Socialutions And The Social Media Pretenders
05.27.2008 | Chris BaileyLast week, Scott Allen turned me on to the concept of Socialutions. At the heart of this idea is that no new business solution can take root inside an organization until the correlating out-dated ideas, mindsets, and operating methods are weeded out.
Now you may be thinking to yourself, “But Chris, this is nothing new…this is just common sense.” To which I would reply, “Yes, but when do most organizations use this common sense?” If fact, most organizations will simply try to lay the latest business fad on top of their current operations and culture. Regardless of whether they implement this innovation with the best of intentions or not, they’ll soon discover that this course of action will lead to failure with a high probability rate.
Let’s take social media as a fresh example. Loads of businesses and non-profits are adding social media tools to their everyday work as a way to keep up with progress (or worse, to demonstrate they’re “hip” and “edgy”). They’re creating corporate blogs, podcasts, and vblogs; engaging in communication channels like Twitter; building collaborative pages via wikis and Facebook. I’m not suggesting that there’s anything inherently wrong with any of these activities, but I do argue that simply adding them to your business operations without understanding…
- the true ethos of social media and its focus on authenticity and diffusion of control
- how to integrate these tools with your overall strategy and disperse throughout your entire organization
- AND MOST IMPORTANTLY what old behaviors and actions need to be cast aside in order to make these initiatives work
…will expose your organization as a hipster wannabe and leave you thinking that this social media stuff doesn’t work after all.
It’s not that social media doesn’t work, it’s that without making the necessary changes to your culture to accommodate it you’ll just be pretending. From the Socialutions blog, here’s an excerpt from a recent post called How Long Can They Pretend?:
The quality of social interaction is driven by the organizations entire “system” of interactions led by management. The current craze by brands wanting to ride the “social wave” is akin to corporations trying to ride the “quality movement” of the 80’s and 90’s. Those that used quality as a differential started by changing the thinking that managed the “system” and it permeated from the top down. Those that faked it hired a Quality Guru and made quality their responsibility. The later failed.
If you truly want social media (or any other initiative) to work for your business, don’t assign one person or one team to make it happen and then step out of the process. That’s really just pretending to give a damn and setting those folks up for impending failure. If you’re a senior manager, take some time to learn about your organization’s systems and culture (and if you don’t know how, hire someone to help you…yes, that’s a shameless plug). If you’re serious about changing how your business operates in the 21st century and how your people can be an important part of that growth, do them and yourself a service and don’t pretend to be something you’re not.
7 Responses to “Socialutions And The Social Media Pretenders”
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[...] Chris Bailey writes: “Most organizations will simply try to lay the latest business fad on top of their current operations and culture. Regardless of whether they implement this innovation with the best of intentions or not, they’ll soon discover that this course of action will lead to failure with a high probability rate.” [...]
Chris, if only I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard an organization ask “so, what’s our Facebook strategy?”…
Culture is such an important part of business and if your culture doesn’t match your actions, there is always a disconnect with clients/customers/constituents. Sometimes it’s actually better not to do the cool, hip, cutting edge things to stay true to who you are and resonate with audience.
This post really resonated with me, having just come from speaking at a conference where the divide fell mostly along generational lines.
The older the attendee the more likely the remarks about “losing control” or, as Jordan so aptly cited, ““so, what’s our Facebook strategy?”
The younger the attendee the more likely they were to echo your message here. You, Chris, should be on one of the committees for the future of meetings that’s been created over the past, well, decade within the groups/associations of leaders in the meeting industry…
… but you’d have to promise to not run out of the room screaming. At least the scene would probably not appear on YouTube. Today I wrote about TelePresence and meetings and my first response were not via comments but emails from 4 meeting planners.. . ah well.
No appropriate use of tech before its time… as determined by….?
Kudos, by the way on another good post
Jordan, I think many execs in organizations have absolutely no idea what their true culture is. They have their values/mission/vision neatly printed on cards or posters and think that’s their culture. Unfortunately, there’s much more to it than that but they look for the easy route. So when they try to implement a social media strategy that doesn’t jive with their true culture, the disconnect is often perceived by everyone else but the executive powers.
Kare, both of those remarks are ones I get often, as well…particularly the “losing control” one. It gets interesting when I respond: “But you never really had control to begin with. It was all a bit of self-delusion.” We’re currently in the midst of a seismic shift in attitudes in regards to org culture, connecting deeply with customers/members/constituents, and employee engagement. Once upon a time, each of these may have been considered in isolation. Now, it’s starting to be clear that these three organizational elements are interrelating in new, and depending on your perspective, scary ways.
I’m an impatient sort of guy but I’m learning that most organizations that want to succeed and remain vibrant for the long-term will eventually need to come around to this same conclusion. We just need to stay in the game and help them get there.
Hey Chris – just thought I’d let you know that our new e-book, “Socialutions: Management Methods for the Social Era”, is now available for free download:
http://linktosocialutions.com/?page_id=622
Thanks, Scott…I just downloaded and look forward to reading. Appreciate you posting the link here. Cheers!