5 Ways Social Media Can Enhance Your Change Initiative

Time sink? Shiny new tool? Change accelerator?

Social media can be all three. Those who dismiss it just as a shiny new tool that sucks time do so at their peril. Why? First, of all, organizations are becoming more communal, thanks to social media. Facebook, Twitter, and Chatter are changing how we communicate and interact with each other, inside and outside of the workplace.

Many employees, especially the digital natives, expect to communicate electronically with their co-workers. Just watch them text, post, or send instant messages. And if their employer doesn’t provide a sanctioned tool, they’ll use their smart phones, either company-issued or personal.

These electronic expectations have an impact on those of us implementing change initiatives inside organizations. We need to view social media as our friend, not foe, when considering what communication channels to use.

Here are five ways social media can help you with your change initiative.

1. Improved clarity. Being clear about what you’re doing and where you’re going is the essence of any business strategy, especially change. You’ve got to be able to articulate it to yourself before you can start to explain it to others. If you can define what you’re doing in 140 characters—the length of a basic Twitter message— you’re on your way to achieving clarity—assuming others understand what you’re saying. (Just as with any communication, it helps to test to make sure your message is being received.)

2. More transparency. When you’re clear, you’re able to have a more open and honest relationship—that is be more transparent— with employees and other constituents because they know what’s going on. And when you’re communicating directly either face-to-face or through tools such as Twitter, Instant Messaging, or texting, you’re interacting directly without filters. You’ll be able to build street cred with employee audiences that often trust their peers for information over authority figures.

3. Greater inclusiveness. With social media, it’s easy to involve more people in more time zones compared to other communication methods. You can build a platform of participation and invite more people into the conversation, which has multiple advantages. More people can ask questions as well as weigh in with their opinions. You’ll also hear a richer diversity of voices, which can influence you. After all effective communication is a reciprocal action.

4. Increased speed. The immediacy of social media gives the message—and the change initiative— a sense of urgency. It’s happening NOW (or within the past few hours). The message and the initiative don’t feel dated like a newsletter, report, or other static communication. If you combine the timeliness with a clear message and a strong call to action, you improve your chances of breaking through the information clutter, getting people’s attention, and motivating them to act. This is key for any change initiative that requires a change in behavior.

5. Real-time data. Built into the technology of most social media tools is a strong search engine. So you’ve got the ability to collect rich data about what people are saying—in real time. By analyzing that, you can fine-tune your change approach, including refining your messages, adapting your interventions, and testing new tactics.

When you embrace social media as an effective change agent, you can reap the benefits of greater clarity, stronger unity, and improved agility. In turn, these three people factors help accelerate strategy execution in your organization, according to the authors of Strategic Speed: Mobilize People, Accelerate Execution

Plus, you’re engaging with employees, which helps them keep focused on all of your key priorities, not just your current change initiative. Just make sure you’re staying focused too. After all, neuroscientist Brian Knutson is wondering whether the survival of the fittest now means the survival of the most focused. With the Internet and all of its interesting interruptions, we have so many temptations for our time.

So what’s your favorite time sink app? Oops. I should be asking: What’s your experience with social media and organizational change? Also, please join me in Orlando May 1 -4 at the global ACMP (Association of Change Management Professionals) conference. The keynoters are John Kotter, Admiral Thad Allen, and Daryl Conner. I’m speaking on “Tweet This: Leveraging social media for organizational change.”

About Liz

Liz Guthridge of Connect Consulting Group works with leaders to influence employees to get on board with change. She helps leaders gain clarity around change so they can share their vision, explain their goals, and clearly articulate their “ask” of their team members, peers, and other employees who often don’t work for them.

Liz has years of experience turning change initiatives from exercises in frustration to success stories, including counseling leaders on how to build their credibility. Liz also is an early adopter of social media, successfully using it in her own business as well as advising her clients and their workforces on how to maximize its effectiveness. As a change consultant to salesforce.com, she’s been using Chatter since the company launched it in early 2010.

