Jane McConnell: Profiles in Knowledge

Originally published June 19, 2021

This is the 69th article in the Profiles in Knowledge series featuring thought leaders in knowledge management. Jane McConnell is an independent advisor to global organizations on digital and workplace strategies based in Uzès, Occitanie, France. We were both presenters at KMWorld 2006, 2011, and 2013. Jane attended the SIKM Leaders Community KMWorld Dinner in 2011 in DC.

Background

Jane was born in Nebraska, grew up in Arizona, and went to college in California. She now lives in Provence, just minutes away from the Roman Pont du Gard.

Jane is an analyst/practitioner with over 20 years of advising organizations on their internal digital strategies and 10 years of doing research. She has conducted annual surveys on The Organization in the Digital Age with 300–400 companies around the world, and published annual reports from 2007 through 2017.

Starting in 2018, she runs a research program on the gig mindset, which is the subject of her book The Gig Mindset Advantage and her podcast Bold New Breed.

Jane wrote the Executive Summary and Key Findings in Boston University’s Leading in the Digital Age, part of edX courses organized by leading universities in the US. She defined the Foundational Framework and corresponding Scorecard for organizations. Jane created and facilitates New Era Workplace Shift (initially Paris-based, but now virtual), a work group of organizational and digital practitioners in global organizations. She wrote the first business-oriented Internet book published in France in 1996.

Education

• California State University, Fresno — BA, Language and literature

Profiles

• Researcher-Practitioner
• Creator
• Author
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Mastodon
• Lucidea’s Lens

Content

• NET JMC: The New Era Workplace Shift

1. Blog
2. Briefings

• Substack: Bold New Breed
• Digital Workplace: Social, Mobile and Cloud — Far from the Tipping Point
• LinkedIn

1. Articles
2. Posts
3. Newsletter: Insider Outsider

• Medium
• The Organization in the Digital Age: Research, Trends and Strategies

1. Contents
2. Framework

• MIT Sloan Review

1. How Digital Leaders Inspire Engagement
2. Neutralize Internal Politics in Digital Initiatives

• Harvard Business Review

1. The Company Cultures That Help (or Hinder) Digital Transformation
2. Tracking the Trends in Bringing Our Own Devices to Work

• Global Peter Drucker Forum Blog

1. 2016 Seeding an Entrepreneurial Work Culture
2. 2017 The Inclusive Organization and the Reachability Factor
3. 2018 How a Gig Mindset Inside Organizations Will Shape our Future
4. 2020 Leadership Everywhere Means Reversed Leadership

• New Era Workplace Shift: International work group dedicated to exploring the new era workplace

Articles by Others

• The Digital Workplace in the Connected Organization by Gloria Lombardi
• Review of Jane McConnell’s 2014 “Digital Workplace Trends” report by Steve Bynghall
• 5 Megatrends on the Intranet — Jane McConnell’s Global Intranet Trends by Michael Sampson
• Digital Workplace Trends and Transformation by Mary Abraham
• Are we short changing social intranet implementations? by James Dellow
• Enterprise 2.0 Summit 2013 — Day 1 — The Social Enterprise by Emanuele Quintarelli
• Digital Workplace and Intranet: The 2013 trends by Bertrand Duperrin

1. Part 1
2. Part 2

• 5 Hurdles for the Social Intranet by Rawn Shan
• From Blinders to Vision: The death of intranets and birth of a new workplace by Scott McDonald
• An interview with Jane McConnell at the International Forum on Enterprise 2.0 by Davide Del Monte

SlideShare Presentations

• The Gig Mindset at IntranetReloaded 2018
• Reality Check: People and Organizations in the Digital Age
• Leadership in the Digital Age

Conferences

• Enterprise 2.0 Summit

1. 2012 — Social Intranet How-to
2. 2013 — State of the social intranet evolution

• Enterprise Digital Summit 2016

1. Blog
2. Facebook

• IOM SUMMIT 2014: Congress on Intranet, Collaboration and Knowledge Management
• International Forum on Enterprise 2.0 2010 — Intranets. Back to the future
• Collaboration in the e-Workplace 2005

1. Collaboration & Business Value: A Strategic View
2. Virtual Teams: Strategy, Technology, People & Culture
3. IM (Instant Messaging) in the E-Workplace

• Intranets2011

1. International keynote: What are the global trends for intranets?
2. The big debate: Jane McConnell and James Robertson
3. Intranet Leadership Forum breakfast
4. 2012 Digital Workplace Trends survey: What do you want to know?

• Information Architecture Conference 2004 — Best Practices & Case Studies — Slides
• Enterprise Search Summit 2008

1. W6: Structuring Search in Complex Intranet Environments
2. Enterprise Search Reality Check

KMWorld

• 2013

1. W9: Digital Workplace Strategies: Why & How
2. B101: Digital Workplace Trends — Slides

• 2011

1. W16: Intranet Governance: Frameworks for Socially Driven Digital Workspaces
2. C103: Digital Workplace Trends — Slides

• 2007

1. W14: Global Intranet Maturity Workshop: Lessons and Opportunities
2. D103: Global Intranet Practices & Trends — Session Description — Slides

• 2006

1. W5: Intranet Strategies & Benchmarking for Practitioners
2. Intranets, Internal Communication, & Organizational Change — IA205 Slides

Podcast: Bold New Breed

1. Why is the bold new breed business critical?
2. Can internal civil disobedience wake up the gig mindset culture?
3. Willful blindness: what and why?
4. How does Velcro management build flexibility and readiness?
5. Proactive resilience: how to win a race that has no finish line
6. How to facilitate diversity and inclusion?
7. How can you make learning come alive?
8. Florence Devouard on a mission for open knowledge
9. Chris Labonté, believer in the long life of books
10. Knowledge management means people management
11. Surge capacity in our DNA for operations and knowledge
12. Waysfinding, complexity and opening spaces
13. Orchestrating space to create competitive advantage
14. Leadership is taking the time, exercising the decision-making muscle, learning as you lead
15. Leading from the heart, a spiritual journey with a backpack
16. eXtended reality increases engagement and learning

Videos

• Webinar: Don’t Let Politics Block Your Digital Initiatives

• Enterprise 2.0 Summit 2015 Keynote: Key Findings from the Digital Workplace Trends Study

• Enterprise 2.0 Summit 2014: Interview on the Digital Workplace Trends

• Digital Workplace Trends 2014 with Nina Sonne Nikolaisen

• How leaders encourage innovators, catalysts & outlaws

• The digital workplace in a connected organization

• EICIM 2011 Poland: Interview

• Main Conclusions from the Global Intranet Trends Report

• Future Intranet for New Ways of Working

• Congres Intranet 2011: Intranet Governance

• Why the Digital Workplace is Disruptive and how it Can Transform your Organization

• IOM Summit 2014 Keynote: Challenges for Companies in the Digital Workplace

• Enterprise Digital Summit 2016 Keynote: Ready for the Organization in the Digital Age

Books

• The Gig Mindset Advantage: Why a Bold New Breed of Employee is Your Organization’s Secret Weapon in Volatile Times

• L’avantage internet pour l’entreprise enjeux concurrentiels strategies de reussite with David Ward-Perkins
• Global Intranet Trends for 2009

Book Chapter

• Changing the World of Work. One Human at a Time — Chapter 14: What One Thing Can an Organization Do That Will Increase Productivity, Engagement, Innovation, and Growth?