Thanks to Ricardo Semler and a wonderful group of people that make up the team, we run our company differently to most.
We try to ever-develop an open culture, where for example people share their rewards – see illustration!
We try to harness the innate potential of our people through democratic practices – see video!
We try to do all of this in a way that translates into happiness benefits AND financial benefits – read blog post!
But – alas – it’s not all candy floss and kittens in our world.
The more we practice what we do, the more aware I become of the challenges in doing what we do.
Here’s a few we wrestle with:
Stress from openness and reality
Honesty & conflict
Non-participation
Dealing with other people’s perceptions
Managing messiness
UK employment law
Perceived slowness
De-programming new people
The need for personal change
Forgetting how different it is
1. Stress from openness and reality
I think we all feel we’d like to know what’s really going on at work. But actually, it’s pretty stressful sometimes. Reality bites, and there’s probably a reality biting in every workplace but in ours it’s a special kind of ‘this is really real’ reality – be that new business data, financial information, having to share in big crunchy decisions, having to bear the load of big responsibilities and solving tough problems. I guess people that have or do work in start ups can absolutely identify with this, and probably freelancers and independent consultants too. But often when you live in a bigger organisation, this kinda thing is hidden away.
So the emphasis on openness is actually pretty tough to live with. As one team member put it when he first joined, “it’s like having the honesty volume turned up”. Good, but not easy.
2. Honesty & conflict
Being in an honest environment leads to more conflict. Hopefully more positive, and open conflict (as opposed to concealed, disguised, poisonous conflict) but conflict all the same. In reality, we don’t have enough positive conflict at NixonMcInnes in my opinion, and we’re taking responsibility for that and trying to work on it. But it’s hard. (A good book on this is Crucial Confrontations).
But as British people, as nice people, sensitive people, I think most of us find conflict very very scary. Especially in a professional environment. It’s hard!
3. Non-participation
You think the issue matters or that the opportunity to contribute is wonderful – you open up the floor – and then nothing. No participation, no contribution, no care. One of the thing that new starters find hardest is that simply asking for input doesn’t always work. People here are busy, capable and empowered – so they behave more like volunteers. You need to enlist them, excite one another with the mission, call and engage. An email won’t get it. Sometimes our guest board seats go unfilled, much to our chagrin. Just because you say it’s participatory, doesn’t mean it is!
4. Dealing with other people’s perceptions
One I find very hard. When I describe our working practices, culture and values to people, they usually don’t get it. Maybe it’s how I communicate it? But senior agency people and clients look at me like I’m a bit mad, a bit goofy and actually totally insane. They say things like ‘well, if that works for you….’ and ‘do they know how much YOU earn’…. and ‘but isn’t just like management by committee’ and perhaps worst ‘wow…ummm…that sounds really nice’.
It’s especially different with other agency professionals: to them it just feels alien and a total lack of respect for authority. But it can also be an overhead for family and friends and normal people – it’s hard because it’s different. But it can make for a lonely experience.
5. Managing messiness
Difficult to explain without sounding like a new-age-business-writer-twerp, but it goes something like this: we believe in participation, we believe in being networked rather than command-and-control, and in empowerment rather than over-hierarchy.
The result of this combination is that when someone says ‘who do I need to talk to about this’ the answer can often be ‘try Lasy and see what Tom says, and then speak to Max’. When someone phones up and says ‘who is the person that manages XYZ functional responsibility?’ the answer may not always be simple.
So some of the good stuff does result in a kind of functioning and effective messiness, which we’ve learnt some people just can’t tolerate. Some people – good people – have been attracted to the promise of our culture, but in the end repelled by the lack of simple answers to sometimes simple questions :)
6. UK employment law
UK employment law is a tricky thing for any company. I understand what it is attempting to do, and protecting people is a very important thing to do. Our issue at NM is that we feel we often put people before the company finances (which of course has a long-term benefit of translating into positive financial results) but that the law is an absolute blocker, minefield and inflexible mallet of an instrument.
Put simply, democratic principles and UK employment law are definitely not peas in a happy pod. A challenge.
7. Perceived slowness
When you have to involve people, it can feel slow. The pressure is on, you just need to get something done, the thought of canvassing opinions and experiences and inviting feedback is basically a very unpleasant idea. It FEELS slow.
So maybe you short cut it.
You don’t involve the people, you save the time, make the decision and go go go. BLAM!! Then, bit by bit, people ask the same questions, want to know the whys and wherefores, or perhaps just waste time while they wonder what’s really going on and why.
