Organizational Change and Social media

This page aims to serve as an introduction to the issues surrounding the successful adoption of social media in organizations. If you want to contribute or comment please ask for a wiki account.

=Starting point=

The nature of digital content

 * Content (media) accumulates.
 * Media is ever more searchable.

This aspect of content is one of the driving forces that makes Google valuable and because they do it well it makes them useful.

What do new web technologies Do with Content?

 * Make it social - Permits individuals to leverage the work of others or share what they are doing at almost no cost
 * Delicious, Flickr


 * Two (or more) people can work collaboratively (almost) cost free.
 * Google docs, GTalk


 * Makes every boundary more permeable than in the past - within and between organizations, within and between public/private organizations.
 * Permits a networked form of organization to arise.
 * e.g. Open source communities


 * Disadvantages organizations based on not necessarily authentic interactions
 * People question traditional organizations that are disembodied and with which it is difficult to relate.


 * Permits a new type of ecosystem.
 * Purchasing open source software doesn't require sales people, RFP's in the same way. Communities encouraged to work within incentives that foster compatibility, i.e. - we're withdrawing support or doubling licensing fees etc.

=What does this mean for organizations?=
 * 1) Getting things done can leverage knowledge and information previously inaccessible in the past.
 * 2) It's no longer as costly (money) as it once was to leverage knowledge across large or complex organizations.
 * 3) There could be a need for an attitude shift towards a welcoming of information technology, and therefore a cultural shift that embraces reasoned openness and transparency.
 * 4) Greater efficiency, effectiveness and productivity is attainable but needs to be a managed balance between management control and employee/stakeholder motivation.
 * 5) What we think of traditional organizational structures and organizational hierarchy functionally change - accountability and responsibility mixed more now with perception.

=What do we need to think about?=
 * 1) Difference between adoption and readiness?
 * 2) Does our tried and true method of governance still hold?
 * 3) Can we still hold to the conventional definitions of what is public/private?
 * 4) Do we know what we know?  Do we want to protect it?
 * 5) Do processes owned by specific organizational functions still make sense?
 * 6) How can you engage citizens that previously only had a passive role with respect to government services?
 * 7) How do you manage limited resources in a time-starved environment?
 * 8) What is the best way to manage the balance between accountability and responsibility?
 * 9) How can you implement this?  What will it really cost?

=Why are people excited?=
 * The ecology of such spaces appears to have little inertia under certain conditions and things can happen quickly.
 * e.g. Iran  - proxies, denial of service etc.


 * Companies can (theoretically) exploit clickworkers.
 * Consumers are (theoretically) empowered, i.e., they can write a negative review.
 * MOre radical people are excited about owner-less property.
 * The rise of the GPL and similar licenses

= Why are people worried?=
 * Lack of privacy
 * Old elites are losing a way of living
 * e.g. publishing


 * It can undermine old hierarchy
 * In fact they work through empowering people more than previously and thus flatten hierarchies


 * Fear of losing control
 * Level of concern depends on type of organization, situation, circumstance, etc.

=How do you address the situation=

Assumptions

 * 1) Participants in the adoption process are all at different levels of understanding and use of the tools.
 * 2) These tools and concepts are here to stay, and they will grow.
 * 3) There is no road map.  There may never be a road map since the tools (by design) reflect and bend to the specifics of the circumstance, and need to do so.
 * It is much better to have a wiki that could be used in many ways than try to design for idiosyncrasies - unstructured knowledge, information and processes are too rich to make customization viable.

Adoption Critical Success Factors

 * Develop a community, or collaboration, strategy first, before deciding on specific tools.
 * Decide as best you can up-front what you want to achieve in terms of situational outcomes if not real results.
 * The implementation of such tools is best done through provision of them as supplementary or complementary to the existing modes of work
 * Form a coordinating implementation and governance team to:
 * direct development resources,
 * slow down, or speed up the pace,
 * endorse governance principles for the projects,
 * ensure alignment of the organization's usage and the context in which it is operating,
 * provide support.


 * Leadership and modeling usage is critical.
 * Such tools can't be imposed they're too intrusive in the work process.
 * Moreover, self motivated take up reduces implementation costs.


 * Coaching early adopters to infect those less comfortable with the skills
 * Ensure multiple motivations for participation exist for all participants to maximize engagement
 * Keep things very simple and low cost.
 * Iterative development and deployment cycles.
 * Implement in "fail safe" and "low cost of failure" contexts and processes.
 * Ensure progress and or failure in one area yields lessons learned across the whole organization.
 * Ensure internal communications infrastructure can handle the transition.

=Examples=

Technology

 * Twitter Examples

Examples in government

 * Open Government Initiative
 * Peer to Patent
 * Data.gov

Examples "because of" government

 * Apps for America
 * WikiFOIA
 * Govloop

Done with the Government

 * Alliance

Done to the Government

 * Pothole Map mashup

Examples in Politics
 * Obama fundraising, gateway into the campaign.

=Factors enabling adoption of traditional technologies applied to the social media context=

Compelling case

 * Transforms the capability of the organization in an existing realm
 * Permits a radically different level of engagement with citizens during policy making
 * Permits a radically different level of engagement with citizens during implementation


 * Permits an organization to move into a new realm
 * Citizens can participate in ways they previously couldn't

Incentives

 * Enables regulatory compliance

Role model

 * Demonstrates the organization is at the cutting edge

Budget

 * Permits organization to do less with internal resources and thus operate at a lower cost