Leadership: putting social media to work internally

Published: 2011-10-23   There is 1 comment ... please add yours below

Cemex, the global Mexican cement company, has over 500 communities worldwide using its collaborative platform called “Shift”. They solve local problems by engaging global talent. The platform mixes wikis, blogs, discussion boards and Web-conferencing. In one project, 400 employees across its ready-mix businesses slimmed the product range – creating an ongoing global catalogue. Cemex is huge. But what are the lessons you and I can take and use?

From the above McKinsey article, I’ve sorted the six other Management 2.0 winners under three headings that represent challenges we all face – though most could fit under any one of them.

• Overcoming time and distance. Once people are beyond our line of sight (in another region or working from home), we have a communication challenge. And, these days, it’s imperative to get things solved, produced and delivered faster. Here are two examples. At Essilor (an ophthalmic lens manufacturer), local coaches use a global platform to train people – and have reduced by two thirds the time to reach mastery level. They access best practice globally, for example, a game from Essilor Thailand for recognising different lens types. Somewhat differently, staff in the Dutch Government developed an open-source reservation system for booking meeting spaces in their building – and then signed up other buildings until today there are 554 workplaces leading to far more efficient usage.
• Bridging levels and functions. At Best Buy (US electronics retailer) frontline employees use an internal system that collates customer feedback across 1,500 stores, which is then accessible right up (and across) the organisation – leading to changes ranging from local signage to national product promotions. Another organisation combines in-person and online interaction and surveys to deal with policy and decision options – gathering input and gauging reactions. Thus resolving complex trade-offs openly and quickly.
• Empowering ideas and people. Rite Solutions (software) took the normal ideas market and extended it with information on all employees’ experience and expertise. This enabled the creation of communities of interest that work to take things forward – generating 15 new products that now account for 20% of the firm’s revenue. Morning Star (a tomato processor) replaces job descriptions with employee commitments. There is no formal hierarchy and each person writes their own “colleague letter of understanding” (setting out what they’ll be responsible for), which is online for all to see and which the individual can update at any time. This started as a paper-based system in the 1970s and now (with 400 year-round and 2,000 part-year staff) is fully online. Each person is master of their own mission, activities and relationships – and can search the database for people with skills they need to access.

How are you using social media within your business? Please share some ideas!

Dr. Timothy Pascoe AM
PhD (Cambridge), MBA (Harvard), BE & BEc (Adelaide)
Creator, V|E|C|T|O|R Leadership^®