Involving people can feel slow – lots of contributions, lots of feedback, lots of input. But we feel the results are actually faster – once committed, people commit more fully. HR professionals say that employee engagement is the magic key – engagement = results = profits = win. We believe participation is the magic key to engagement. It can feel slower in the early stages, but the benefits come next and keep coming.
8. De-programming new people
It seems to take about 6 months for people to really get how things work culturally in NixonMcInnes. For people to work out how they can behave, how they can dress, how they can participate and voice their feelings and ideas. You can actually ’see’ it happening, I feel. It’s like deprogramming from a different way. I’m probably underestimating how much this happens whichever new work environment people go into. But it feels big when I observe it, so I’m listing it as a challenge.
The way we deal with the challenge is simple, fortunately: just patience. It happens.
9. The need for personal change
Lots of these other challenges end up resulting in the need for some kind of personal change: changing to cope with extra doses of openness, with more responsibility than normal, with a messier, more networked working structure, with the need to be honest to others, even though you (we / I) really, really would rather swerve it or take the edge off of it or grit and smile through it.
Perhaps this is the hardest of all the challenges? Changing is damn hard. I can’t think of an NM team member who hasn’t really changed since they’ve been here. Being a rose-tinted fanboy, of course I see it as positive change, as evolving, but I really believe it.
And perhaps I can talk with most strength about me. Because I’ve changed massively, thanks to the way things are here. I’ve become more confident and a bit less brash, learnt new communication skills which I occasionally remember to apply, learnt how to change and cope with change, how to help other people do the same. It’s been good. But not easy.
10. Forgetting how different this is
Finally, another big challenge with all this different culture gubbins is starting to take it for granted, forgetting that it’s different and special and ours, and just assuming that’s how life is out there in the working world. And that I believe is a little bit dangerous and a lot of a shame. As a professional service organisation, we achieve our results for and through our clients. To do that, we have to be cognisant of their environment, their pressures and needs and meet them halfway. We do that. But we don’t always remember how different this thing here is.
Lots to do, lots to learn, and at least 10 nice challenges to keep us on our toes.
So, 12 whole months since I joined NixonMcInnes, and whilst I could write a whole blog post about the amazing year it’s been, I won’t; a quick scan of our back catalogue provides a wealth of information on the topic of working here. Instead, I wanted to discuss my experience of our salary process, as it’s pretty special, and is a process that I approached in (hopefully) a fairly unique way.
Instead of going into huge depth about the process, which is constantly evolving, not perfect, and also ultimately uninteresting in detail, here is the 30 second outline: we are personally responsible for proposing salary changes on an annual basis, and once you’ve prepared a salary proposal with help from your direct manager, an elected group of four colleagues review and discuss your review before approving or suggesting an amendment. Ta-dah!
Like most other people, I’ve previously worked in workplaces where salary changes are often unexpected, and always undiscussed. Therefore, the openness of NixonMcInnes is pretty exhilarating, and that’s why I wanted to share this, my proposal.
As part of my future development, I want to make more of my creative side, and so the salary proposal seemed like a perfect time to do so. I’m pretty pleased with it as a picture, but obviously a picture requires more narrative than a word doc or powerpoint would, but for me that was the fun. In short, the little robot is me now, and the bigger robot is the world-conquering mega consultant I will become. Going from the top clockwise, you’ll see the actual figures in question, main achievements, a word-cloud of feedback from colleagues and clients, my plans for the future, and then a visual pause for discussion about whether the proposal is fair, equitable, affordable and attractive – the four main benchmarks against which we measure any salary request.
I’m pleased to say that the committee approved my proposal, but instead of a quick rubber-stamping exercise, we spent an hour discussing my role in relation to the other consultants, and their respective goals and rewards. Doing this with colleagues rather than one-to-one with a boss can be slightly awkward as it’s unusual to be so open about your strengths and weaknesses, but ultimately it results in a team who completely ‘get’ each other, and can find ways to compliment each others unique characteristics.
Lastly, when planning and writing this post, I asked the team whether I should blank out the actual amount on the proposal, which lead to an interesting debate. I posted the question:
Some responses suggested not to show the amount:
Others suggested a clever alternative:
And others were all for openess:
So, I decided to just put it up there. We are a transparent organization, we share other figures, so why not share this? I’d welcome any feedback you have on the idea of salaries being public, any thoughts on the process, and lastly any comments on my picture :)
Last week we had a lovely visit from Traci and Miranda from Worldblu at NixonMcInnes HQ. Worldblu run the ‘List of most democratic workplaces in the world’ which NixonMcInnes has been awarded a place on two years in a row. We had a really fun and inspiring discussion with the whole team here about democracy in the workplace.
