Diffusion of Innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. Everett Rogers, a professor of rural sociology, popularized the theory in his 1962 book Diffusion of Innovations. He said diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. The origins of the diffusion of innovations theory are varied and span multiple disciplines.

Back in January of 2012,  I woke up with the Theory of Diffusion of Work on my mind.  I’m sure there has been some research, studies, tests, etc… conducted but I thought I’d think out loud on this topic…  just using anecdotal evidence from my own experiences in life.

I came up with this on my whiteboard:

Everyone is one of these types of workers.

Makers

Create new ways to grow by designing, executing, and interpreting experiments. The crazy ones who challenge the status quo.

Doers

Commit to getting things done. Growth mindset to embrace challenges, test new ideas, and provide feedback.

Followers

Follow proven processes to complete work. Fixed mindset & reliable to execute work that has been proven to be effective.

Complainers

Complain about the processes, yet never follow all of the details. Drag a team down.

Which type of worker are you?

UPDATE: My friend Jeff Turner helped improve my whiteboard idea into a much cleaner graphic.

Image by Jeff Turner

Connected Together.
Thanks to technology, as a population we are more connected to each other than ever before. Therefore everyone knows someone with some semblance of expertise or at least an opinion on just about every topic imaginable. Even better (or worse) we don’t even have to know anyone to get answers and information. We just turn to Google for that stuff. So who are the future authorities, trusted sources, or valuable resources in the information era?

The Question Askers.
Asking the right question, to the right person/resource, at the right time & place is a skill worth developing. In order to be a good service provider we must develop a skill that no machine will ever be able to master… empathy. I’ll be the first to admit that empathy has not been a strong suit of mine in the past. I now work daily to improve this skill.

A friend of mine shared an equation that has stuck with me for many months now:
Observation + Empathy = Insight
If you value real insight, we must first observe (define what it is), and then empathize (define why it is) before we can have eureka (true value/innovation/understanding/etc…).

Therefore.
I no longer seek to provide answers. I am working to ask my coworkers, my clients, my friends, & family the right questions. The ones they’d never think of on their own. The ones that involve emotion and purpose. The ones that are hard to google.

In closing.
My 3 year old has it figured out more than anyone else I know. He always asks… WHY?

//brilliant

Chosen Insiders Preferred

I don’t want just every random person who needs to contact me to do any or all of the 3 problems above. *I do enjoy texts from a select chosen group of people (family, close friends, coworkers, & active clients).

This is in response to Carson Mathew’s post.
What are your thoughts about text messages?

[ilink url=”http://bradnix.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/CommArch.pdf” style=”download”]Download Presentation Slides[/ilink]

[ilink url=”http://bradnix.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Communication-Architecture-Worksheet.xls” style=”download”]Download Communication Worksheet[/ilink]

[divider]

Communication Architecture is a framework designed to bring focus on the process required to communicate any message effectively. This framework can be built upon in custom manners to fit different organizations and uses. Most organizations will have strengths and weaknesses exposed while implementing this framework, which should bring additional focus on the needed areas for improvement.

5 core factors to consider in Communication Architecture

Target Market: a detailed profile of the intended recipient of a message.  the more intimate knowledge of the target, the more engagement opportunities.  this person or these people Decode, Interpret, and Encode Responses to your signals.

Resources: also known as Content. There are two types of resources: Internal and External.  Internal includes things such as your brand identity, business facts, business products/services, the knowledge in your head and that of others in your organization.  External includes things such as industry white papers, blogs, thought leaders, and even competitors. Original content typically strengthens the signal.

Signal: signals are created using the organization’s resources.  it is the message that will be shared with others.  examples include photos, videos, presentations, surveys, audio, links, notes, and written articles.

Tools: these are typically owned by the organization and used to optimize and implement content.  modern tools include wordpress, mailchimp, vimeo, polldaddy, rss, and photoshop

Channels: this is the location in which you choose to publish/share your communication.  Also known as a medium, it includes custom communities/forums, websites, email, facebook, twitter, linkedin, yelp, youtube, landing pages, and ads.

