6 February 2012 | 0 Comments
For Those That Will Never Change
One of the great joys of our work is getting to experience the people and cultures of a wide variety of companies: big conservative, small high growth, innovative financial services, mission focused; the differences are fascinating. Even more interesting are the commonalities.
No matter the culture of the company, there are always those who embrace the new and those that claim they will never change. There’s quite a bit of angst about the never changers, managers talk carrots and sticks, and consultancies like Accenture collect bundles of cash to get large companies’ employees to actually use the SalesForce licenses they bought. Projects that start by trying to change the behavior of those that “will never change” rarely produce the results the company wants.
These employees feel they have a system that works for them and it’s extraordinarily difficult to talk them out of it. We’re big believers in not replacing anything that works. Seth Godin and others can rage on about the personal career dangers of not changing, but for us, it’s not about judgement, it’s about bringing the whole community together.
On the other side of the community are the early adopters, whose vision for new ways of connecting help drive the company forward. They need, and crave, the new and the shiny. There are stereotypes that these are the young folks, but that’s not what we see in our data – an early adopting mindset cuts across generations. Curious and playful are everywhere.
What’s needed then, is getting everyone onto one system in the way that works for them now. Getting all of the different usage patterns feeding into one system enables the most powerful leaver of behavioral change – peer norming – to take hold over time. This, more than consultants or training, is what will bend the usage curve towards the new thing.
Red Rover is out to make individuals more successful by organizing the community around them. The game of social software is to make the “organizing” part as painless as possible. For some people, painless means an interface that feels kind of Facebook-y. For others, in the same company, it means staying in email as much as possible.
From a product perspective, this means a focus as much on the interface of email as the interface of the web app. It means keeping list serve addresses and most list serve patterns in place for those that want them.
Companies are diverse, people have preferences. We love backbone.js and the new mobile workforce, but for those that love email, and claim they’ll never change, we love you too.
20 January 2012 | 1 Comment
Making New Year’s Resolutions Work, at Work
It’s January 20th. Have you heard anyone talking about their New Year’s resolutions today? I haven’t. It feels like the New Year’s spirit has already come and gone. The boldness and excitement from watching fireworks has fizzled, and we are squarely in 2012 now. Where are all of the grand plans we had for our 2012 selves just a few weeks ago? We’ve retreated back into our own heads and our insecurities about the possibility of achieving that beach body, fostering true love, or landing the dream job.
And then there are workplace resolutions. Did you resolve to increase the sales leads for your team, get involved in the company’s sustainability efforts, or communicate more effectively with management this year?
18 January 2012 | 0 Comments
5 Ways to Use Buzzwords and Know What You’re Talking About
The problem with industry buzzwords is that many people use them to sound like they know what they are talking about when they don’t. Buzzwords are not inherently bad or unprofessional. But, they are overused terms that unfortunately become industry-defining and mainstream, simply because everyone else is using them. Because of their prevalence in mainstream communication — meaning, everyone has “access” to this language — some industry professionals may be hypersensitive to buzzwords and may judge your use of them if you can’t back it up with a qualified understanding of their definitions and applications. Here are five ways to make sure you sound like you know your stuff, so you don’t get written off by potential industry contacts.