Not for profit organisations are failing to take advantage of one of the most important sources of information and feedback available today. Increasing numbers of employees are engaged, overtly and covertly, in social media. They are blogging, Twittering and exchanging ideas and info on the likes of Facebook. These spaces contain an extraordinary amount of information.
To date the focus of many CEO's has been on how to prevent or limit the use of this technology, with some of the less enlightened ones seeking to use the information available to penalise employees. A more enlightened perspective would be to learn how to benefit from the technology. Those that do so will have a distinct advantage over those that do not.
Instead of trying to stop the flood by putting our fingers into the proverbial dyke, consider enabling your employees to use social media as a workplace tool; to communicate with each other, to share ideas and information, to communicate with stakeholders. They are doing it now, just not in a way that is of a benefit to your organisation.
By all means put some boundaries in place. Some online behaviour is unacceptable and can be harmful to the reputation of an organisation. Instead of trying (and failing) to impose a blanket ban instead be clear in your expectations and consequences. Be sensible. The greater the barriers you impose the less info you will have available and the less you will benefit. Encourage employees to share ideas and info on programs, benefits, customer needs, community needs, what other orgs are doing, what they see and what they hear, research, concepts, models, frameworks, other perspectives.
Why not encourage your employees to be active in the social media space, ask them to declare where they live online, and then gather together a couple of volunteers and charge them with the task of scanning social media. Identify some key themes and key words that are off interest. Be positive and pro active. Make it a collaborative activity between management and employees and volunteers and stakeholders. With experience I predict you will be amazed at the info, the linkages, the warnings, the new ideas that will emerge - not to mention an entirely new level of communication taking place in your organisation.
Let The Journey Continue
John Coxon
John Coxon & Associates
Taking You from Frontline Manager to CEO
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1 comment:
Well said! :)
Couldn't agree more. As a "new" volunteer managmement program project worker of the past 6 months, in regional Victoria however, I'm finding that before many NFP's and Community Participation groups that utilise and manage volunteers, first need to educated as to the actual applications available on the internet for blogging and Social Media. Whilst Facebook is seen as a popular tool for connecting with friends and family, there are very few NFP's using it as a way of connecting with their target groups. I'd love to stretch the boundaries and even explore the possibilities of providing volunteer management advice and information in the virtual "world" called Second Life - but that is just viewed as majorly NQR (Not Quite Right) for most of the people I talk to. Then again, many of these are blocked about blogging too and don't know how to begin or where to go so I think educating people on the possibilities is the first step. No matter how intuitive we THINK the tools in Web 2.0 are - only those who are passionate about engaging with them seem to know about them.
Thanks again for the thoughts
Michelle
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