When assembled as a Venn diagram you begin to see how these factors work together.

Communication Architecture Evolved

Overlaps symbolize critical Activities in the process of communicating

Create: the act of making a signal based around a resource worth sharing.  Example: a property listing into an open house announcement.

Optimize: the act of enhancing the signal using a tool.  Example: cropping the property photos and editing the text.

Implement: the act of publishing from a tool into a channel.  Example: mailing the postcard or posting to facebook.

Engage: the act of a target market interacting with your signal inside a channel.  Example: some likes your facebook status or reads the postcard.

Analyze: the act of interpreting the results from the target market feedback and determining if they can be used as future resources.  Example: click rate on the facebook message or response rate of the postcard.  [also, analyze includes determining what resources to make to meet the needs/desires of your target market. *through analysis, one can determine if the signal itself should become a future resource]

Job Descriptions & Skills from Communication Architecture

An individual or organization may have strengths in one area or another, but a complete understanding of the whole architecture will help improve communication both internally and externally.  The overlapping acts could also be interpreted as jobs within an organization.

Create = Author/Photographer  |  Skills to win this phase: creativity, originality, wit

Optimize = Editor  |  Skills to win this phase: tool expertise, critical review of details, skeptical

Implement= Publisher|  Skills to win this phase:  expert channel knowledge, market timing, strategic

Engage= Community Manager|  Skills to win this phase: target market expertise, channel confidence, conversational

Analyze = Data Analyst/Researcher|  Skills to win this phase: data driven, product development expertise, scientific

DIVE?

You shouldn’t communicate at all if you don’t have at least one of the DIVE.  The more, the better.

Data:  plain facts.

Information:  organized data given context.

Value:  what is the information worth given cost to acquire.

Experience:  the quality of enjoyment derived from receiving the value

Building a brand value and experience are critical to long-term success.  Almost anyone can share data.  Most can turn data into information.  The smart find ways to deliver information with value.  Those with raving fans create an amazing experience combined with the value.

– any thoughts on this evolution of Communication Architecture?

I’m currently enthralled with the concept of creating a Communication Architecture that is both sturdy enough to stand up against any type of organizational setup and flexible enough to handle any type of messaging.  These thoughts are simply ideas and concepts at this point.  I have shared them with a few people live and received good feedback/tweaks, but never posted them online for greater scrutiny.

There have been many communication models throughout time.  One of the most popular being The Shannon-Weaver Mathematical Model, 1949

But these type of models don’t give any process management ideas, workflow integration, or specialization opportunities.  I’m trying to build something that others can then take the blueprint and build their own custom version on top of the Communication Architecture foundation.

5 core factors to consider in Communication Architecture

Target Market: a detailed profile of the intended recipient of a message.  the more intimate knowledge of the target, the more engagement opportunities.  this person or these people Decode, Interpret, and Encode Responses to your signals.

Resources: there are two types of resources: Internal and External.  Internal includes things such as your brand identity, business facts, the knowledge in your head and that of others in your organization.  External includes things such as industry white papers, blogs, thought leaders, and even competitors.

Content: content is created using the resources available to you.  it is the creation of a story/message to share with others.  examples include photos, videos, presentations, surveys, audio, links, notes, and written articles.

Tools: these are typically owned by the organization and used to optimize and implement content.  modern tools include wordpress, mailchimp, vimeo, polldaddy, rss, and photoshop

Channels: this is the location in which you choose to publish/share your communication.  Also known as a medium, it includes custom communities/forums, websites, email, facebook, twitter, linkedin, yelp, youtube, landing pages, and ads.

When assembled as a Venn diagram you begin to see how these factors work together.

Communication Architecture

The overlaps symbolize critical activities in the cycle of communication

Creation is the act of taking resources and turning them into content.  Example: a property listing into an open house announcement.

