Marcia Conner's Blog

In 2012 I collected all the data I’d collected about social business (e2.0, enterprise social networks, whatever you want to call it) and posted it in one place for others making a case in their work to launch such a platform.

Fast forward nearly a decade and the Pandemic meant even more workers would have benefited from such a space. More importantly, those that have now been around a while and the tools, like Slack, that have sprung up organizationally without sponsorship from a single organization have proven game-changing for remote workers everywhere.

This post is not as much an update to the original document, rather a more modern look at the state of the art of online collaborative work and the data that supports why it’s meaningful.

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In followup to my list of websites with data relevant to social business, many people have asked for pointers to interesting data about social media, social business, and engagement. While it’s easy to think of social business as social media-like tools for use inside of a company, I mean it to imply the larger opportunity to connect people, information, and actionable insights. That can begin within a company, and often stretches outside any one organization’s walls to connect with the people the business serves.

My aim will be to update this list as I discover more numbers that make points better than words. New additions will be marked (new w/date). Consider bookmarking this post so you can return to it again.

IBM’s 2012 CEO Survey of 1700 CEOs across the globe [released May 2012] tells many interesting things.

Although face-to-face will remain the most prevalent form of customer interaction, CEOs expect a step-change in the use of social media. Over 1/2 expect social channels to be a primary way of engaging customers within five years.

Currently, social media is the least used of all customer interaction methods. However, CEOs predict it will push past websites, call centers and channel partners, and become the #2 way to engage
customers within the next five years.

73% of CEOs are making significant investments in their organizations’ ability to draw meaningful customer insights from available data.

Views on social media vary widely across industries. A higher percentage of CEOs in education (77%), telecommunications (73%) and retail (72%) expect social media to be a key channel for customer engagement. In industrial products, only 34% of CEOs believe social media will play a significant role—the lowest of all industries; insurance (51%) and electronics (52%) are below the overall average.

Also from IBM’s Institute for Business Value:

95% of standout organizations will focus more on “getting closer to the customer” over the next 5 years (IBM Global CEO Study 2010).

57% of financial outperformers are more likely than underperformers to use collaborative and social networking tools to enable global teams to work more effectively together (IBM CHRO Study 2010).

Companies with highly-engaged employees have 26% higher revenue per employee.

2% increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10%.

There are more people on Facebook (901M) than in Europe, Russia & Middle East combined (780M).

90% of people under 30 in US are on a social network. 50% of the world population <30. Social networking accounts for 22% of all online activity.

Over 1 trillion connected intelligent devices across the world.

5 Billion mobile phone subscribers (that’s 7 in 10 adults worldwide).

In 2012, smartphone sales will outpace PC sales By 2014, pads will surpass enterprise tech purchases.

From Harvard Business Review Analytics Services and SAS in The New Conversation: Taking Social Media from Talk to Action [pdf], June 2010.

79% of companies are using or plan on using social media. 58% are using it. 21% are planning to launch something.

69% predict that their use of social media will grow, 61% admit the need to overcome a learning curve before adopting any kind of social media strategy. Just 32% view it as an executive priority.

Just 20% of social-media-using organizations have dedicated a portion of the budget to it, though that rises to 44% among effective users.

14% cite responding to findings from social media, such as quickly resolving an issue raised via one of the social sites.

13% say that finding qualified staff who can work on social media activities is a challenge.

12% of the 2,100 firms surveyed feel that they are using social media effectively, by going above and beyond the typical megaphone marketing. They are monitoring trends, promoting their brand and researching new product ideas. 43% feel they are using it ineffectively. 45% believe they are getting there.

11% believe the use of social media for business purposes is a passing fad.

Social media use among small businesses was up 8%, from 73% spring 2011. Constant Contact’s Fall 2011 Attitudes and Outlooks Survey.

