1. Find out who’s going  
   Check out Twitter #ESPC17 to find out who’s going or visit the ESPC17 delegates page. If you would like to be added to this page, email your image and details to sarah@sharepointeurope.com There’s no better time to network with your peers, connect with new prospects, or touch base with customers than ESPC17. Don’t bank on running into them at the conference, reach out to them before and arrange a meeting.
2. Plan Ahead
   Take a look at the conference schedule and decide the sessions and tutorials you would like to attend. Take note of their time so you can plan your meetings accordingly. If you are traveling with co-workers, split up and attend different sessions. You can swap notes after, allowing your company to get the most out of the conference.
3. Learn
   Before the session, think of some questions you would like the answers to. Don’t be afraid to ask them during the Q&A, or alternatively go up and have a chat with the speaker afterwards. It is also important to take notes. A good practice is to write down the 3 most important takeaways from each session.
4. Socialize
   With 2,000 people from the SharePoint, Office 365 & Azure community estimated to attend ESPC17, it is worth going to the after parties (The Black & White Party at the Guinness Storehouse on Wednesday 15^th) and the many other great side-line and networking sessions, you never know who you’ll meet. Swap ideas, get advice and make those all-important contacts. Don’t be afraid to go up to a speaker or blogger and introduce yourself – they expect this at a conference.
5. Share what you learn
   To capture maximum value for you and your company, schedule time to share what you’ve learned and even better, to go ahead and implement, as soon as you get back to the office. Organize an informal meeting with your colleagues and managers and share important takeaways from the conference.

Still haven’t made up your mind? Then visit 10 reasons to attend ESPC17 to see why you should be there. Then book your ticket today. Use coupon code ESPC17Speak on checkout to avail of a further 10% discount.

10) They will announce more about branding modern sites at Ignite, which is great because a lot of us have been asking about this and it shows that Microsoft is listening to the feedback.

Working on it! More to share at @MS_Ignite this September. Stay tuned! #TeperTakeover

— Microsoft SharePoint (@SharePoint) July 10, 2017

9) Outlook calendar integration is coming, which will allow us to add shared Outlook calendars to SharePoint. Hopefully, this will include write from SharePoint. Has anyone else wanted this since the 2007 days?

The group calendar web part connects to group calendar and we'll be releasing it soon! #TeperTakeover

— Microsoft SharePoint (@SharePoint) July 10, 2017

8) What is the future of Publishing in SharePoint? More publishing features will be added to Communications over time.

Video recording reply re:Q from @olgaamarti abt future of publishing in #SharePoint Online #TeperTakeover pic.twitter.com/nU0VbtEChK

— Microsoft SharePoint (@SharePoint) July 10, 2017

7) Flow is THE replacement for workflow.

Video reply to @shridharjj re:@MicrosoftFlow futures #TeperTakeover @nintex @k2 pic.twitter.com/MLaciG0czv

— Microsoft SharePoint (@SharePoint) July 10, 2017

6) If you haven’t heard, Microsoft announced a HUGE re-organization in their sales org. Jeff has confirmed that the sales re-org empowers SharePoint, which I agree with, especially since much of the focus is now on industry verticle solutions, which more closely aligns with how people actually use tech.

Great #Office365 momentum 100M+ users, SharePoint is #2 used after Exchange (growing faster :-)) new sales org increases customer focus

— Microsoft SharePoint (@SharePoint) July 10, 2017

5) There WILL be another on-prem version of SharePoint.

Video in reply to on-prem #SharePoint Server futres Q from @DavidMDrever "We're committed!" #TeperTakeover pic.twitter.com/iVSwkvMpiK

— Microsoft SharePoint (@SharePoint) July 10, 2017

4) Classic SharePoint sites are not going away.

We are going to make it easier to adapt modern sites but if you are running classic sites, we have no plans to turn them off. #TeperTakeover

— Microsoft SharePoint (@SharePoint) July 10, 2017

3) SharePoint will be core to the new Microsoft 365 offering, which includes Office 365, Windows, and Security. It will get SharePoint out to more people and give partners an opportunity to make more money.

