Herding Cats and Other New Norms

If you are a 21^st century-born organizations, you probably don’t need a social media strategy.  Social media is an integral element of your overall strategy; the two do not have separate lives.

But what about more mature organizations?  A non-profit celebrating its 125^th anniversary this year; a 75-year old global manufacturer; a 110-year old financial services institution with hundreds of billions in assets and ranked among the safest in the world?  What does a social media strategy mean to these organizations?  Why – and how – should they change a successful business model?

Social media is not a discontinuous technology change that demands attention and threatens the “old way” with a single blow.  It’s hard to define.  (Use the words “social media,” and many companies think only Facebook and Twitter.)  It is amorphous.  More than anything, social media reflects social change, not technology change. 

Over time, successful businesses do need to adapt to social change – in the way they operate both internally and externally.   Social media and social networking have evolved to the point that they are changing people’s expectations about how to interact -  person-to-person,  individual-to-business, and business-to-business.  Because, to state the obvious, “businesses” are just amalgamations of people with a common objective.  Once changes in personal interactions take hold, those changes leak into business interactions.

What are the big changes requiring significant shifts in business models?

·        Knowledge is a commodity. Remember when knowledge = power?  Knowledge is not only now available, it is freely shared. 

·        The quantity of available data has exploded beyond our capacity to process it.  Data and automated analyses are like an active volcano, constantly spewing out.  The lone hero with the data who could run statistical programs has a lot of competition, competition that is trumpeting different data and different statistical programs.

·        Engagement is not just the word of the day; individuals want a say; they want to be heard; they increasingly demand to be respected and empowered.

These fundamental changes demand shifts in what is valued in the workplace and how companies function.  Continued success in this century requires that organizations evolve to new norms.

·        The visionary composer is one of the most valuable employees.  The individual who can take all of the data and analyses and create a harmonious future vision, who understands how to integrate all of the information, is more valuable than the expert. 

·        Hierarchies are more porous; command and control is dead.  Corporate hierarchies will not disappear, but the leaders need to be the first among equals, one of the team.  Excellent corporate leaders will manage not demand.

·        The ability to herd cats, not sheep, will drive results.  Increasingly, employees want to control their own time and to have an impact.  Like cats, each wants to be recognized as an individual participating in a shared culture.

Organizations need to build these new norms into their processes.  How they recruit, train and review employees, for instance, needs to change.  The old performance metrics might no longer measure what really matters. 

What new metrics have you used to adapt to social changes?

3 Benefit Measures - The ROI of Internal Social Media Networks

The use of social media inside your organization will help to increase your bottom line.  Really.

A recent Gallup study found that firms with engaged workforces have 2.6 times the earnings per share growth rate compared to their industry counterparts.  And an Aberdeen Group study found that companies using Web 2.0 achieved an 18% boost in employee engagement.

The Gallup study also identified the danger of failing to engage employees: $300 Billion in wasted productivity.

The benefits side of the ROI of internal social media networks depends on how effectively the social media tools help drive:

·        Enhanced employee engagement

·        Streamlined operations

·        Better, faster innovation

Enhanced employee engagement has, in numerous studies, been shown to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty and to drive higher sales.  Greater employee engagement is also predictive of lower turnover, yielding significant savings in recruiting and on-boarding costs.  Employee engagement is no longer a nice-to-have; it makes hard, bottom line business sense.   (for one interesting study on these relationships, see: http://www.towersperrin.com/tp/getwebcachedoc?country=usa&webc=HRS/GBR/2008/200805/ENGAGEMENT_IMPROVES_BOTTOM_LINE.pdf)
As organizations become more comfortable with internal social media, the personal and professional lines often begin to blur, creating even greater employee engagement.  Sabre Holdings Corp, which owns Travelocity, was a pioneer in internal social media, beginning Sabre Town in 2007.  Since that time, a number of specialized groups have formed over the social media networks, including Mom2Mom.  Participants in these groups report creating strong bonds and a sense of belonging and being understood.  In a recent study, Professor Jennifer Aaker of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Assistant Professor Cassie Mogilner of Wharton, and doctoral student Melanie Rudd noted that “although spending time with bosses and coworkers tends to be associated with some of the lowest degrees of happiness, two of the biggest predictors of people's general happiness are whether they have a 'best friend' at work and whether they like their boss. Therefore, people should try to reframe relationships and workplace goals…. Building a workforce of highly qualified, hard-working, and loyal employees is an essential aspect of staying competitive in today's global markets.” ("If Money Doesn't Make You Happy, Consider Time," Jennifer Aaker, Melanie Rudd, Cassie Mogilner, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2011)

Streamlined operations help to cut costs, the second direct benefit of the use of internal social media.  The range of opportunities for cost cutting – while improving employee engagement! – is tremendous.  The use of discussion boards and central project sites, for example, enables executives to spot quickly time being spent on rogue efforts that don’t further corporate objectives.  Employees benefit by being able to place their projects within the big picture and make appropriate decisions.
Cisco attributes millions in savings to the use of wikis.  Geographically dispersed staff can efficiently work on single documents, share ideas and comments, and decrease development time.
Search capabilities, blogs and LinkedIn-like networks enable employees to find data quickly, identify and consult experts, and seek the advice of colleagues beyond those at the coffee pot.  Both the speed and quality of work benefit.

Better, faster innovation provides a long-term benefit.  Internal social media helps organizations expand innovation beyond the R&D walls, from the engineers to employees dealing with customers.  (How many disruptive innovations do you know that have sprung from established R&D departments?  How many corporations incent their R&D staff to spend time on them?)
Breaking down the functional silos speeds up innovation and time-to-market.  When IT, engineering, marketing, customer service, business development…can share ideas, project status, and roadblocks together across geographies in real time, problems are resolved more quickly.

52% of organizations using Web 2.0 ranked as best-in-class performers according to a study by Aberdeen Group.  Using social media internally simply makes smart business sense.

Clover Architecture – the 4 Leaves of Extraordinary Social Media

Making social media an important and seamless element of an organization is like growing clover.  You get a lot of good efforts and almost-there’s, a lot of 3-leaf clovers. But 1 out of 10,000 times, you get a 4-leaf clover.  That’s when social media transforms an ordinary organization into one that truly stands out.

The four leaves of a clover traditionally symbolize hope, faith, love and luck.  The four leaves of the internal social media clover?  They represent:

§       Leadership (hope)

§       Governance (faith)

§       Culture (love)

§       Technology (luck J)

Each of these leaves is necessary for an organization to benefit as much as possible from social media.  Drop any one leaf, and the impact becomes ordinary.

Three veins keep each leaf healthy:

Leadership – Executives must be

v   involved

v   passionate, and

v   bought-in with strong ROI.

Governance – Strong social media implementation requires that silos tumble.  

v   Governance must be cross-functional

v   Expertise must be integrated across and within units, and

v   HR policies must take social media into account.

Culture – Key cultural characteristics of break-out social media organizations include

v   openness

v   trust, and

v   collaboration.

Technology – The final leaf of every 4-leaf clover is smaller than the other three, and for social media the fourth leaf is technology.  Technology is an important enabler, but without the leadership, governance, and culture, great technology is wasted.  Many platforms can be implemented that enable engagement and dialogue.  Keep them

v   simple

v   inexpensive, and

v   designed for social interaction, not for file sharing!

I have discussed each of the 4 leaves of social media in previous posts and will continue to delve into these internal issues.  (See, for example, http://goo.gl/fb/wthL8, http://goo.gl/fb/PBENn, http://goo.gl/fb/zUijJ)

What has been most instrumental in turning your organization into a social media model inside and out?