Posts tagged social media

Have You Witnessed Outstanding Service?

Apr07
2010 3 Comments Written by Steve

After a long morning, I decided to step away from the office and take my lunch at one of the local eateries, Wildflower Bread Company located in the Chandler Fashion Mall. I really was feeling the need for their Caribbean salad and some quiet time. I was treated to my usual expectations of the food, enjoyed it very much. My post is really not about a food review. It is truly about what I witnessed while I was sitting in my booth, enjoying my food and catching up on the morning twitter stream.

What did I see? I saw some really outstanding service. It had nothing to do with the service that I got, but the service I witnessed for another customer. This lady sat down and was waiting on her food, she definitely was not having a good day. You could tell by the way she was acting; she was frustrated about something and it had her overall mood down. When her food came, she smiled and started to eat. After a few minutes the food delivery person for Wildflower came by to clean up. Without asking (he noticed by the amount of food left) he asked her. “did you not like your soup?” She commented that it was a bit spicy for her (something real close to that). He added that maybe she would rather have a different soup. She said that was not necessary, but he went off and got one anyways. She was about to leave, when the soup arrived. She sat back and enjoyed that soup very much, nothing was left. She had a smile on her face when she left. You could tell that with that one small act – her mood had changed significantly.

I did not get that person’s name (or I would publish it here). But, I did tweet out this act of great service. This morning when I logged in the Wildflower CEO, @WildflowerCEO – thanked me for my kind words. For me, it was not about the service I got, even though it was good. It was truly about what I witnessed and how that turned that particular person’s day around. Letting others know about the service via twitter was my way for saying thanks. Getting an answer back from the CEO, bonus.

For the folks in Chandler or any other Wildflower Bread Company location, stop by, enjoy the food and service – I do!

Anyone else have a nice story of some outstanding customer service that they have received or witnessed? Please share…

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Spin-o-rama Gets a Birthday

Mar21
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Spin-o-rama turned one this past week!

In 2009, I took some goals that were both professional and personal. I have been blogging internally now for about 3 years and have really enjoyed the experience. One goal was to kick off my external blogging and everything that goes with it. After looking back this past week, I have to say – you met your goal. Some simple accomplishments…

  • I set my goal for posts at 100: surpassed it by 5.
  • Learned something new: again learning WordPress was the goal, but having an externally hosted blog is much more to learn. I got a quick crash course… Been learning everyday since.
  • Changed the theme of Spin-o-rama 3 times. I can’t sit still – so, keeping the same theme is not going to happen.
  • Met some very interesting people because of my blog. Many of them have helped me tremendously.

My goals for Spin-o-rama’s second year – is to increase my overall postings both in quantity and quality! Looking for 175! Learn how to fix the broken RSS – not sure what is happening (others have tried to help with no success). Change the theme only once this year (need to find that “one” that really hits a home run for me).

Hope you have enjoyed the past year…

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My Afternoon/Evening of Volunteering

Feb04
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Yesterday was a special day for me! I spent the afternoon leading a team of judges for Haley Elementary Science Fair and the evening talking to parents about projects. I want to share the journey from setting up getting the volunteer judges to judging and finishing up with the evening events.

Getting volunteers sometimes is difficult. Especially since this has to happen during the workday. This year I used my internal social media tools to get potential volunteers. I blogged about needing some judges – what it was about, what they would be doing and last year’s experience. Updated my status – looking for judges.. Tweeted out on Twitter. Got my list of candidates month in advance. I always make sure to get plenty because as time went on, priorities change and work gets in the way – so we lost some judges.

The day of the event! I was nervous about the event – will I have enough judges and will they all show up kept running through my head. To start the day, a couple judges had to conflicts that they just could not avoid. So, I reach out to a few friends just in case. Before I knew it, it was time to travel to the school. On the way, I had a few calls to make – getting some judges on speed dial… Arrived and checked in – I then walked through the tables of 5th and 6th grade projects. I was pretty impressed with the level this year (overall better than last year). As my judges showed up, we got together and split up the judging into teams and attacked the judging just like any other project. Each team spent the next 3 plus hours reviewing over 25 science project reports and boards. Using the supplied scoring sheets to help us guide through what needs to be reviewed. The top 6 get selected to go onto the next review. Wow, my head hurt at the end. This year, I saw a few projects that were out of the norm for 6th grade (very nice to see). At the end, the judges were tried, but were very happy with the experience.

