Carol Rozwell

During the past few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of traveling to Durham, NC and Miami, FL for two very different but related events. The first was the Immersion Day hosted by Fuqua School of Business Professor Tony O’Driscoll. The second was the Cisco Collaboration Summit for analysts, consultants and partners. While the events were very different, there are some common themes worth noting.

First, a bit of explanation for each. The Immersion Day was designed to give students, faculty and invited guests a glimpse of what various people who study social media think about its impact on business today and in the future. While many people attended in person on the Fuqua campus at Duke University, more than five times as many watched the video stream. In addition to my presentation, there were sessions from IBM, PwC, McKinsey and Cisco.

My summarized impression of the day is that social business is already a reality in practice but that the organizational change required to deal with this significant shift lags social adoption.

The Cisco Collaboration Summit exposed attendees to the company’s collaboration vision and plans for bringing products to market that support the vision. Their watchwords for collaboration included mobile, social and visual. Throughout the two days, attendees saw numerous practical uses of technology with an emphasis on video.

My summary of the summit is the need to collaborate across devices and applications, with employees, business partners and customers. In short, no one expects their only collaboration device will be a PC, just like no one expects the only mechanism for sharing content will be an email with file attachments.

Which brings me back to the Immersion Day. I will admit it was a shock to learn that so many more “attendees” watched the video stream than came to the actual event. Were they as engaged as the people who were there in person? We will never know. Although I am not sure I could prove that the people sitting in seats in the auditorium were any more “there” than the people online. When I asked whether any of the people in the auditorium were solely engaged in the day’s event, no one answered yes. (Duh)

What is certain is that social business includes multiple technology modalities that can be accessed in real time and after the fact. It forces the integration of interaction methods and devices, as well as content types. And it needs to do so in a way that builds on – not just layers on – the technology investments in mission critical applications organizations have already made.

Additionally, these events confirm that the emergence of video for business communication and video accessed via mobile devices is underway. At the very least, this means we need to add the ability to be effective communicators in a visual medium to our list of skills.

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Category: Change management Collaboration social software     Tags: Change management, social software, video

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Any Gartner analyst knows that interest in particular topics waxes and wanes, sometimes for discernible reasons and sometimes we don’t know why. This week’s topic was knowledge management, or as the aficionados call it, KM. The first client call was a review of a KM strategy and then other discussions progressed from there. What comes up frequently – and did again this week – is a confusion over KM, collaboration and social media. What do these terms mean, how are they different, or are they even different?

I’m not known for engaging in definitions debates. While it is important to be clear and accurate in one’s communication, I derive little joy from discussing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. What is important is not what term is used (as my friends in the mid-west say, “it don’t make no never mind”) – but clearly defining the value you expect to get from the initiative. The critical questions that need to be answered are “what do you want to achieve?” and “how will this make your target constituency’s life easier?” Both of these questions must be answered with a very high degree of specificity if the initiative will be successful. (Gartner clients may want to read my research note describing a process for doing this.)

In most cases when I talk with clients about KM, collaboration or social media, what they want to gain is similar: they want to get more benefit from the information assets inside or outside their organizations. The complication is that as the problems they are hoping to solve by applying these knowledge assets increase in complexity, so does the likelihood that the knowledge needed to solve them cannot be neatly codified.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should mention that I’ve been a member of the Boston KM Forum for more years than I care to think about. The KM Forum is ably guided by Lynda Moulton and Larry Chait. Periodically we will discuss whether a name change for the group is required. After all, KM has certainly changed a lot over the past decade. But somehow we just haven’t come up with a better term and so we stick with what we have (and then of course there would be the expense of changing all the fancy stationery (grin)). And we acknowledge that topics that fit under the KM banner include content management, learning, innovation and collaboration.

So don’t worry too much about what you call that project that aims to get more value from information assets. Instead, spend the time looking for ways to get people better connected and allow them to filter out the useful knowledge from wealth of information that surrounds them.

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Category: Change management Collaboration community Knowledge management Social media Social networks social software Uncategorized     Tags: Change management, Collaboration, Collaboration dynamics, communities of practice, community, Community of practice, CoP, Knowledge management, Rewards, Social analytics, Social media, Social networking, Social networks, social software

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Any experienced program manager knows that a critical success factor for organizational change is having managers mirror the behaviors they expect to see in their employees. For example, managers must demonstrate their collaboration skills with fellow managers if they want employees on their teams to work collaboratively.

