The issue being discussed was whether creating a "social network for customer feedback" was a good or bad thing for the organization. One of the executives commented "I'd hate to empower our customers to complain because there is a lot of things we do wrong that they could complain about and opening that dialog up to the public could be dangerous, risky to say the least".
Hmm....so ignoring the issues and hoping customers don't talk to other customers is a better strategy? Do you think maybe your customers could actually help you solve the very problems that create the complains? Do you think your employees agree with your customers but don't dare speak up?
Business bureaucracy has brainwashed many people into thinking "nothing can change so hide the truth", don't put things out in the open because it is dangerous to admit shortcomings publicly. The social web is dangerous to the bureaucracy of business because it enables customers and employees to "openly discuss and share the very issues that ingrained bureaucracy has caused."
Jack Welch, The legendary leader who transformed GE writes in his column in Business Week: Death to Bureaucracy
"That may sound harsh, but hidebound behavior is a business-killer: Damages? How about deadens? That's a better word to describe what bureaucracy does; it sucks the life out of a business. It turns normal people, granted a smidgen of authority, into rule-bound technocrats and twists candid conversation about real issues into jargon-laden gobbledygook. In short, bureaucracy gums up the works. It's a competitiveness killer."
"And yet for all its destructive power, and in spite of all the people who claim to abhor it, bureaucracy almost never gets the kind of fight-back it deserves. Most people simply suffer through it.
will be painfully familiar to the legions of businesspeople who've run headlong into the stultifying effects of corporate officialdom."
"So why do people put up with it? Probably because bureaucracy just seems like too big a monster for any one individual to slay. And we'd agree, unless that individual happens to be the leader. After all, it is leaders who set the tone for their organizations through the values they choose and the behaviors they demonstrate. And ultimately, it is leaders, and leaders alone, who have the power to set a bureaucracy eradication process in motion."
What most business leaders don't understand today is that the social web is a medium for open, honest and frank conversations between people, one to one to millions. Nothing can be hidden and the more people that become engaged the greater the reach of the conversations.
The old publication "Consumer Reports" will be replace with "Consumers Discuss" and those conversations are open and available for the world to see and for businesses to learn from. This is a scary reality for many business leaders who are threatened by all this open and frank conversation about everything and anything. Worse, the ability of "customers" to connect with other customers and employees to connect with other employees is yet another scary thought for any bureaucracy.
Jack Welch says "If you're a business leader, you can't surrender to the status quo, either. True, you will never be able to eliminate every vestige of deadening bureaucracy. But try like crazy anyway. The upside is huge. All it takes is courage."
The social web threatens those who are painfully familiar with the legions of businesspeople who've run headlong into the stultifying effects of corporate officialdom. The shift occurring is that people are discovering the power of the social web and its attraction to people who simply want to speak up and be heard. Now the question for all businesses is "are you listening and subsequently what will you do to respond?"
The challenge is to let go and let the people engage and solve your problems. It is called empowerment and people have been seeking it for generations. A very wise man once said " a wise man seeks the counsel of many". Lets see how many wise business leaders will be in adopting the principals of the social web. As Jack Welch said "The upside is huge. All it takes is courage."
What say you?