Don't be scared - It won't bite...

I've been pulled into a several discussions of late with folks outside of EMC. As a few of us are blogging about our internal foray into Social Media, we've generated some buzz and there is a thirst for more information. As far as I can tell, SM hasn't gone mainstream within the firewalls of corporate America... yet.

In past posts, I've mentioned some of the key elements that have taken us to the point we are today... IT Partnership was key here... Listening to the voice of he community at the top of list as well. But, we've dealt with another, somewhat unexpected, phenomenon - fear.

I guess fear, or at least hesitation, comes with any new technology. People are unsure and are reluctant to jump right into the pool. This has been the case with our internal audience on EMC ONE... We had piles of lurkers, but our participant rate was lower than we'd hoped.

So we started asking the questions... Why aren't you participating? What's holding you back? That's a great idea - Have you posted it yet??

The answer came in a couple flavors.

Social Media is a (perceived) waste of time.

*BZZZZT* Wrong! Well - caveat - if you're posting videos of yourself grooming your cats - you're probably right. If, however, you're starting or engaging in a business conversation, you're simply taking a conversation online.

We've seen AMAZING conversations transpire - new ideas that would not have taken off without this platform in place. Employees meeting employees from all corners of the globe and sharing ideas... Never would have happened without the tool.

Are there conversations around local restaurants, favorite MP3 players, etc;? Yup.. We have a space designed for it... The EMC Watercooler. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical of this at first. But I now realize this is helping employees feel more engaged... They're connecting with new peers, sharing ideas, balancing life / work and feeling more connected to the EMC population as a whole... They're part of something bigger.

If my manager sees me out there, he'll think I'm goofing off.

False again! Adoption among Manager, Director and above has been strong. It would seem as though the management team sees the value and is adopting the medium. Once they're visibile on the platform, I would hope that their teams see it as an 'appropriate' vehicle for online discussion. So far, the trend is good.

We've been fortunate to get some key senior executives to start blogging on the platform. I think this really helped legitimize social media as a whole. If your EVP is blogging around what's keeping him up at night, it must be the real deal... right?

We also have an internal program that encourages organizational collaboration. We're leveraging this program to encourage teams to take their cross-functional programs online - to leverage social media to help discuss and collaborate on initiatives that have complex organizational and geographic reach. Formalizing EMC ONE as a tool to foster such conversations is helping people understand this is an accepted  productivity tool.

What if I post something silly?

Who hasn't? I could tell some stories from my past. Let's just say I now avoid large mailing lists. Like email before, social media is just another way to communicate online. Was there trepidation as email rolled into corporations? Yup... Sure the mechanism is slightly different and there tends to be more visibility - but when was the last time a lousy thought in an email caused any real grief???

There's also an etiquette element at play. I'm a strong believe in self-policing communities. But, as we try to change the mindset across 33k people, it's good to keep an eye on the initial behavior. I've only seen one or two instances - and they were in no way malicious... Rather, someone very comfortable with online dialogue responding to another users idea with 'That's a terrible idea' or similar. Those comfortable with SM need to serve as role models... They need to encourage newcomers to share and engage... Again, this has not been a real problem at all, but something worth watching out for.

Most important point here - One "That's dumb" response will likely alienate the original poster - but will do immeasurable damage to those poking around to see if they should play.

I hope you find this helpful. If you're in a similar boat - trying to introduce social computing into your company - please post your thoughts or challenges. As noted before, this is fundamentally changing internal communications... It's cool to be at the forefront but requires us all to share our experiences and learn together.

Cheers,
LD

Comments

[Nick Huhn]

Great perspectives and insights, Len. I'm encountering similar challenges and 'fear' within the Yum Brands organization in which I serve as the new media strategist. In my first 8 months at the company I've come to realize that collaboration on platforms other than telephone and Outlook simply don't exist and/or they do not have critical mass to yield value.

An employee intranet / portal is due soon (no, we don't have one yet - gulp!) and I look forward to finally having the ability to collaborate and communicate with our workforce like most other $10+ billion global companies had in place years ago. Once that behavior of sourcing and sharing info together is ingrained, I would expect to encounter far less resistance or confusion when bolting on additional tools with social media elements.

We've got a long way to go with updating internal comm and collaboration tools, but we're moving ahead quickly. Thanks again for sharing your experiences and points of view!

[Len Devanna]

Hi Nick - It seems it's not an uncommon problem inside the enterprise. I was in CA this past week and heard very similar stories from people in rather larges companies.

In your situation - Will the new Intranet provide any social capabilities? If you can find that one use case - the focused, cross functional project with strong support from above - and get them to leverage social tools to communicate around their project... It really helps to demonstrate the power and take the offering viral.

[Nick Huhn]

Yes, the new intranet will at least lay the foundation for sharing and interactive collaboration more than our current infrastructure. As more cross-functional teams and roles develop, I'm certain there will be the urgent need for collaborative online communications.

I'm hoping to at least dip our toes into the water with perhaps a wiki of company acronyms and jargon for the assimilation of newbies like me. With over 1,000,000 associates at 5 distinct brands in more than 110 countries it's sometimes difficult to find the people, information or resources one needs to master a role or project. Online tools with social components will get us there, especially in our culture of best practice sharing and building know-how.

Nowhere to go but up from here! :)