Change is in the air

Change is in the air, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

The economy is changing. The environment is changing. The ways that we communicate and interact are changing. It feels like everything is in flux -- there is a monumental shift in the air.

I can sense it. Can you sense it too?

There is a huge gap between we measure the value of a company and the way the market values it. New models of work are emerging -- the idea of a company as an individual entity is evolving into the idea of a company as an ecosystem.

Would Dell be Dell without its sophisticated network of global suppliers and information systems? Would Wal-Mart be Wal-Mart?

And it goes without saying that companies like Google, eBay and Yahoo are emerging into dominance by finding new ways of defining and creating value.

More than 20 years ago, management visionary Peter Drucker wrote, "The economy is forever going to change and is biological rather than mechanistic in nature."

And yet there is still so much we don't know and have no way to measure.

Yi-Tan means conversations about change. On Monday, May 14th (that's tomorrow for those of you who are reading this on Sunday, or today if you're reading this on Monday), I will join Jerry Michalski on his weekly Yi-Tan call to discuss how visual thinking is changing the way interact and communicate.

The topic: how to build shared visual meaning inside a company. We'll discuss:

-- When is visualization especially useful? How is it changing org charts and other common tools?
-- How do you engage work groups in visualization work?
-- How might we create better shared visual memory? Better visual contexts we can return to over and over?

This is the second call in a series on shared visual meaning. The first one was a group dialogue and I was one of the guests on that one too. You can listen to that call as a podcast here.

We will use a free Web document-sharing service that includes chat capabilities.

At the start of the Yi-Tan call, please head to Vyew and join meeting number 568542. If you'd like to practice with it first, join us in that meeting a half hour before the call starts. Jerry and I will both be there.

Date: Monday, May 15, 2006
Time: 10:30 PDT, 1:30 EDT
Primary Dial-in Number: 1-800-615-2900 (Toll Free in USA and Canada), or 1-661-705-2005 (for callers outside the USA and Canada)
Participant Access Code: 778778

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