Tara talks here about the discussion at BarCampBerlin on the topic of Community, and what makes it effective.  I found this simple statement highly revealing in its simplicity, and clarity.

…  demonstrate with this example why community doesn’t happen separately from product or environment.

Source: ::HorsePigCow:: marketing uncommon: Discussion: When community doesn’t happen (from BarCampBerlin)

She goes on to compare processes followed by two separate developer groups, one of which was less effective, and apparently somewhat demoralising, whereas the better one, Microformats, has had rampant success in one year.

I thought I was going to write here about social networks but the relevance I discovered is in development of internal synergy, and organisational effectiveness.  Banks are big enough to have their own internal communities of interest.  What a brilliantly simple way to break down internal silos (Forrester Research membership required)  Seek out natural communities, and organise around them, or at least get out of the way so they can naturally form.

Its worth reading the full post, remembering that while Tara is talking about developer groups, the underlying issue is success or failure of almost anything.  In our space, I see this applying to:

• product and service technology: Banks often have a project focus, and once complete on to the next project.  Intellectual memory is gone, and community is non-existent.  Yet 10’s of developers are working on similar themes.  Why are the branch technology platform group experts in web services, yet the ATM group have no concept?  The need and applicability of web services is relevant to both;  just one example.
• channel strategy:  with multiple lines of business in a bank, each often have their own strategy, and tactical plan.  Yet last time I checked, the citizens of the relevant country are one homogenous group, and no-one is specific to any one line of business.
• product design:  back to the multiple lines of business thing.  While the deposit group create bank accounts, the brokerage group are designing, yes cash accounts, which by any other name are …. bank accounts, and the mortgage group are designing tax accounts, which are …. you got it, bank accounts!  Imagine the synergy if just those three groups spoke to each other!

Ok, I will stop.  The examples are too rampant, and this will become a 20 page post.  You get the idea.

Relevance to Bankwatch:

Internal strategy and planning, both technology and non technology can learn from open source, and community development, following simple principles of:

• openness
• simplicity
• user/ customer centric (paving cowpaths, is Tara’s phrase)