Video reply to @EricaToelle abt new @Microsoft 365 and #SharePoint #roadmap #TeperTakeover pic.twitter.com/uM0bju3hsx

— Microsoft SharePoint (@SharePoint) July 10, 2017

2) There were a bunch of updates about Communications and Modern SharePoint sites.

Oh and SP Mobile for iOS and Android get native Comm Sites support by end of July

— Microsoft SharePoint (@SharePoint) July 10, 2017

Modern pages and parts can go into existing sites and subsites which will get you much of this

— Microsoft SharePoint (@SharePoint) July 10, 2017

In short, no. Long answer – the new webparts are client-side only. There is no mixing server-side webparts on fully client-rendered page.

— Microsoft SharePoint (@SharePoint) July 10, 2017

1) Modern sites, libraries, and lists will be in the next version of SharePoint. They will not be released in a Feature Pack prior to the next version.

Too big a change for Feature Pack. Working on plans for next server which will get part of new UX. Will share when plan baked.

— Microsoft SharePoint (@SharePoint) July 10, 2017

And finally, here are some closing thoughts from Jeff Teper.

Video final thoughts and thank you for joining #TeperTakeover – nice crazy invigorating hour.
Thx, @JeffTeper for the time and wisdom. pic.twitter.com/v3HSTza9FY

— Microsoft SharePoint (@SharePoint) July 10, 2017

Figure 1: Yammer Document Conversations

Many people were either finding this feature useful, or looking forward to its potential, judging from the reaction on the Office 365 Yammer Network (Requires sign-up; someone will approve your membership within 24 business hours). Christophe Fiessinger, an Office 365 Product Manager, replied to the thread with this link to this recent article titled, Document collaboration in Yammer just got better with Office Online!

The article describes new functionality within Yammer; now “the document preview and edit experience for files uploaded into Yammer are now powered by Office Online”, meaning that the Office Web App will be used for file preview and editing instead of the third-party service Crocodoc. Additionally, they plan to enable real-time co-authoring and document translation during the first half of 2016. The reasons for the cancellation of Document Conversations were listed in the post, which I will address in a separate article, “Why A/B Testing Does not Work for Features”.

While I am happy to see Yammer and Office coming closer together by using common document editing capabilities, there are a few things that make me pause with this announcement.

1. Yammer does not provide Enterprise IT security, control, and compliance for files. Microsoft’s compete story for OneDrive for Business (OD4B) against Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive is that OD4B provides Enterprise IT security, control, and compliance through the Enterprise Content Management feature set present in ODFB, SharePoint Online, and SharePoint 2013/2010 on-prem (See the Ignite 2015 presentation: A File’s Future with OneDrive for Business, slide 12). If you implement Yammer + OneDrive for Business and/or SharePoint Online then you are giving users a place to store and edit files that are not managed with these security, control, and compliance features (Thank you, Christophe, for confirming). Additionally, the User Interface now looks the same so it will be more difficult for users to understand the difference. Naomi Moneypenny confirmed that you are able to disable file upload in Yammer, but it will also disable uploading images, which most of us would agree is not useful.

   

Figure 2: Ignite 2015 presentation: A File’s Future with OneDrive for Business, slide 12

1. Co-authoring on documents will not be available in Yammer until 2016. The ability to co-author an Office document with up to 99 users is currently available in OD4B/SharePoint Online, and was available in alongside conversation in the cancelled Yammer Document Conversations feature. Even in the new implementation, co-authoring and commenting would occur in two different screens, assuming there are no UI changes. I think Document Conversations was a better user experience overall.
2. Yammer files do not appear in Delve (yet?). Hopefully this will be changing very soon, as evidenced by this Microsoft support article (3^rd section) which states: “if you’ve opted in to the First Release program and activated Yammer Enterprise, links to public webpages that users post on public Yammer groups can show up as content cards in Delve, users can post documents to Yammer from Delve and start and view Yammer conversations in Delve.” BTW – If someone has seen this in action, please post a screenshot!

For the record, I think the Office 365 Product Team does a great job. They really listen to user feedback, which is what inspired me to write this article. They are working with the project constraints of time, money, and quality just like the rest of us, and features need to be prioritized accordingly.