About 60% of those surveyed said they respond to comments they received through social networks, whether they’re negative or positive. The 40% who aren’t regularly responding to comments said the didn’t because:

They don’t have timeThey don’t think it’s necessaryThey don’t know what to say

The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business looked at the relationship between social media and small businesses and found that the technology adoption rates in the U.S. doubled from 2007-2009 from 12% to 24%.

Only 1% of Facebook Fans Engage With Brands. AdAge

97% of customers will purchase from your business based on a review they find on the product they are looking for, even more so the review is through people they trust.

eMarketer reports that 78.2% of boomers are online and using mobile. That’s 60 million adults. Even as their numbers decline, that penetration rate will remain high through 2015. And they control more than $2 trillion in annual spending.

Young boomers (ages 47 to 55) spent an average of 39.3 hours online per month in 2010, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Older boomers (ages 56 to 65) averaged only slightly less, at 36.5 hours.

Boomers also stay connected on the go. eMarketer estimates 86.9% will have a mobile phone this year, and 16.9 million boomers will access the internet from a mobile browser or installed app. In 2015, that number will reach 25.4 million, or nearly 40% of boomer mobile users. This is a market that content providers, game publishers and brand marketers should not pass by.

90% of online consumers trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust unknown users, 27% trust experts, 14% trust advertising, 8% trust celebrities. Nielson Global Online Survey, July 2009, referenced in Erik Qualman’s Socialnomics. More on personal recommendations:

92% have more confidence in info found online than they do in anything from a salesclerk or other source Wall Street Journal, Jan 2009

75% of people don’t believe that companies tell the truth in advertisements. Yankelovich Consumer Report, 2010

70% consult reviews or ratings before purchasing. BusinessWeek, Oct. 2008

7 in 10 who read reviews share them with friends, family & colleagues thus amplifying their impact. Deloitte & Touche, Sept. 2007

Why do they share? 46% feel they can be brutally honest on the Internet. 38% aim to influence others when they express their preferences online Harris Poll, April 2010

45% say they are influenced a fair amount or a great deal by reviews on social sites from people they follow with 46% saying that reviews in newspaper or magazine influence them. Harris Poll, April 2010

43% of us will seek advice from a friend, family member or colleague before making a purchase. GfK MRI, June 2010

34% have turned to social media to air their feelings about a company. 26% to express dissatisfaction, 23% to share companies or products they like. Harris Poll, April 2010

Reviews on a site can boost conversion 20%. Bazaarvoice

From GfK MRI, June 2010: % Twitter users are more likely than total adults to:
Write a Blog – 506%
Join environmental groups/causes – 142%
Join groups that influence policy or government – 141%

Bazaarvoice, in their Conversation Indexes provide some terrific gender-related stats related to social business.
The Conversation Index Vol. 1 (September 2011)

Women produce 60% of all user-generated content.Women are more positive reviewers than men. The average rating for female-written reviews was 4.43 out of 5, as compared to the male average of 4.32.

The Conversation Index Vol. 3 (March 2012)

Women who buy something in a store rate it four to five stars (out of five) 87% of the time. Men who make a purchase in a store only assign four or five stars to products 80 percent of the time. Research underscores that men find online shopping an effective way to avoid the hassle of in-store shopping.

75% of women say ads on social networks don’t encourage them to purchase. (from Media Post News, September 2009)

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In addition to continuing to update this page over time, I’ve also created a Scoop.it page focused on Data on our Social World. Consider following that page for regular updates, infographics and various things I find.

If you have favorite stats or sources of stats on this theme, please send them my way and I’ll include in future updates. Together we are better. The stats prove it.

New York Times writer David Carr, “known for his insightful reporting on changes in publishing, television and social media, understood the world young journalists were entering when he offered 10 pieces of advice” to the 2014 graduating class at 2014’s UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

1. 1. Someone who is underestimated will be the one who changes the world. It’s not the person everyone expects. It might be you.

2. “Do what is front of you.” Focus on the small steps ahead of you.

