“It is not who you know, but who knows you”. It is ironic that the old adage has been brought back to light with the likes of Linked In, Twitter and other social networks.
I remember, in my previous life as a corporate employee, networking was not something I sought after nor that I had even had an inkling would become as valuable as it is today. The technology just was not there. However, technology has become the catalyst to changing the way we work, play and communicate.
Even the most agnostic of us, and I include myself in that category, have now succumbed to joining at least one social network and perhaps are even attempting to understand the twitter universe.
I am, however, now converted. The problem until now has been that business has resisted the influx of ideas/communication from the outside-in. Business has, and will change. Whilst some monolith organisations insist on “controlling” their employees’ time on the internet, personal emailing, access to social networks, technology in my view is bound to win.
As business owners we have to wake up to one fact: if we are employing employees who are both engaged (they love what they do) and we treat them as mature individuals that they are (and the fact that we are paying serious salaries should indicate that they should be able to decide on how to best allocate their time), then the “control” element would be eradicated.
But that is the problem… Following double redundancy in the last bust in 2001, I still refuse to work in a corporate environment despite the fact that I would find solace in the amazingly wonderful perk of a consistent (high) salary. If we want to continue to fight the war on adulthood by treating employees like children, so be it. However, we are, as the intelligent and forward thinking Peter Senge noted, in the Knowledge Economy. Your employees are there because of what they have between their ears and can make intelligent, powerfully effective decisions, even if they may go against the grain a bit.
As a born change agent, I have always been at the fore-front of change. I was brought in as the first saleswoman in a 250 male sales-force in the most traditional market for the business – Spain. I was brought in to open the organisations’ door to a B2C offering; in another, I was brought in to run the International Development department single-handedly so as to achieve cost efficiencies. Looking back, my most amazing realisation (and this is where hindsight is a powerful thing) is that where I succeeded and where I failed there was one real difference: teams that supported new influences and new ways of thinking, I thrived in. Companies that suffered from the “not invented here”, or “this is the way we do things” stigma are the ones that consequently I either walked out of or where redundancy ensued (and where the business is still reeling from bad management).
So, I will get of my soapbox and ask a few pertinent questions to help you on your thinking on this:
- Do you have a sales force? Do they have their ear to the ground? Hopefully, your answer would be yes. If so, would you not take their recommendations seriously if they came back with a request or approach relating to a customer? Why not do the same thing with employees who are not directly in sales? After all, they are knowledgeable about the business and could propose an idea or approach that could be highly beneficial for the business
- Watch your employees. Do you get the sense there is dedication from them in how they work? Or are they spending hours “looking” busy. We have all been there – looking busy whilst surfing the net. It’s great to master that seriously-in-thought- and- about- to- be -engulfed- by- the-computer- screen-look. If you suspect that no, then why is that the case? Any chance you could engage in a dialogue with that person to understand what they get really fired up about and enjoy doing?
- Do you give your employees time to think about solving problems by finding the solution outside the company? Have you even tried that? Team days away are useful, but in this context it is about allowing your individuals to tap into the theta brain-waves. Yes, those are the times when we get free-flow: the Eureka, or Aha! moment is typical of this. Why not allow employees time off to problem-solve?
So back to technology. The issue with allowing employees access to Linked-In or facebook, is not the technology per se. It is the fear of us or our companies not “controlling” our employees; the fear that they are not giving 100% of their time to us. Frankly the maths does not add up for me if my business were to have 100% of 10% of someone’s commitment. I would rather have 100% of 100%. Wouldn’t you?
So, join us on bidiversity’s Linked-In group on: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1935116
