When: 3:00- 4:00pm GMT (10-11am EST)
Where: Live Webcast from IBM’s South Bank facility, via the IBM New Intelligence Video Studio
What: Featured speakers
Brendon Riley Chief Executive, IBM UK & Ireland
The Rt Hon Lord Mandelson Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills
Chief Constable Patrick Shearer Pres., Association of Chief Police Officers of Scotland
Professor Andy Neely University of Cambridge
This week the Corporate Citizenship team have been holding a week of events to encourage employees to get involved in their local communities.
flyer
It’s been a great week, seeing existing volunteers, volunteer to spread the word about what they are doing and what they get out of helping others. It’s also been a time to recognise the effort these people put into the interests they support.
Yesterday I was at the Bedfont event and listened to a very passionate talk by Alison Hall from Seeds for Development, a charity she set up with her IBM colleague Tamsin Miles, to help women in Uganda recover their lives from the war that ravaged the country. It was a fantastic example of storytelling from the heart, not zealous, just sincere and honest.
However, the events also helped people do something, no matter how small or big, in their own community too. IBMers and do many employees from all sorts of organisations, have a huge variety and depth of skills that can be put to good use in schools, medical centres, youth clubs or charities. The resources there to help people get started are vast, both inside and outside the company. Hopefully over the last few days the CC&CA team and volunteers have shown and inspired others how to make use of them. Not just through the regular IBM created programmes of which we have many but to come up with a new idea, share that and make use of the skills and willingness of the people they work with.
One of the initial ideas of the events was to show that smarterplanet doesn’t need to start with a 1-to-1 with the Prime Minister or by implementing a traffic congestion scheme. It starts with each one of us. With our ideas, our influence and our own efforts.
Note to reader: I left at 1pm as I had another engagement so I don’t know what happened in the second half. Do tell if you know.
At an event yesterday organised by The Alternative in deepest Soho I was annoyed to discover that the place had no wireless access and my 3G card didn’t work as we were in the basement. Avery nice basement but nonetheless reception was rubbish.
tribe - Projeto Salamandra
The event was entitled “The New Brand Tribalism” and not being able to pump up my pc to tweet and share with the world what was going on was incredibly annoying. My tribal behaviour towards this brand was no off to a good start.
Note to all event organisers, wireless is as much an essential these days as tea and coffee.
My initial thought before going to this event were that I wonder how much people like Seth Godin and a whole host of others would come up. Not once unless I fell asleep. Seth has his critics and I’m no fan-boy but c’mon, give a word for those that came before.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I didn’t feel that there was anything “new” here. Lots of talk of being authentic but the also more on being controlling. To my mind that sounded like, try and look like you are authentic. Kind of the opposite of being authentic. I was expecting more about giving employees brand permission, about employees being involved in the decisions that matter to them, the stuff that makes me come to work.
There were some mentions of brand ambassadors but it felt like that some gimmick or other had to be run so as employees would then go and talk about it. Quick fixes fade quick too.
Actually one statement that stuck in my mind went something like, ” We can take the tribal behaviours and control and shape them for the business.” To me that sounds like they way you kill it.
Great chats though with a couple of gents, those were insightful conversations on what is really happening, success and failures, fear and desire. Wish I also got to meet Joanne and Rach who also attended.
Not the lottery, stopped doing that years ago. This is an IBM award for spreading the love about social media in IBM.
flying papers by Aldor
Some people think I should talk about these sort of things mroe often, ok, here goes.
The full name is “BlueIQ Most Valuable Ambassador” which along with 9 others I won in the first half of 2009. It is actually the 4th consecutive time I have been given this award, which I think shows how much I enjoy and believe in what we are doing.
The idea of the award and the BlueIQ community (it’s global not just the UK) is simply to help other IBMers get as much value out of using social media as possible. This can be as simple as a one to one education session but go all the way up to looking at ways of changing culture and processes to be more social in outlook.
Although just about everyone in IBM has contributed to one (usually several wikis) or commented on a blog or w3 article, there are many less obvious things they can be doing that improves their working life, expands their network, makes finding stuff quicker and improves their employability.
Anyway, so a global community of nearly 900 (and growing) ambassadors are there to help, to sort the wheat from the chaff of new applications and websites, to enable employees. As you know I work in internal comms, which we call Workforce Enablement so it fits right in with what I do.
In a nutshell, my philosophy is that I can’t possibly know everything that is going on in the business, and sometimes the best people to tell the story are those that lived it, so I can sure as hell help those people get out there to talk and work.
You know, many of us get caught up in what we are doing and although there will always be the geeks, early adopters and simple masochists that want to endure the latest release of everything, not everyone will. So as the human filter for the innovators in IBM we help shape in some way the things that devs come up with and try to get to the people that can find new ways of employing it at work.
Part of the award is that we get to pitch an idea to several of our VPs later in the year… I need to think about that one.
The other day I mentioned at the end of a rather long and tiresome bleat about social media and internal communications that one of IBM’s biggest assets in this area after our culture is the social computing guidelines.
what?
