Surprisingly, many organizations don't implement internal social networks. The funny thing is that those organizations don't realize that to compensate the lack of internal network, employees are using public social networks to connect and discuss, in effect putting in the public domain a lot of the organization's value, intellectual property... and the organization's reputation at risk.
They don't want to create an internal network because:
- management is scared confidential information will leak to the wrong people.
- time spent on social networks is not immediately productive. Where is the tangible output? - direct productivity goes down!
- reinforcing the informal organization dis-empowers the formal hierarchy.
- management feels it loses control - the social network might be the medium of dissent.
- if we allow employees to write what they want, they might unwillingly sabotage the organization's strategy.
In particular in more traditional industries, only a few organizations today understand that the value of leaving employees express their creativity is the key to success in the Collaborative Age. The key to unleashing the latent Value of the organization, a Value orders of magnitude greater than the usual productivity those organizations measure.
These organizations that understand the power of social networks will dwarve all others. Because these organizations will have had their hierarchy and bureaucracy (those obsolete remnants from the Industrial Age) sabotaged. Because their leaders understand that the world is changing fundamentally.
In these visionary organizations:
- management is confident that collaborating on contents does improve tremendously its quality, and the engagement of people.
- time spent on social networks is an investment - it allows to create community contents and emotional links, an investment that will redeem many times in the future.
- reinforcing the informal organization is the key to a reactive, successful operation.
- management understands real leadership is not the same as hierarchical control.
- if we allow employees to write what they want, they will co-create our future, and will want to be part of it, thus improving retention tremendously.
When will you let aside this illusion of control, create an internal social network in your organization, unleash the Value of the Collaborative Age?
And after that first step, when will you go further, open your organization to the world and create a conversation with your customers and stakeholders?