twitter & real time cultural & organisational challenge
DESCRIPTION
Presentation at Twitter conference in Manchester (5th October 2011)TRANSCRIPT
How Twitter is forcing institutions to meet cultural & organisational challenges of a real time world
Martin Thomas @crowdsurfing
Organisational & Cultural Challenge
o Social media is driving new behaviours & heightening expectations
Real time problem solving Real time expectations
Instant access, instant response, instant gratification “living life through shortcuts” MTV
“The trouble with McDonald’s is it’s too bloody slow”
o Amplifying cultural trends
Organisational & Cultural Challenge
Dramatizing institutions’ structural, operational & cultural weaknesses
Connected Consumer meets Disconnected InstitutionConnected Consumer meets Disconnected Institution
“Digital communications is a destabilizing force in a bureaucratic environment. And I am sitting right in the middle of a bureaucratic environment.’”Senior corporate communications director
“We’re not set up for this shit”UK CEO
Why Many Institutions Struggle
o Not configured to work in real time, in terms of speed or resources
10 minutes10 minutes60 minutes60 minutes
* Critical response time for responding to negative comments
Thriving by Loosening Up
o Operational & cultural traits of successful organisations
TrustingOpenAgileInformal Collaborative
Tight Thinkers Need Not Apply
o Organisations & people that struggle with this new worldHierarchicalBureaucraticProcess orientedDistrustful
“the approval time for each Tweet, by the time it had gone through compliance and tone of voice, used to be 10 days”
1. Trusting
o Bedrock of strong internal cultureo Allows shared responsibility & real time
decision making
The best company rulebook ever written?
Nordstrom Revisited
“Prescriptive rules have the effect of infantilising staff & make it harder for them to adapt to different situations. This goes as much for digital communications as for selling socks … Like the Nordstrom handbook we’re trusting staff to follow the spirit, not just the letter, of our guidelines”Meg Pickard, writing about The Guardian’s new social media guidelines, November 2010
A Trusting Organisation
“We have issued 31 thousand Tweets none of which have been approved (it would defeat the object)”Martha Roberts, Royal Mail
Accepting, Anticipating & Even Leveraging Mistakes
Which doesn’t mean having to tolerate flagrant abuses
2. Open
o Transparency & honesty non negotiable
Capable of transforming reputations
Openness is …
o Being transparento Engaging critics & embracing criticism o Encouraging real conversations with people
inside & outside the organisation
Openness is … Non Negotiable
Social Media is No Respecter of Secrets
Openness is … Non Negotiable
“For brands, Twitter is an option.
For public services, it’s an obligation”
3. Agile
o Ability to improvise & operate in close to real time & to act on real time information
4. Informal
o Being willing to show a human face
Informal Access
O2 Twinterviews with senior management 500+ new followers every time
Authenticity More Important Than Production Values
5. Collaborative
o Tapping into spirit of collective self expression
o Leveraging people’s willingness to shape service & product offers
Numbers are Compelling
o 70% 70% of companies regularly create value through use of web-based communities
o Using customer communities to solve customer problems costs 10% 10% of traditional call centres
* McKinsey 2010
The Power of Communities
Create Content
Solve Problems
Collaborate
Contribute Ideas
The Power of Communities
Thriving by Loosening Up
TrustingOpenAgileInformal Collaborative
@crowdsurfing
Get your organisation & culture right … & the tweets will look after
themselves