Here’s a video of Traci and I having a chat about democracy at NixonMcInnes. I was comically awkward and look like a right tool for the first bit of the video, and I make a beautifully ironic faux pas describing the team as ’staff’(!!) but it’s a good conversation once we get into the flow. At least my shirt is nicely co-ordinated with the NixonMcInnes corporate blue wall behind us.
If you’re interested in making your own organisation more resilient, profitable, and happy then I cannot recommend Worldblu enough. They’re passionate about this stuff and can help your organisation to change to become more democratic and realise these benefits.
When we talk about our democratic principles and working practices at NixonMcInnes, the common misconception is that we do this at some kind of traditional business cost.
The logic is that involving people in the whole management and direction of the business must be slower and poorer, but somehow ‘nicer’.
Kinda..’That’s nice dear – how much did it cost?’….
Yet we believe that we can win at the traditional business game, and reinvent that game, AND do all of this our way – having fun and being fulfilled at work.
Quick recap on some of the ways we work
With open book accounting – everyone knows the bank balance, the performance against budget, and what everyone else earns
With decentralised decision-making – a Rewards Team assess and approve all rewards proposals (including mine), when we moved into our new office the first time I saw it was the day we moved in because a team to manage the move had successfully owned and managed it, there are two guest seats for team members at every board meeting, we vote on all ethical decisions including new client opportunities, lots of people get involved in each hiring process, we set and agree objectives for the year as a team (not as a board)
With personal development – we believe hugely in the development of our people and selves, and invest in these, especially in listening and communication skills, which we feel can unlock huge potential
With the whole person – we don’t expect people to leave their soul and personality at home every day, and we expect and work with the challenges that life throws up, in HR speak this means totally flexible working, and lots more authenticity
And more – and the above are merely the outcomes, powered by much-more powerful principles that we hold dear
It’s not always easy, nor is it for everyone
We’ve had many bumps in the road as a young developing company – we’ve changed and learnt along the way, going through a round of redundancies as the company fundamentally shifted from one generation and focus to another, being involved in unhappy projects, had many tough times.
We’ve also found that our approach and culture isn’t for everyone – it is demanding and can be uncomfortable, and for some people the fit is not good.
And finally, there’s a risk of becoming a tall poppy – putting ourselves on a pedestal of our own making, being perceived as arrogant, self-loving positive hype-rs. I’m very conscious of this, which limits how and where I talk about ‘us’ in terms of approach and culture.
But I do believe passionately in the power and inevitability of democractic principles in the workplace.
And I do believe that it can be a competitive edge, not a quaint ‘nice to have’.
So here’s a raised glass for the sceptics:
We grew turnover by 23% in the financial year just closed
We created healthy six-figure profits
We shared £10,000 as a team in the form of profit-related pay
Tomorrow we are celebrating our 10th birthday as a team with some of our clients, partners and friends.
With that in mind, I celebrate my co-founder and the only guy to have been involved for the full ten years Tom Nixon, and the team of smart, decent, real and talented NM people – a great, great team that I am delighted to be able to work with :)
We believe the future needs different ways of working; all we’re doing is trying to find our own.
A couple of weeks ago I spent the day at LocalGovCamp, a barcamp-style unconference for people interested in how local government can capitalise on, and overcome the challenges of, the evolving online landscape.
Given some of our work with the public sector, and broader interest in helping government engage with people through social media, NixonMcInnes part-sponsored the event and I had the pleasure of going along to listen and join in some of the discussions.
Some of the highlights of the day for me…
Dave Briggs and others talked about how councils can absorb and learn from internet culture, turning the IT guys from the men (and women?) who say ‘No’ into the people who facilitate and deliver on cool and innovative ideas.
Much of this resonated with some of my experiences with the private sector, but the answer, according to Chris Coplin from Microsoft, is to draw them in to your projects, get them on board with what you’re doing and make their job more interesting in the process (I think the phrase he used was hug them, but I don’t think they’d like that).
Chris Taggart, founder of openlylocal.com, showed how he’s trying to change the way councils share local election data, helping local government fulfill their duty to make this information public, but make it more efficient by storing it in a central, publicly available database. The result is a brilliant resource that they and anyone else can manipulate as they want, ripe for mashups.
