For over a decade we’ve watched as Social connection and collaboration in organizations has sputtered along. The goal of greater innovation and resiliency was first thought to come through social technology. Yet as the marketplace got flooded with all too similar platforms sold with great promises, the result has been less than stellar with a limited transformational impact.
The experts corrected and rightfully realized the solution was about people, as it’s people that are social, not tools. Two camps emerged around the need for culture change either by working at grassroots employee levels or more common top-down leadership change approaches. Ahh, soooo close! But like technology solutions, culture change efforts have struggled over the years to be sustained as rapidly shifting business priorities made efforts at individual change slow, compromised and ultimately fall short.
What’s been ignored all the while has been the Organization itself, its very design. The human systems that influence how work is done, led, managed, and rewarded we’re never in consideration and honestly, they are the most critical components. Social is certainly about people but social interactions in a classroom, a bar, a park, a football game, a hair salon, a wedding, or in a company are all very different. Changes in context will change the very way we interact with others as these different environments come with their own unique constructs, norms, rules, processes, and expectations.
So if we want the openness and transparency needed to make our organizations more innovative, responsive and resilient, we need to stop looking for the next tech feature, development program or change management approach. Instead, we must consider, evaluate and then alter the written and unwritten rules that guide people in our organizations — the very rules that impact how people engage each other and approach working together. This isn’t done by tech tools and training, it’s about approaching organizational social… by design.
Social By Design from Sense & Respond Press due to be released, Spring of 2020
