Pink Elephant ...for those drunk on the hype Social media in Enterprise - Elephant in the ecosystem Cass Business School #smwlnd London, February 2, 2010 1 First, social media is an elusive term in itself. Never mind its application to the enterprise. I notice that the meaning of the term to each person depends on when and how they came to it. To someone like me, blogging since 2002, the Eureka moment is connected with blogging, with upstarts like Facebook and Twitter playing a secondary role. To most people they _are_ social media with an assortment of web apps that involve interactions and scale to high heaven. What about the enterprise? Is it the same tools used within enterprise but with sensible restrictions? Is it creating the same magic within the enterprise for the benefit of the employees, customers and eventually for the business? Or is it looking at the technology and tools, using them to enhance the cumbersome, expensive and ossified IT? I have worked with companies since 2003 and have noticed a recognisable life cycle of social media in enterprise.
Talk I gave at the Social media in Enterprise - elephant in ecosystem on February 2, 2010 at Cass Business School in London
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1. Pink Elephant ...for those drunk on the hype Social media in
Enterprise - Elephant in the ecosystem Cass Business School #smwlnd
London, February 2, 2010 1 First, social media is an elusive term
in itself. Never mind its application to the enterprise. I notice
that the meaning of the term to each person depends on when and how
they came to it. To someone like me, blogging since 2002, the
Eureka moment is connected with blogging, with upstarts like
Facebook and Twitter playing a secondary role. To most people they
_are_ social media with an assortment of web apps that involve
interactions and scale to high heaven. What about the enterprise?
Is it the same tools used within enterprise but with sensible
restrictions? Is it creating the same magic within the enterprise
for the benefit of the employees, customers and eventually for the
business? Or is it looking at the technology and tools, using them
to enhance the cumbersome, expensive and ossified IT? I have worked
with companies since 2003 and have noticed a recognisable life
cycle of social media in enterprise.
2. Terroir 2 First a brief background on what has happened to
the wine industry globally in the last 30 years. Before 1970s
French wine used to be considered the pinnacle of all wines. It was
the great French tradition, the noble grapes, but mainly it was the
unrivalled terroirs of Bordeaux and Burgundy. (Loosely translated
as a sense of place which is embodied in certain qualities, and the
sum of the effects that the local environment has had on the
manufacture of the product).
3. 3 In 1976, the (in)famous wine tasting of Californian wines
next to top French wines in Paris has shifted that world view*.
This is because the Californian wines beat the French ones in a
blind tasting on their own territory and in their own game by
tasting the way it was believed impossible to achieve without the
magic of the terroir. The fallout over the next few decades was
profound once wine-makers all over the world realised that it is
possible to produce wine a la Bordeaux or Burgundy in other
countries, the experimentation and eventually production of quality
wines from other countries has exploded. Thanks to that we now have
some superb Californian, Argentinian, Italian, Spanish, Australian,
Chilean, South African and Lebanese wines capable of matching the
French ones in quality. There are purists whod disagree and for a
long time I have been amongst them but I am not enough of a wine
snob to persist in that view in the face of considerable (and very
enjoyable) evidence.
4. 4 Wine making: Before 1976 tasting, there seemed no point in
producing quality wine aimed at the same market that the French
wine-makers so successfully monopolised for centuries. Even if you
had the same grapes and same techniques, you couldnt replace the
terroir or could you? A few mad wine aficionados, with burning love
of wine, innovators zeal, insane persistence and a big dose of luck
spend years experimenting with wine-making techniques that would
bring their brews close to their beloved Grand Crus. They have
changed the balance between the three elements that makes wine
soil, grape and wine-making and demonstrated that it is possible to
compensate for the lack of the terroir magic with carefully applied
wine-making techniques. It was no longer imitation of the
ingredients or methods but an entirely new mix of components still
designed to produce the same highly desirable outcome.