I’ll be presenting the following sessions:

• OneDrive for Business: Much More than a File Share
• Plan to Migrate to SharePoint Online
• Full Day Workshop: Create Your End User Adoption Strategy

SPECIAL OFFER: As a speaker, I can extend $600 savings on the 5-day package. Register here: http://bit.ly/LSPK81Home

All roads lead to Live! 360: the ultimate education destination! Bring the issues that keep you up at night and prepare to leave this event with the answers, guidance and training you need.  Register now: http://bit.ly/LSPK81_Reg

Please use my code TOELLE200 to receive a $200 discount and your pass, and attend my session Plan to Migrate to SharePoint Online, which is on Wednesday, August 19th from 1:30-2:40pm in session room 7.

A few sessions that I am looking forward to attending:

• The SharePoint Vision keynote by Bill Baer
• SharePoint 2016 Roadmap: Practical Implications for Your Organization by Naomi Moneypenny
• The Three Security Pillars of SharePoint by Liam Cleary
• Bend SharePoint Approval Workflow to Your Will with SharePoint Designer by Tamara Bredemus
• Build Killer visuals to interact with your content using Search and Display Templates by Benjamin Niaulin
• Access Apps for Business Users with Power BI on Office 365 by Chris McNulty

In addition to the 70 minute breakout sessions there are also full and half day workshops on Tuesday, August 18th. A few I recommend:

• Dan Holme’s Master Class: SharePoint & Office 365 Service Delivery & Governance: I had the opportunity to attend this class at SPFest Chicago last December. Dan has a way of breaking down complex topics extremely clearly and his advice is actionable.
• Getting Scope and Requirements Right the First Time! Innovative Tools that Work and can be put into use Tomorrow (Ruven Gotz and Michelle Caldwell): It does not work to just ask your stakeholders their requirements and scope for a project. In this workshop Ruven and Michelle teach a series innovation games that you can use to elicit this information more accurately, and have fun while doing it!

Additionally, my fabulous employer Protiviti is a Platinum sponsor of SharePoint Fest Seattle. Please stop by our booth and say hello to Jason Schnur and me!

I presented three sessions at the conference:

My third session was an overview of Enterprise Content Management features in SharePoint 2010/2013. I did not prepare slides for this session; instead I prepared several demos and polled the audience about what topics they would like to hear discussed. If you are a Microsoft partner you can access a free Office 365 instance, populated with content and profiles, for use in demos at http://microsoftofficedemos.com.

• 5 Inspiring Reasons to Manage Projects on SharePoint 2013 by Gina Montgomery
• Adoption Tactics: Why Your End Users and Project Managers Will Rave Over SharePoint 2013 by Gina Montgomery
• Advanced Scenarios with Office 365 / SharePoint Online External Users by Adam Toth
• Designing and Building Solutions with the Future in Mind by Chris Johnson
  • Recap
• Enhance SharePoint 2013 with Responsive Web Design by Eric Overfield
• Essential Content Types by Chris Beckett
• From Earth to the Cloud: A California Winery Moves to Office 365 and SharePoint by Ben Henderson
  • Recap
• Goodbye SSPS, Hello FIM! by Trevor Naupilus
• How the SharePoint App Store Positions Your Company for World Domination by Dan Barker
• Integrating Search Driven Content in SharePoint 2013 by Eric Overfield
• Let’s Build a SharePoint Environment in Windows Azure by Matthew Bailey
• Plan, Prepare and Overall Process of Upgrade and Migrate to SharePoint 2013 by Kashish Sukhija
• The Mobile Revolution by D’arce Hess
• Responsive Design and SharePoint 2013: An Intranet Case Study by Roberto Yglesias
• The Rise of SharePoint as a Business Critical Hub for LOB Solution Delivery by Dan Barker
• SharePoint and the Lean Enterprise: Critical Factor for Accelerating Time to Value by Dave Healey
• SkyDrive Pro: Apps, Web, Oh my! by Mark Kashman
• Social + Corporate Communications = A Recipe for Success! by Shawn Beeson
• Think You Can Hack SharePoint? by Liam Cleary
• Understanding and Programming the SharePoint REST API by Chris Beckett
• Utilizing and Visualizing Geolocation Data for Powerful Analysis by Timothy Ferro
• What Governance Looks Like in the Cloud by Christian Buckley
• Where Social Meets Content by Paul Yantus

Chris’s Post about this session can be found here.