Next up is - an evening viewing of all grades science projects, where the students, their siblings and parents come in and get to share in their science project experiences.  Watching the students show off their work to mom and dad - priceless. What I really enjoyed were the number of parents that expressed their “I’m impressed, job well done” to their kids. Simple words that go a long way…

This year, the Haley teachers and staff added many different items to make the evening really special.

  • Math breakout sessions where the students and parents could learn fun new ways to help teach math at home.
  • A reptile exhibit were the parents and students could touch. Well, the students did most of the touching. That snake was huge!
  • Out on the sport court, telescopes set up for planet viewing.
  • The student council was selling snacks – all proceeds donated to Haiti Relief efforts.

It was just a great day for the students, teachers and staff of Haley Elementary. My team enjoyed themselves… And I definitely had a great time. I am looking forward to doing this again next year…

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Command & Control vs Collaborative

Jan20
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

I have struggled with this topic for quite some time. I have pretty much worked in 3 organizations all my life (2 large ones – US Army and Intel; 1 small – Myron’s Service Center).  No one will argue that the military is anything but command and control… Oh, don’t get me wrong there is some collaborative work going on, but in the heat of the battle – command and control wins. As long as the order is lawful, the simple answer is to carry it out. I remember my drill instructor say, “If I say jump, you ask how high. Got it?”. That seems to wrap it up.

I wrestle with the notion of when is it time to skip the command & control and move towards a move collaborative approach. When you look back – command and control seemed to work well, when the boss knew more or had more access to information. Those times are changing. Information has become available to just about everyone, thanks to the information revolution. Teams today are more globally dispersed – where it used to be the company (where most groups acted independently) that was global. Things need to change – or maybe – things are forcing the change. In order for me to get my work done, I have to be more collaborative than ever before. I have to be willing to give up some command & control. What makes me think I can do it better or faster?

What are helping drive these changes?

  • Enterprise 2.0 technologies – Speed of communications and collaboration. Information is available and shared with all.
  • People – are demanding these tools. Technology is a funny thing, the more comfortable you are growing up with it, the more you demand when you get older. I am afraid that I am an exception to the rule. But, when I look at the workforce today, this is a definite trend.
  • Micro-managing scares folks away - we all know the workplace studies that show that people leave because of their boss more so than their job. I have come across this a couple of times in my career. I have left very good positions that I loved doing, because the person that I reported to was a micro-manager. I have stayed in terrible positions because I have worked for some amazing people (the job, I can make better).
  • Workforce is more global - For me, this is extremely true. I have people that I work with everyday – and only one of them sits in the same general physical location as I. In order to keep everything going – we have to use these tools. We have to be willing to make it fit within our normal work flow.

Will large established corporate culture change overnight? Will it happen at all? Overnight, no way. Resistance is always going to be there. Giving up command & control is not easy. It takes people to change. Moving their cheese is not a good thing, at least not to them. The shift has to happen. Many small to medium size companies are doing it and finding some great results within innovation and great places to work. When that happens – all the great people will come running. So, the big ones have to shift or stay the course on the path that they are on. That path does lead to a slow and painful death – I believe folks have some examples they could share on that…

Thoughts?

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Predictions – What I would like to see!

Dec29
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

The days for 2009 are going fast.. By the time some have read this post – we are in 2010 already. I am not one for predicting the future – as if I could I would be independently worthy and enjoying myself on my own island somewhere.  In the spirit of the this time of year, I want to put my top ten list of predictions for the upcoming year. These are in no particular order or category…