So it’s a particularly difficult situation when the leader of the collaboration program cannot collaborate with other team members. A critical fact of collaboration is that you can’t do it alone. Your ability to collaborate can only be demonstrated when you are interacting with others.

These are some of the typical behaviors of non-collaborators:

• Lack of receptivity to ideas other than their own
• Seldom acknowledging the work of other people (e.g. not providing citations, links or references to colleague’s work)
• A habit of restating what someone just said but rephrasing it with their pet phrases and key concepts
• Starting new work projects with an ignorance of prior art

I raise these issues not to complain but to seek some suggestions for how to deal with them. Is it possible to present information to help the non-collaborative person see how their behavior is negatively impacting others? Are there effective ways to help people make adjustments to their style that peers can suggest? Will these suggestions be taking seriously?

Have you come up with some effective techniques – short of firing the person – that help the non-collaborative leader (or colleague) become more collaborative? If so, please share your thoughts. Post a comment to the blog or send me a tweet @CRozwell.

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This week Anthony Bradley and I delivered a webinar titled “Taking A Strategic Approach to Social Media.” During the webinar we asked the attendees three questions about their social media initiatives. Here are the results from those polls.

Question: How would you characterize your organization’s social media initiatives? 142 people answered this question.

19% – We’re trying to figure out what to do, but haven’t implemented anything yet.

23% – We’re experimenting with social media internally.

28% – We’re experimenting with social media externally.

23% – We’re well underway with a number of initiatives.

7% – We’re old pros with social media.

Question: What is the top reason your organization is investing in social media? 155 people answered this question.

36% – Strengthen customer relationships

30% – Enhance brand awareness

6% – Share information with business partners

25% – Help people find and work better with each other

3% – Meet CEO or board objectives

Question: Who is leading your social media initiatives? 168 people answered this question.

27% – Multiple lines of business

10% – Social media steering committee

18% – IT

35% – Marketing

10% – Other support orgs (PR, HR, etc.)

A quick scan of the results reveals that most attendees believe social media has applicability for their organizations and they are testing to see what it is. Initiatives remain in the hands of marketing, although more CEOs or board members are sitting up and taking notice of the strategic potential of social business. For most, social media programs are not yet guided by a steering committee.

I hope some of you will join me in Orlando for Symposium ITxpo to hear more about the impact and potential of social media as Business Gets Social.

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Category: Change management Social media Social networks social software Strategic Planning     Tags: Change management, Metrics, Social media, Social networking, Social networks, social software, symposium

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Social has turned the corner from interesting to imperative. However, some business leaders are reluctant to explore how business getting social might benefit their organization. They believe that social media isn’t relevant for their organization or that it’s just a “consumer thing” and only marketing needs to pay attention. They make statements that imply that social media is dangerous – statements which, upon examination, often reveal a misunderstanding of how all businesses are being changed by social.

To poke a little fun at the topic, we pulled together a top 10 list of our “favorite” statements about social media. Hopefully, you won’t recognize anything your management says about social on the list. But if you do, it’s an indication that maybe they don’t yet quite understand the upside of social. We hope this top 10 list will make you chuckle. But don’t forget that underlying every statement is a perception that needs to be dealt with.

The top 10 signals that your management just doesn’t ‘’get’’ social media are:

10. They start telling you anecdotes about how their children use social media, then start shaking their heads.

9. They get somebody to ghostwrite their blogs.

8. They ban access to social media because people will waste time or “someone might say something bad about us.”

7. They say, “Our customers are over 40, so they aren’t on Facebook or Twitter.”

6. They put a summer intern in charge of the social media ‘‘project’’.

5. They ask, “Why do I need input from social media? All the really smart people already work for us.”

4. They say, “Show me an enterprise that increased its revenue by using social communications.”

3. They don’t define the purpose, but want to try ‘‘something’’ to ‘‘see what happens’’.

2. They insist that every communication be approved before it’s posted on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, or other social networking site.

1. They think that creating a Facebook fan page is a social media strategy.

Let’s hope you don’t hear too many of the above statements in your own company, but if you do, remember that business getting social is inevitable. Educate yourself and the senior leaders in your organization about how social media is being used to enhance interactions with employees, business partners, customers, prospects and the social Web. Search out good ideas, and adapt them to make them work for you.

If you are a client, you can read the full report “Top 10 Signals That Your Management Doesn’t “Get” Social Media and What To Do About It”.

I’ll also be presenting a series of sessions on Business Gets Social at our upcoming Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, October 16-20, in Orlando . Here’s the list of the sessions I’ll be doing.