• Agenda
  • What’s new in 2013 for solutions
  • How does it work?
  • What does this all mean?
  • Designing for tomorrow
  • Wrap-up
• “Old” way

• Server side code / wsp
• Sandbox solutions
  • Designed many years ago
  • Tried to get code out of main process into separate process
  • Issue: Didn’t have access to all APIs

• Introduced in 2013
  • New application model
  • Same model whether on prem or cloud
  • Goal: No developer code in any SharePoint process
  • Set of APIs / events that can talk to SharePoint
  • What the sandbox should have been – solving many of same problems
  • Calls from external code is monitored and authorized through protocols –can use almost any system
  • Apps and users have permissions to reach back to SharePoint based on permissions they’ve been given
  • Can deploy though app store – public or private catalog just for your organization
  • Types of apps
    • SharePoint hosted – everything lives in SharePoint; no external process such as Azure
    • Cloud hosted apps – Provider hosted (app developer manages back end and deplys code; manages assets) or auto-hosted (only available in O365 – hosted on Azure automatically)
  • Can be deployed at multiple levels or scopes
    • Site scoped installation
      • Installed in specific site
      • App is launched from same site
      • The site is known as a host web
    • Tenancy scoped install
      • App available in many host webs’
      • All access one app instance
      • Centralizes app management
• App Catalog site
  • Private / enterprise market place just for your enterprise
    • No certification process
    • Seen only by that company
  • Enables license management and gateway for app procurement
• What is Chris’s personal opinion?
  • Likes plumbing a lot
    • UI integration
    • Data – remote APIs / CSOM / REST APIs
    • Events
  • Doesn’t love the store
  • Truth: You’re going to have to get onboard with this future at some point; might as well realize this is coming
    • This should get better over time
  • “Chris, you’re talking as a crazy person…”
    • Walk though some of the similarities and differences between the two
• What’s covered?

• Table is not all encompassing
• Not a perfect story

• Don’t be cornered…
  • Decouple where possible
    • Ex: Rather than writing business logic code in web part and deploying as a fully trusted solution, maybe call a service that has logic in it
  • Don’t be a typical developer
    • Don’t just open visual studio and start writing code
    • Maybe more pain up front, but longer term payoff
  • Light touch first, deep only if needed
    • Deep = straight to code
    • Light touch = use web parts already there first, e.g., content search web part
  • Pragmatic, but forward thinking
    • Not saying to never use a farm solution
    • Only use them where absolutely necessary
• Is this model really that different?
  • Pieces are still similar, just different names

• Dos and Don’ts
  • Do (at least consider)
    • App model on Prem (2013)
      • High trust on prem aka S2S
      • Low trust on prem (hybrid)
    • Client JavaScript wherever possible
      • Web parts
      • Pages
      • JS CSOM
    • Externalize code + Web services, e.g., event receivers
    • Aim for Office 365 even if you aren’t moving
    • Be very vigilant on nice to have features
  • Don’t
    • Use farm solutions by default
      • Make your architects / developers think
      • Might be more costly but wll pay dividends
    • Tie into other systems without considering how to loosely coupled
• There is no “wrong”…yet
  • But, it is going to messy for awhile
    • We will be frustrated with gaps in the app model for awhile
    • This is version one
    • We can assume the app model will evolve (at least we hope so)
• Discussion
  • Q: How long do you think sandbox solutions will be supported? E.g., for deployment
    • A: When APIs are deprecated it is typically Version-2 releases. The questions is, when is the next version? Sandbox will go away when app model can pick up slack, maybe a few years

Presented by Ben Henderson of Colligo | http://twitter.com/ben3003

• Old fashion winery – including technology
  • 1200 people
  • [Kendall-Jackson]
• CIO vision:
  • Latest technology
  • Latest products
  • Latest service
  • In order to enable:
    • Eliminate risk
    • Retain staff – attract young people
    • Get cool
  • Didn’t want additional infrastructure; chose cloud
• Phase One
  • Started with Novell Groupwise
  • Moved to Outlook and Lync
  • Highly impressed
• Phase Two
  • 60 day retention policy
  • SharePoint or Trash
  • Wanted to eliminate risk
  • People had been here for 30 years and kept all of their email
    • Litigation was too costly
• Decision makers
  • Director of HR
  • Director of Finance
  • Director of Assets
• Diagram to explain to Directors