3.  Don’t worry about achieving a master plan, about the plot to take over the world.

4. Be a worker among workers. It’s more important that you fit in before you stick out.

5. Follow the “Mom Rule.” Don’t do anything you couldn’t explain or justify to your mom.

6. Don’t just do what you’re good at. Get outside of your comfort zone. Being a journalist is permission for lifetime learning.

7. Be present. Don’t worry about documenting the moment with your smartphone. Experience it yourself.

8. Take responsibility for the good and the bad. Learn to own your failures.

9. Be honest, and be willing to have the difficult conversation.

10. Don’t be afraid to be ambitious. It’s not a crime.

 

Carr passed away early in 2015 in the Times newsroom.

Special thanks to Dan Colman, founder/editor of Open Culture, for sharing this advice.

As I finished writing an article about taking action and a report about using your brain at work, I found this fantastic quote from Amy Poehler. Here’s to every day getting a solid kick in the ass to move along NOW.

In short: Step into life. Go.

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This is from Amy’s Smart Girls “Ask Amy” series in a response to a question from teenage Mae about staying courageous.

For those of you who want the words to requote and with a bit more at the end than was in the image:

G reat people do things before they’re ready. They do things before they know they can do it. And by doing it, they’re proven right. Because, I think there’s something inside of you—and inside of all of us—when we see something and we think, “I think I can do it, I think I can do it. But I’m afraid to.” Bridging that gap, doing what you’re afraid of, getting out of your comfort zone, taking risks like that—THAT is what life is. And I think you might be really good. You might find out something about yourself that’s special. And if you’re not good, who cares? You tried something. Now you know something about yourself. Now you know. A mystery is solved. So, I think you should just give it a try. Just inch yourself out of that back line. Step into life. Courage. Risks. Yes. Go. Now.

This week I’m in Berlin, Germany at the OEB Conference. The conference hosts interviewed me a few weeks ago about my thoughts on learning since leaving a formal role in the field years ago. I enjoyed the experience of reflecting on what’s changed and the opportunity to set the industry free. Here’s the article, crafted from my talk with Alasdair McKinnon. My only regret here is not being able to share the time with my long time friend, Jay Cross.

From the OEB16 News

Marcia Conner is a former corporate executive who is now dedicated to “reinventing a vibrant healthy world”. She advises leaders, governments, corporations and schools across the globe on how to reshape their organisational practices. The author of four books, including The New Social Learning: Connect, Collaborate, Work (2nd ed., ATD Press, June 2015), she works to find better ways for people to learn, collaborate and achieve professional success. We caught up with her to find out what the big problems she faces are, and what drives her passion for her work.

By Alasdair McKinnon, 

How do organisations get workplace learning wrong, and how can they fix it?

Marcia: Years ago, workplace educators began to segment what they provided employees into artificial and misleading categories, for example “formal” and “informal” learning, or “e-learning” “blended learning” or “social learning”. This happened because prior to the general use of computers to reach people across the miles, they thought their product was classroom-based education.

What they neglected to realise was that their value was resource sharing, two-way dialogue, experience building, and networking. It always has been, and most likely always will be. Even in the most parochial classrooms, the value of workplace learning was not in the walls of the room itself. The classroom was simply the venue. Likewise, when workplace educators began to create online programmes, the value they offered wasn’t in the bits and bytes. It was in the access and the exchange. With this perspective, all workplace learning has some formal and informal elements. Today even courses on interpersonal skills entice learners to search for or share insights with friends on mobile devices. They blend “e-” and “social” approaches, too.

Learning is learning, which happens in roughly the same way for all of us, though in different contexts and in various venues across our lives. The sooner workplace educators break from their boxes and their lingo, and in many cases help the organisations that employ them unlearn what they’ve so caustically coached them on erroneously for years, the sooner they’ll be seen as true partners in reaching new heights.

For organisations to benefit from the value of the L&D department, workplace educators need to ensure their offerings consistently provide everyone an opportunity to ready and expand their experiences – and to learn from people, unlike them, who challenge their assumptions and expand their horizons. These are people who focus on exchange and growth between individuals, their know-how, and their needs, rather than demarcation and classifications.