Co-design and collaboration came up a few times over the day, the idea of local government organisations tapping into the community of publicly-minded designers and developers (Kent County Council’s Transformed by you a particularly good example of this). It’s something I’m passionate about and builds on the great work done by organisations like Rewired State and their hackdays.
But, the biggest recurring theme for the day for me was how Councils can make the most of social media in the face of impending spending cuts.
Social technologies offer a wealth of opportunities to innovate but how can this be done in a cost-effective way? The public’s perception of how they should be talked to or with has changed – mass, one-way broadcasts are increasingly shunned and people expect a much more immediate and personal-response. It goes without saying that this sets a pretty scary precedent for a small comms team.
One of the answers discussed was to foster collaboration internally, opening up social media to anyone who’s interested and who could contribute. This spreads the load over a much wider set of people and allows those responsible for a particular service to pick up relevant issues. As a result, this also reduces the response time to the public.
The bottom line was that councils can’t afford to have social media on its list of threats and instead need to use it to help them deliver services better or deliver better services.
There are still a lot of questions to answer but given the calibre of discussion over the day, and obvious passion the people attending had for trying to achieve this, I’m confident that this is in hand.
The world feels like it’s spinning faster and faster to me.
What future are we spinning towards? One future to familiarise ourselves with and think about is a harder, more challenging world.
Whilst the media coaxes us with messages of a recovery, there is a different dashboard to at least be aware of…
Ingredients for a different dashboard, to ’see’ a different future
Take Umair Haque’s truer-than-ever macropalypse. (Short version: the economics and business practices of yesterday are totally broken and everything must change).
Add John Robb’s mindblowing Global Guerillas journal and text book. (Short version: through precisely exploiting modern society and its networks and technology a ‘terrorist’ can generate an ROI inconcievable in yesterday’s world)
Sprinkle some #collapsonomics and resilient futures, with hexayurts and all. (Short version: while some people speculate about a more volatile future, these guys are actually getting down to the nitty gritty of ‘what to do about a crazy future’.)
And finish with a garnish of grassroots activism from Dan McQuillan’s link sharing on Twitter. (Short version: lots of different sorts of people around the world are being treated unfairly, and technology innovation and ‘groking’ can help them get their voice heard and their changes made, sometimes…)
In my view our job as citizens and co-workers and as a company and family members and whatever context is to create better futures for ourselves and the world. If you agree, and that’s something you are interested in, in doing a good job, then you should prepare yourselve for a variety of futures, including this harder one too.
Personally, I am optimistic. But whatever the future, it definitely isn’t going to be easy.
As Will mentioned earlier, NixonMcInnes have hired a new helicopter commander which means that my reign as new boy (a title shared of course with the lovely Leesa), is soon to end. With this in mind, and armed with my shiny new profile shots (thanks Garage Studios), I wanted to record my thoughts on my first four months, and perhaps give our new starter an idea of what to expect. Read more…
Just a short note to say that we’ve filled the vacancy that was advertised as the Social Media Helicopter Commander role.
We feel it was our most rigorous hiring process yet, and there were some really excellent evolutions to how we hire, further emphasising our desire to give people opportunities to directly prove their skills, problem-solving approaches and characteristics rather than talk about them in a traditional interview stylee.
But there were things we learnt and can get much better at. And it was hard work for us and for the potential team mates that got involved in the assessments.
About 80% of our team were also involved directly in some way in the hiring (by directly, I mean more than saying hello or making the tea!), in keeping with our belief of the benefits and power of democratic business practices.
As is our way, our new team mate will introduce themselves sometime soon after they start :)
Until then all I can say is that their career has been working in PR in the media, technology and consumer sectors, and we’re delighted that they’ll be bringing those experiences and skills to bear in their work with NixonMcInnes’ clients.
We also met some seriously talented other interested and interesting people; people who made that final decision very very tough, and people we’re hoping we can work with soon.
Thank you to anyone who got involved or retweeted the original blurb.
I realise this isn’t the usual topic we blog about on the NM site, but I had a wonderful experience doing some overseas work earlier in the year in Africa and I wanted to share my story with the world and I thought a blog would be a great way to do this.
Back in February I had the opportunity to spend 2 weeks at an orphanage in rural Ghana, West Africa.
Rather than tell a deep story about my trip, I thought I would highlight the main observations I made during the trip, documenting a little of what I was able to experience. I hope it provides an enjoyable read..
