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What types of policies do employers need to have in place to protect themselves from videos made by employees and posted on YouTube?

Q - Do employers have any rights when it comes to limiting what employees say about them in personal videos available for public viewing?

A - Absolutely as most information seen or utilized within an organization is confidential and often not appropriate for public consumption – particularly on YouTube!  Employers do need to have a clear social networking strategy and supporting guidelines outlining acceptable behavior, “dos & don’ts” on content creation & distribution points, and succinct explanation of that which constitutes infringement of non-compliance.

Q - What are some examples of content that employers should just ignore vs. examples of content they can/should respond to with discipline?

A – Social networking has a personal and a professional aspect to it – on the positive side you want employees to have a balanced life, socialize, and go on vacations, so presenting the positive aspects of their lives outside of work online is actually OK.  On the negative side, crude, demeaning, belittling or otherwise inappropriate content referencing the organization by name, brand, or market comparison is simply a dilution of the employer’s reputation capital®.  Specifity drives credibility, so this is really good area for some training of what to & not-to do!

Q - What are the main threats YouTube and other similar services pose to employers? Defamation, public dissemination of proprietary information or other issues?

A – Inaccurate, half-truths, one-sided versions of events, outright misrepresentation, “he-said, she-said” slander, absolute defamation of a manager, a peer, an executive or even board members without merits, sensitive leak of confidential or market-sensitive information (think of a merger or acquisition event, or change of leadership before publically announced).  The positive aspect of social networking sites such as YouTube is that they reduce the barriers to individual publishing; unfortunately, that’s also the negative aspects when discretion isn’t exercised.

What are your thoughts?

Q - IT decision makers and project managers, CTOs, CEOs and CIOs complain that they can’t find enough candidates who understand business. Headhunters and HR people echo the same thoughts. But what exactly does that mean? It’s never defined. Does it have to mean an MBA, or are there certain cardinal business commandments the IT people ought to know?

A - Our team works with a number of professional service groups who recruit for technical skills and attempt to develop business acumen capabilities and competencies.  I also referenced this topic at my keynote to the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) recently.

Here are the top 5 aspects of “business acumen”:

1. Business Impact – all the technical skills in the world, won’t help you gauge the business impact of implementing that technology; how much will it cost, how long will it take, how to effectively prioritize limited resources, what-if scenarios, decision trees are all in this area; do you need an MBA – not necessarily – the school of hard knocks or really good mentors over a period of time will do; does an MBA help – absolutely!
2. Risk Mitigation – every decision has up and downside; how savvy are you in taking calculated risk while you mitigate the downside; how well do you anticipate worst case scenarios and contingency plans; how prepared are you in quickly addressing challenging situations – this is casually referred to as “being ahead of the ball.”
3. Credibility Dilution – every individual, team and organization begins their internal and external presence with a certain level of credibility; from there you have two options – you can build & nurture it, or you can dilute it; most managers are looking for, first and foremost, the latter; the former is a nice to have and very characteristic of high performers.
4. Engage & Influence – communication, presentation and business networking / relationship building skills are a means to an end – to engage and influence others, often without authority; as a project or program manager, how can you get that VP to listen to and prioritize that which is critical to your success?
5. X-Factor – I’ve been at this for a while and although we’ve been able to assess a great deal in individuals and teams, there is still a certain “x-factor” that some technical – even business folks have that others simply don’t!  You can’t teach professional pride; you can’t teach life-long learning mindset; you can’t teach “relationship intelligence.”  This is the single biggest differentiator between high performers and high potentials.

What do you think?  Any others to add?

Hoping to make healthcare education hip, Cigna Healthcare is announcing today it has created a virtual environment in the Second Life virtual world to educate people on how to improve their health.

The Cigna Virtual Healthcare Community is an “island” in Linden Lab’s Second Life world where users can walk through 3-D interactive displays with their avatars, play educational games, listen to seminars on nutrition and health, and receive virtual health consultations.

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Did you know there are over 35 million free agents in the United States?  This includes soloists, temps, and micro-businesses. Very similar to the Hollywood model, in which the studio (the client) engages a producer (the contractor) who in turn identifies a director, screenwriter, as well as on and off screen talent (independent contributors) for a specific, often fixed-bid contract, in the next decade, most workers will be free agents offering their business relationships, knowledge, talent and skills on a project-by-project basis. In order to stay marketable, they will become less job-focused and more business relationship and specific skills-focused.

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There is no question that many people are very good at staying heads-down and engaged on critical projects, strategic initiatives, and overall tasks at hand. But I can’t help but wonder, how many of this same group really know how to vacation.

Do you really know how to take a break from your company? When was the last time you got lost on purpose? I am not talking about moving your office outdoors, masked as a vacation where you spend most of the time working, but those getaways specially for Baby Boomers that really make you consider a permanent change in lifestyle.

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As mentioned in the upcoming book, Relationship Economics (Wiley, 2008), I heard Bob Danzig, former chairman of the Hearst Newspaper Group, once call an organization’s high performers and high potentials its destiny shapers. Similarly, creative ideas within any organization become company, if not industry shapers, pursued at multiple levels within an organization.

As part of my due diligence for a keynote address to the Association for Financial Technology (AFT) executives, I quickly confirmed a fundamental belief that small companies have significant advantages over large corporations when it comes to innovation. Often, industry giants acquire more nimble entrepreneurial firms and unintentionally drive them away, only to have to buy them again three years down the road.

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