NextSpace Coworking + Innovation | The (r)evolution of Work

Originally published by Global Coworking Unconference

I grew up in Western civilization, raised on Darwin’s, survival of the fittest worldview.  No matter where you are on the evolution/creation theories, his competition, bloody tooth and claw perspective has become a pillar of our cultural heritage. It has been the prevailing influence in how we’ve run our businesses.  “Eat or be eaten” and “It’s a jungle out there.”

Yes, it is a jungle out there.  And until very recently we’ve been making the nearly fatal mistake of following only one of the laws of he jungle – competition.  But nature requires balance.  For every force there is an equal and opposite force.  Yes, competition is a law of the jungle. But it is not the only law, the yin to it’s yang is cooperation and collaboration.

I first realized this a few years ago.  I had several philodendron houseplants, the broad-leafed viney things.  They were all in separate pots.  They were healthy enough, growing, but one probably wouldn’t use the word thriving.  Typical houseplants.  Then one time when I was repotting I decided to stick two in the same pot.

It went against all conventional logic.  Two plants in the same pot, a closed system with limited resources.  Following the logic of competition one should’ve killed the other off or they should’ve killed each other off.  Instead both plants began to thrive.  Both grew more abundantly than they had in separate pots.

As I thought about it, it made perfect sense. Philodendrons are rain forest plants.  You should see the Jurassic versions that grow in the jungles and even in Florida.  The jungle is a crazy jumble of plants growing next to, under, over, on – name a preposition – jungle plants are growing that way.

For quite sometime when I shared my theory that competition wasn’t the only law of the jungle people called me a Pollyanna, or said, “Yeah, but that’s not how it works in the real world.”

Well things are starting to change.  We’ve tried capitalism based purely on competion.  How’s that been workin’ for us?

Now I’m seeing more and more discussion about cooperation as a viable model for business and society.  A very thorough and insightful book on the idea of competition vs. cooperation is Spontaneous Evolution by Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman.  They explore the social and political forces that lead to our obsession with competition. And provide a very inspiring argument for tempering that focus with the spirit of cooperation and collaboration.  A must read for anyone who is into coworking

Scientific American featured a story titled, “The Evolution of Cooperation” as the cover story in the May 2012 issue. On reading this article I was especially inspired by the potential impact coworking could have on generating a cultural shift from competition to cooperation and collaboration.

Studies of bat colonies reveal that individuals who see each other or engage with each other regularly tend to help each other out. (duh)  In this case, bats who had gotten their fill of food regurgitated and shared with those who hand not had luck hunting (not that we want to take this analogy this far in our coworking spaces!)  The bats who had received the assistance remembered and returned the favor at a later date.  According to the old school law of the jungle the well fed bats should have let the other go hungry and eliminate their competition..

Scientific studies with computer simulators of large communities demonstrate there are cycles of competition and cooperation.  We’ve been on a pretty long cycle of intense competition.  My highly unscientific observations indicate that the tide is turning.  Coworking is both a result of that shift and is in a perfect position to take leadership of that shift.

We are at an amazing time.  If you are reading this you are on the frontier of this cultural shift.  Join us in Austin this year as we take it to the next level.

Lydia Snider is a Community Builder for NextSpace Coworking + Innovation.  She was an early adopter of coworking, joining NextSpace as a member almost as soon as it opened in 2008.  One of the first things Lydia did when she joined the staff was repot the plants.  Lydia is also a social media geek, constantly experimenting to discover ways to utilize social media tools to build community both on and offline and giving presentation on the topic.

Posted in Lydia's Blog, Santa Cruz

Is social media a worthwhile time investment, or is it vacuous busyness that creates an illusion of building your business?  Yes.  Which is it for your business? That depends, here are some things to consider.

Everybody Does Not Need To Be On Every Social Media Platform
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ Oh My!  I can barely keep up with my email inbox and now you want me to deal with all those as well?  If you’ve been to any of those business presentations on social media you’ve probably come away with one of two worries.  The presentations that cram covering multiple social media platforms into just one hour probably left you feeling overwhelmed at the thought of learning & managing all those profiles.  If you attended an in depth presentation by a specialist in a particular platform you probably felt a panic that the train to wild success has left the station and you’re left behind & will never catch up.