• Current state to future state

• Team sites / business applications / project sites
• Or MySites
• Location depends on type of content
  • Ex: Invoices used to be in personal folders, those go to “application” site
• SharePoint gave them
  • Information management policies
  • Security
  • Governance
  • Enterprise search
  • Collaboration
  • Reduced risk
  • Compliance

• High level approach
  • Select pilot departments
  • Perform information architecture assessment
  • Generate a base template
  • Train
  • Deploy
• Pilot selection
  • IN
    • IT – because they are in on everything
    • Friends and family – honest feedback is the best kind of feedback
    • Early adopters – People that are interested in new types of software
    • Legal and HR – large document creators
  • OUT
    • Sales – They are laggards in the wine world
    • Production – Busy with harvest during the pilot
• Requirements from departments
  • Management Level buy-in
  • Time for interviews to begin Information architecture
  • Nominated of key “Super Users / champions” to train on solution
  • A positive attitude toward the project
• Information architecture (IA) assessment
  • Questionnaire
  • 1 ½ hour interview
  • Follow up email
  • Draft of IA for the department
    • Left areas blank – they filled those in
    • Didn’t know they were creating an information architecture
  • Follow up meeting
• Challenges
  • CIO quit in the middle of the project – he was the one who chose the Microsoft stack
    • Main sponsor of project
  • A project manager took over sponsorship and gave valuable advice
    • Don’t try to change too quickly
• Interviews
  • Questions were business focused, not technical
  • [Insert photo]
  • The users did not know they were building an information architecture – just answered the questions
  • Takeaways
    • Huge amount of knowledge about department,
    • Super user roles, responsibilities and knowledge of those around super users
    • How they create, manage, store use documents – had to ask probing questions about behavior to get actual usage patterns
    • Search / navigation – Search huge! It didn’t work for them previously; used navigation instead. Wanted a “google like” search engine
    • Pros / cons
• Information architecture
  • Ownership by the business
    • Had to train the business on taxonomies, metadata, properties, columns…
  • Identify common documents and their data sets
    • Brands
    • Locations
    • SKUs
  • Lots of unknowns
• Security requirements
  • Ownership on IT
  • Ownership on Business
  • Governance issue – training and guidelines
  • Lock down “super user”
  • Open up more control over time to departments as they adopt technology and demonstrated good information management practices
• They were actually using many types of technology
  • Dropbox
  • FTP
  • Gmail
  • Don’t involve IT in order to get the truth and have a frank conversation. IT didn’t know about these alternative technologies
  • Couldn’t work from home so would email themselves documents or use alternative technologies
    • Wanted to work whenever, wherever
    • Owned tasting rooms, restaurants…want to be able to work from these locations
• Deliverables
  • Information architecture assessment
    • Documented department requirements
    • Documented approach to delivery based on two options
      • One template per department OR
      • One standard template
      • Went with customized template approach
    • Wireframes
    • Risks and issues with approach
• Phase 2: The build out
  • Use templates for department sites
  • Create and deploy templates through PowerShell
    • Already good PowerShell knowledge
  • Site provisioning
  • Train local IT team

• Challenges
  • Office 365 PowerShell continuously growing so knowledge was sometimes weak
  • Lots of post deployment tasks as a part of provisioning getting the client team to understand “why” for tasks
  • Office 365 upgrade…two weeks’ notice for upgrade to 2013
    • Upgrade sites
    • Train support…again
    • Train super users…again
    • Upgrade site template
    • Difficult to understand how 2010 templates would work in 2013
  • SharePoint chosen before requirements gathered
  • Lack of SharePoint knowledge
  • SharePoint seen as tool that will solve problems
  • Didn’t understand amount of time and effort that goes into a deployment
  • Change in leadership halfway through the project
  • Constant flow of requirements for projects they need done now
• Current state
  • 5 departments live and in pilot phase
  • Requirements coming in from other departments
    • Embracing workflow
  • Business applications being assessment for SharePoint potential
  • Knowledge ramp up happening in IT team
  • Gathering continuous improvement plan
  • Working with Colligo tools to ease adoption
    • iPad access
    • Email integration
    • Offline working

On Thursday, August 22nd at 1PM EST / 10AM PST / 5PM GMT I will be available in the http://sharepoint-community.net main chat room to answer any of your questions around SharePoint End User Adoption!