Now you can watch this video (link on the right of the page) that Global Social Media Comms Manager and Power Lunch botherer @adamclyde made about this very subject during his lunch break with our VP, Security Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer, Harriet Pearson (honestly don’t know if she is on Twitter).
If you are wondering what the music is, it’s an updated version of the IBM anthem, which we are all forced to sing and dance to when we get to the office.
Please note what we think differentiates IBM from our competitors, us, the IBMers, because that is how people experience the IBM brand.
And for that matter, your brand too.
Adam is available for birthday parties where tacos are served.
In reply to a question by Robin Crumby my open answer (or rather ramble) to:
“So, if ’social media for internal communication’ doesn’t work for you, what is the alternative?”
Not sure this is an alternative, the confusion lies in what people think the term means.. (hold your breath – ok don’t)
image by adewale oshineye
So what is the role of Internal Comms when it comes to social media? One thing it’s not is to send out messages about the business as if it was just another channel like email, that stuff will carry on regardless, emails from the CEO, intranet articles with news, wins and strategy.
I see our role as enabling our employees (that is everyone from the CEO to the Tea Lady should they want to) to be able to take advantage of ways of exchanging information, ideas, experiences, thoughts and challenges with the people that need it and letting everyone else go about their business. At one level you can include a comment feature to allow and encourage conversations to develop within an intranet article – but that is as much about people talking with each other than the company.
Not so long ago intranet owners were looking at how many hits they were getting on every story, in some odd way thinking that everything on the site was of equal value to everyone. More important (and you don’t need me to tell you) is that the right people get the right information at the right time.
Also Internal Comms has a habit of taking out the very soul of the story (ok a bit strong perhaps) it is trying to sell, turning it into a series of corporate phrases and platitudes, with a rather badly taken photo of the team that “did a great job” people I don’t know and don’t really care about because I have no contact with them . A couple of potted quotes are just that.
Rather that team had been documenting and talking about its challenges and pressures on an internal blog so that others could either help or learn from the experience. Perhaps building one or two strong relationships along the way that leads to greater collaboration and/or innovation in the future. To the business, this I think is more valuable.
That’s one scenario.
Putting communication in the hands of the people, giving them the responsibility for what they want to read and write and contribute to, creating value for the organisation.
Internal Comms can make a huge impact for the business in understanding what the feeling is in the community by listening to what people are talking about, what is making them happy and sad, where the challenges and successes are. This though requires a culture that respects the individuals right to fair speech – not abuse – but the right to criticise processes, put forward alternatives and challenge the status quo, for the better of the business.
I’m not advocating every business set up Lotus Connections tomorrow and tell employees to speak their minds – that would be a disaster for most. As I said before, tools do not make a company social. What I’m saying is they need to get on that path of evolution, especially those companies in the knowledge economy that are locking down the IT desktop. That may mean looking at the current culture, providing education and clear guidelines.
I really think that one of IBM’s biggest strengths is it’s Business Conduct Guidelines. Not every company has them, but they should. We talk a lot about the social computing guidelines but the BCGs have for a long time set clear requirements on what is expected of each person in IBM. The SCG just re-word those for a new type of technology and interaction that so many people find confusing and others find liberating.
I’ll let everyone else sense check this.. gotta run
Not written much here for a while, the odd link and video but this has been because I’ve been on holiday and also busy with a series of projects and activities at work that are just taking more and more time.
"Miles of files" drpritch
But I’m not neglecting my blogging entirely, in fact I’ve been blogging more internally as that is where, right now I need to focus.
I get a bit bored and confused when companies and especially Internal Comms folk start saying that they are using social media for Internal Communications. To me it sounds like they have got the CEO to “write” a blog or get some “safe” employees to write. That misses the point. Sometimes though it means they have a “Facebook-like” system, which if they are really lucky turns out to be employee profiles, often several versions, none of which can be connected to any other applications running in the enterprise, hence making them nothing more than a time-sink.
I would hope Internal Comms is help employees to use social media to work better with each other.. not just utilise it as another “channel” which is fast rising on my list of Top ten twenty thirty most hated words or phrases – along with stakeholder.
How many have email clients, profiles, blogs, forums and micro-blogging integrated into an enterprise-wide platform for social media and a policy that encourages and enables employees to get stuck in (even if we do still have a fair few lagards)?
Even then it’s not the end of the story. Tools and policy are one thing (two I suppose) but a culture that is open, honest and trusting is needed to take advantage of those opportunities, not to mention motivated and questioning employees, part of which is grown out of the trust that is displayed in behaviour by management (no one is perfect but things are relative) that means people take their responsibility as brand ambassadors seriously. Quick note on brand ambassadors, your employees are whether you like it or not, for good or bad.. just try to make it good, eh? Get ‘em to make videos like KFC not Dominoes.
So back to what I was orginaly waffling on about which was a number of projects that I have been involved in. Working with a variety of people with different expectations and practices can get a bit perplexing at times, especially when you are sent 6mb after 6mb file. I’m by no means anti-email like some but I can see better ways of using it rather than being the default for all chat at work.
