Social Business as an Extreme Sport

Some businesses and business leaders take Social Business to extremes. There are easier ways to “socialise” your company.

extreme-sportMany years ago I heard a story of a certain Ricardo Semler. The story went that within his company there were no executives, employers could come and go when as they pleased and they could determine their own salary.

I heard this story before Social Business was a thing, before many software companies and consultancy firms jumped on the band wagon. And, honestly, I forgot about it quickly. Back then I a minion, I did my job without thinking about it too much, other than worrying whether or not I would get that 1.2% raise (which I didn’t, obviously).

Anyway.., now Mr. Semler popped up again, he landed in my Facebook feed. Apparently he visited the Netherlands. And, apparently, he’s still doing very well, his company is still growing, and not only that, other companies are following in his footsteps. This is happening in the Netherlands too, traditionally a traditional country. Sure, we like to think we are liberal, but hierarchy and status are still very important.

So, what is it that makes Mr. Semler and his ideas so special?

In a nutshell, old man Semler was a traditional, old school leader. Not wanting to give up, or change anything, young Ricardo disagreed with this almost a 100%.

When young Semler threatened to leave, his father made the uncharacteristic decision to step down and relinquish command over the company to his son.

Ricardo Semler was 21 years of age, revenue since then has grown from 4$ to 212$ million dollar. Not bad for a radical thinker.

Crisis

In 1990 Semco survived a major crisis, one where many other companies filed for bankruptcy. The remodelling of the company by Semler made this possible.

By this time employees were invested in the company.., you could say that “employee engagement” was at an all time high. I believe in this particular case, you could say 98%. Semco has a 2% employee turn over.

The employees helped make decisions, took payment cuts, and (dis)approved spending. The reason why they were able to do this is because they were involved in the business, they had job diversification, they learned all they could about most of the business.., not just their small little kingdom.

And they shared all this knowledge. They had learned to care.

Current

During a talk (in the video below) Semler takes the car industry as a metaphor, I like that, I like cars and of the use them as a metaphor myself (great minds…).

Semler stated that in the past 100 years, not much has changed in that industry. Once it was developed, or designed.., that was it.

We have cars which are basically the same as 100 years ago and a distribution system that is also practically the same. One hundred years, and nothing has changed (other than that you have an iPod connector).

Why? Why do we not evolve, why do we not have flying cars?

Straitjackets

In essence, when you join a company (any company), you have to conform. Everything is either designed (on purpose or organically) to suit a certain philosophy. Usually a very traditional one and usually a very restrictive one.

When you have a company with, say, 1000 people, and you have about a dozen highly paid managers on whom you rely. Everybody expects those 12 to carry the company, to come up with all the ideas and innovations.

But, they too will be restricted, maybe it’s their reputation, sometimes it’s simply their ego, and sometimes it’s their own lack of development.

The point here is, that you have 987 people in your company who can come up with ideas, provide suggestions, and change the company. But, they don’t know the company, they don’t dare to speak up, that’s not how it’s done…

That’s not how we do things here.

Opening Up

The proof is in the pudding. After 30 years Semler’s company is still flourishing, still growing. Whatever he came up with clearly works. 30 years of success is very hard to argue with.

No, you do not have to be as extreme as Semler (although it would be an excellent challenge), but there are elements you could implement to your benefit.

Trust is one thing, you do not need extensive software platforms to enhance collaboration and stimulate innovation through communication and proper documentation… No.

Remember the good old Suggestion Box? Well, that’ll work, when backed up with trust and transparency.

Suggestion Box

suggestion-boxOne of the reasons why that box doesn’t (or didn’t) work is because people were afraid to stand out.., and having ideas (and sharing those) tend to make you stand out.

When you create an environment where people are not afraid to share, even applauded, chances are more people will. You could even organise “Suggestion Box” after noons. Where an X number of people come together with the sole purpose of putting something interesting in the suggestion box. All you need is paper, a pen and a box, oh.., and an idea of course.

The afore mentioned environment should be one of transparency, trust and reward.
As opposed to secrecy, fear and punishment.

See the difference between the two.., don’t you think people in one environment would be happier, more productive and more innovative than in the other? I do.

Watch the video, start to think, be inspired.

The Reimagining Work Podcast

Finally.

I love podcasts. Or rather, I love producing stuff, creating stuff. What often lacks is a purpose, a goal, a topic. Writing blogposts is one of the channels where I can explore some creativity, use my brain and puny talents to produce something nice. And hopefully, worth the read.

Podcasts are a great way of communicating ones ideas and thoughts, share your knowledge or finding new information, learning and teaching at the same time. It’s perfect.

OldSchoolMic-WP-11

Subjects

I was thinking of reading the posts I’d written out loud, record them, then offer them as a download. People could listen to them, instead of reading them (or both), but that seemed a bit pretentious.

So, I kept thinking, kept my options and eyes open, looking for an opportunity.

Paris

In February of 2014 I was in Paris for the Enterprise 2.0 Summit. There I met John Wenger (@JohnQShift). We connected and kept talking via Skype afterwards.

