I get calls from all types of organizations seeking guidance on their path to Enterprise 2.0 success. Sometimes I’m just in awe of the great ideas and clever tactics they ask about. And sometimes I have to hide my emotion as they explain the challenge they face. I’ll share one such tidbit — of course with fake names.
I got a call from someone in a well known service related company who was inquiring about blogging. I’ll call her “Amy”. Amy seemed a bit rushed – or maybe nervous, and she spoke quickly and directly:
“We recently started a workplace social collaboration web 2.0 initiative here, and I’m managing a small team of bloggers. The problem is that I don’t really know how to get them to blog. What motivates people to blog? And how can I motivate my team?”
There was so much to say, and I was not sure where to start. So I asked the naive clarification question: ”You said that you manage a team of bloggers, so do you, yourself, blog?”
“No, I just manage the team. They blog — well, they are supposed to. I’m trying to figure out how to get them to. Sure they can write, but they say that it’s hard to come up with ideas, and they are not sure what to say.”
I decided to return to my point, since Amy did not understand why I asked what I asked. ”Well, many employees look to their manager for guidance. Do you think if you blogged too that maybe you’d have some more insight into the process and the barriers? Think about it this way — for most people, asking them to blog is like asking them to be funny. Most people won’t know how to perform without really thinking things through — like what the audience would consider to be funny, and how to set up the humor. But if I had an experienced improv comic giving me some tips, I might be able to pull if off and learn quickly. Sure, some people seem naturally good at blogging — but that’s usually because they have something to say, and they understand how to say it, who they are saying it to, and what kind of reaction they are going to get by saying it. For most people, it takes a bit of practice to get it right. So it’s ok to write a few blogs posts, and instead of actually publishing them — just share them within the team and discuss the message. Do you think that might help? Maybe you could join them in the act of pretend-blogging too.”
I was trying to be kind and helpful. After all, she was a client and wanted help. Eventually, though, we started to get to the more valuable conversation — like why exactly did someone in management believe that a successful Enterprise 2.0 initiative involves assigning a team to the task of blogging? It became clear that Amy herself was simply assigned to manage a task. Her team could have been selling cookies for all she cared. She just wanted to make sure that her resources were productive, and that her project would be measured to be successful.
The truth is, she was not at fault. So I did not want to lecture her about visions of collaboration, the democratization of ideas, the power of networked employees, the conversational marketplace, the techniques of reaching out in order to listen more, or any of the wonderful, intellectual concepts that underlie the value, or pitfalls of internal blogging. I don’t think she really cared. She was looking for mechanical motivation. How should we measure readership? Should we post scores somewhere? Should the bloggers talk about external news items? How about interviewing the division president (yet again)? Oy vey.
As it turn out, I had a good relationship with some of the senior leaders of the company, so I asked my client — “Do you happen to know Leslie M?, I know that she’s very involved with a collaboration initiative in your company.” Amy responded — “Yes, Leslie’s my boss’ boss. This project was started by her.”
We ended the call by me giving her some advice about purposeful blogging. It was not terribly sophisticated guidance — but hey, we start every knowledge journey by acknowledging that we don’t know something. Amy committed no crime. She was simply unfamiliar with the ideas that would make her team successful, and had no way to know that the whole set up was contrived and doomed. The truth is, I really wanted to tell her to abandon the whole idea — but I knew that she was not in a position to take that advice. So my next move was to contact Leslie M. and offer to do a strategy review with her, just to make sure we would talk about the overall initiative and see what’s working and what’s not. Things are a bit better now.
There are many lessons in this little story. One simple one: Don’t blog! Connect.
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Another thought is to create a topic type blog in which every member of the team can contribute. Maybe a Enterprise 2.0 where each team member could add success stories from other organizations. If they have a specific type of software then they could post tips, best practices, and other help oriented ideas. The key is to not lock yourself into a single type of blog, there are many different types.
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@rtodd
You are right that there are many mechanical ways to use blogs. I have found three basic patterns 1. Personal blogs; 2. Team blogs (which is like the Topic blog); and 3. Open blogs — and they each have their patterns of appropriate use and value.
The challenge that “Amy” and her team had was that they missed out on the fundamental objective of blogging: to connect with others so that they connect back to you.
One of the most influential blog posts that really clarified this point for me was this on. Check out rule #6 “Having a blog isn’t about broadcasting – or at least it shouldn’t be. It is about opening up a channel of communication between you and your community. It gives people a chance to get to know you. It gives them a way to communicate with you.”
Grok that, and the rest makes sense.
What you describe is a common challenge: what to tell clients who do not have sufficient power in the organization to act on good advice. I’m curious, how might this story have ended differently if you had not know Leslie M?
Chris, that’s a fantastic question.
The best way I could help a client is to find and work with the right person in the organization. Someone who 1. cares and 2. can do something. Many times there is no such person. And many times, good ideas don’t take off in companies because there is no one is responsible to see that the idea succeeds. This is a huge problem in real implementations of E2.0. Bottom up initiatives get easily crushed by management. Management edicts with no real support never get legs.
E2.0 initiatives are not a sure bet. To succeed, you need people assigned to help in key places in the organization. Enterprises are not like the viral internet. I believe adoption has to be carefully managed. Spray and Pray is not a successful tactic, at least not in organizations.
That’s why the marketplace has so many E2.0 analysts, consultants, evangelists, and facilitators. If companies want to improve their business in a transformative way, they need our help. Otherwise they’ll just wast money on some shiny tools, and then get upset that nothing really changed.