  1. The economy will rebound not once but 3 times. We all have heard that the corner has turned, but I predict that we will be turning that corner more than a few times. When will we really see a true turn around?
  2. Role models will not be celebrities or sports figures in the future. Mass media will stop painting them as role models – we don’t need the disappoint. Go back to really showing the true role models. This means – local area news will have to feature ordinary folks doing extra-ordinary stuff for no reason at all. Just because is good enough.
  3. Human interaction has gone more on-line everyday. I predict that dinner time conversations will make a comeback. Verbally discussing the day activities rather than texting, emailing, wall to wall or twittering updates. I am an empty nester now, so – for me that maybe a bit tougher to do, but every chance I get – I want the discussion verbally..
  4. Electronic gadgets will continue to spring up all over the place. My hope is that Intel chips are everywhere.. Which could have an impact on the stock! The only downside – too many gadgets, so little time.
  5.  Arguments around social computing (Enterprise 2.0) technologies internally will move from what and why to implementation of more agile capabilities that do not tie to one size fits all philosophy I see with most companies. I do want my cake and eat it too… Why can’t I have both?
  6. After years of complaints, software vendors will insure that upgrading or their new releases – will not require hours of work to insure that what I already have will work in the new. Seems that every upgrade has me spending hours to relearn, migrate my content or reset up permissions. Enough already – using your stuff was supposed to save me time.
  7. Decisions that I have been putting off – will move to the forefront of my to do list. We all have stuff that we should do, know we should do; but put off due to too many other reasons. I am saying no more excuses… Time to do something for me.
  8. There are way too many overly serious folks in the world. Fun, should not be something that you have to schedule, force or demand. Fun should just happen. Smile more, laugh more. Surprising how better you feel.
  9. Educating the future will become a reality. Budgets will match the expectations of what we want to happen. Time to prioritize the future – and stop living in the past…
  10. I will get to know my neighbors. It is amazing how when I was growing up in the 70′s – every house had a front porch and neighbors used to talk with each other. Today, how many front porches do you see? How many of your neighbors do you really know? For me, I know I have to do better…
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E2.0 – My Short Summary (and Struggles)

Nov05
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

I have spent the past 3 days attending the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, CA. Where I work, we like to sit back and assess where we are (and of course, we like to lead – wherever possible). I plan on posting my complete assessment of the conference in another post…  But,  first a small tease of a blog post…

As I sit in SFO waiting on my 5:30pm flight (there was no earlier one for me), I thought why not post something to get the juices going. I think most companies can make a case that they love competition – and wanting to be  first in almost everything they do. When a challenge is put to the employee base that I work with  - they deliver, hands down and are very proud of that fact. In the area of internal usage of Enterprise 2.0 capabilities – well, in my humble opinion we are just okay.

The conference this time around (last year in Boston – it was more about getting started) – I was able to see many large enterprises stand up and discuss their successes in Enterprise 2.0 collaboration capabilities. Some outstanding results! Some definite struggles along the way. I spent plenty of time in sessions, in hallways, at dinner, in the bar and just standing outside at the conference – picking their brains. There is one thing that I walked away with - where I work – we are not too far behind, but does have some ways to go before we can stand up and be counted with the others. 

The key take-away(s) for me from them all are:

  • Great Management Support is not only necessary, but is key to success. Watching two companies senior leaders stand up and talk about their experiences and the resistance that they faced from their peers – and how they just plowed ahead… Wow, I felt jealous.
  • It is not about the technology – it is about the PEOPLE. Making it part of their workflow is the only way these capabilities are going to be around for a long time. Email – we can laugh now, but back in the day – it faced the same similar start-up issues. Look at it now, well don’t – I try not too.
  • Resistance is around every corner and it is not a generational resistance. Of course, the new employees coming into the workforce are used to some of the capabilities. As I walked around the conference – I saw plenty of the “other” generations using the capabilities and talking about them! For me, I was with my peeps. I was not the old fart sitting there!
  • Fear – seems like someone is afraid of something. What if’s can slow down everything that we do. Those folks that have plowed ahead – have documented the times that the fears have really come to the surface. Many of them reported out that they have had very little problems. Have people posted some stuff that was offensive – none. Has stuff be leaked outside of the enterprise that should not have – nothing more than what they have found in email or papers left in the trash. In fact – the comment was – since everything is inside the firewall – well, it was safer. A quote that got me from one of the senior folks was “I can’t stop you from being stupid, but I sure can point out how stupid you are.” Who is really hurt?
  • Adoption, Adoption and fostering success. Many of the companies are starting to see a need for community managers that this is their full time job to help teams with communications, collaboration and connecting to people and information. Some have tried the volunteer route only to see limited success.
  • Whatever you do, don’t take no for an answer! Personally, I don’t like that one. I see it as, I will take the no for now and come back later… There are so many opportunities and wasting my time on some of them – is only going to frustrate me. I don’t want to be frustrated. I will come back to that opportunity later!

