Video update & 6 things I have learned
February 5, 2009 by Helen Milner
David Wilcox posted this video interview with me to his blog - and kindly let us know that we could reproduce it here:
Six things I’ve learnt through developing the voicebox bid using an open innovation approach:
1. Partnership is a much better way to do things
I’ve learnt lots of things I didn’t know before, and I know that this group of organisations and people will deliver a better project than we would do it on our own.
2. It takes loads of time to develop ideas in this kind of forum
Involving lots of people takes lots of time. We have spent so much time coordinating comments, responding to people, checking (and double checking) comments and updates on the blog. Including lots of people leads to a better bid, but it also takes lots of time. AND, we could have spent lots more time doing this and that time would have been well spent - if we had it.
3. Social media helped me to put aside prejudices and listen to all comments with an open mind and a receptiveness to learn
Big organisations, little organisations, individuals, and VIPs all have something worthwhile to add. It’s great to be surprised by really insightful comments from people (and organisations) I had never heard of last October. Brilliant. Everybody has made good contributions. Active listening is easier to do using social media.
4. It’s really hard to balance open debate and to provide structure for a constructive discussion
The best debate is both open and led. I’m very experienced at chairing meetings, and always try to balance an open debate whilst guiding discussion to the purpose of the meeting, within a set timeframe. Wow, this is so hard on a blog. I just didn’t have the time to do this properly, even with the great effort and time put in by Anne and Ben too, we really found this hard. We wanted the discussion to be really open and free forming in the beginning and then tried to focus debate and ideas as time went on. We have definitely learnt lots and will do it better next time (if only a little bit).
5. Not everyone likes using social media to develop bids
Some people love this medium, some don’t. Some people find it hard to keep up as it takes time, and it takes a new kind of habit, fitting it into your day, grabbing ten minutes. I really like the cross over between twitter and the blogs, feeding interest. We may have lost people who don’t use blogs, but we did use a mix of media too - we used email to keep up with everyone too. And the phone! And had face to face meetings.
6. The journey’s been fun but arriving will be better
In our bid we did our best to explain this journey to our friends at the Department of Communities and Local Government. The delivery of the digital mentor programme (by voicebox) will be better than it would have been if done in a different way because we (the partners) have been on this journey together. It is the collective wisdom of such a diverse and experienced group of people. We have used the digital media to develop a bid about supporting people in deprived communities to use digital media. I’m sure the fun’s only just started.
Anne and Ben did most of the work at UK online centres end, so they may also comment here too!
[...] Helen has now added her reflections on the process over here on Voicebox. In [...]
[...] are in, all that those who are involved can do is sit and wait. In the meantime, though, Helen has provided us with her learning points from the process. I have summarised them below - to read the detail you need to visit the post, [...]
ironically I can’t watch the film at the mo as my broadband seems to have frozen in the snow! Great summary though to warp up this stage (hopefully there will be more!).
I think point no. 5 is interesting - grumpily I think how can anyone be possibly interested in this kind of project and not willing/happy to use this kind of approach, but I also realise its all still a bit newer than some of us think. Maybe in the future it will be easier to outline what the approach will be, which tools will be in use and to provide some support in helping those that are interested to keep up by pointing them to the relevant tools (not just assuming they’d know anyway which I’d have been guilty of).
Point no.3 is great too - that has all sorts of potential for overcoming some of the typical snobberies that happen when trying to collaborate. I hope this is a lesson taken on board by many other sectors.
Good luck & fingers crossed
lol I meant ‘wrap up’ (although warp up is good too!)
I agree with everything that Helen has captured here…
I think for me, my mantra at the beginning of this process should have been: “Hey! Chillax, man!”
Feeling that I had to keep an eye on Twitter, the blogs, the CLG forum et al round the clock was very stressful at the beginning, but once I got into a different pace of working, things got a lot better.
I also quickly realised that disagreement with a point of view wasnt a personal affront or the beginnings of a flame war against UK online centres, but a genuine contribution to make the bid the best it can be.
I still feel very ‘corporate’ in comparison to the ‘movers and shakers’ of Twittersville, but I will loosen that tie, I promise!
[...] on February 5, 2009 by steventuck This interview with Helen Milner outlines what happens when a ‘normal’ org goes social [...]