More information here: http://sharepoint-community.net/events/spchat-with-erica-toelle-end-user-adoption

Q&A is always my favorite part of any presentation and I’m looking forward to the discussion.

If you haven’t yet joined http://sharepoint-community.net then sign up! It is an excellent resource for community interaction around discussions, Q&A, blog posts, chat and more.

On Thursday, August 22nd at 1PM EST / 10AM PST / 5PM GMT I will be available in the http://sharepoint-community.net main chat room to answer any of your questions around SharePoint End User Adoption!

More information here: http://sharepoint-community.net/events/spchat-with-erica-toelle-end-user-adoption

Q&A is always my favorite part of any presentation and I’m looking forward to the discussion.

If you haven’t yet joined http://sharepoint-community.net then sign up! It is an excellent resource for community interaction around discussions, Q&A, blog posts, chat and more.

TED Talk: Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation

Summary

Are you trying to motivate your SharePoint users using a carrot and a stick approach to adopt your solution? Or, are you deploying a platform and hoping business users will get creative with the possibilities? This video examines the science behind human motivation, provides guidance on the difference in impact behind these two techniques and explains the importance of intrinsic motivation.

SharePoint Application

I wonder if it would be possible for self organizing teams of business users to apply for a “time grant” in their organizations to create a business solution built on SharePoint and other related technologies.  Grants could be selected by a set of objective criteria outlined in a business case, such as time saved, ease of maintenance, ease of execution, positive impact on the customer experience, or fulfillment of strategic goals.  The team of business users could partner with a business analyst from IT to design the solution, and SharePoint technical experts could build the solution to ensure quality. I think these types of agile project teams will be the future of SharePoint, and it seems they might increase the quality of people’s work experience through intrinsic motivation as well.

h/t Jeff Shuey

The full text whitepaper can be purchased here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14697010902727211

Abstract

In this paper, we offer a model of how leaders and managers can generate energy for action by engaging in the right kinds of conversations. We develop the model by linking social constructionist thought with theory from the field of positive psychology. We propose that effective leaders generate energy for action by engaging people in conversations that provide them (and themselves) with a sense of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Energy is expressed in the form of support, time, money and resources, which contribute to the success of the work. Continuous attention to conversations that invite the co-creation of desired futures creates upward spirals of energy and increases the probability of successful change over time. These ideas are illustrated with a case study of a successful IT change initiative in a Fortune 100 insurance company and conclude by discussing implications for research and practice.

Key Points*

* I highly encourage you to read this research paper in full as it provides important context for these key points.  I also only summarized the points that I personally found interesting so that they can be referenced in future articles on this blog. Please note that some of these key points represent the work of referenced authors.