There is much more that I want to write.. But, that will be coming early next week. I wanted to get something out that I think really sets a stage for our internal struggles.

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Internal Social Computing Adoption Stories

Oct21
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

I have been spending a lot of my time, talking and evangelizing our internal social computing capabilities. I bet that the cube mates around me, could easily repeat my discussions. I feel like a broken record at times. The funny thing is – I am not getting tired of the discussions and opportunities. The fact that people want to spend time getting to know more – is exciting in and of itself.  I am able to quickly gauge the overall level of interest and how successful these discussions are going to go. I have had some really good one and some that you just know are not going to turn into anything.

The level of engagement from some of our internal business units and some leaders in the organization has been very positive of late. So much so, that I am having to go over this stuff with many members of their organizations. Has our internal social computing turned the corner? I don’t think so completely. I do feel like we are moving closer to turning the corner. Why you may ask? Simple – I have not had to seek out anyone over the past two weeks. Everyone is coming to me (and others on my team). Positive steps in the right direction. Are we still having plenty of Nay-Sayers? Yes – but I have more than enough that want to – to keep me busy.

Yesterday, I attended a virtual conference for one of the support groups that normally are not very open to trying new things. Since travel restrictions are still in effect – they needed to step out of their usual thinking and do something different (and still have the conference be interactive). So, they posed the problem – I offered a number of potential solutions (all within the social computing capabilities that we have internally). They jumped on them. The first part of their conference was to inform everyone how to use the capabilities and what is already started. After listening to the first 3 hours of content and the use of the social tools – I am impressed that they have many folks that are jumping into the pool. I just have to see how it all plays out the rest of the week. Good start!

I had two additional calls yesterday afternoon that were more of information gathering on their part. Midway through each of them – they were problem solving with the stuff that I communicated to them. Going places and areas I have yet to see. Are they understanding and ready to go? I feel that they are. Within minutes of closing the discussion they were already requesting what they needed to get started. I asked if it was okay for me to participate – more of an observer, but if I could help – I will. They were all for it.

At the end of the day, there is only one of me… A couple of others as well (but they have day jobs).. There is way too much to do and hungry folks to feed. Spending cycles with the Nay-Sayers and doubters – just is not worth it. I am for getting the strong examples of success and showcasing them; rather than fighting a battle of the I just don’t get it or who cares – social computing is for fun (I have work to do).

Anyone else having a similar moment going on with their implementations and adoption of social computing in the enterprise?

Posted in Leadership, Observations - Tagged , ,

Social Computing Inside the Enterprise

Sep10
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Plenty of stuff has been said about social computing, enterprise 2.0, web 2.0 – pick a name. Much of what you read and listen to is externally focused. The arguements come when you try to apply external tools and capabilities to inside the firewall. I posted a blog – months ago on “Why Managers Fear Internal Social Computing” - this was my initial reaction to some of the struggles I have witnessed. Have they changed some – maybe just a little. What I really want to write about is some of the bumps and bruises along the way. Maybe share some watch out for this or that points. Nothing is ever perfect, so if you are on the internal enterprise enterprise 2.0 journey – the ride is definitely bumpy.

Where to start? Let’s start off with maybe a strategy and insuring that you have that strategy! What is it that you are attempting to do? Many companies that I have talked with are running into – my CEO or “C” type person saw them and wants them. Better make sure you step back and figure out what business problems you are trying to fix. Average age of the company is getting a bit long in the tooth, having troubles hiring the “new kids”, or work teams are struggling to communicate or collaborate together because of time and distance? Figure out the problems first… The situation near and dear to me, we had tons of grass roots efforts throughout the company. Smart people, bringing in tools to help them get their jobs done. Be prepared for trying to corral those efforts. Your strategy has to include those.

