I am a big fan of business management expert Tom Peters.
Long before the current emphasis on social media, and the individuality in branding it provides us online, Peters was evangelizing that we should passionately be in pursuit of developing our own brand. We should engage in disruptive behavior, break out of the cubicle, and enjoy work again.
Peters has been warning for decades that massive changes were coming to large corporations and to the workers that comprise them. Talented professionals no longer should be dependent on the sponsoring companies for an income. Professional service organizations, PSOs, can perform many of the same functions at lower costs and with better results.
The percentage of workers who will spend an entire career with one company is dramatically lower. Career mobility is an accepted lifestyle choice and job security has been exposed as a myth. Loyalty to an employer is a two-way proposition and is not assumed. Tom Peters not only predicted these trends, he passionately advocates for them.
It should seem obvious that smart companies would look for ways to get out ahead of the new trends, including those made possible and preferable by the new world of 2.0 technologies. To do so would empower their employees, make their jobs more interesting, and encourage them to stick around, and thereby making their companies more competitive.
So it was notable, if not surprising, last week when Susan Scrupski, nGenera’s research guru, offered this commentary on where many large enterprises actually are today:
“we find that social, emergent behavior can be viewed as dissent in large enterprises. In the enterprise space, we find the major barrier to adoption of 2.0 ideologies is culture. Even if there is a groundswell of support to embrace social media, corporate cultures can run counter to its actual widespread acceptance. Marketers in large companies are more inclined to recognize the benefits of building relationships via social media sooner, but they run into roadblocks from other, more conservative, areas of the business. It’s a huge challenge for some large brands.”
At least one very large corporation is leaning into the trends and taking steps to allow employee empowerment on a large scale.
Recently the Social Media Club of Austin met on the IBM Austin campus with Chris Almond, IBM Redbooks Project Leader. He shared some of the innovations in social computing taking place at IBM.
He stressed that IBM has developed specific guidelines for using blogs, wikis, social networks, virtual worlds and social media, and is allowing their integration into the workplace. With IBM stock doing well, they are not making these moves under pressure, but instead to stay current.
Chris didn’t give away any company secrets, but he did give us some real insights into steps being taken within the firewall at IBM to tap into their own employee talent pool. By allowing the creation of innovation networks and collaboration between different areas of the corporation, employees are able to take advantage of the newest tools.
They’re also considering ways to tap into the social capital they have with the many retirees of IBM using social media and other forms of social computing.
Qualified, former IBM employees might find it satisfying to work on a project from time to time. They already have a vested interest in the continued success of IBM, as pension plan participants, and they could enjoy the work knowing they were not going to be permanently back on the payroll.
By establishing clear guidelines and setting expectations from the beginning, and by accepting and embracing the changes occurring outside the firewall, a large company can adjust into the “groundswell.”
Bottom line considerations will always be bottom line. Proprietary information is still proprietary. Employees and, in this case, former employees are empowered. Managed disruption occurs from within and for the benefit of the corporation.
Chris Almond is definitely a brand unto himself. Chris is also a valued employee of IBM. Other large enterprises – and those not so large – would be wise to learn from his example. Chris says he’s very happy at IBM.
Please read the social computing guidelines being used by IBM and comment below on them or anything else I’ve written. You don’t have to agree with me. In fact, critical thinking is encouraged.
Mike – thanks very much for the feedback! I’ve written a lot more in a blog post today. Have a look here: http://youturn.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/enterprise-20-means-cultural-change/
Re. your comment about stock price (obviously referring to when I brought up the visual of IBM’s stock price performance vs. the S&P 500 over the last two years)… I wanted to illustrate the point that, even though IBM leadership is will aware of social media trends, and definitely feels some pressure to start playing in social media spaces, there is also risk in going down those paths. And for brands as valuable as IBM the risk is great indeed. IBM is #2 now behind only Coca Cola… http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2008/09/15/daily41.html
So, how hard you push a company like IBM down these new and unknown paths is going to be influenced by how much you need to do it. So I can see our executives thinking, among other things… “If the stock price is doing well, why mess with a good thing?”
Mike, love how you’ve linked Tom Peters’ views re disruptive behaviors (and multiple employers over a single career) to what’s actually happening out there now. Good stuff. Hey – this also reminded me of Charles Handy’s (’95ish?) title, Beyond Certainty – check it out sometime.
Thank you for commenting Chris. I just heard on CNBC that IBM is, in fact, the good news on the stock market even this morning. They cited growth opportunities in the Asian markets.
But the point still stands that an international enterprise, with a very established culture, and a world of traditions, can stay fairly current in the face of what is being referred to as a groundswell. Five, ten or twenty years from now we’ll likely be praising IBM for allowing its employees to participate in a managed way instead of resisting. Whether or not it impacts the bottom line is going to be interesting to watch.