The OEB Team: You could say that what Socrates came up with was “social learning” – so what’s new about the new social learning?

Marcia: Socrates developed his methods in a town square, dialoguing with fellow citizens about the issues of the day. Today, those conversations can occur as easily around a conference table (or a picnic bench in the company courtyard) as between a colleague on site with a customer and a peer flying halfway across the globe. The distance our voices can travel have been replaced with the digital signals of cell towers and wi-fi. Our thumbs can type questions, and videos can convey feelings. What’s new is that we are no longer contained by our spaces or our proximity to those with insights. We can find, collaborate, and learn from people we don’t know as easily as from those we know, through verbal dialogue as easily as via transcriptions and audio files, and we can do this around the clock, across the world, and on the subjects vital to our success. In addition, with modern tools such as voice-to-text and video, today we break from Socrates because we no longer need to rely on our students to write down our words. Our ideas and the logic behind them can spread based on their vibrancy and our willingness to share.

What misunderstandings do organisations have about social media?

Marcia: Many organisational leaders still believe they can curtail their employees’ use of social media. In global society, where people everywhere rely on reaching one another through mobile devices in the moment of need, they expect to be able to connect in real time at work, too. If there are firewalls at the office to limit their access, they’ll use personal devices with plans they pay for themselves. If there are device lockers by the door, they’ll step outside for a connection break. With corporate limitations to access and ease, employees waste lots of time finding workarounds – while building resentment towards their employers for thinking so small. “Bosses” have misunderstood that social media tools provide people an opportunity to be engaged at work and to connect with what matters most to them. Rather than believe they can command and control, contain and curtail, leaders should ensure employees can engage.

You write that a client described your role as “making work not suck”. What is it about common workplace cultures that “sucks” the most, and how can it be changed?

Marcia: In an effort to increase productivity, organisations have long sought to compartmentalise work and develop policies based on the notion that employees function best when free of their emotions, personalities, and unique perspectives. The first industrial revolutions may have given way to technology and a digital age, with more people doing cognitive information work than manual work, yet the mechanistic mindset of how work gets done lives on. In contrast, some of the most successful collaborations in history have expected people to bring their full selves to the job. Their leaders recognised that when people can participate without the added burden of conforming to sterile norms, they find within themselves brilliance, which travels fast and energises those around them, so that together they can excel.

What inspires you to do the work you do?

Marcia: I’m a parent of a twelve-year-old, articulate, tech-savvy son, and I live in a household with my 82-year old mother-in-law who grew up in a remote community. Combining that with the experiences of those I meet as I travel, my life is inspired by nonstop perspective and fundamental truths on life, love, process, and progress. As I dedicate my life to creating a world we’re all proud to live in, understanding what that means to people with dramatically differing situations and experiences keeps my work interesting and alive.

Marcia Conner will be speaking on “In the Age of Acceleration: Making Time for Learning” at the #OEB16 Friday Plenary.      

If you’re not familiar with Adam Conover’s cult classic TV show Adam Ruins Everything (TruTV), think mega Mythbusters for myths you didn’t even know you held–about topics as diverse as mouthwash and eyeglasses, to the prison system and the sharing economy.

One of my favorite episodes debunks the need for a 40-hour work week, salary information, and the qualities of a good manager. It’s lovingly entitled Adam Ruins Work. Don’t miss this. Even if you can’t watch it all at once (runtime a little over 30 minutes), it’s broken into short segments. Watching even one will lighten your (work)load.

 

Note from Marcia: More than a decade ago, I was editor of an online magazine focused on the promise of learning in the new economy. We addressed learning as the lifeblood of society, a natural process living things did nonstop, bearing little resemblance to modern practices in school or training. Jay Cross wrote several wonderful articles for the publication. With the exception of a reference to VCRs, and Jay’s hallmark cottage-industry sketches, the piece seems as timely to me today as it did back in 2001. Jay passed away recently and I realized it was time to share here my favorite article, reminding every one of us tomorrow’s too late.

