Managing The Cultural Change (#SWChat)

Introduction

Any company undergoing a social business transformation has to address the cultural change for sustained adoption. If you don't plan to deal with the change in mindset of your employees then you are planning to fail.

When I talk about the culture of social business I'm referring to the human behaviours of what it means to be social in business and the change in mindset associated with sustained change.

The culture of a true social business is about being open, transparent and encouraging trust amongst your peers and colleagues. It's where much more value is placed upon the benefits of networking and relationship building with employees to work together on the companies goals.

I often use the phrase 'Social Business is said to flatten hierarchies'. This doesn't mean it replaces them, but instead creates the framework to allow the right employees to collaborate and focus on the objectives to deliver regardless of the job title they hold.

"For every piece of the knowledge pie you share, you will receive two in return."

This event debated how companies should manage this cultural change to be successful in their social business transformation and reveals the new CHANGES methodology designed to help any business evolve to become a true social business. 

Event Questions

Q1) Top down management policies are the best way to change an entrenched culture. Agree / disagree?
Q2) Are methodologies like The CHANGES Methodology, essential for changing hearts & minds for social collaboration?

The CHANGES methodology from David Christopher and Andy Jankowski

Q3) What 3 top tips would you advise any organization dealing with a dramatic cultural change (e.g. no internal email)?
Q4) Cultural change in any organization has to be driven from HR. Agree / disagree?
Q5) Many people in an organization will always fear change. How do you overcome this fear/resistance?

Related Articles

• The Path Of Social Media Enlightenment - via David Christopher
• 7 Top Tips For Creating The Social Workplace - via David Christopher
• How To Change Your Organisation's Culture - via The Wall Street Journal
• How To Change Your Culture: Organizational Culture Change - via About.com
• The Vital Role Of HR In Waking The Walking Dead - via Ian Buckingham
• Who Leads Cultural Change? - via Amanda Coleman

Spreecast Social Video Channel

Participants: Tbd

Producer: @LizCpher

Playback: (see below)

Useful #SWChat Links

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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.....