Learning and Listening Loops: What is Micro Planning?

 
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I'm not sure that I have formally announced that Allison Fine and I are working on a book (here's her blog post).  The book will take a look at how social media is facilitating a shift from organization to working in a more networked way.  It will also include some practical advice about working more like clouds than towers.

We've been working on what started out as the a chapter on Metrics and ROI.  The more we noodled, the more we realized that financial frameworks were not right.  Now we've transformed into the concept of learning and listening loops.   Last week, Allison had a chance to test some of our thinking at the Games for Change conference.  

As chair of the chart committee, I had originally diagrammed this concept as the rungs of the ladder of engagement - see it here.  Since we're calling it learning loops, seems like circles were more in order.  And because listening and learning more techniques versus outcomes - and techniques that you need to use continuosly, those became the dotted links knitting the outcomes together. 

We did a riff on KD Paine SobCon ROI of Relationships in Social Media that I covered on my blog earlier this month.  We adapted it for social change.  KD Paine's framework illustrates a ladder of engagement that moves people from Social Networks to Engagement to Relationship to Return on Investment.   Online Social networks generate social capital (relationships - reciprocity and trust) which lead to on the ground change.  

The dashed line with arrows represents the ongoing listening and learning loops - which are micro planning, listening, metrics, reflection, and reiteration. I've written endlessly about the techniques of listening, metrics, reflection and reiteration.

But, Allison made up a new term, "micro-planning."  Which is more like Margaret Wheatly's naturalistic planning.  Social media has spawned a lot of new words starting with the word “micro.”   On the tools side, we have micro formats, micro blogging, micro media, and more.   In the nonprofit sector, we have micro-fundraising (giving small amounts of money on social networks like Twitter).  Allison mentions a few more like  mico-finance like Kiva's small loans to entrepreneurs here and abroad.  

In a session at the Web 2.0 Expo in April,  Charlene Li, Peter Kim, and Jeremiah Owyang pointed out several problems with corporate social media, specifically the concept of a campaign.  Micro-planning is important because, as Charlene Li said, “The problem is using the word campaign. This is not something you turn on and off, but a relationship that you’re building.”

We are trying to illustrate a real-time, lighter assessment process that activists can use to engage their community and make real-time improvements and adjustments.   Because social media can lend itself to low-cost experimentation, this process doesn't not necessarily require the "grand campaign plan" that takes a year and lots of resources to implement.

It's a shift in thinking and approach.   So, here are my questions: 

• How do you do micro-planning that doesn't take on an "unplanned" or "random" approach?

• How do you do micro-planning that isn't just about picking low hanging fruit and doesn't have impact?

• How do you plan strategically in short bursts and make changes in real-time without getting bogged down in the making the planning perfect?

• How do we shift away from the concept of "campaigns"? 
• How do we make that culture shift in our organizations?
• What is the recipe or step-by-step for doing this successfully?

Most importantly, I am looking for some examples from nonprofits.  The P&G Loads of Hope experiment described by David Armano is the is probably one of the better examples.  The closest nonprofit example I've found is from the HSUS in this post that talks about the 9 minute daily meetings. 

Do you have an example to share?  What are your thoughts about the concept of micro planning and it's use in social media?

Comments

[Jo Jordan]

Brilliany question -will think

[giulio quaggiotto]

Hi Beth,
Great post! On the "micro" suffix: Chris Kreutz has written about the emergence of micro-volunteering (http://www.crisscrossed.net/2009/04/02/micro-voluntarism-a-new-form-of-international-cooperation).

An example not too far away from P&Gs that I am aware of is the UK's National Hack the Government day (http://rewiredstate.org). Apparently, it has already yielded significant results.

I also recently learned about carrotmobs (http://psdblog.worldbank.org/psdblog/2009/05/whats-the-opposite-of-a-boycott.html) - you are probably already familiar with it.

Social innovation camps and innovation jams a la IBM are also perhaps example of micro-planning sui generis?

Hope this helps

Giulio

[Rebecca Krause-Hardie]

Hi Beth,

Great post... getting me thinking.

I have been looking more into the "Agile" techniques that are used in software development. Your mention of the 9 minute meeting reminded me of it, and I think it could be really well applied to social media endeavors... don't know if anyone's using it that way. I"ll do a little looking around.

[Birmingham dentist]

Great concept and theme presentation with interesting, useful and informative ideas.

[mikeyames]

Chapter 1
"Beth Kanter and Alison Fine are Awesome"

The End.

[momo]

Great post... thanks for information