Stop with the excuses not to be social

I am asked this question a lot "How do you get executive management buy-in to bring social into the organisation"? The answer is simple - I don't...

This sounds like an arrogant response but it's not intended to be. Let's be honest here, in these particular tough times your executive management won't particularly care about being social in their organisation, they care about increased revenue, better margins and keeping costs to a minimum.

If you can prove that being social in the workplace can have a direct impact on your revenue, margins and costs then you have a good argument to go into that boardroom and sell them the concept.  The problem is that it is extremely difficult to find a direct linkage.

So how can you make being social in the organisation actually work?

The answer is simple - approach it from the bottom up!

Whilst your executive management could try to enforce it in their organisation, it's actually the people on the ground that really need to take advantage of the benefits and it is these people that you have to sell the concept to. Prove it works to them and your executive management will have to sit up and take notice.

But remember, being social in the workplace is an evolutionary thing combining both traditional and social working methods in how we interact and engage with one another. It's about working smarter, being more effective and increasing efficiency, but more importantly than that it is about the change in mindset.

Whilst I was presenting to an executive board recently one of the board members made a great point:

"Social technologies can really help but it comes down to fundamentals of our sales people wanting to share knowledge across the social network. As David said, it's about the change in mindset that we have to address, the technology can only facilitate the process"

So don't get too focused on acquiring executive management buy-in before starting the social movement in your organisation as the chances are they will not understand it or support it. Instead focus on your vision and the benefits that a better socially connected organisation can bring and start building it from the bottom up. You might just be surprised at the reaction and the results...

Online Information Conference 2009

Come and see us at the OIC 2009 at the Olympia in London on Dec 1st, where we will be presenting on the social media adoption strategy we are applying in Oracle EMEA.

Date: Tuesday 1st December 2009
Time: 12:15pm
Track: The social web: Transforming the workplace
Topic: Social Technologies: Winning the hearts and minds
Whitepaper: Click to download

The presentation will focus on:

A. Individual adoption – Early Adopter Plan
How to develop and deliver a plan for introducing early adopters to social technologies, and a framework for them engaging with other like-minded individuals.

B. Team adoption – S.L.A.M Programme
How to develop and deliver a programme remotely, that focuses on the "change in mindset" required to embed adoption to a new way of working, without increasing headcount.

In this session we will also cover:

• Social Business Communities – the pillars to delivering a successful adoption programme
• Case Studies – helping the social technology buy-in of sceptics
• Solution Finder – a user generated solution helping individuals to find the right social tools(s) based on their role or specific activity
• Social Cycle of Innovation – utilising the "wisdom of crowds" concept to solve key business challenges

The learning points of this session will be:

• How the Oracle EMEA Roadmap to Social Adoption is changing the way its employees connect, colaborate and innovate
• How to use the collective intelligence of your employees to identify and overcome the change barriers to social technologies
• How to develop a scalable adoption programme for your own business
• That social technologies is about People…

Feel free to download our OIC 2009 Exhibition Whitepaper.

Hope to see you there.....