Build It and They Might NOT Come: Internal Social Networks, Employee Engagement and Culture Change

Not everyone agrees that an open, transparent culture -- the type we identify with social media -- is best.  Not everyone wants to add "marketing" or "customer service" to his or her responsibilities.  "I want to work with technology, not people" is a not-uncommon, although usually unspoken, thought.  Other people simply prefer structure and limited responsibility.  And those traits can add to the efficiency and productivity of many companies.

Not everyone want to focus on making the company successful either.  Many employees are trying to establish themselves and further their own reputations and careers; the organization is a short-term alliance.  Ideal?  Not at all.  But reality.

So if, as I believe (see for instance http://bit.ly/oYbtHT), success with social media first requires comfort and cultural support internally, are these organizations doomed in the new social world order?

A few years ago, I helped a mid-sized professional services company implement an internal social platform as the first step in executing a social media strategy.  Employees clamored to be among the first on the site.  We offered tips and training; a few people started posting; two executives participated actively, and within a couple of months - NOTHING.

Leadership faultered.  While many executives were lurkers on the site, only the original two enthusiasts had posted.

The professional value was not clear.  Performance reviews did not recognize those who shared.  In a business where knowledge and relationships are power, employees felt the new platform might enable others to snap up their information without giving credit.  The efficiency of the social platform for exchanging information, pointing out new ideas, and adding value to an initiative was overlooked.

The dominant culture of the company was one of controlled sharing on a need-to-know basis.  Not exactly social media nirvana.  We decided to embrace and respect the corporate DNA nonetheless.

We found success by using the social networking platform to enhance and evolve the existing culture, not change it.

We limited use of the platform to one team with 5 selected characteristics:

• Team members came from several different departments
• Team members were geographically dispersed
• Each person brought a different perspective and knowledge to the project that was important for a successful outcome
• The team leader was enthusiastic about the new way of working
• Benefits were clear   

Team members experienced real-time value from using the social networking platform.  Communication and collaboration were easier; the number of major revisions dropped; edits and modifications could be made, disseminated, and enacted more quickly; work hours and end-to-end project time declined.  

Sharing more openly paradoxically also made team members feel that they had more control of their work process and product.  At the completion of the project, team members were already using the internal social network for other work activities.

Work team by work team, node by node, the use of the internal social platform spread.  The objective was not to change the culture, but to help employees succeed more fully within the existing norms.  Two years later, the cultural changes are manifest.      

The Inside Story - Show and Tell

Once upon a time (about a year ago), a client declared that their new focus would be improving the consumer experience.  One executive wanted to know how to use social media to achieve this goal, although they sold through a global distributor network and did not deal directly with the consumer.

So we scoured discussion forums and blogs and other social media sites to learn what consumers liked, didn't like and wanted.  Then we asked the distributors what they thought.  How could the manufacturer better support them so that they could better support the consumer?  Consumers, we discovered, wanted shorter repair time; they wanted repairs done right the first time, and they wanted leading edge information about the newest features and upgrades.  Delivering those benefits correlated with higher consumer satisfaction and lower churn.  Dealers wanted help.

We created a social media strategy and a new operating model that promised to give the dealers the tools to fuel their passion and to provide the experience the consumer wanted.

But the systems in place weren't "broken."  Why "fix" them?  How could we convince the majority of the executive team that the best approach was using social media platforms rather than call centers or road shows?  We developed a business case.

We told stories.

With clip art and enthusiasm, we wrote and illustrated a series of vignettes.  Carey and Caroline Consumer went through each stage of the customer lifecycle -- from becoming interested in the product through to purchasing, warranty repair issues, and ultimately deciding whether to upgrade, stay with the status quo, or move to a competitor.  At each point in the customer lifecycle, we illustrated how the proposed social media would affect the process; how it helped to shape the consumer experience, and how it influenced measurable outcomes.

We presented the stories to the C-suite.  No power point decks with bulleted lists, we used one-act plays and dramatic readings.  We employed imagination plus some prototypes and mock-ups.  It was fun; it was often times funny, and it drove home the value of the proposed social media strategy.

We hear a good deal about telling stories in social media.  But the stories are usually about how other companies are succeeding, not visionary tales about the impact of social media inside our own organization.  

Be creative.  Show and tell.  The inside story can be powerful.

What stories have you told?    

Internal Knowledge Sharing and ROI - It's Personal

Why would you give away your knowledge, not to a competitor, but to an internal colleague?  Team work is great, but in the end one person gets primary credit for the sale; one engineer is the lead developer; one customer service manager drives the highest customer satisfaction scores.  And that person gets the promotion, the biggest bonus, and the greatest ego boost. 

Yet organizations are adopting internal social networks with the hope of improving productivity and innovation through greater knowledge sharing.  Prescient Digital (www.prescientdigital.com) reported in their Intranet 2.0 Global Study 2010 that the main reasons that companies invest in intranet 2.0 tools are employee collaboration (76%) and knowledge management (71%).  Does knowledge sharing naturally follow?

Knowledge is far more than data; it includes the analysis and experiential wisdom that we bring to information.  Understanding when we need to share true knowledge and when we need to facilitate the transfer of information helps organizations build effective internal social media networks.  It is critical to driving the ROI of internal social media.

