Social Networking is a Cultural Revolution

We’ve always networked socially. It is an inherent characteristic of being human. It’s in our genes. We are communication animals…from around the campfire to Twitter. Connecting is the foundation of human culture. Different generations simply do it differently.

Joshua Michele Ross, a social networking luminary, stated it this way in Forbes Magazine: “Human beings are innately social. We are designed to share and connect with others. Period. What's more, we are born into cultures that provide a blueprint for how to communicate and organize.”

Josh believes we are seeing a democratization and acceleration of communications. Everyone has a broadcast tower that is real-time across the planet. Since communication is the foundation of government, business, and culture, when you scale up communications, you change the world.

If you want a new, creative idea every nanosecond about social and generational impacts on modern day culture—meet Lance Dublin (www.dublinconsulting.net). Lance is one of the few over 50-somethings who understands generational differences in terms of how people communicate.

Boomers are One-to-One Communicators. Telephones, network TV, CNN pushing the news 24/7, are examples of how Boomers are comfortable getting information from reliable sources. The communication (cultural) revolution that changed their world was CNN getting and reporting the news during the first Gulf War.

Gen Xers are One-to-Many Communicators. Blast emails, webinars, webcasts, You Tube, and other web-based outlets are preferred modes for getting and using information for this group. Google and Wikipedia are children of the Gen X Web-based revolution.

Millenniums are One-to-Many-to-Many Communicators. When Capt. Sullenberger crashed US Airways 1549 safely into the Hudson River, the news spread through social networks like wildfire. People learned what happened long before Charlie Gibson summarized the day.

The trick is to understand your target user's medium of choice—and to try and tailor your communications and communications style with that medium.

Social networking is a cultural and generational revolution. People are choosing to get and share information not just from an expert source nor only from the people they know and trust. They are getting it from social networks of thousands of people they may not even know.

It’s not about the technology. It’s about the commonality among these generational differences and the need for human connection. There will always be a new technology—that’s inevitable. Therefore, the technology itself is not what this revolution is all about. How we use new technologies to communicate, to keep in touch, and to stay connected is what it’s all about. New ways we think and communicate with each other is the essence of how cultures transform.

What Does a Business Leader Do After a RIF?

Greg Robin and I had lunch this week and found ourselves discussing the stresses companies are under during this difficult economic period. Almost every company is feeling the pinch and many have suffered reductions in force (RIFs) or layoffs. American and worldwide statistics are staggering.

What does a business leader do after he or she has downsized or laid off employees? Two things: (1) attack other costs, and (2) focus on retaining and keeping your best people from getting discouraged.

Saving Money. If you want to contain costs, look at all of your processes and analyze them systematically with an eye toward streamlining—especially those processes that require data sharing. For example, if order taking data is accurately transferred to service delivery personnel, you will avoid costly errors in the field. Minimize errors with a collaborative data sharing process. Greg uses Quick Base, a web-based Intuit product, to enhance the efficiency of processes across the spectrum including accounting, project management, HR, order management, knowledge management, marketing and more. (See Greg’s Productivity Advisors).

Saving People. After a RIF, there is usually more work to be done with fewer people. Making sure they are secure, productive, and don’t burn out is essential. After a layoff, employees are nervous and concerned about when the next shoe is going to drop. That alone can lead to lower productivity as people lose focus and spend unnecessary time and energy singing “Woe is Me” and complaining about the company. Hopefully, you’ve retained the best and the brightest…but will you be able to keep them? Even in the worst of times, good people find opportunities—or opportunities come looking for them. Unwanted turnover (losing the best people) is very costly.

Here are some things you can do after a RIF.

--Communicate openly and honestly…over and over again. People appreciate accurate information. Rumors are deadly.

--Reaffirm your company values. Employees whose values match the company’s values are loyal, they like where they are, they work hard and stick around.

--Align your team by rewarding those who live the values of your company. Public recognition for collaborative actions (teamwork); getting things done on schedule as promised (integrity); sharing best practices (communication), for example, shows how much you appreciate values-based performance. A verbal pat on the back is a powerful motivator and costs nothing but your thoughtful attention.

Remember: the best employees stay in companies where their personal values match the values of the company where they work. In tough economic times it’s a good time to reaffirm your company’s values-driven corporate culture: the way we do things around here.