Category: Thoughts

Anybody familiar with this blog knows I have a passion for Social Business. In fact, it’s almost an (un)healthy obsession.

I just believe this is the way forward for people and businesses alike. Not just to make a bigger profit, although that is one heck of a motivator for many, but mainly because of the positive effect it has on the employees involved.

We know that employee engagement is at a worrisome low. And we know that being engaged with the company you work for makes you more productive, brings more satisfaction and, overall, makes you happier. This, you take home with you. The opposite end of the stick, feeling unhappy, you also bring home with you.

20th Century

So, my wife works in an old-school company. She, like so many others, brings her work home with her. And we talk about it.

Below is a list of some of the things she brings up, and where there is room for improvement.

• Meetings are behind closed doors, results are not shared
• Input is requested, but feedback is not given
• Corrections are communicated via e-mail, usually limited to one person
• Changes are communicated via e-mail only
• Reorganizations are only communicated after all decisions are made
• Many work on the same problem, without communicating
• Many invent the wheel, over and over again
• Management is fully disconnected
• Information is hoarded
• The Intranet is a static forest of documents
• Social Media is banned

One reason why she notices this, is that most people would notice it. The main difference is, because of me yapping on and on about Social Business, she knows things can be significantly better.

21th Century

A recent post mentioned Post*Shift, their motto is “Building 21st Century Business”. This ‘slogan’ might need a bit more definition, but in essence it states what is inherently “wrong” with many businesses.

My wife sees this, knows this, and she’s turning into a Corporate Rebel. She doesn’t go out of her way to pick a fight, but when asked, she will let people know.

Keeping At It

The process of adapting to change is not a quick one. Remember, it’s more of an evolution than a revolution, we cannot force this change, it has to mature in an organic way.

As an employee within a firm that still has a long way to go, you cannot push anybody, or anything into submission.

You have to drop little seeds. Let’s run through that list again, but know from a Rebels perspective.

• If you (need to) have a meeting, let people know, maybe they can add something useful. And if they ask, tell them what it is about and volunteer the results
• When you give input to a manager (or anybody else), let them know right away you expect some feedback. If they do not give this, ask for it, then at least you tried
• If you receive corrections on some workflow, save them in a document, and take responsibility for that document. Then share it with colleagues, and even better, ask for their input
• If you receive (serious) changes via e-mail, discuss this with your colleagues, ask if they read them and understand them. If not, point them to the e-mail or discuss it with your manager
• Reorganizations are always tricky, but, keep asking questions. Maybe volunteer information, or ask your colleagues what they would like and communicate this to management. At least you let them know, whether they do something with it or not is up to them
• When you find out several people are working on the same problem, try and set a meeting to get them all together, or at least let everybody know they’re working on the same problem
• Sharing your findings on any problem may prevent anybody else going through the same process. Not as easy as it sounds, you still need to know first. Always ask questions, it’s the best way to obtain information
• Engaging management is always tricky, at best. Push them too hard and you’re a problem, don’t push them and you’ll get stuck quickly. Find a balance here, but keep asking and engaging, at some point, it will turn around, you are not doing anything wrong
• When asked directly, most people will give up information. It doesn’t benefit the business if a colleague doesn’t answer a question, they know this. And when you report to management, give credit where credit is due
• The Intranet is always a messy problem. Somebody or some department owns it (usually HR), and they will not be willing to give up this control. They’ll fight you on it. However, providing suggestions for improvement can never hurt. Especially when you have several colleagues (allies) who agree and stand with you
• Banning Social Media is not productive. Studies have shown that opening up social enhances an employees engagement. People need to unwind, from time to time. Also, developing their professional network benefits everybody. Keep bringing this up at meetings and evaluations. Offer to investigate, talk with legal and HR, find out if a (proper) policy can be written

Modern Stuff

There are several things that can help tremendously with these issues.

If the company you work for has a platform (any platform) where some form of collaboration can be done, you can claim an area and create a community around a single issue, problem or discussion. Get people enthusiastic about it, and try to do all communication via that tool, keep it in one place.

It doesn’t have to be big and all encompassing.., what we’re looking for is small and successful, and, preferably.., repeatable.

Some folks go outside the company for such tools (Dropbox is popular), but this is usually frowned upon by management, if not to say against company policy, be careful with that.

But, investigate, with a modern version of Microsofts Office suite, plenty of collaboration tools come as standard. Nobody might use them, or even know about them, but it doesn’t mean they’re not there.

Social Presence

Having a social presence is, by now, a must. Social can no longer be ignored and it shouldn’t be feared. It is, by any definition, an important step to take for a company.