5. 5 And this is how it is with social media. There is no point
in planting the vines of social web in the enterprise and expecting
them to produce the same as they do outside in the open web. The
soil is not the same, the terroir wildly different. If you want to
achieve an outcome of similar quality and impact better
communication, more transparency, faster information exchange, more
skilled and engaged employees, more and rewarding involvement with
the outside world you will have to take the grapes (the social
media tools) and make sure that your wine-making balances out what
your environment lacks. Clash of two worlds!
6. Dont try to change the system from within 6 A few tips for
those who find themselves in a situation where the organisation is
their worst enemy: Dont try to change the system from within i.e.
trying to bring a change by going through established and outdated
processes.
7. Find those who understand... how important change is, and
the original reason behind processes stopping it 7 Find people
inside the organisation who understand both how important and good
such change is and the original reason behind processes that are
stopping it.
8. Connect them with what you are trying to do 8 Increase their
knowledge and understanding of what you are trying to bring about,
share tools, passion, ideas, frustrations.
9. Create networks under the radar 9 Gradually connect these
people in a network that will amplify their ability to make things
happen under the radar, i.e. bypassing the dysfunctional processes
and in effect creating alternative ways of doing things.
10. Support them with technology & tools independent on IT
10 Dont get dragged into IT compliance and technology that goes
against user-autonomy and brings it back to organisations
processes
11. Find alternative ways and keep them away from existing
processes 11 Make sure the alternative ways are not grabbed by the
systems people and turned into their version of inflexible and
ossified processes.
12. Lather, Rinse & Repeat 12 Rinse, lather and repeat 2 or
3 times helps but once already feels good.
13. Wave good-bye to business cases Say hello to case studies
13 Wave good bye to business cases and say hello to case studies
i.e. this is how we have done it and all we want is to enable
everyone else to do something similar if they wish.
14. Autonomy The nal frontier 14 The most important things
missing from the enterprise terroir is the individual autonomy. It
is a sad and indisputable fact that anyone can do a lot more online
outside their work than in the office and that office life is not
dissimilar to medieval serfdom. If companies want to get close to
the social web magic, they will need to include this crucial
ingredient into their approach. Treating their employees with
respect and trust. Giving them space to play and experiment. And
this is where it all falls down... Allow me to continue my medieval
analogy - introducing social media tools to an enterprise is like
dropping a fashion magazine in the middle of people governed by
Sumptuary Laws (these laws restricted ordinary people in their
expenditure including money spent on clothes and were used to
control behaviour and ensure that a specific class structure was
maintained.) Not going to work, is it, without blowing something
up.
15. Who is building barricades? 15 Who is Building the
Barricades? From experience I believe that existing systems dont
give up without resistance. The good news is that for the first
time in history the internet is a place where we can create viable
alternatives without having to blow up the existing ways. The
internet has provided a relatively undisturbed environment in which
people can play and build stuff that works for them as well as
others. They dont have to waste time undermining or dismantling an
already dysfunctional system to show how new ways could work. They
can experiment instead of having to fight for the cause. They can
get on with chatting, connecting, networking, squabbling, playing
with ideas and technology that are now scaring the media and
businesses. Bypassing a system by building a better one elsewhere
is proving to be far more powerful than blowing it up. Doesnt help
the old system a bit but makes the rest of us nicer and happier
people. In many ways, if this is a revolution, it is a revolution
turned upside down. For start its not those who want the change
that are building the barricades
16. Disruption 16 Until the organisation structure changes,
social media and its magic are not going to happen within the
enterprise
17. Demand side the Mine! project VRM self-analytics &
personal informatics [email protected] 17 Much more effective
(and fun!) is working outside the enterprise, on projects that are
rmly rooted in the demand side. It is my easier to empower users
and have impact on individual sphere than it is to change
businesses. So I have put my focus, my time and resources where my
mouth is. The Mine! project is about building tool(s) to increase
individuals autonomy online. VRM is about redressing the balance of
power between vendors and customers. And self-analytics is about
adding personal data, its ownership, management and understanding
to individuals literacy.