Enterprise social media

[Stephen Brown]

Hi,

I'm considering the use of an enterprise social media tool such as yammer,jive, chatter etc.

This would form part of our online learning offering, with the aim of our colleagues sharing, collaborating and ultimately learning from each other.

I'm keen to get something up and running in the next two months, and the free version of Yammer (for example) appeals to me.

I will have the inevitable internal challenges around info security etc to negotiate, but I wondered if anyone can share their experience of this type of implementation, and what the possible pitfalls maybe.

Any guidance would be very much appreciated.

Stephen

[Jonathan Winter]

Hi Stephen, here are some links and notes that may be useful (from discussions with IBM, Siemens, Electronic Arts and others) http://www.careerinnovation.com/social-media-go-mainstream/

I also find Euan Semple's commonsense (and very experienced) advice on this topic useful: http://euansemple.com/theobvious/

Best wishes,

Jonathan Winter.

[Stephen Brown]

Great, thanks Jonathan

[David Bramley]

I hear what you are saying about security and this will be an issue, but by far the biggest challenge will be getting people to participate.  I've written a piece based on the thoughts of Harold Jarche Jane Hart and John Stepper to provide a theoretical and practical guide to collaboration through an enterprise social network:  http://www.cih.org/resources/PDF/Policy%20free%20download%20pdfs/Le...

Hopefully this will provide you with a few ideas

[Stephen Brown]

Thanks for the tips David!

[Jasmine Malki]

Hi Stephen

 

We are about to launch Yammer at our firm - a medium sized law firm in Melbourne, Australia. I've had to do a lot of work influencing our partners about the business case for Yammer but I think I am slowly getting there. I have mainly used the angle of the benefits of social business to get them across the line.

 

We got around the security issue with making an initial decision not to discuss any client information on Yammer. This limits collaboration opportunities on work our lawyers are doing but we thought it was the best way to launch it in the first instance as a forum to exchange more general learning, knowledge and expertise until poeple feel comfortable with it. If someone asks for an example of a particular document etc, staff will reply with a doc ID instead of attaching the document itself.

 

We spoke to Yammer about how they store our information and felt comfortable with their security measures.

 

I agree with David that the biggest challenge is getting poeple on there and contributing. Lawyers don't work out loud by nature, they are super conservative and hate making mistakes (especially in public!). We are getting around this by getting our leaders to make it ok to make mistakes internally (the idea of a safefail vs a failsafe - borowed from Harold Jarche via David Snowden). We are also demonstrating what can be shared. I also overhear conversations and ask people to jump on Yammer and continue them there. It's a mindset change which will take time, I am sure.

 

We decided to go with the paid version of Yammer so we could get more support and I have found that has been very helpful - I am part of the YCN - Yammer Customer Network and we get lots of support from Yammer employees. They offer ideas, answer questions etc. They do live what they preach.

 

We started with phase 1 - getting roughly 60 people out of 400 using it. They ranged from partners to management to support staff to graduates. Some of these people are now 'yampions' who are helping me launch Yammer.

 

I also got lots of help and advice from local organisations using Yammer and asked them about their experiences - eg National Australia Bank, AMP, Hall & Wilcox - they were all very happy to share which is what I love about social learning!

 

Here is a great blog post by Ryan Tracey re how to make Yammer a success in your organisation -

http://ryan2point0.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/drivers-of-yammer-use-i...

 

Please let me know if you have any questions and good luck!

Jasmine

[Stephen Brown]

Thanks Jasmine, appreciate you taking the time to help.

Were further on now, and are looking to take a similar phased approach with leaders of the business taking plunge first to hopefully drive acceptance and engagement with the social tool (which isn't Yammer!)

I found from looking at the market of social tools that they all offer similar functionality and it was more about choosing what was best for us now commercially, and from a security perspective.

We're looking to launch in October, so I'll maybe post an update or blog of my experiences (good or bad) once we're into it.

Steve

[Dave Pearson]

Comments in this thread sound familiar to me since we have Yammer in-house and I have led an effort to embed Yammer in our dept (300 people) and use across our organisation (few tens of thousands). There are so many perspectives, challenges and opportunities. However, the one piece that kept coming up that I had to address head on was the view that "our leaders aren't using it so it's not of value". Get to the most senior leaders, help them use it and encourage them to continue to show themselves on it. The rest then do take note and it helps drive acceptance. Good luck on your journey. Dave.

[Stephen Brown]

Thanks Dave, senior sponsorship is certainly my strategy. Fingers crossed!