Typically after committing to blog more, work’s turned into a bit of a whirlwind. Still, the train ride to London does give a brief opportunity for blogging!
Although busy – and at times a little panicked – it’s exciting times. Specifics-free background; around 18 months ago we launched an internal social collaboration platform. I’ve been working with lots of people to explain why social collaboration matters to them, and helping to set up & run effective social communities. Usage hasn’t exploded but is rising at a satisfactory rate, helped by our CEO becoming a keen user and frequently posting updates about how we’re doing – this gets a lot of attention!
Anyway, why am I so excited at the moment? Well, it really feels like we’re crossing a watershed in terms of how accepted and acknowledged “all this social stuff” is. Two current events in particular show how far we’ve come…
First of all, we’re embedding social discussion into the company’s quarterly extended leadership team meeting. We’re going to use the social platform to record the discussions happening around tables in the meeting. We’re hoping this benefits both the participants – as they’ll also be able to see and contribute to other tables’ discussion – but also provides a way for the whole business to join the conversation.
When suggesting this idea to our leadership team we were a little nervous. Maybe they wouldn’t want to share their discussion openly in public? (Within the company, at least.) Maybe they’d be dubious about the technology?
Much to our surprise – and delight! – everybody seemed enthusiastic about the concept; proof of how much we’ve changed in recent times.
Then our second event running across the next couple of weeks is an company-wide engagement & discussion session, focused on our improvement programme. I won’t go into too much detail here but there’s lots of activity planned including themed discussion, opportunity for anyone to suggest improvements – and vote for their favourite suggestions – and live microblog conversations with some of our executives.
This will be the third such event we’ve run so people are generally familiar with the concept now. The most encouraging part for me though has been our pre-event communications. In the past, essentially, we sent lots of emails!
Now?
Well, we’ve not got away from email completely – there’s still a few going out – but we’ve used internal microblogging far more to spread the word – dare I say it – virally. It’s been really encouraging to see how people are happy to pass on the news of what’s happening. We’re hoping this interest and activity builds up to make this the most successful event yet!
So – lots to feel positive about, but plenty more work to ensure it’s all a success. Still, can’t help feeling good about the progress we’re making.
Check back in a couple of weeks for an update on how it all went, and the lessons we’ve learned from it…