So I’ve been encouraging some people to get it on with Files on Lotus Connections (we have 2.5 deployed internally). This is made much easier by showing them the time and effort it saves, using other projects as examples.
I’m lucky enough to work with a bunch of people that are mostly pretty good at using things the right way (that is my way) instead of one tool for all jobs. Explaining how a file we were updating on an employee engagement package was being updated and handled between a bunch of us – then showing how Files kept the previous versions (so you don’t have to – as the advert says) went down a treat. Not only that but we could assign each person with certain level of access, and keep changing that level when we jolly well felt like it.
I could then bore you with the amount of time, (sending emails) money (sending emails to people with large attachments that never open them but leave them in their mail file, just in case) and more money (those attachments keep building up with each wave of emails) and confusion (because you all know which file is the right file – the one in Files) you save, but I won’t.
Don’t knock at the door, I’m out
What I have noticed more and more these days is how much time I spend in Lotus Connections rather than my email and how while I was away for a few days recently my status updates came in useful for people. I now not only leave an “out of office” message in Notes but in all my status points. This firstly cut down on un-required email as more people knew I was away before they sent me the damn thing. Secondly the updates that I had been posting related to things that I was working on, intranet pages, files, video etc.. links where people could find what they were looking for.. this useless track of information I had left behind which also included how wet I got on the way to work while cycling actually came in useful for some of the very people that say they don’t have time for such things.
To quote someone more sensible than me, “With social media, forget about the media and concentrate on the social.”
I’m afraid if I get the energy I’ll more rants coming your way too.. must be something to do with the clocks going back or something or my recent discovery and move to Ubuntu Linux. So I might also change my name to Karmic Karl in future.
If you have two mins watch this video of Adam Christiansen on CNBC Power Lunch, not eating tacos, but talking about how IBM has embraced social media.
So for the last time, before I go off my head, any company looking to ignore what people are saying and clamping down on employees using the Internet – IBM’s estimated (we have no idea how many) bloggers are not checked, vetted, censored, scanned or mess around with in any way. People are trusted to use the tools available to them to do business and bring value to our clients and the organisation.
You may ask, why can IBM do this. Well because as Adam says in the video, employees are trusted, it’s one of our values. We have a good set of guidelines and plenty of education (mostly from each other).
If you are one of these companies shutting down access, preventing employees engaging in conversations with clients/customers because, “OMG, it’s so gonna end our company” get real. Even though there have been a couple of “bad” moments on-line (mention no names), it’s not brought any company down to it’s knees. If you think that letting employees go and chat on the web is a problem, you have bigger issues to face up to.
What does bring a company down to it’s knees are poor customer service, bad products, not listening, lack of innovation and generally doing things like you always used to.
I will never touch this subject again. Possibly.
Automatics have always left me a bit cold when it comes to driving experience. An odd thing to say, sounds like marketing talk, but it is true.
Being involved with the car or rather being in control of the car is very important from a number of perspectives. We don’t want to crash or fall asleep (or both). When it comes to the new Toyota Prius, I feel I would probably fall asleep. Not because it is really quiet or has gentle acceleration but that even as the driver you feel like a passenger, just there to push a pedal.
You could busy yourself with the vast array of buttons or see exactly how much fuel you are not using – how eco can you go – but then you are likely to forget you are actually supposed to be looking where you are going. Of course the heads up display (HUD) will take care of some of that meaning you don’t have to try and find the speedo in the dash, which has the feel that it has come from some futuristic power station that men in white coats should be checking from time to time.
On the drive we played around with the three drive settings, EV (Electric only) Eco (default – limits the amount of power you can put through the wheels) or Power (guess what that does). To keep it in EV which will run for 1.2 miles on a full charge is incredibly difficult. I tried to pull away at some lights and it disengaged EV and went back into Eco. The Power setting was only slightly less underwhelming. I’m certainly not the sort of person that goes screaming round corners, not since we had the kids, but you feel detached.
Space is good inside, but for the size of the vehicle it has the opposite feeling to a tardis. Those batteries have to go somewhere and so the boot level is very high making it quite shallow. You can remove to boot floor which has more space underneath and it also carries a (baby) spare wheel, not just a puncture repair kit. But it still seems unsatisfactory for a car of this size.
The standard seat upholstery is seems incredibly flimsy and probably not up to the task of two kids, ice creams and orange juice. You would need to go for the leather upgrade, it’s only another £1800 or so. (gulp)
The rest of the kit is good though, great big hard drive for saving music on, a huge sat nav screen, (which btw won’t let you input post codes for your destination) and the usual electric windows and gubbins, but then at over £22,000 you would expect some of that.
I hope I haven’t slagged it off too much, it is a nice car, but perhaps not for me. When other cars without a hybrid system are now getting very close to the same sort of economy and emission output I’d expect a bit more for the price.
I work in communications, helping employees communicate better with each other, with clients and with the world.
I'm not disclaiming anything written here, but claiming this as my space for my views and my spelling mistakes - I don't represent the views of my employer.
Latest comments