Travelling there
It took a 7 hour flight to get to Ghana, then a days travelling to get from Accra (the capital) up to Sekyere. A long old trip! From Accra we caught a coach to Kumasi, and from Kumasi had to catch a ‘tro tro’ to get to
the village. A ‘tro tro’ is essentially a ragged out old vehicle with too many people squeezed in, often with no doors and little of a windscreen, quite often with an individual hanging off the side. Quite a hair raising experience on those roads I tell you.
Location
I was staying at an orphanage based in Sekyere, a medium size farming village in Rural Ghana, about an hour or so’s drive from Kumasi, which is Ghana’s second largest city. The village consists of one main road (or dirt track) that
stretches the length of the village, with shacks, huts and the early stages of brick structures strewn out to the left and right of the main road. Running water and electricity are present for some, but are limited and the reliability varies.
The orphanage
The name of the orphanage is Revelelation’s Children’s Home. It is a small orphanage, run by a man, Nana, and his wife, Margaret. There are 15 children, half of them disabled and the orphanage is run very much as an extended family as opposed to an institute. What this essentially means is that all children at the orphanage have their names registered as children of Nana and Margaret and all are treated equal, as family. The orphanage is essentially a largish, old building, with 5 rooms: 4 bedrooms and one main living area. Bedrooms are sparse, with an old bed and a sheet per child, and the living area consists of an old wooden couch/chair and a coffee table.
Outside the orphanage the grounds are used to grow food such as casava or coco-yam and chickens run free until a
time comes that they are to be used (for celebrations, or sale). The toilet is outside the orphanage and up a little track and is essentially a toilet sitting over a deep hole in the ground. You do need to watch out for the bugs hitting your bum cheeks.
The villagers
Upon first arrival I was very nervous. Everyone looks (well, stares) at you and are very, very intrigued. After all, my friend and I where the only white people for miles around, certainly only in the village. Indeed, we had one little girl run away crying and it’s only after we found out it was because she had never seen a white man before.
The locals call you ‘Bruni’ which means ‘white person’ – and the children in particular like to sing ‘oh bruni, oh boobuni’ – which means white man amongst black man. They are very sweet and call out Bruni and jump around as soon as they spot you, even from a distance..
We had to meet the local village chief on arrival, who, even though he speaks English, had to have a translator present – it’s tradition apparently that he speaks in his local tongue when greeting visitors.
We also met the local police chief, which left some to be desired I have to say. A glass eyed, scarred man, working out of a shack and spending the most of day sitting on a bench. Not sure how quick to the mark he would be if there was a crisis, but he was friendly all the same.
After a few days, word had quickly spread that there was 2 bruni’s in the village, and before we knew it people left right and centre were telling us ‘I like you’ and wanting to shake our hands. Very endearing, though also somewhat nerve-racking when most of the time they have a bush knife in the other hand.
Local cuisine
The food is probably the strangest I have eaten anywhere. It’s quite a stodgy diet, usually of rice or yam (which is a kind of peanut mush ball) accompanied with ground plantain leaves mixed with a fiery chilli and lots of oil to dip it in. Plantain, cassava, coco yam and rice are typical daily food, most of which are farmed from the surrounding lands.
The food doesn’t stop there though. One evening, on a foggy night driving back from the medical centre through the bush we felt a thud beneath the car. Nana ran out of the car and came back a moment later with a huge grin on his face and a large animal in his hands. He had run over a huge bush rat which he exclaimed is a delicacy and is worth more than a live chicken locally. I then spent the rest of the evening watching Junior and Sarfu (the two older boys) skin and prepare this rat. The following day I had it in a hot stew – it was delicious!
The children
The children are, quite simply, adorable. They are a real mix of ages, from different backgrounds with different reasons for being at the orphanage. Some simply have parents that have passed away, other have a more worrying background of being cast out due to beliefs in witchcraft and other tribal beliefs. A shame.
One thing that was clear and apparent was the generosity, willingness to learn, and sheer playfulness of the children. They all want to go to school, they all want to learn and they all work – very, very hard. Outside of school, the older children cook and wash the clothes for the household as well as farming and tilling the grounds. They support each other as a family unit. The other obvious thing is that children are children – wherever in the world you are. They love to play, tease and have fun. I was gobsmacked at how happy these children are given the fact they don’t have an ounce of what children have here in the western world – a leaf could be taken out of their books when it comes to acceptance, humility and happiness.
