Week after week of tweeting “The World of Work” questions and answers for an hour with a few hundred folks, many of whom you’ve never met, all within the context of 140 characters or less in big old Zen sandbox – It’s a little crazy if you think about it. I mean, who would want to do that?
We would.
When Meghan and I launched #TChat one year ago as an extension of the TalentCulture community, we realized it was going to be an exciting (and challenging) medium to talk about everything from recruiting to human resources to social media to business leadership to all things “The World of Work.” We’ve covered hiring veterans, leadership and emotional intelligence, talent communities, generations in the workplace, workplace violence, zero unemployment and much more. We’ve expanded the TalentCulture mediums by experimenting in internet radio land as well with our Focus partner.
These people today with their hashtag streams and news/content sharing and their Twitter chats and their rock and roll entrepreneurism and their neuroscience… Right on.
I’m a big fan of all things neuroscience and the effect it has on our daily lives. What’s fascinating to me is that our 450-million-year-old brains are emotional thinkers longing for reward, not selfless thinkers that are emotional once and a while. The written word has only been around for 10,000 years. So why does a Twitter chat like #TChat work?
You learn to pack an emotionally smart punch in 140 characters , which is part of the exciting challenge. In fact, the greater value for me and most attendees is simply three-fold:
- Learning
- Sharing
- Networking (Friendship and Social Community)
For me, 1 and 3 have been the most powerful. I’ve learned so much from everyone who participates and I’ve made some amazing new connections, friendships and community even. The emotional thinking rewards are invaluable.
That’s I always come back to my Zen sandbox analogy: If you watch kids play in sandboxes (which I do a lot when I’m at the park with my daughters), someone always brings toys and tools to play with. One kid starts playing, then another, then another, and soon kids and sharing and playing and their parents are meeting and talking and sharing.
Other kids may be running around and around the sandbox, but for those who are in it – for whatever time that is – it becomes an impromptu community where folks aggregate again and again. They’re not coming to the sandbox because you put it there. They’re coming because they want to play with the other kids and parents.
They come for Social Community.
Now there are hundreds if not thousands of Twitter chats that have launched new communities covering all sorts of topics.
Amen for 140 characters. And you. We look forward to continuing this into 2012. We’ve enjoyed experimenting with this medium. Thanks again for your support. Let’s bring this into 2012.
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