You can email Liz at liz.guthridge@connectconsultinggroup.com, text her at 510.918.5322, or follow her at www.twitter.com/lizguthridge. She also blogs at www.connectconsultinggroup.com/category/blog

Letter From: Paul Larsen Membership Director-Let's Connect

Tuesday in June dawned with a cool mist draping over the boundaries of the ancient city of Hanoi, Vietnam. With a moderate temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit and a patchy blue sky, it looked to be another fair and quiet day in this serene capital of this southeastern Asian country. A sleepy town that takes awhile to wake up, you can stroll the city in the morning and not see anyone else or hear a car or scooter for hours on end.

AND THEN…I WOKE UP…!

In reality, the chaos and stifling heat and humidity that is summertime in modern-day Hanoi is a symbolism of life as a whole. Vibrant is too boring of a word to describe the street scene that is this metropolis of almost 7 million. Life is not hidden, it is lived right out in the open and on the jammed streets, alleyways and sidewalks for all to experience. Sights, sounds, colors, smells…there is something here to entice the curiosity of all of our senses.

I was in Vietnam to teach English at a SOS Children’s Village, a well-run orphanage outside of Hanoi. I was part of a small project team volunteering my time with a great organization called Global Volunteers, which provides community-based “volunteer vacations” around the world. Our task was to create and teach a full two-week summer school English workshop for about 50 Vietnamese children ranging in age from 8 to 14. And by-the-way, I do not know any Vietnamese.

Now, as an OD practitioner with solid some corporate experience as part of my legacy, I have often found myself in some uncomfortable, sensitive and unpredictable works situations. But as we have been trained to do, we follow our models, our agendas, our outlines and most importantly, our gut…and we eventually succeed with our purpose. But this past June, with 100 sets of “young” eyes watching my every move with extreme curiosity and eagerness…all of my models, agendas and outlines “flew out” the dusty window of the classroom and my gut found itself very much alone. And that is where the magic began.

In OD, we are blessed to be able to work with a wide-variety of experienced and incredibly talented colleagues. We are also lucky to work in a field that is ever-changing and deals with getting people and organizations to connect with their purpose, values, vision, principles, and ______(fill in the blank with a word of your choice). That day…in that Vietnamese classroom with those students, I learned the true value of connecting. I didn’t have a model, book or diagram. I didn’t have a laptop or smartphone or lcd projector. All I had was my years of experience as a person….one that has been blessed with many rich experiences…reaching out to connect with these young students of a distinctly different culture and life history. And isn’t that what we do everyday in od? Use our experience to assess and facilitate change…no matter how big or small?

In that hot and muggy classroom…a connection was made at a level that required no technology. We connected at a level that required no model or flow chart. We connected at a level that required no tweet, status update or online profile. We connected as humans who wanted to learn from and understand each other. And in doing so we made our global community a little smaller.

In today’s 24x7 world, we have every technological means available to us to connect with each other. But it seems that the more ways we have to connect, the less real connecting we are doing as people. We are so busy tapping into our BlackBerrys or “friending” someone on our iPhones, that we are losing the opportunity (and some would say) the true skill of connecting. It is this art of creating “simple connections” that was my biggest lesson from this experience. Here I was thousands of miles away from my “nest” in a completely different country with different values and norms, yet I was making an impact with these students and they were certainly making an impact on me. The roles of teacher and student were blurred at times, since I was allowing my true “od-self” to adsorb, evolve and learn as we progressed through the weeks. I came away from the project a more fulfilled person who can appreciate the need we have to connect as people and who will want to bring these lessons into my evolving practice as an od professional.

After my short tenure in Vietnam, it is no wonder organizations and their community members need our services, since we can help in fulfilling a very basic need for all…the need to connect. Connection leads to change. Change leads to progress. Progress is required for individuals and organizations to not become obsolete. You don’t need to go as far as I did to experience this art of creating simple connections….try it the next time you are home or in a client environment. It requires no technology or sign-in, all it requires is the thirst and willingness to explore…and as od practitioners, that is something I know we all are passionate to do. And we certainly have the capability.