The local schools and children’s approach to schooling
I spent a couple of days at the local school (we had to walk the children each day) and met the teachers. It’s amazing! The response you get saying good morning to a class of 60 children is quite impressive. They leave early for school, usually before 7.30 and are back for 3pm. The day is similar to ours, lessons, lunch, lessons, home. The main difference is the infrastructure they are taught in and the subjects. I have to say when helping some children with maths homework I was struggling myself.
The culture/religion/social observations
In my eyes, the culture was one of a very old, developing country, though on the brink of change. Ghana is a model country by African terms, with peaceful, democratic elections taking place and (recently) free schooling for all primary age children (the problem is access to it).
Late one night we heard lots of chanting and drums – this went on for hours and hours. We found out later it was a religious (Christian) ceremony. It’s an interesting combination of Christian beliefs and traditional African rituals.
Another thing I noticed as I travelled around, was the occasional white marquee being set up for what looked like a wedding. As the time passed I realised these are for post funeral gatherings. They celebrate the life of an individual with a huge party when a person passes away and go to great lengths to advertise the celebration party of a passing person.
Hygiene
Hygiene varies depending on where you are, the plot of land you are given by the chief (that is how homes are allocated) and what your approach as an individual is to personal hygiene. We saw some areas, particularly near the cities that were awful, and others not so bad. One huge problem they have is plastic. All water and packaging comes in either plastic bags or similar – these are sold roadside, and dropped after use. They are everywhere. I spent three whole days clearing up just the plastic bits from around the orphanage grounds – but it comes back so quickly. There is no rubbish collection.
Malaria
Malaria is rife in the area – we spoke to one missionary that said he had caught malaria 3 times in the past 2 months. One evening we noticed that one of the smaller children, Adjunem, was very quiet. He went to sleep very early (whereas normally you can’t keep him quiet) and I was concerned. We checked him, and he was very hot, and we couldn’t wake him. Unfortunately, Margaret and Nana weren’t aware of the severity purely because they aren’t educated enough to spot these problems. We told them something was wrong and insisted on taking him to the next village to get to the medical centre. Upon arrival, a very strict women took two looks at him, confirmed his symptoms and said ‘Malaria’.
A cocktail of 4 types of medicine and a suppository later and the boy was back on his feat saying our names – all in 10 minutes! That must have been some drug cocktail.
The nearest city – Kumasi
Kumasi is the nearest city to Sekyere, it takes an hour or two by tro tro to get to and is a completely different experience. Away from the tranquillity and bush knives of the country side there is a massively overcrowded and busy city. This really was a completely different world.
Kumasi is home to the largest market in West Africa and indeed it is like a labyrinth. Turn after turn of markets stalls, cooking foods, fabrics, rice, bartering and homelessness. Thank goodness we had Nana to guide us else we would have surely got lost. Earlier, we had agreed to purchase the children new school clothes and some much needed covers for the old sofa they had and this was main reason for coming to the city. We walked in and out of dusty alleys, eyes everywhere, past a bush rat outdoor kitchen with literally hundreds of these things being cooked until we came to an opening in a wall where a little fabric workshop was busy bustling away. It was here we selected and placed an order for the school uniforms and for seat covers from a sweet old tailor with purple lips. Within the week the tailor came to the orphanage with everything as requested for the children. Happy days.
What I took from the experience
Sure, a visit to a small orphanage in Ghana isn’t going to change the world, but it gave me an opportunity to experience first hand a lift style that has always fascinated me and provided me with an opportunity to make a small difference to a wonderful set of individuals that I now have ongoing contact with.
There is much, much more I could talk about, perhaps in another blog post. If you’d like to hear more, let me know.
I hope very much Ghana continues to develop as an emerging nation in Africa and I very much look forward to my next visit early next year.
I’m keen to hear of similar experiences others may have had – have you done any overseas volunteer work? How did you find it? Would you go back?
One of our biggest areas of interest here at Nizomk is how the big pieces of society can be improved by harnessing the social web. That’s why we like working with the COI, Cabinet Office, Ofqual, Department of Health and Brighton & Hove City Council. Because we think and they know that the social web can help do stuff better – stuff that impacts everyday life for very many people.
A conversation popped up around that recently here in our proudly digital city of Brighton & Hove, where the council is employing a Social Media Communications Officer (or similar title!), had been ‘challenged’ by the local media org, and I wrote about it over on my personal blog. Some of the comments that have been added in the last few days have enhanced my original post.
If you’re an interested tax payer or a public servant with a digital outlook or maybe a rubber duck or a collector of North African butterflies, then feel check it out and join in that conversation.
