Don’t Follow the Rules: 3 Contrary Actions to Create a High Performance, Social Media Culture

How do you change the culture of an established, successful, mature organization?  

An “old” culture that once worked well might no longer be aligned to today’s demands. But a manager can hardly mandate that the culture be open, trusting, and collaborative!

Adapting a culture to create a social media-friendly organization involves 3 behaviors that go against established rules:

v     Don’t Reward Results – Social media is about doing things differently, engaging differently; it’s not really about a different outcome (companies still want strong revenues and profits; mission driven organizations still want to expand their impact while ensuring cash flow…)  To change the culture, reward new behavior, not outcomes.  For example:

o       Do you reward employees who fail fast?  Social media is about testing, trying, sowing a lot of seeds.  

o       Is “sharing” a nice-to-have or a rewarded behavior?  Do employees who spend time helping others succeed get rewarded?  Would you reward an employee who gets 5-star ratings on an internal discussion site and does good work over one who produces great work but doesn’t share?  

v     Don’t Optimize Your Current Operating Processes and Procedures – You need to change them!  Use new means of working to reprogram thinking.  If you don’t understand social media inside, you can’t deliver with conviction outside.  Internal social networks change how employees interact, who they tap for expertise, and how work gets done.  Opening up discussion forums and making comments easily accessible can fundamentally change knowledge management and customer service.  Wikis change the relationship up-and-down and across teams.  (Cisco takes great advantage of these new ways to work, http://socialmedia-insideout.blogspot.com/2011/03/connecting-touchpoints-internally-cisco.html ).  Don’t optimize; revolutionize.

v     Don’t Hire for Cultural Fit – Most organizations include screening for cultural fit in the recruiting process.  But you want to change the culture, so hire the future, not the status quo.

Culture is important to the financial and economic success of companies.  Employees themselves recognize the importance of culture.  In a recent study, two thirds of working adults (66%) identified company culture as being very or extremely important to the success of their organization, including 29% who found it extremely important (Ipsos Public Affairs-Randstad survey http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=4980 )  Olu Ojo, in a study reported in Business Intelligence, found “a positive relationship between organizational culture…and organizational productivity.” (http://www.saycocorporativo.com/saycoUK/BIJ/journal/Vol2No2/article9.pdf)

Culture matters.  It drives performance.  Culture defines not only how employees work with each other, but how they relate externally – with customers, suppliers, partners… Significant changes in the external environment demand cultural shifts, and social media has created just such a significant change.  Have you gone against your old cultural norms yet?