Clouds and Conversations

On Monday I was at a “slow media” event with four oil industry experts. In other words, a great conversation.

I helped the geologist, geophysicist, project manager and operations manager interview each other about a challenging job. They didn’t talk about what they were doing, as much as why they were doing it well.

It went great. The geologist even offered the operations guy an impromptu solution to his problem.

Why do such highly intelligent and well trained engineers, working at a leading corporation, rarely have these invigorating cross-discipline conversations? Must be the silo effect.

At most larger companies, it’s still normal to over-categorize their employees. Process experts keep projects “atomized,” broken down into parts so each part can be treated as a real object, analyzed and manipulated . . . forever.

But the internet and social media might bring real change to project management. “Clouds,” creative brainstorming and other post-industrial techniques are gaining momentum. Internet users prefer intuitive, collaborative projects in which they can indulge their curiosity.

Workable process will always be important. But truly productive process benefits from a spoonful of mystery. Systematic curiosity will be part of every great business conversation from now on.

Business conversations of the future will help bring social media thinking into your workplace.