Yesterday I gave a presentation on Building a More Collaborative Organization. Afterward, I reflected a bit on the message and methods I shared and came to another realization. When leaders are flippant towards organizational social technology, they’re dismissing social activity; things like sharing, conversation, community, and collaboration. And when they dismiss social activity, they’re ultimately dismissing their people – their wants and needs. Yes, people want and need to connect and communicate, but at work, they want and need to connect and communicate about their work. But it’s NOT just getting work done, they want to make work better.
Leadership loves the idea of passionate employees… but only as long as they stay in their lane. So they welcome people getting their work done faster and better through social activity, but when it comes to bigger issues – ideas on how to change work or even the direction of the company, THAT would take sharing and discussing information that historically only leaders have. And that would take an uncomfortable release of control and power on their part as well as presenting a new level of trust and transparency throughout the organization.
Frankly, I think it’s appalling that today, amidst a pandemic and the economic fallout that leaders could hold so much so close to the vest still. What business needs more than ever now is fresh ideas and approaches, they need to challenge long-held beliefs which only comes through openness and transparency, and collaboration. Yet the workers, hungry to share and contribute to the big picture won’t and can’t. They’ve learned that the moment they spring forth a revolutionary idea, one based on the knowledge they have, they will be instantly deflated as the executives pull an ace from their sleeve and present reasons (unknown prior) of why the idea is bad and/or won’t work. And this is not some executive opinion but real, valid data that only they knew. Time and time again this repeats itself until the workers realize the effort is fruitless and leaving executives wondering “how come nobody has any good ideas?”