Our conversation were so much fun, and at times so constructive that the idea just clicked in my head.., and yes.., I am claiming the idea. But, my idea was equally matched with John enthusiasm for the idea.

So, we talked, we schemed, we searched, and we got started.

On-line

We created a Google+ page, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a website and an iTunes account, all that remained was recording the podcast.

Well, we did that too.

And not only do we do audio, we also do video, yes, we’re not holding back any punches.

For all episodes (all two of them), you should visit the site, but I can present you Episode Two in all it’s YouTube Glory. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I enjoy making them.., and if you have any questions or feedback.., let us know. We want to grow and aim to please… it’s casual entertainment.., right?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9h62HjxwOw?rel=0]

The Importance of Empathy

MRI-inPostEmpathy, apparently the definition is more complex than I thought. However, in the context of the workplace environment I believe the following suits best:

the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person’s feelings

Science

In a just released study, named Voluntary Enhancement of Neural Signatures of Affiliative Emotion Using fMRI Neurofeedback, scientists found that they could stimulate affiliative emotions of their subjects. The bottom line of this research is that, quite possibly, empathy can be trained.

Now, I’m not a scientist, and the “training” is not really applicable in a normal office environment, you would need a MRI and a laboratory. But, at the very least, this team proved that it can be done. And, basically, they did this by encouraging positive emotions.

In the white paper the team has a reference to Blade Runner, that gives you an automatic +1 in my book. When it happens in a scientific context.., another +1. And, I find ’empathy’ a crucial element in human relationships, at home or at work. So, that’s another +1, making an easy +3 for the team.

So, let me reference Blade Runner too, and talk about empathy for a bit more.

Being Empathic

In Blade Runner the replicants were tested on their affiliative emotions. A lack of empathy could give them away, causing them to be retired by Blade Runner’s, a nasty business. Being a human with very poor empathic skills could land you in some deep water.

Moving to another Universe, in Star Trek: TNG, Counselor Troi, half Betazoid possesses the psionic ability to sense emotions. Making her an extremely empathic person (as well as impathic). This gives her the ability to ‘sense’ what the other person is feeling, with regular ‘patients’ this helps her to break down barriers quicker, and help them better.

In the case of enemies, knowing whether they are sincere or lying can provide a huge tactical advantage.

The point here being that empathy is a fundamentally important part of inter-human relations, and being aware of this is a step in the right direction.

In A Modern World

Of course, empathy has always been an important addition to your toolbox. A total lack of empathy, or affiliative emotions, kinda turns you into a psychopath, well, partly anyway.

Lack of empathy simply inhibits you to connect with the person opposite of you. At least on an emotional level. Luckily there is still non-verbal communication, and this still has a strong effect on the way we perceive the person across from us, and the meaning of their words.

Registering emotions help of course, but in a person-to-person situation there are other signals.

Not so online.

Chat

Now we use emoticons, or other shorthand to convey emotion. But, a πŸ™‚ is still just a πŸ™‚ . There’s no difference between πŸ™‚ and πŸ™‚ . Maybe you could do a πŸ˜€ , or even a πŸ˜› , but anything beyond that gets complicated. And it requires you to remember all the emoticons applicable for a certain emotion, or take the time to look them up every time you need one.

And even if you do nail it to your satisfaction.., it still leaves room for interpretation.

Because you don’t actually see the person you’re talking to, often not even in real-time, it can be difficult to read between the lines. Even on a video-call it can be tricky, although less so.

When you translate this to the office and to the modern communication devices (i.e. e-mail) it can even become somewhat dangerous, or at least damaging. Whole departments can get at each others throats because of a wrongfully interpreted message.

Escalation is never far away.

Digital Village

In a modern, 21ste century company, (some) people try and replace e-mail. We, in The Business, look at it as an old, limiting and bloated communication tool. The biggest problem with e-mail is its capacity toΒ black hole knowledge. Sharing and storing information in your e-mail client is a sure way of making sure nobody will ever find it.

So, we introduce an open online collaboration tool where everything gets tagged, shared, commented on, liked, and… stored. This makes information highly findable for anybody who needs it. Given everything is tagged correctly of course.

Also, we aim to make the Digital Village a platform where all employees can feel at home, comfortable to pitch ideas, and ask “stupid” questions. Nobody gets burned simply by sticking their head above the fence.

At least, that’s what we aim for.

Here, I believe, empathy is at its most important. Here the difference between making somebody feel at ease and making them feel ashamed is a tremendously thin line. And without proper “feels”, even the best of intentions can have a negative effect.

Big Hurdles

For some, picking up the phone, or sending that e-mail, or walking into the managers office are sheer feats of courage. Others don’t bat an eye.

Exposing one’s self on an open platform where even the CEO can see what you’re doing can be so daunting that many people simply won’t even try. Making them feel welcome and at ease takes some doing from the community, the community manager, and management, as well as some colleagues.

Being sensitive enough to be able to emotionally connect with these people is a crucial skill indeed. With the right support and understanding (i.e. empathy) many of these employees have an opportunity to flourish on the internal network(s). If they get burned badly by trolls, or insensitivity, they might never try again.

Wouldn’t it be great to send some colleagues on a training where they can learn empathy?