Work: You’re Doing It Wrong
As is fitting on Labour Day, I’d like to draw together some threads I’ve seen over the last week, all relating to work. They may not seem initially to be connected, but don’t worry – I’ll get there!! The first came in the form of a post titled “Are Women Dissatisfied Enough?” on one of [...]
Joining the Board of the Empire Club of Canada!
I’m so very pleased to announce that I have been elected to the Board of the Empire Club of Canada, effective September, 2011! In case you’re unfamiliar with the Empire Club, it’s: “One of Canada’s oldest and largest speakers’ forums with a membership comprised of some of Canada’s most influential leaders from the professions, business, [...]
SAP’s SAPPHIRENOW: Women’s Leadership Summit
Since 2007 I have had the pleasure of participating in SAP’s Influencer Program. This group of digital influencers are invited to attend events like SAPPHIRENOW (SAP’s huge annual ecosystem conference – think MacWorld, but SAP) and TechEd (smaller, regional events with a more geeky bent) to see new products, speak 1:1 with senior executives and [...]
Osama Bin Laden, The White House and Social Media
I remember September 11th the way my parents’ generation remembers the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Except that we invariably ask each other the question, “Where were you when you first saw it on TV?” (for me it was through the window of a restaurant in Union Station, in downtown Toronto. I was on my [...]
Dear Big Companies: Please Stop Wrecking My Stuff.
Big company buys small social company. Several unremarkable years pass. Big company suddenly announces that they are sunsetting/shuttering/selling small company, now much diminished from lack of care and feeding. Rinse and repeat. I get that this happens – I get that cultures clash (AOL/TimeWarner, anyone?) and I also get that the initial innovation stagnation problem [...]
Online Privacy: You’re Doing it Wrong
Today I delivered a keynote at Defrag 2010, one of the best and most interesting conferences I am lucky enough to be able to attend (their tagline is “accelerating the a-ha moment”). I was pretty anxious about this presentation because it was in the “big room”, in front of all attendees, and they’re a smart, [...]
Why we decided to offer unlimited vacation at Social Media Group
There has been a ton of discussion about the merits of unlimited vacation, offered by companies like Netflix, The 400 salaried employees are evaluated on their individual performances, not face time. Still, they must be able to balance work and vacation responsibly to get their work done. And they must be able to work without [...]
Webinar: The Art of Giving Up Control
This coming Friday at 1pm EDT I’ll be participating in a free webinar with Charlene Li and Steve Rubel on “The Art of Giving Up Control” (which really means “change management to support social in the enterprise”, but that’s a little too long . Here’s the official blurb, and I’d love it if you would [...]
Foursquare: Shiny Object or Mainstream?
Over the weekend, Foursquare scored a major coup via a new partnership with American Eagle: they got their name and logo plastered all over Times Square. The first story I saw on the subject was on Mashable, where blogger Samuel Axon noted, “It seems like just a short time ago that these location services were [...]



