Why we eat broccoli and how to avoid enterprise social indigestion

Communication professionals are helpful and herein lies the controversy when we start to look at how we help people work in the digital age.

Communicators have been used to giving our people the good stuff - the sweet stuff! - and often building bad dietary habits from a communications point of view. For example, we enjoy helping our leaders communicate messages to their people. However, in the digital age, with social technologies now available to us, it’s time for us to coach people in how to do some of these things for themselves.

We have to let go of the temptation of helping leaders, in particular, in organisations to deliver their messages for them and we need to teach these people how to fish.

The reason I'm including broccoli in my presentation for #EuroComm18 is because it took an awfully long time for my children to learn to eat broccoli. How did they learn? It was put in front of them many, many times and the dietary benefits of it explained. After a little while, eating it became habitual.

This is the landscape we face in communications when it comes to the use of social technologies in our organisations. We have to help people build good habits in the digital age. As communicators, we must stop feeding people ice cream and doing everything for them. We must help them learn to eat broccoli by helping them work out loud and share what they know in social channels. 

When used properly and purposefully, enterprise social technologies are real levers in helping businesses get things done. It’s time for communicators to think more broadly about their role in that.

These are all things that don’t happen naturally, as much as we would like to think we hand over the technology and miracles start to occur. Unfortunately, that's not the case, even in the digital age.

It's time for us to stop looking an enterprise social tools solely as communication tools.

Enterprise social is about far more than just communicating messages. When used properly and purposefully, enterprise social technologies are real levers in helping businesses get things done. It’s time for communicators to think more broadly about their role in that.

So you might be a communications professional, however, if your goal is to help your organisation achieve its big goals and objectives and live its purpose, then it’s time to step into a different pair of shoes.

This means having serious business conversations with people around the organisation to step beyond the boundaries of 'doing comms' and help organisations and their people discover the broader business benefits of using social technologies to get real work done. To crowdsource ideas. To uncover pain points that customers might be having with products. To generate new ideas. This is where enterprise social technologies come into their own. They can help us to be a lot more productive, but we must stop looking at these tools simply as communication vehicles. 

Social technologies can be way more than that and communicators are in the box seat to grab that mantle and run with it.

This is an edited version of my conversation with IABC EMENA Chair, Alex Malouf, recorded for my #EuroComm18 podcast.

Don’t be a passenger. Get in the driver’s seat with social

My first car was a 1986 first generation Hyundai Excel. It was blue, with a clunky gear box and a 70-horsepower, 1.5-litre motor. It could go from zero to 100kph in around 13 seconds (my best guess).

Yes, it was an underdog in the motoring world, but I loved it. The first time I jumped into my car as a licensed driver, I was excited and I imagined all the road trips I'd go on with my mates in the future.

Having wheels gave me an incredible sense of independence and control. No longer a passenger at the mercy of public transport or my exceedingly chatty chauffeur (my dad), I was in the driver’s seat and in charge of the car.

Managing your social media is just like being in a car. If you stay in the passenger seat, you’re at the mercy of the driver. The only way to truly stay in control and manage your impact and influence in social is to jump in the driver’s seat.

The only way to truly stay in control and manage your impact and influence in social is to jump in the driver’s seat.

 I’ve written about the importance of being social before.  In particular, I believe women need to get over the self-talk that making themselves visible is not a ‘nice’ thing to do. Let’s park that for now (sorry – bad pun).

The key to not feeling overwhelmed by social media is to engage in it thoughtfully. Here’s a model I like to use when I’m helping clients learn how to get in the driver’s seat and take control of their social media engagement.

My insights. Think about what it is you want to share and why. What subject matter are you an expert in? What are you trying to achieve? Remember, using social in a purposeful way can be about your work agenda or something personal.

My voice. How will you share what you know and create value for your followers? Finding your voice is about identifying where your audience is and the right channels to engage in generous, open conversations about your subject matter.

My brand. Think about how you want to be perceived. Even before someone meets you, your social media footprint will tell a story about who you are and what you stand for. Consistency is key. Keep this in mind when you’re working out what you’ll share on social and how you’ll do it.

Working out what you want to share, how you’ll create value and how you want others to perceive you will give you the beginnings of a roadmap in how to navigate social.  

The most important step of all in social, however, is to stop being a passenger and jump into the driver’s seat.

Plan the trip, invite your community along for the ride and then get behind the wheel and drive. When it comes to being social, the journey is just as much fun as arriving at your destination.

Don't be nice, ladies. Be social

Today I bought a book on Etsy called Frankly Feminine. It was written in the 1960s and is full of information and advice for women about beauty, manners, home-making, how to keep your husband happy and so on.