I hope to see you in Orlando next week.

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Category: Social media Social networks social software     Tags: Social media, Social networking, Social networks, symposium

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One of the sessions I moderated at the PCC Summit was a roundtable discussion of how to develop a social media strategy that services internal and external needs. The participants represented a variety of industries and circumstances, yet they shared a similar set of challenges:

• Running to catch up with consumer expectations
• Dealing with the belief that the social media cannot be controlled
• Figuring out what they should be doing on social media
• Determining which issues need to be uncovered when developing a strategy

At the end of the discussion, I asked each participant for their best practice for developing a social media strategy. Here are some of their suggestions:

• Create a really strong relationship with a respected senior executive who will carry the social initiative forward. You need someone who can articulate the opportunity of social media and deal with any  lack of understanding of the magnitude of social business.
• Decide what you want to do, then break the social media program down into initiatives that can be prioritized and timescaled. You need a quick win and killer app to build credibility.
• Social is people-centric so indentify the audience clearly. Find the point of pain that social will alleviate. Avoid all the fancy words – get to the value statements “this is how social will improve your situation” expressed as a what’s in it for me (WIIFM)
• Provide lots of support for the rollout. Pay attention to good project practices and organizational change principles.
• Put social governance in place ASAP – who will do what, who owns what channel, who determines how social will be used to support improved work practices.

I hope you find some useful nuggets in these suggests as you plow forward with your efforts. We will continue the discussion in Orlando at Symposium/IT Expo.

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Category: Change management Collaboration community Social media Social networks     Tags: Change management, Collaboration dynamics, Innovation, Social media, Social networking, Social networks, symposium

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Many of my client conversations at the recently concluded Portals, Content and Collaboration Summit centered on social media. Despite many examples of successful deployments, some organizations are still struggling to see how social applies to their business. The questions have a common ring to them – what should I do with social?

A more productive way to think about the disruptive opportunity of social is to explore the places were the network can be brought to bear to improve, enhance and enlighten any business activity. Processes such as customer service, R&D and supply chain can all benefit from the insight and experience of people inside and outside the organization.

The question I suggest leaders of social business initiatives ask themselves is “where can 1000 eyes be brought to bear to make the business activity run better, faster or cheaper?”

Credit: DeMarchi Media

This is the question that will lead to better results than asking whether you need a Facebook page. That decision can come later, after you’ve figured out where the 1000 eyes can best be put to use.

If you would like to discuss this or other topics related to Business Gets Social, join us for the Gartner Twitter Chat. It will take place October 4, at 3 ET on Twitter with Anthony Bradley, Elise Olding and me. Join us on Twitter and follow #GartnerChat, and hosts @BradleyAnthonyJ, @CRozwell, @EliseOlding and @Gartner_inc.

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Category: Change management Collaboration community Knowledge management Social media Social networks social software     Tags: Change management, Collaboration dynamics, communities of practice, community, CoP, Innovation, Knowledge management, learning, Social analytics, Social media, Social networking, Social networks, social software

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In an earlier post Beware: The Seduction of Social, I commented that the “provide and pray” approach for social technology doesn’t work. While working on the Business Gets Social scenario for fall symposium, I explored two critical uncertainties: how organizations will allocate resources and how work will be executed. During this exploration, it became evident that I was correct in my assessment – most of the time. Provide and pray can work, but for most organizations it’s a long shot.

There are some situations in which offering social tools to workers will result in their spontaneous adoption. It’s rare – less than 15% of the implementations we’ve studied – but it can happen.

So the critical question becomes, under what circumstances does this unaided uptake occur? The short answer is: when it worked the last time. The organizations that have a track record of successfully letting “1000 flowers grow”with other technologies will likely see a similar response with social.

To add some meat to that bony answer, the implementations were we’ve seen workers more or less spontaneously adopt social tools are characterized by:

1. A high percentage of pioneers who are naturally curious about how new technologies can help them work better (however they specifically define better)
2. A self-directed workforce that is empowered to set goals and act on them
3. A network-centric leadership style where employees are involved in decision making
4. A management team that not just endorses the concept of collaboration but demonstrates their belief in it with their actions.

So back to scenario planning. One possible eventuality I explored in the scenario is a world in which resources are allocated to work based community interests and workers decide to participate in projects when they capture their imagination. Leaders who believe this world is a viable outcome should compare their organization to the four criteria mentioned above. Where they are lacking, they need to take action to close the gap. In most cases this will require a significant re-education of the management team and a rethinking of critical work activities.