 

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” Abraham Lincoln

We often fool ourselves into thinking that we have a good handle on the future impact of current actions. It’s logical, isn’t it?

The voices in our heads continually comfort us by saying that the world runs on common sense and we are in control. We assume we know the logical connection between present and future without even thinking about it. But when we try to describe the intervening steps, we discover that most of the middle ground from now to then is illusory. We don’t invent the pathway to the future until called upon, much as we make up stories off-the-cuff when recounting fragments of ideas that haven’t quite yet jelled.

This gap helps explain self-destructive behavior: the failure to connect present and future. The smoker keeps on puffing, denying that cigarettes cause cancer. The business leader keeps doing what worked last quarter, denying that conditions always change.

Inevitably, the future catches short-term thinkers by surprise.

“Stuff” happens. It doesn’t need to.

Be prepared.

“One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is ‘to be prepared’.” Dan Quayle

As a Boy Scout, I carried waterproof matches, a hunting knife, and a flashlight on hikes so I would Be Prepared. This gave me a sense of security for the day but did nothing to prepare me for life beyond. I didn’t think about the future much and didn’t do much to prepare for it.

Why was I so shortsighted?

Beside the fact that I was young, my brain, like yours, evolved when our ancestors were the naked hunters (and the hunted) who survived on the savannah by living in the moment. In a world of eat-or-be-eaten, “long term” was not a concept.

For me, the future seemed so far away. I had no appreciation of consequences. I didn’t think about what tomorrow would bring. I didn’t know what to prepare for. These are not valid reasons to put off preparing for the future.

Also, the future has changed. Sanitation and health care have tripled the human lifespan, and corporations outlive their founders. Most of us will live into what we now think of as the long term.

Time is accelerating, and we’ll get there even sooner than we expect. The past was leisurely. Today the future is rushing toward us.

Unnatural as it feels, we must project ourselves months and years ahead to start getting ready. Snap judgments are not sufficient to see us through. The world’s getting too complicated.

The inevitable future.

Napoleon to his general: “We must plant trees bordering the major roads of France to provide shade for marching soldiers.”

General: “But, mon empereur, they will take decades to grow.”

Napoleon: “Right. There’s not a moment to waste.”

At the macro level, the future is clear. Every individual and every organization that has a life has a life cycle.

You must know where you are in the cycle to take advantage of your position e. This frees you to think about what you are becoming.

Simplify, simplify.

Break antiquated routines before they break you. Cut the clutter. Focus on the core; outsource everything else. Strengthen the signal by turning down the noise. Dump things that have outlived their usefulness. Put a kill-date on everything in your personal knowledgebase. Appoint a manager of unlearning for your group. Clear the underbrush of non-essentials.

Imagine that.

Think ten years out. What driving forces in your industry will take you there? What is most likely to impact your life? You can work on these areas. Assemble a small group and brainstorm your vision of the future(s). Throw off all constraints—you can edit later. Make your visions feel real by describing them in mock newspaper stories, news broadcasts, annual reports, and video reports. Share these with others; broadcast them. Scenario learning is the catalyst for getting others to join you in thinking about potential future consequences of today’s decisions.

Practice.

How would you describe an elementary school principal who didn’t conduct fire drills? Irresponsible. And how would you describe a chief operating officer who didn’t prepare for crises? Typical. Sure, it’s easier to ring the bell for the fire drill than to field a corporate emergency-response team. Nonetheless, corporations should practice putting out fires. Name the fire marshals. Set up an in-house “Emergency Broadcast Network.” Decentralize decision-making.

It’s not easy to live out what-if situations when consumed by the present. Since necessity is the mother of invention, you’ll probably have to invent some necessities. Come to grips with what would happen if you had to evacuate the building, evacuate the building.