Optimization is the act of enhancing the content by using a tool.  Example: cropping the property photos and editing the text.

Implementation is the act of publishing from a tool into a channel.  Example: mailing the postcard or posting to facebook.

Engagement is the act of a target market interacting within a channel.  Example: some likes your facebook status or reads the postcard.

Analysis is the act of interpreting the results from the target market feedback and determining if they can be used as future resources.  Example: click rate on the facebook message or response rate of the postcard.

Job Description from Communication Architecture

An individual or organization may have strengths in one area or another, but a complete understanding of the whole architecture will help improve communication both internally and externally.  The overlapping acts could also be interpreted as jobs within an organization.

Creation = Author/Photographer

Optimization = Editor

Implementation = Publisher

Engagement = Community Manager

Analysis = Data Analyst

But what is DIVE?

You shouldn’t communicate at all if you don’t have at least one of the DIVE.  The more, the better.

Data:  plain facts.

Information:  organized data given context.

Value:  what is the information worth given cost to acquire.

Experience:  the quality of enjoyment derived from receiving the value

When building a brand value and experience are critical to long-term success.  Almost anyone can share data.  Most can turn data into information.  The smart find ways to deliver information with value.  Those with raving fans create an amazing experience combined with the value.

– so there, I did it.  I put my initial thoughts down for the world to critique.  Have a go.

# special thanks to Mike Pennington for his thoughts and energy helping me get to this point.  and a nod to Gahlord Dewald for pushing me to publish this online.  I look forward to building more around this concept.

]]> http://www.bradnix.com/communication-architecture/feed/ 9 http://www.bradnix.com/its-not-my-dads-birthday-but/ http://www.bradnix.com/its-not-my-dads-birthday-but/#comments Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:58:05 +0000 http://bradnix.com/?p=897

this Birthday Story is all about my dad.

You see, my dad has had three really important women in his life. His mother (my grandmother), for obvious reasons. His first wife (my mom), for more obvious reasons. And his second wife (my step-mom), for even more obvious reasons. Nothing odd about these three women being really important to a man in his lifetime. So, why write this blog post about it?

The three most important women in my father’s life were all born on April 8th.

That’s just weird dad.

I mean it’s freaky that the woman you marry and have two kids with has the same birthday as your mom. But to go through a divorce, then meet a new woman that you want to marry and spend the rest of your life with who also happens to have the same birthday as your mother and ex-wife = freaky.

I celebrated 3 Birthdays for some of the most important women in my life today (as I do every April 8th).  It still freaks me out, but I must say they are REALLY special women.  And it does help me to remember.

Happy Birthday Ladies!    – eat cake

In the consumers’ minds, there is no difference.  I’m looking at some serious and substantive market research that confirms this. 

The one argument made by those who believe that there is a difference? “Realtors have a Code of Ethics”. 

On this point – 

– If you’re a Realtor, have you ever filed an ethics complaint? 

– If you’re a consumer – ask your Realtor if he or she has ever filed a complaint. If (and when) the answer is no, ask “why not?” Ask how if the Realtors don’t police themselves, how is there any credibility in the system?

I’m ethical, but it’s not because I’m a Realtor. It’s because that’s how I was raised. And this was reinforced at VMI where the honor code is “a cadet shall not lie, cheat, steal, nor tolerate those who do”.  

The Realtor Code of Ethics is 8 pages long. http://www.realtor.org/mempolweb.nsf/pages/code

Simple.

Until and if Realtors choose to use the vaunted system in place, and until (and if) Realtors can define our value – versus real estate licensees – beyond access to the MLS, consumers will continue to not care about the difference between Realtors and real estate agents. 

Great post by my friend Jim Duncan! But I am curious in my own market… does it matter to you as a consumer, as a realtor, as an agent?

Chaotic good is known as the “Beatific,” “Rebel,” or “Cynic” alignment. A character favors change for a greater good, disdains bureaucratic organizations that get in the way of social improvement, and places a high value on personal freedom, not only for oneself, but for others as well.