I don’t know the exact number of organisations that have experimented with social software or social media for internal communications, but from those that we’ve connected with and listened to it’s clear there are a large number of them that didn’t get the results they wanted because they didn’t know where to start or were unsure of how to build adoption. So if you fall into one of these categories, here are a few pointers that you may find useful.

More than just push messaging tool
First off, social tools (wikis, forums, tagging etc), and more importantly social networking behaviours, can be deployed to help information flow more freely, enhance knowledge sharing and internal collaboration, activate deeper employee engagement, and even has proven results in achieving staff retention. They shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as a replacement for those things you are already doing, and they should be seen as something more wide-reaching that simply a communication tool versed with message pushing!

Command and control no longer
The days of command & control are numbered as social tools place greater emphasis on people at all levels by providing everyone with a voice, whether they choose to exercise it or not. Therefore, their is no such thing as ownership – it is owned by everyone, and more so by those with a hunger, passion and willing to participate and contribute. This is heightened by the fact that there are less rules than before – but guidelines are vitally important nonetheless, as leaders seek to engender adoption.

Social networks are a solution, not a problem
There are a lot of organisations and business leaders out there banning the likes of Facebook and other social networking sites from the workplace as they see it as a threat to productivity. I question, is technology the reason that people want to do something other than what they are paid for within the workplace? Perhaps job satisfaction should be studied very carefully, as should the behaviours that are now commonplace among staff in their private lives, for it is this which needs to be harnessed in the workplace.

Host the conversation, it’s taking place anyway!
Business also fears that their workers will talk negatively about a range of work-related issues. To this I say embrace it, listen carefully, and if it becomes such a problem then let the community themselves report it and deal with it in a way they deem relevant. By offering these controls, you will find such negativity rare indeed! What’s more, these conversation are taking place elsewhere, so better to be able to gather them and respond to them in the best way possible.

Don’t be afraid to experiment (and fail)
When considering the use of social tools within the workplace, don’t be afraid to experiment, and we advocate starting small. Invite a number of people whom you believe will be early adopters, and allow them to spread the word. Make them champions within the business, and they will help culture the guidelines and behaviours that can achieve your goals. Social tools are by their very nature flexible and cost-effective, so create a playground, sit back, watch and learn.

A range of business applications and solutions
And finally, developing social tools for internal communications isn’t an initiative that should be led or driven by your IT department. Why? Simply put, they exist to implement now out-moded command and control systems, and are much more focussed on the ‘tech’ rather than the all important behaviours.

Wrapping up, social tools can help you with a plethora of business cases, including the following;

• Internal collaboration
• Knowledge sharing
• Business networking
• Learning
• Internal communications
• Resource management
• Sweating knowledge capital
• Sales support
• Customer service

If you’re asking yourself how you can achieve some of these points, and want to learn more how social tools can benefit your organisation on the inside then drop me a line, I’d be happy to help, advise, guide and get my hands dirty.

Last night, a few of us from the office went along to One Alfred Place to listen to a presentation by Jemima Gibbons on her new book, Monkeys with Typewriters. The event was actually hosted by the Society for Organisational Learning (SOL-UK), and was attended more by academics and those in the business of Knowledge Management and Learning, than Social Media/Business/Software people like ourselves. This however was what made the debate captivating!

To in part quote Jemima herself, Monkeys with Typewriters sets about debunking the idea that social media are an amateurish distraction for today’s organisations. Having only seen snippets of the book at the present time, I can’t reassure you that the book actually achieves this, but what became evident was the progress and development in social media and social software that have been achieved since Jemima set about writing the book. Many of the chapter hooks such as co-creation, passion, openness and transparency have already been well document elsewhere, leaving the book feeling the somewhat dated. However, it soon became clear that this particular audience were naturally some way behind our own thinking and work practices

What I feel Jemima has done well is to engage and strong selection of web entrepreneurs, practitioners and industry spokespeople. This has allowed her to present many varied views of such topics as co-creation, openness and transparency, whilst hitting home the point that entrepreneurs of the future will create much flatter (non-hierarchical) business structures, and harness the power of ‘we’ thinking.

Among those interviewed include Scott Monty (Ford Motor Company), who’s view was that Ford is essentially a news organisation, Craig Newmark (Founder of Craigslist) who emphasises his role as a customer service manager, and Lloyd Davis (Tuttle Club) who states that if you can’t come to Tuttle Club because of work commitment then you simply don’t get it – it is work!

Perhaps my main take-out of the session was that of the perspective of the learning professionals present in the room. They were adamant that ‘learning’ will never take place in such an effective manner online as it does offline (or face-to-face), despite knowledge flow and information the internet puts at out fingertips. Learning clearly needs to combine the two within organisations, but must understand how, when and where to integrate the two, and provide a real purpose to the social tools that support it.

