Produced by Lesley Crook and co-hosted by the IABC and EEA as part of a wider investigation into how organisations can demonstrate Working Out Loud behaviours, this presentation evening explored how companies can utilise Enterprise Social Networks to engage employees and ultimately improve business functioning.
After the event, Crowdoscope hosted a discussion to discover attendee’s key learnings and how they intend to champion these insights and integrate them within their respective companies.
INSIGHTS FROM THE EXPERTS
A Yammer Story
Kate Senter, GlaxoSmithKline
Kate Senter, GlaxoSmithKline
Kate provided an honest, amusing account of the trials and tribulations associated with successfully integrating Yammer in GSK UK. Her take-home points for anyone faced with the same challenge were to have champions at the ready primed to spread the word, to encourage and support senior leaders, and to ultimately be consistent and constant throughout.
Enterprise Engagement – Some thoughts on why it matters
Crispin Manners, The Employee Engagement Alliance
Crispin Manners, The Employee Engagement Alliance
Opening with a convincing set of stats on strong engagement and profitability correlations in major corporations, Crispin talked the audience through typical weaknesses of engagement, such as the wonderfully sincere “Keep Calm and Radiate Positivity” mentality. He completed the statistic sandwich with some numbers that showed how successfully engaging employees using the principles of SCARF can produce some big time and cost savings for companies.
The Changing Landscape
Allison Maguire, Enterprise Strategies
Allison Maguire, Enterprise Strategies
Allison emphasised how the world of work is changing, explaining the changing landscape and asking the audience “Will you be a social organisation? Or will you be competing against social organisations?” She later made the case for ESNs, explaining how they can help organisations to make the most of their experts at every level, to produce speedy decisions, solutions, innovations and to respond quickly to the market.
Yammer for Marketing Divisions
Stephen Morris, Merck
Stephen Morris, Merck
Recalling his time at GSK, Stephen provided another Yammer success story for GSKs global marketing division. Building on Kate’s key points, Stephen emphasised the need to circulate country briefings on Yammer activity, to create a competitive edge and enhance interactivity by nominating Yammer Posts of the Year, as well as to include Yammer mentions in monthly newsletters.
Working Out Loud In A Network
Lesley Crook, Consultant – Digital transformation
Lesley Crook, Consultant – Digital transformation
Inspired by John Stepper’s model of ‘Working Out Loud’ based on the principles of relationships, generosity, visible work, purposeful discovery and having a growth mindset, Lesley’ spoke through her reworked concept endorsed by Microsoft – ‘Working Out Loud In a Network’ – which applies these principles in a business context.
INSIGHTS FROM THE ATTENDEES
Responding to the main discussion question – “What’s the main thing you have learnt from this event that could support your organisation? Please explain.” – attendees shared their insights from the event on Crowdoscope and evaluated the responses of other attendees. The top 3 responses ranked by the community according to their relevance to other organisations are listed below.
#1 – No Place for Complacency
“That having a ‘build it and they will come’ mentality is not enough, it takes a dedicated effort to raise awareness, champion the platform, encourage use and then to maintain it. It’s ok if things don’t always move at the speed you would like them to.”
“That having a ‘build it and they will come’ mentality is not enough, it takes a dedicated effort to raise awareness, champion the platform, encourage use and then to maintain it. It’s ok if things don’t always move at the speed you would like them to.”
#2 – Find your Champions
“Ensure you have fully-briefed champions ready to support. And don’t be afraid to force them.”
#3 – Pitch for Profitability
“I learn’t that one of the main barriers is the difficulty in creating a clear line of sight between ESNs and profitability. Business leaders see ESNs as a nice to have or a Gen Y issue, not one that can increase market share, revenues, collaboration and ultimately leading to business success.”