I look forward to “connecting” with all of our BAodn members and the expanding OD community as your new Membership Director this year. Onwards and upwards...

Let's Ponder: Are introverts at a Disadvantage in Organizational Life?

Are these famous people introverted or extraverted? (answers at end of blog)  For the reclusive nerds among you, they are Mia Farrow, Michael Jordan, Steven Spielberg, and Warren Buffet). Images from Wikipedia.
 
Are Introverts at a disadvantage in organizational life?
For me the answer is: Often but not always. My art teacher shares how as a art student he opened the door to a class with a naked model. He quickly stammered an apology then exited to the studio next door and ended up specializing in still-lifes! Or consider the senior manager whose direct report is unfairly criticized in public by the boss, and does not think in time to mount a defense and the moment is lost. These are experiences that most introverts would recognize and identify with.

In this blog I will develop an understanding of what introversion really is and in later blogs will offer practical suggestions for introverts seeking to increase their impact, and also some helpful tips for managers and OD practitioners.
 
Why do introverts have a bad press?
The answer is because introverts are easily stereo-typed negatively. “He’s such an introvert! He is so shy and aloof, he has nothing to say for himself." Compare this with: "She is such an extrovert, she is such fun always talking and laughing.” How often have you heard, or used such descriptions of other people? Even academic researchers have fallen into this trap. They stress the negatives in being introverted and the see only the positive of extroversion.

From the moment we are born we live and work in a social context whether it is family, school, university or work. It can be hard being an introvert in a socialized world. Introverts suffer from a bad press but this is unfair, inaccurate and not in our collective best interests especially in an organizational context.
 
So what is introversion?
Introversion-extroversion was first used by Carl Jung in 1922 to describe the flow of psychological energy that characterizes a person (the flow is either primarily focused outside of the person or focused within the person). Today, Introversion-Extroversion is one of the Big Five Personality Dimensions.

The The Big Five was a break-through in personality research in the late Eighties and it is widely accepted in the scientific community that these five dimensions are essential to describe accurately a person’s personality in a way that can be measured and verified. The great advantage of the Big Five Personality Dimensions is that it gives us a common base for extensive research studies to be objectively compared and synthesized across different times and contexts.

The top 5 things we know about Introversion
1. All of us vary in our disposition to behave in an introverted way or an extroverted way. Some of us are extreme maladaptive introverts (or extroverts), others are mildly one or the other. Our introversion is more to do with how we handle excitement and stimulation rather than with sociability per se.

2. Some of us are skilled closet introverts, lively at work and zombies at home. On their favorite topics introverts can out-talk most extroverts. The trouble is extroverts can out-talk introverts on almost everything else!

3. The disposition to be introverted is largely genetic (in fact we now know that 50% of the variation in personality in any population is genetic). How that disposition manifests itself in any person is the result of interacting early-life experiences from the womb onwards, combined with life events, circumstances and personal choices, i.e. the other 50%.

4. There are identifiable differences in the brain structures of people who are clearly introverted (40%) and those who are extroverted (60%). More on this later.

5. In evolutionary terms, the disposition towards action-orientation and sociability clearly contributed to the survival of early hominid groups. The later evolution of a minority within those groups having a reflective thought-orientation clearly contributed further to the survival of the groups who ultimately became us.

Extroverts! You owe us!
In my next blog, I will summarize the scientific research on introversion-extroversion covering everything from happiness and humor to excitability, learning and career success. Then we will be ready to examine the implications for us as OD practitioners. And the implications for being seen as miserable, pessimistic, party-poopers when we truly are interesting, creative, thoughtful people.

Careful what you say in response, I am an introvert and proud of it.

Answers: All four are introverts of course. You see life is better with us than without us.