I tweeted snippets of the presentation here for you to view, and was astonished to even get a response from the Craig Newman himself as praised him for his beliefs!

(New things I learnt: Tuple and Panopticon!)

Socialising Best Practice and Lessons Learnt

The Design Council, a UK Government-funded strategic body, promotes the use of design through the UK.  They help business be better at doing what they do by instilling design thinking and by helping designers be more effective and public services more efficient.

Having embarked upon the development of The Designers’ Business Knowledge Base (DBKB) – an essential Best Practice resource from which design professionals, design buyers and design educators can seek inspiration and guidance – the client required a strategic overlay describing how the DBKB could be delivered as an interactive communication and collaboration tool.

The core of our work saw the development of a Digital Framework for the DBKB focusing on how users could submit and extract experience-based stories and case studies. Insights were by way of formal submissions and more conversational stories of the kind designers of all ages and experience could submit using simple, easy-to-use social software tools.

The  framework was constructed on four pillars; The User Model, Content Model, Business Model and Sustainability Model.

• The User Model proposed a variety of benefits and rewards for each of the stakeholder groups, including those of a social, emotional, financial and experiential kind.
• The Content Model explored how the resource would harness user-generated content to provide insightful and inspiring best practice examples.
• The Business Model looked at and made recommendations as to how The Design Council could monetise the service
• And finally, the Sustainability Model took inspiration from what we believed to be some of the more forward-thinking online services around, and how the DBKB could integrate their behaviours in order to be more future-proofed.

The crux of our strategic recommendations was for The Design Council to harness its existing offline design practitioner network connections for traditional push messaging, but also to engage them in more dynamic and ongoing online conversation in order to trawl for ongoing insights and knowledge around design best practice. The development of best practice guidelines in a traditional sense had proven to be expensive, and often the outcome would date very quickly. Digitally captured knowledge could be kept alive, nurtured and extended by the community, and knowledge shared over time to the extent that the community became self-helpers.

Our recommended process and methodology is currently being developed ready for implementation.

Heroes is a talent business that helps its clients (businesses and agencies) find world-class innovation, creativity, branding and communication expertise on an as-needed basis – a kind of ‘talent on-tap’ offering. The talent – known as the Heroes – include such luminaries as Stephen Bayley, Kevin Duncan and Alistair Fee among others.

The business owners wanted to tackle how talent businesses operate by creating a powerful knowledge base and collaboration tool that delivered greater connectivity, networking and knowledge exchange. Despite counting some of the UK’s most prestigious creative and problem-solving minds as their asset, they were disparate and disconnected.

Working closely with the business owners, we designed a solution using an existing professional grade forum and KM  software package. Known as the Green Room, we customised the interface and functionality and created a communication and file-sharing structure that focused on three core area; Community Discussions, Work Opportunities and Idea Development.

Community Discussions
By engendering greater network connectedness, and turning some of the weaker ties into stronger, more collaborative ties, we created an online community of creative and branding experts. Community Discussions was a place where hot topics and general issues shared by the community through their work could be discussed, and where knowledge that could help solve briefs was located.

Work Opportunities
An innovative development was to provide a forum upon which not just briefs for talent were shared and discussed, but also a place where end-client briefs could be brainstormed and where participation could be activated.

Idea Development
We found that the Heroes themselves were an entrepreneurial group of individuals, so set about creating a space where their own business ideas could be cultivated by groups of like-minded and ‘interested’ collaborators. The collective intellectual property that was generated became a valuable asset to the business and it’s individual stakeholders alike.

Not only did the Green Room help innovate a traditional talent business, it provided a powerful collaboration tool the likes of which many of the Heroes themselves had not witnessed in their professional lives, but had become commonplace in their own social networking activities. We made full use of these behaviours such that the Heroes were able to adopt the new tool with ease. Heroes’ new connectivity also brought about a new sense of belonging, companionship and a sense of ‘we’, which, when working on a contractual-basis, is often lacking.

Here’s what our client had to say about the experience, which naturally we’re rather pleased about;

Dub has been a very positive transformational force for my business.  Not only have they worked on a consultancy basis to create a culture of understanding around the complex issues of on-line networking, they have also worked very hard to create a networking structure that answers the needs of my business.  From the outset of this project, Dub has explained in a clear and jargon-free way the opportunities and potential downsides of setting up an web-based network.  In a sector in which it is easy to be dazzled and left bewildered by the technology of the process and to lose sight of the desired outcomes, dub have always been reassuringly ‘non-techy’, non patronising and yet have managed to operate at the forefront of the sector without making me feel left behind in my own project.

Throughout the whole project the dub men seemed to be as committed and enthusiastic about making my project work and work well as I was.  I never got the impression that  this was just another gig for them.

Dub does service, they do hard-nosed technical fulfillment and they do very sound consultancy. They are also good people to be around and a pleasure to talk to over lunch – not something I have ever said about anybody who has provided me with a technically-based service before!