Ch-ch-change.

Preparing for the future was not that important when the world changed only gradually. The future was about the same as the present.

It took 15,000 years for people to discover farming. Writing was invented 2,500 years before the Greeks started using an alphabet.

By contrast, the computer was invented in my lifetime. The first computers filled rooms, contained tens of thousands of vacuum tubes, cost unimaginable sums of money, and were programmed by flipping switches. They had but a tiny fraction of the power in my PDA. And my state-of-the-art PDA will soon be obsolete.

Today the future’s rushing at us at terrific speed. The next three years will see more change than the first three thousand years people lived in America. Thoughtful citizens in our era must focus an increasing proportion of their time on the future, because dramatic changes will take place during their lifetimes.

Here’s the real innovator’s dilemma. Teachers, mentors, and authority figures taught us how the world works. Their vision won’t cut it any more. Their world vanished by the time we had to start making decisions for ourselves. That’s just the beginning.

“How do you fix a computer or program a VCR?” “Ask any twelve-year-old.”

Things are now moving so fast in some fields that the young know more than the old. The young people are the authorities, not their elders.

Like no one before us, our challenge is to seize responsibility for unlearning obsolete rules of thumb, We need to think fresh thoughts and seek new perspectives.

There’s not a moment to waste.

—-

Jay Cross founded Internet Time Group to help organizations get the most out of the world. His presence is sorely missed by all of us who knew him.

Day after day, year after year, I’ve strived to always do more. In school when I was assigned a paper on an “ism” I wrote it on “Moreism.” My first book was titled, Learn More Now. I’ve not aspired for more goods, rather more experiences. As to why, I have more theories than time.

My life was complicated by running forward without recognizing I’d tangled my path.

When starting something new I rarely asked myself, “What will I take off of my schedule?” I’d never aggregated my actions: looking at all I was doing, observing my patterns, let alone considering my bounds.

Then something changed. No single event gets credit, rather more small events than I should have required. It’s as if the more light has gone out. In it’s place a faint glow that puts everything else in perspective.

Each day I ask myself these questions:

What is it time for?

What is it time to let go of?

Is there even more to let go?

Although some mornings I catch myself trying to separate or avoid the answers, I find these questions as intertwined as learning and life.

Asking them works. Change comes more easily. My capacity to make clear decisions has soared.

There is less on my do-list and there will be fewer experiences to reflect on come years’ end. But I’m learning (if not more than ever) at least as much each day as I did when life overflowed. And I feel brighter and lighter because I have the mental space to focus on what matters most.

How to reach less in 4 not-so-easy steps

1. Pause. Before reacting to what’s going on around you, making a quick move because of others’ expectations, take a moment to breath deeply, stretch or walk around the block, consider a wider perspective and what it’s time for.

2. Downshift. Take time each day to open your imagination and reflect on what you’ve learned. If you always seek more outside sources, or keep a go-go-go routine, you may be too exhausted to tap the tremendous source of knowledge and understanding you have within yourself.

3. Rest. Sleep every chance you can. Clear thinking, physical health, and your power to let go comes from your ability to be present with yourself — and that requires enough rest.

4. Allow for serendipity. Instead of being more organized or controlling in your approach, allow for serendipity. Happy accidents happen when you look side to side or up, not always forward. Don’t stop planning. Rather step out of the tunnel. Put yourself in situations that allow for the unexpected. Life is situationally driven. Learning happens in context. Be ready when opportunities arise. The more space you’ve cleared in your life for something new, the more right things will happen. More or less.

———-

Originally published in Fast Company by Marcia Conner.

[photo credit: Singapore April 2012, Remko Tanis]

Within a few years, the word “social” may seem as cliché as “synergy” feels now. Social connection will be like a dial tone, something we once expected to hear and now don’t bother listening for as we dial. What it represents is just there.