Knowledge versus Information Sharing

Two of the three factors that drive ROI for internal social media depend on knowledge sharing.  Only one factor is primarily data or information driven.  (see http://goo.gl/fb/pdpSI 3 Benefit Measures - The ROI of Internal Social Media Networks) Recognizing the distinction helps the change management process; employees can share at the level that benefits both themselves and the organization.  

v  Enhanced Employee Engagement depends on the give-and-take of knowledge sharing.  Numerous studies have linked higher levels of employee engagement to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, lower turnover and higher sales.  By facilitating greater sharing of both personal and professional knowledge, internal social media networks boost employee engagement.  Within about 3 weeks of launching its new social networking site, The Hub, SAS had almost 50% of its employees using the site and 425 groups established.  The Hub intentionally blurs the line between the professional and personal, creating stronger, more multi-faceted ties between employees and the company.  Becky Graebe, internal communications manager at SAS, describes the site as “kind of like a Facebook/LinkedIn behind the SAS firewall.” Sharing knowledge creates friendships and connections, across and up-and-down the organization, which drives employee engagement and positive ROI. (For more information, see http://www.ragan.com/InternalCommunications/Articles/SAS_internal_social_network_attracts_5000_users_in_42751.aspx)

v Better, faster innovation requires more structured knowledge sharing.  Success depends on governance structures that facilitate and reward cross-silo and cross-functional work - while continuing to recognize the primary sources of both inspiration and execution.  A key is bringing together individuals with complementary skills and reducing redundancy. Merely sharing data is insufficient for innovation; sharing must involve insight, analysis and creativity.  $21.8 billion pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly implemented an internal social networking solution to enable more efficient and cost-effective processes for new drug development.  R&D scientists and subject matter experts are now in touch throughout the product development process, across multiple divisions and around the globe.  Increased knowledge sharing has helped reduce costs and accelerate innovation.  Personal brands are enhanced not threatened.

v Streamlining operations depends on information sharing, not knowledge sharing.  Many tools enable employees to find data and experts more quickly, and allow executives to ensure that activities are focused on the key strategic initiatives.

Many internal social networks facilitate data sharing; doing the same things more efficiently yields a positive ROI.  Knowledge sharing multiplies the benefits that an organization receives.  Unlike data, however, knowledge is personal and reflects an individual’s value and builds his or her personal brand.  Internal social networks that enable true knowledge sharing must recognize the individual as well the organizational benefits.  The ROI of these networks rocket upward. 

Is Social Media Killing Innovation?

Would social media have helped Thomas Edison?  Or Alexander Graham Bell?  Or Henry Ford?  Or Steve Jobs?  Subjectively, it seems that most disruptive innovations spring from the mind of one individual, or at most from a two-person partnership.  Remember the commonly held and oft cited view regarding the output of committee work?  I think there is little question that social media, when effectively engaged, can and does have a positive impact on improvement.  Product improvement.  Business model improvement.  Service improvement.  Operational improvement.  Many of the by-now “classic” social media cases showcase these benefits.  Starbucks, Ideastorm, even Comcast’s foray into Twitter for customer service – they all use the power of customer engagement and the speed of social media response to uncover and drive improvement.   How do I do better what I already do? But does social media, the ultimate collaborative tool today, really help drive innovation? True innovation requires discontinuous or lateral thinking.   Innovation reframes or redefines the underlying issue.  It’s risky.  And it rarely has immediate mass appeal or acceptance.  Is social media, then, diminishing real innovation, driving business to the mass mediocre and to only incremental improvement? Maybe.  But I think that social media can also enhance the ability to innovate.  v One spark to innovation is the intermingling of previously unrelated ideas – Social media provides an unprecedented opportunity to acquire and mix new perspectives.   Customer views, vendor perspectives, and the ramblings of random people we otherwise wouldn’t encounter potentially create more seeds to cross fertilize.  Internal collaboration tools and social platforms bring together the thoughts and knowledge of colleagues in different locations and with different expertise.  Innovation is about putting ideas and facts together in new ways; the more ideas and facts, the greater the inputs to innovative thinking. v “Edison didn’t invent the light bulb by trying to improve the candle.”  Innovation usually springs from addressing a broad, underlying need, not a short-term complaint or usage issue.  Monitoring and listening can help to reveal fundamental opportunities that few people articulate before seeing the solution. v As the economist E. F. Schumacher said, “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex…It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.” At their core, great innovations generally reflect simple ideas – the execution might be complex, but the motivating concept is typically elegantly well-defined.  Social media helps simplify and focus.  Express your idea in 140 characters.  Or blog until you know what you are blogging about. Does opening up the organization to social media and the vast array of unrelated, non-linear thoughts and ideas pay off?  I think so.  Consider the Cuisinart.  No focus group or market research ever identified the need for a Cuisinart.  Carl G. Sontheimer mixed his expertise in business, technology and cooking to develop the Cuisinart.  Almost everyone has heard of the Cuisinart today, but at its introduction in 1973 most people didn’t understand WHAT it was beyond a fancy toy or souped up blender.  It took two years for the home cook to begin to embrace the Cuisinart as a new, and now indispensible, kitchen appliance.  Not an improvement on a blender, but an innovative tool.  Innovation pays off.  Sontheimer sold the Cuisinart company in 1987 for $42 million. Sontheimer’s education, experience, and personal interests gave him insights and the ability to span knowledge silos.  Social media can help others grasp those seemingly unrelated bits that drive innovation… if companies encourage engineers and techies and marketing folks to engage in social media.  If companies acknowledge that wide-ranging ideas are NOT a waste of time, that listening and learning and sharing are the sources of the seeds of innovation.  If social media is integrated into the everyday of business.  How do you make social media part of the everyday at your organization?