At 300 million active users on Google+, 1.23 billion accounts on Facebook and 234 million active users on Twitter (to name but a few), one can say Social Media has gotten a firm foothold in our society. More then enough reason to at least investigate the options. And even though Social Media and Social Business are not as comparable as many think, it is a good place to start.

If your company has a social presence, it should be more aware of this mythical on-line world. And it will be far easier to take that step in opening up social to employees. And for you a good argument to bring it up.

Don’t Be Afraid

Get to it, talk about it, get information. Don’t go at it alone, you’ll most like stumble and fall. Get expert advice, there’s plenty available by now. People like Céline Schillinger and Peter Vander Auwera have gone before you, and have written extensively about it.

Remember, it’s about hearts and minds, confidence and trust. Transparency and opening up are things most office people are not used to.

Small steps, take your time, and don’t be afraid.

Last February, in Paris, I was fortunate enough to catch Lee Bryant’s talk about how to approach the adaptation of Social Business within a company. I caught up with him a few days after #e20s to discuss this vision, and Post*Shift, a bit more in-depth.

Throughout the conference, several talks covered several approaches on when, or where to start the Big Change. With all the different people, each with their own discipline and field of expertise, came a lot of different thoughts on how to approach this.., issue.

We had Change Agents, Community Managers, Business Strategists, Platform Specialists, and all-round Social Business Evangelists (and more). All were present and provided a piece of the puzzle.

Everyone

Now, I know, we need everyone to transform a company. There is no way a single individual, or a single discipline can achieve this. Only when we work together will the sky be the limit.

However, the element of focus in Lee’s talk was the adaptation of the hierarchical structure of a company.

Wow, wait a minute. So, we don’t start with aligning the business goals? Or creating a community? Or with a (small) pilot project to establish a proof of concept?

We go straight for the spline of a company?

No Rogier, we do not. Pay attention.

In my defence, if you watch the video below, at the 1 minute mark, you see a tall, well suited man walking towards the front row. That would be I, said the fool.
I missed Lee’s introduction, because, you know, I needed to open my laptop and check the #e20s tweets.

Moving Beyond

The key phrase of that intro was;

We need to look very seriously at the organisational design structures, IF we are to go any further with social technology.

This became apparent when I asked Lee if he would start with changing the organisational structure within a company. No, he would not.

At some point the (often old school) organisational structure will limit the progress of change. This is why you have to consider a way to adapt that hierarchy to suit the flow of information and the natural tendencies of humans to talk with whomever they want, and find resources and help where they are available.

Hierarchy does tend to bring with it an element of politics.

Solving problems laterally, instead of hierarchically saves time and a frustration. A more real-life interpretation of a hierarchy doesn’t follow the down-and-up-and-down flow of the org chart anyway.

In the end, we’re all in it together. And dealing with issues in a harmonious and transparent way will, at some point, turn into higher productivity (and many more benefits).
Sure, those who thrive on playing the office politics game won’t like this. But then again, they don’t add anything positive to begin with, and can only change for the better.

The slide below visualises the difference between an org chart found on the corporate Intranet, and the way people communicate in the real world.

Post*Shift

I also wanted to ask Lee about his new venture. This has been on the radar for a while, but now that Post*Shift is a go, it’s time to address it.

The thing I noticed when browsing the Post*Shift website was this;

We have developed our own (proprietary) Framework for assessing a company’s progress against a number of key attributes relating to structure, culture and practice, establishing a solid base on which to undertake modernisation initiatives.

I like that. One of the biggest issues which pop-up is where to start. With this tool you can assess the base-line of a company. For instance, if you’d want to know how agile your company is, you can ask very specific questions to determine just that.

And, on a larger time scale, you can measure it (ponder the importance of that for a minute).

Of course, it is a combined experience of many years (of the six people that make up the company) that results in the capability of creating such a tool. Then, being able to interpret it correctly, providing an enterprise with a (very) long-term roadmap, and supporting that enterprise in all the steps that need to be taken is, in a word, impressive.

Time and Customisation

Few businesses have such long term impact on a business as Social Business does.
And few businesses require such high customisation as Social Business does.

The ability to be flexible enough in your approach to cater to any business, and have the ability to see into the future can never be underestimated.

I wish Lee and the rest of the Post*Shift team the best of success, I’m sure they’re of to a good start.

I leave you with another quote from Post*Shift’s website.

After 10+ years of pushing the notion of social technology as a business operating system, the idea is now mainstream – the headshift we tried to create has happened – but we have only begun to touch on its long-term impact on how business is done.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gookq0SviQ?rel=0]