Between now and then, though, we have some growing up to do. We must get comfortable in our social shoes. Overcome personal and professional discomfort with relying on relationships to get work done. And do that publicly, as an intentional mindful function rather than something we’ve always done without notice or acknowledgment.

It’s not as though relying on relationships is new. People have worked together, learned together, and made buying decisions together for centuries. What makes social a hot topic today is that light mobile tools and vast digital networks extend our access and conversations with all our connections—in our workplaces, our communities, and online. We can stoke a conversation’s fire from the subway, 36,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, or even during a workout at the gym… And unlike anytime before, the people we converse with need not be beside us or even awake.

Social tools allow us to reach across time and space to solve complex problems and make informed decisions in ways we couldn’t dream of years ago. By connecting those who share interests, no matter their location or time zone, people will transform workplaces, schools, and civic spaces into environments where being social is as natural as it is powerful.

Businesses are beginning to realize that by rewiring themselves to actively build strong relationships and reach out to colleagues as a normal course of work, they ultimately produce a better product to their customer. Social comes full circle as both an internal practice and an external revenue generator. As Alistair Rennie, General Manager of Business Analytics at IBM said, “How you wire your own business has a direct impact on how you impact customers. Social is not a set of technologies. It’s a highly connected business transformation with people at its core.”

Three areas will move this conversation toward its inevitable ubiquity: social business, social learning, and social commerce. Each moves us a step closer to the day when these topics return to business, learning, and commerce because social just is.

Social Business

Sabre Holdings, the company that owns Travelocity and several other global travel reservation systems, created an internal online community to provide an internal tool for professional networking so that employees could connect quickly and easily. At the time the networking tool was created, Sabre Holdings had grown from a small U.S. operation into one with 10,000 employees in 59 countries, many telecommuting and beginning to feel disconnected from colleagues and information.

To use the online community, employees completed a profile of their interests and expertise. When someone posted a question to an online bulletin board, the system’s predictive modeling software automatically sent it to the 15 people whose expertise was most relevant to the question. The more people who completed profiles and the more questions that were asked and answered, the better the inference engine could assign questions appropriately. “You have a greater chance of getting a useful answer if your question is directed not just to the people you already know, but to the people who have the most relevant knowledge,” explains the general manager overseeing the software tools.

The online community was credited with $500,000 in direct savings its first year. Based on anecdotal results, that figure doesn’t come close to representing the total savings. The community manager attributed the site’s success partly to the fact that management ceded control over its use to line employees. They effectively created a massive knowledge base that employees willingly populated with their own information.

Classic business models presume that relevant information is created and shared either through management or training. But classic isn’t enough: There’s too much to know and make sense of, too little time to gain perspective, and information changes too fast to dispense. A virtual water cooler becomes a gathering place to share ideas and ask questions beyond the limits of formal organizations, company meetings, or classrooms.

Social Learning

When Faith LeGendre, engagement manager at Cisco, was a new employee, working away from headquarters, she sought a seasoned employee to mentor her. Within seconds of making her request on Cisco’s internal social network, a woman in a completely different area responded. They quickly began sharing and learning together across the miles. In other companies, LeGendre had spent hours searching through intranets and distant servers to learn about her employer, her role, and how things really worked. Now, by asking others for guidance, she both receives the exact information she needs and constantly learns from colleagues around the globe, saving time while increasing her productivity and accuracy.

Instead of asking for periodic progress reports, Claudia Miro, when she led client services at a midsize coaching and consulting firm, used social tools to keep tabs on her virtual workforce spread throughout North America. They relied on short exchanges to share, collaborate, and communicate about the work they were doing with clients. It was not unusual for a consultant to get a quick status update from Miro, broadcast to all the consultants, asking for a report on who they met, how much time they spent, and what were the outcomes. The organization began using social tools as an internal document repository for operations; yet over time, it grew to become a dynamic communications tool across their internal and external partners. By capturing learning in the moment, the organization could quickly leverage the collective knowledge of its consultants and provide more value and collective intelligence, to the organizations it served.

