. Maximum oxygen intake is a crucial physiological variable determining performance and endurance for runners. With pranayama and asana conditioning, you can maximize the size of your pump and the quantity of fresh blood coursing through your body. A somewhat vigorous yoga practice can increase your oxygen capacity.

Pain Prevention

Even the most centered and relaxed runner can face injury—the bane of all athletes. Damage to a runner’s body is often the result of overuse instead of collisions or falls. It all comes back to—you guessed it—balance, symmetry, and alignment.

The body is the sum of its parts and impairment of one affects them all. A bad back is going to affect your ankles just as weak knees can throw off your hip alignment. For example, shin splints are the result of a seemingly minor misstep: an uneven distribution of weight that starts with the way the feet strike the ground. Each time the foot hits the pavement unevenly, a lateral torque travels up the leg, causing muscle chafing and pain up and down the tibia known as shin splints.

Knee pain, too, is related to other parts of the body. If the ankles are weak or the hips are not aligned, that can put strain on the anterior ligaments in the knees. Meant to work like a train on a track, a knee thrown off balance is equivalent to a train derailing. Due to constant forward motion, hip flexor muscles shorten and tighten and can cause hyperextension in the lower back. This constantly arched position holds tension in the back and can hamper the fluidity of hamstring muscles as well.

What does this mean for the runner with pain in his lower back? Or a painful heel condition? First of all, don’t ignore your body’s signals. Take a break when your body needs one. Learn to intuit when rest is appropriate. Secondly, start incorporating yoga postures into the warm-up and cool-down portions of your workout. Think of running as the linear part of your workout and yoga as its circular complement.

There’s no need to be sidelined by injuries and discomfort brought on by your running program. Chronic injuries can eventually self-correct through a gentle yet consistent yoga practice. Remember, your body is on your side. It has an inherent intelligence to bring about a state of equilibrium no matter how many times your feet hit the pavement.