It’ll be the thing that comes out at a dinner party. Something to laugh at around the table and make us feel good about ourselves, because it’s 2018 and women have come a long way, right?

Let’s dive in.

“There is no real equality between the sexes, and those who think otherwise are merely deluding themselves,” writes the author.

“Women have freedom, opportunity, but this doesn’t put them on the same footing as men. Fortunately, we aren’t natural world-shakers.” Ahem.

Consider this depressing view of a woman’s alleged lot in life alongside a survey undertaken last year in the US on gender differences. Pew Research Center found the traits American society values the most in women are physical attractiveness and being nurturing, kind and empathetic. But when it comes to men, society most values honesty, morality and professional success. 

These expectations don’t bode well for the sisterhood. The ongoing subliminal message being delivered to women day after day is: be sympathetic, be nice and don’t worry about being a professional ‘world shaker’.

The vibe’s there when I talk to some of my female friends and clients about using social media. They’ll say things like: “I don’t have anything interesting or useful to share.” Or “If I put my thoughts out there, people may not agree with me.”

We’ve been conditioned to think being visible in social media is not a ‘nice’ thing to do.

With this kind of negative self-talk going on, it’s no wonder there are still many women who haven’t considered using social to help themselves progress, personally or professionally. We’ve been conditioned to think being visible in social media is not a ‘nice’ thing to do.

The reality is social is a great leveller, enabling women’s voices to be heard and powerful networks to be built in efficient ways. Used thoughtfully, social media can help you get work done, shape your career, achieve a personal goal and, over time, even help you engineer your legacy.

Social is a great leveller, enabling women’s voices to be heard and powerful networks to be built in efficient ways.

Being social was a factor in my decision to set up my own business. When I left my corporate job, I was supported by a global network of people who were prepared to help me get things off the ground. One Twitter follower said: “We’re your community. Just tell us what you need.” I would not have had access to this kindness without making the decision to invest in social some years ago. 

The Frankly Feminine tome of the 1960s may state that women are not ‘natural world shakers’. And that’s OK, because in 2018, harnessing social media to build your impact and influence is a skill that can be learned. 

This new year, have a conversation with a woman you know who’s been reluctant to be social. It could be your sister, daughter, aunt, wife, niece or a colleague. Talk to them about the value and opportunities you’ve gained through social media.

They may decide to stop being so damn nice all the time and try being social instead. 

Weight training and finding your enterprise social muscles

I’d participated in Bodypump classes for years and years before finally getting up the guts to go and train to become an instructor. It was a big deal for me. Ask me to get up in front of a crowd and make a presentation about communications or social and I’m at ease. But when it came time to certify as an instructor, the thought of submitting a video of me coaching a class in how to execute deadlifts, squats and lunges was terrifying. The road of certification was very different to anything I’d ever navigated before.

I wish I’d taken the leap sooner because it’s so much fun! I look forward to every class I teach. My participants and I sweat bucket loads and our muscles burn. Over time, our weights have become heavier, our limbs leaner and more toned. We return for more again and again. We’ve found ourselves part of a wonderful virtuous cycle, spurred on by the great things resistance training was doing for our bodies.

"Building your enterprise social muscle plays out in the same way as it does with weight training in the gym."

McKinsey talks about the evolution of social technologies occurring in three stages, taking companies from trial and error use, to collaboration and managing knowledge and on to the Nirvana of harnessing social to democratise strategy. 

In my experience, building your enterprise social muscle plays out in the same way as it does with weight training in the gym. As McKinsey points out, once you make the leap and use social at work in more purposeful ways, you’ll get a bigger benefit from it. You have the opportunity to get into what I’m calling a virtuous social business cycle.

Here’s how:

• Connect – We make a conscious decision to move out of our silos. We listen. We post, without having an expectation of where a response may come from. We may be excited or anxious about what people will think about our post.

• Collaborate – The social habit forms as we feel the love from colleagues who engage with us. We make our work visible. We share what we know to help others kick business goals. We're adding value.

• Act – We embed social in the flow of our work, making the most of it to solve business problems and tap into new ideas. We’re action-oriented, not passive by-standers.

• Achieve – With the right people doing the right things in enterprise social, organisations committed to getting real work done in open and transparent ways will achieve better business results. The virtuous social business cycle is at work and we return to it again and again. 

Just like my Bodypump experience, getting into a virtuous social business cycle will help organisations find enterprise social muscles they never knew existed. And who doesn’t want great muscles, really?