Most of what we learn as adults comes from engaging in networks where people co-create, collaborate, and share knowledge, fully participating and actively engaging, driving, and guiding their learning through whatever topics will help them improve. “Training often gives people solutions to problems already solved,” as I write in The New Social Learning: Connect, Collaborate, Work (now in a fully updated 2nd edition). “Collaboration addresses challenges no one has overcome before.” Social learning makes that immediate, enabling people to easily interact with those with whom they share a workplace, a passion, a curiosity, a skill, or a need.

Social Commerce

Equator Estate Coffee & Teas sells limited-batch coffees and rare tea. Their Facebook page makes it easy for their customers to share information about their purchases with friends and the retailer’s fans. They’re not the only retailer realizing that the more ways we enable shoppers to shop, the better.

“Our research tells us that consumers are making a dramatic shift in shopping habits—value, versatility, and convenience are more important now than ever, and people are buying to satisfy needs over wants, though they’re still interested in unique offering,” said a senior executive at Brown Shoe. “We also learned from our consumers that it is an emotionally transformative moment when they find the right pair of shoes at the right price that are convenient to obtain and offer something unique like a great brand or new fashion trend.”

The Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey from 2009 pointed out 90% of consumers surveyed trusted recommendations from people they know, and 70% trusted consumer opinions posted online even from people they didn’t know. Some things in retail never change. The right product, the right price at the right place. When people find that product, at that price, having the means and opportunity to share that information moves others to take action too.

Peter Drucker once said that “the purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.” Social connections strengthen organizations because people learn from one another, and then enable customers—both those within their workforce and those they serve—to make broadminded, fluid, well-informed decisions for themselves. They leave a digital audit trail, documenting the journey—often an unfolding story—leaving a path for others to follow and from which to learn. I look forward to the day when that’s no longer considered social as much as just how we work.

 

[Image: Flickr user: Dave Scriven]

Parts of this post were previously published on FastCompany.com.

Today would have been Steve Jobs’ 60th birthday. I learned this because Seth Godin has named today Make a Ruckus Day, celebrating the man who once said, “I want to put a ding in the universe” and consistently encouraged people to make a difference.

As Godin points out, “Jobs’ contribution wasn’t invention. Technology breakthroughs didn’t come out of his basement the way they did from Land or Tesla. Instead, his contribution was to have a point of view. To see something and say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”

Jobs (and Godin) remind us to not only have a point of view, but to change it when the times demanded. Most of all, to express that point of view, to act on it, to live with it.

The ruckus that matters most to me is finding what you believe in and using that as a springboard to create a better world. The world needs all of us to make change.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams, in this RSA Short explains why it’s so important that we strive to make a difference.

At the SHIFT Summit last summer, I dared everyone to make change a priority.

I closed the event with a talk about why we each need to spend time shifting the world. Everyone around us. The systems we rely on. The communities we live in.

Here’s to us all of us making a ruckus today — and every day.

This year’s Super Bowl will feature the Seattle Seahawks, the New England Patriots, and a commercial with a TV clip quoted to me at least monthly by someone thinking they’re clever.

“Oh, your name’s like Marcia Brady. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia…” and then they giggle as if I’ve never heard that quip before. Well I have, and I’m going to be hearing it, no doubt, a bunch more in the coming weeks. Now even those too young to remember the original Brady Bunch episode will be reintroduced and (perhaps) delighted.

In the spirit of bracing myself sharing, here’s a preview and also a place to refer to when you’re searching for a snicker with a dash of nostalgia.

Rather than run from the reference, I’ve embraced it, even taking on @marciamarcia as my twitter handle. The campiness makes the name easy to remember and even I have to admit I was a fan.

For more nostalgia (and less Snicker), below is the original clip. Jan delivers the now-famous line at 1:28.

Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy.

ps. From the search for all things Marcia Brady, I found we even have our own Cafe Press store. If you want a Marcia-Marcia-Marcia t-shirt, here’s the place!