I hope you will be able to join me at Symposium/ITxpo 2011 in Orlando to hear the rest of the scenario.

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Category: Change management Collaboration community Knowledge management Social media Social networks social software Uncategorized     Tags: Change management, Collaboration, Collaboration dynamics, Collective, communities of practice, community, Community of practice, Knowledge management, Social media, Social networking, Social networks, symposium

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Keeping a community vibrant and its members engaged is hard work. Shepherding a community through the stages of its lifecycle from inception to robust interaction takes finesse. Especially when communities of practice are expected to produce a work-related deliverable, balance is key. The community shepherd – I think that description is more appropriate than community manager – must know when to allow some downtime to explore new concepts before charging onto the next project.

I find that some community shepherds who measure the value of the community solely based on the number of people who actively participate in discussions may be judging themselves too harshly. They are disappointed when only a small percentage – often no more than 10-20% – of the people on the meeting invite list show up at virtual meetings or contribute to community discussions via email and collaboration tools.

If they just look at the percent engagement, they might miss the role a community plays in sharing information to all those other people who “lurk” on the fringes. For many of us, those ‘other’ communities where we lurk provide us with valuable insight even if we don’t actively participate. There are many situations where knowing a project is underway or knowing who is knowledgeable about a topic is just enough information. When the time comes, I may not be able to handle the issue, but I will know who does. Or at least I will know the person to ask who knows the person who knows.

I’ll provide one example of how lurkers like me lost out when a manager pulled a plug on a discussion. There was a pretty heated exchange going on in a community of practice among people who were trying to work out a consensus position on a topic. Using the community as a forum, the back and forth discussion uncovered key facts and raised some very interesting points. However, when a senior manager closed the conversation down before the community resolved its different perspectives, the opportunity for learning was extinguished.

In an organization that cites the desire to increase knowledge sharing as a goal of its collaboration program, the lurkers can play a valuable role. Lurkers are often the boundary spanners that spread information to other communities. So don’t diss the lurkers – feed their need to know.

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Category: Change management Collaboration community Knowledge management Social networks     Tags: Collaboration dynamics, Collective, communities of practice, community, Knowledge management, Social network analysis, Social networking, social software

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During the past week, I enjoyed a number of face to face meetings with clients from across a wide variety of industries. We talked about a raft of issues, some industry-specific, some pretty general in nature. A theme that seldom surfaced explicitly but that underlies much of the discussion is what I like to call “the seduction of social.” briefly stated, it’s widely-held but erroneous belief that social is magic – that if you deploy a social tool, somehow something magic will happen. A variation of this thinking appears from time to time as a product or service provider buys a social property expecting it will catapult them to success based on users flocking to that social site because of some invisible but compelling draw.

The seduction of social often plays out in the context of a social, collaboration or knowledge management program like this: some senior person says, “we need to install social app X. It will (insert your benefits statement here) for example, “we need to buy social app X because it will make use more collaborative.” The social initiative program manager buys social app X and installs it. Of course, there is no need to provide training because “nobody ever needed Facebook training.” After the initial flurry of excitement, usage gradually declines. In 9 – 12 months, no one but the hardiest tech pioneers use social app X.

It’s fascinating to see some variation of this scenario play out over and over again. The details are a little different from case to case – it may be social app Y that is deployed rather than social app X – but the results are the same.

If you’ve read my blogs or research, you know that the “provide and pray” approach does not work. Social must be focused on solving a thorny business problem and the worker at whom it’s targeted must see personal value in what the technology is offering them. So there is a big risk of failure when social is deployed for social’s sake.

But there is another dangerous risk to be reckoned with.

In many organizations, social is being championed by people who see the value in de-leveling some of the traditional corporate structure and allowing anyone to talk with anyone. But this meritocratic view also scares a management team that is classically trained and steeped in Taylor-esque approaches to work.

The big risk is that if these well-intentioned but poorly supported social experiments go forward and fail, it’s too easy for those managers to say, “see, I told you so.” Their view that social is just a waste of time is reinforced and the possibility to attempt another social experiment anytime soon is greatly reduced. In fact, experience shows that the next most will again approve a social project is two years hence, “because we all know what happened last time . . . ”

So if you are contemplating a social project, plan it well. If you have a social project that is languishing, get it back on track.

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Category: Change management Collaboration Social media Social networks social software Strategic Planning Uncategorized     Tags: Change management, Collaboration, Collaboration dynamics, Metrics, Social media, Social networks, social software

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