• By taking, planning, proposing, and acting, people build networks of conversation that are embodied in their systems, structures, strategies, processes, procedures, and cultures and, thereby become background conversations that define their day to day reality. Similarly, they adopt and enact narrative and meta-narrative patterns that are then passed on to them by their predecessors, and by the broader culture in which they are immersed. These story lines delimit what is right, real, and possible, and thereby define the range of options available for action. [p. 67]
• Engaging in the right kinds of behaviors allows organizational members to co-create new possibilities that increase their sense of autonomy, competence and belonging, which in turn elicits positive emotions such as interest, joy, hope and pride. Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention, cognition and action and build physical, intellectual, and social resources, which lead to increased energy for action. [p. 68]
• Human social order is produced through interpersonal negotiations and implicit understandings that are built up via shared history and shared experience. [p. 69]
• People use seven types of speech acts to create social reality by expressing their thoughts about a person, place, thing, role, commitment, or set of values: [p. 70]
  1. Assertive: Propositional content is transferred. For example, we will grow 25% this year.
  2. Informative: Gives propositional content and change the reality of the people that are being addressed. For example, an executive telling her direct reports that we will grow by 25% this year.
  3. Expressive: Adds or subtracts value from something or someone. For example, recognition of success or failure.
  4. Declaratives: Used to alter identities. For example, giving someone a new title or role.
  5. Directives: Gives orders, instructions, commands or makes requests of another person. For example, an executive telling her direct reports to achieve 25% growth without compromising the company’s ethical standards.
  6. Accreditives: Gives consent, permission, or authorization to another person. For example, the executive gives her reports permission to add headcount to achieve the 25% growth goal.
  7. Commissives: Gives a guarantee. For example, the executive promises a bonus for those that achieve the 25% growth goal.
• If we understand organizations as networks of conversations built through an ongoing dialog that is brought into reality by the means of reoccurring pattering and structural coupling, it is an invitation to see organizational life as a form of narration within ongoing relationships. [p. 71 (paraphrased)]
• Narratives typically consist of four phases: [pp. 71-72]
  1. Manipulation Phase: often begins with a directive-commissive pair of speech acts to create a sense of unbalance that must be resolved, sand therefore motivates someone to act. For example, when a growth goal is set by an executive and it is understand the direct reports will need to deliver that goal.
  2. Competence Phase: Described what is needed to be ready to carry out the tasks to restore the imbalance from #1.
  3. Performance Phase: The phase in which the subject obtains (or fails to obtain) the desired object.
  4. Sanction Phase: Accomplished through expressisves, such as thanks, acknowledgement, disapproval, punishment, etc. Restores the imbalance created in #1.
• A real life case study is presented to provide examples of real world application:
  1. Manipulation Phase: A successful business case use in the study covered the following key points when making the case for change: existing policy, background information, presented the business opportunity in financial terms, posed critical questions for consideration, made recommendations, and estimated benefits.
  2. Competence Phase:
  • Create and communicate about the project vision – An executive communicate in a meeting about the project. A prep sheet was created which contained the meeting purpose, agenda items, audience description, key messages and concerns. [p.75]
  • This meeting provided the benefit of bringing all of the people who needed to make the work successful together in one room.
  • It allowed an executive to discuss the importance of the work and ask everyone to support it.
  • Control the timing and flow of information – it is important that key people understand and support the change before others hear about it. [p. 75]
  • Demonstrate success – Find ways to keep the organization informed about progress. [p.76]
  • Find new and novel ways to talk about the work – Demonstrate a new perspective through new data, visualizations, etc. [p.76]
  • Influence through others
• Performance Phase: the project team was clear about the support, time, money and resources they needed to achieve the desired results. [p. 77]
• Sanction Phase: Team members were rewarded with a bonus and public recognition. [p. 77]
• Without narrative structure to sequence actions and texts …conversations by themselves have little meaning. [p. 77]
• Allowing people to help you co-create these narratives allow organization members to increase their sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which in turn elicits positive emotions such as interest, joy, hope, and pride. Positive emotions enhance thought-action repertoires by broadening the scope of attention, cognition and action, and building physical, intellectual and social resources, which lead to increased energy for action. In other words, persuasive narratives create energy for action by boosting positive emotions and increasing the organization’s overall intelligence, creativity, resilience and cooperative capacity. [pp. 77-78]
• Energy in conversation is defined as: [p. 78]
  1. A person’s energy level, which they automatically interpret as a reflection of how desirable a situation is.
  2. A person’s interpretation of their conversational partner’s energy based on the partners expressive gestures.
  3. A feeling of being eager to act and capable of acting, which affects how much effort a person will invest in the conversation and into subsequent, related activities.
• Collective energy depends on: [p. 80]
  1. How autonomous and capable the members perceive the collective to be.
  2. How much they feel that they belong.
  3. How sincere they perceive other members to be in advancing collective goals.
• As people join in creating narratives in which they can “see” and anticipate their basic needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness being met, positive emotions are activated such as interest, joy, hope and pride in one’s association with others, the work, and the organization. [p. 80]
• Questions left unanswered by research: How and why changes in pattern of conversation lead the changes in pattern of enacting. What are the dynamics at play? What are the psychological and relational processes that allow new narratives to elicit new pattern of coordination, collaboration and action? [p. 68]