Social media is important.  It is the cocktail party of the 21st century.  It is where people go to discuss the events of the day, chat and engage with one another.  If you are not online, you are not at the party.  And you do not need to be on every social media site.  Different people tend to use different social media tools in different ways.  The key is to discover where your peers and customers hang out online.

Social media can be a great way to keep up with the trends in your field.  Find out where the other experts in your field tend to engage online.  Follow and contribute to the conversation.  And where do your customers engage online?  For example, I was working with a company in the kiteboarding industry.  Kiteboarding consumers (i.e. potential customers) tended to be very engaged on Facebook.  Twitter tended to be better resource for industry news. There tended to be very little interaction on Google+.

I still highly recommend checking out those presentations on social media to gather information to make an informed decision on if and how include a platform in your social media strategy.

What’s In Your Feed?
Repeat after me: “I am responsible for the quality of my social media feed.”  An objection to social media I often here is “It’s a complete waste of time, there’s nothing but garbage.”  To which I ask, “Who are you following?”  Yes, there many, many people talking about a whole lotta nuthing.  There are also many people sharing interesting & important information, profound insights and very clever wit.  I use Twitter to keep up innovation, entrepreneurship, analysis of trends & news stories and I follow a few people that just crack me up. What’s in your feed?  That depends on who you follow.

What’s the real ROI of Social Media?
Some people think social media is a complete waste of time because there is rarely a direct correlation to a business’ bottom line.  (With the exception now of Pinterest for businesses with online shopping carts).  There are 3 basic ways investment in social media adds value to your business.

1. Brand Recognition In service industries it takes 8-10 “touches” to turn a looky lou into a customer.  That can be anything from meeting in person, to connecting on different online venues.  For example, when I spoke at the September 2012 Surf Expo I was cruising the convention floor prior to my presentation inviting people to attend.  As I was chatting with one person he said, “I know you!”  He didn’t look at all familiar to me, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out where I’d met him.  Then he followed up, “I saw your article in Action Outdoor & Bike Retailer, and I’ve seen your posts in the Kiteboarding Business Group on LinkedIn.”  Not only did he come to my presentation, but he brought others as well.

2. Be the Expert Remember, social media is the big online cocktail party.  It’s one big ongoing conversation.  Engage.  Just like in real life, your passion and expertise will naturally shine through.  Just like in real life, people will start to know that you’re the person who knows about nutrition or building websites or non profits or (insert your expertise here).  Soon people will be coming to you.  Just this morning someone messaged me on Facebook wanting my insights on a kiteboarding business venture.  Do be careful to treat online conversations just like real life conversations.  You don’t want to be that person shoving your business card in everyone’s face.  Just engage in the conversation.  Be aware it does take time, just like in real life.

3. Creates Pathways Back to Your Website
Brand recognition and reputation as an expert are pretty ethereal and hard to track. One measurable return on social media investments is traffic back to your website.  If you do not have analytics on your site get them installed yesterday.  If you don’t know how people are finding your website you don’t know which of your marketing tools and posts are working.  With Google Analytics you can see how visitors move through your site and which pages tend to draw them in and which cause them to leave.

Think of social media as creating lots of yellow brick roads leading people who need your expertise, services or product back to you, The Great Oz.  One of the best ways to establish yourself as an expert in your field is to share all that expertise locked in your head. What seems obvious to you is amazingly brilliant to someone who hasn’t invested the thousands of hours in your field that you have.  Share it!  Always, always, always post first to your website then share out that link on your carefully selected social media platforms. Now you are contributing to the conversation and building your brand recognition as an expert.

When you share out a post be sure to check in on your website analytics to see which social media platforms generated the most visitors.  Also, note what kinds of posts tend to generate the most visits.

Posted in Lydia's Blog, Santa Cruz