Set up some rules of engagement – social tools outside in the internal – have very little rules. But, if you are bringing them into the enterprise, you better have some rules. While you are at that you may as well set up a governance structure. Having this done early on, could have you avoid some delays or concerns later on. Putting those in place, after the horse has left the barn – well, difficult for those implementing and much harder for the users to understand later on. Remember from the paragraph from above, the grass roots efforts – well, you know have rules of engagement – some folks get turned off.

Confront the fears of the managers and senior leadership. Even though some of them have come to you asking for these capabilities – fear is there. Security policies, perception, attacking the corporate culture, negative perceptions and am I getting my return on my investment. If you do not tackle those – the journey is going to slow down to a crawl. Make sure that you have senior leaderships committment. Words alone are not enough, they are out there demonstrating.

Have ambassdors or stewards to help others with adoption of these capabilities. Training manuals are worthless!  Get out and demonstrate what could happen. After awhile – you will have a laundry list of use cases (some you knew, some that you didn’t and those that are yet to be developed) to help you with this task. One key point here – revisit your strategy to insure that you are definitely making whatever you are going to use – fit within the normal workflow of the employees. If this is just another tool or capabilities – if the “what is in it for me” is not visualized – well, it will be come another one of the tools in the graveyard of failures. Once you have the use cases and more success stories, you get your ROI. You just have to have the senior leadership on board to make the investment to start – and if enterprise 2.0 does not get us any return – stop the funding. If it does – keep investing.

One more item to think about is, what is your corporate culture? Is the culture one that shares openly or does the culture normally lock everything down? I believe that you can have your cake and eat it too. There definitely is some information that should not be shared openly within the enterprise. The opposite is equally as true. You have to have the capabilities to keep information private, but that should be the exception and not the rule. Again – make sure that you have this in your strategy. You may have to work with the security and HR folks. Security to insure that you are putting the right levels in place. HR because depending on how you reward your employee’s – there may need to be a different rewards system in place.

These are some of the bumps and bruises that I have witnessed along the way. I am a very strong advocate that enterprise 2.0 capabilities can help me with my job (hence helping others). For me, I find that this has been a wonderful experience and has restored my passion for what I do.

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Debate Rages On

Aug24
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

This past Friday (8/21), I was asked if my internal blog post could be featured up on our company home page. Like everyone that gets these requests – we all say yes. Traffic to your blog posts are a good thing, right? This blog post was nothing more than sharing a YouTube video on Social Media – Is it a fad or a revolution.  Seems harmless, just trying to share with the internal employee base on what is happening out in the world.

Social Media Revolution on YouTube

It did not take long for my excitement of getting increased readership turn to oh no, what did I do. I was hit with an increased amount of traffic (comments within the blog are ok) in email, instant messages and phone calls. Some folks, giving me the business on – what, you on Circuit to down right nasty comments on the subject matter (social media).

  • The comments in the blog post ranged from – thanks for sharing to social media is crap. What has it done, what will it do and show me where it has helped. All great opportunities to demonstrate the capabilities. Just in the post alone, you can share that their concerns and thoughts – and demonstrate how they can get answers to their questions and answers.
  • The emails – for those that have not read a previous post of mine - I have been doing everything in my power to get out of as much email as I can. So, the Circuit link went up at 11am. My noon email sync – did not get me much email, but my 3pm one – 20 emails on that subject alone. It was a late Friday type of day, but I was swamped with answering emails.
  • IM’s popping up – letting me know they saw my mug on Circuit. Always nice to get some ribbing from folks. I have to be able to take it, because I dish it out..
  • A couple of phone calls to boot. What shocked me more than anything was that my phone rang. I usually only get cold calls or magazine subscription inquiries (and the occasional United Blood Services needing blood donors). The calls I received were pretty good ones. Folks, that I did not know that wanted to talk about how they could use some of the capabilities.

I really enjoy getting the additional traffic – when your stuff is linked to the company homepage – well, traffic increases thousands of percentage points. Of course, we know that blogging is just not about posting content. Engaging in the discussions, comments and additional blog posts – are just as important. I spent quite a bit of time, doing just those things. I believe strongly in the tools and capabilities that they have and continue to evolve to bring to us. The road to educate the users – is still a big opportunity. I was reminded of that – Friday!

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