Skip the buy-in and get ‘em addicted!
I’ve posted before on how I think micro-blogging is a low threshold to participation as it merges the concept of reading, blogging, sharing links, chatting, connecting; into the same window…kind of like we do all sorts of communications through the email window. But more accurately the low threshold to participation refers to the level of effort it requires to contribute. Basically, my dad uses status updates in Facebook, but I ain’t gonna see him using a blog or wiki in a hurry.
In Michael Idinopulos’s post, Launch E2.0 broad, then go deep, he talks about how different tools require a different type of participation effort on the micro level. For example micro-blogging requires great participation (network effects) to take off at the macro level, but at the micro level it doesn’t ask much of the user.
Here’s how Michael says it:
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"Some modes of collaboration have a really low threshold of participation: It’s very easy to get started on them because individuals don’t need a ton of engagement to find them useful. Other modes of collaboration have a really high threshold: Users don’t see the point unless they invest a lot of time learning and using the tools. Historically, Enterprise 2.0 implementations have focused on collaborative tools fairly high participation thresholds: blogs and wikis. That’s not by design, it’s by default. Until recently, those were the only Enterprise 2.0 tools that showed potential for high-value business use. Since these activities required a lot of engagement, we smothered our pilot participants with training and encouragement–which forced us to keep the pilots small. Today, Enterprise 2.0 participation is a whole different game. At the "low threshold" end of the curve, we have low-engagement tools like social messaging (internal "Twitter"), social bookmarking. By leading your implementation with these low-threshold tools, you lower the risk of implementation while still launching at the scale required for success."
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This got me thinking about the recent use of Yammer by a few of us at work…I was thinking about Buy-in vs Just do it (Proof of Concept)
At work, like anything, to buy a new product and implement it requires you to get buy-in and all that goes with it…most often something like micro-blogging won’t be seen as important. It’s a hard sell…but once you use it you can’t do without it…people have to "feel" it to understand.
Here’s another approach.
Start using Yammer as a Proof of Concept. It’s free, they host a secure network for you based on your email domain. Then invite someone, and they will invite someone else, and it goes on.
If it takes off and people become hooked, it’s hard for management to point the finger as no one person is responsible for it’s use, and rather than taking it away, they will see that it must obviously have value, and they can offer an installed version.
NOTE: This assumption is based on people actually using it to sense-make at work, and not for personal chatting.
And get this, you can continue to use Yammer or another product like Socialcast, Socialtext Signals, etc. as micro-blogging is different than other content platforms in that there is no need for migration. As it’s more about the moment, once posts are a couple of weeks old they don’t really matter that much (I’m generalising here, but it’s more true than not). This means you can jump to another system without a worry.
When you use free tools as your Proof of Concept, and get people to "feel" a product, and hopefully hooked on it, there is more chance of fulfilling your vision, rather than the big and slow approach of getting hierarchy buy-in, strategy documents, charters, implementation and training requirements.
Grassroots DIY Proof of Concept is how you can creep something into the organisation without being faced by a wall.
Participants in such an informal program are called IT Rogues, but they are just trying to do their job better, and this should be noticed. Something like a rogue wiki is easier to be shut down and point the finger at as it will have an owner and a group using it…whereas if micro-blogging takes off, who do you point the finger at…and how can hundreds/thousands of people be wrong.
The only way I see my advice as a problem is if people use Yammer for non-business use…and if the business will have the problem of not trusting Yammer with their data being leaked.
But if they can see beyond this and want to penetrate the hierarchy, then this experimentation and failure approach is how to cleverly penetrate the hierarchy.
This approach doesn’t have to be done without consent, part of the strategy with the powers that be may be the use of Yammer as a Proof of Concept as a first step, and if this shows signs of success and value, then a second step will be taken
You don’t have to use a free hosted approach, there are many free download and open source micro-blogging products. This addresses the security issue, but then the finger can be pointed at the person who installed it. In this case hopefully instead of getting buy-in, mention that it’s free, and you will get an approval to test it out…little do they know this test may go viral, and become a tool people can’t do without. The power of hosted freemium.
But, what’s for sure is that the problem is not investment. Like Euan Semple says, "if you make the ‘i’ small enough, no-one will care about the R”…as long as the concept is understood.
Why spend time and money on the usual buy-in, strategy, implementation, etc…when you can just get a product download for free and experiment right now….cut to the chase.
The point of this post is that requests for a new product will be slow, may be disapproved, may be implemented the wrong way…instead now we are empowered to demonstrate proof that this is a really good idea buy using a free-hosted service…this wasn’t possible a few years ago
At a meeting 6 months later you may mention to your manager that micro-blogging is a good idea. They may agree or disagree, but either way not have any leadership or time in harnessing the value and passion of your suggestion. That’s when you can say, you want value in seeing how it supports knowledge workers to sense-make, check this out, we are already doing it
In a way, we now have the tools and type of service available that allows knowledge workers to disintermediate management as we have access to the resources we need and make the decision to use them…again this wasn’t possible a few years ago
The goal isn’t disintermediation…humans are self-organising, we do what it takes to create conditions for better sense-making, to be more productive, to be more aware
Yammer seems to have a great business model, as they allow people to get hooked for free, and then offer a premium version if organisations want their own secure version…it’s win win for both Yammer, and organisations.
List of "free enterprise" micro-blogging platforms (either secure hosted or install)
- Yammer
- present.ly
- status.net (formerly Laconica)
- Rev.Ou.com (install only…oops not free)
- co-op (hosted only)
- twingr (not sure if secure hosted)
- ESME
- Oratweet
- CubeTree (hosted only)
- ididwork (hosted only)
- communote (hosted only)
- OpenMicroBlogger (install only)
- Engage (free and hosted for 200 users)
Sources
- Open Source Microblogging
- Twitter on your intranet: 17 microblogging tools for business
- Enterprise Microsharing Tools Comparison
- List of Enterprise Microblogging Tools: Twitter for the Intranet
[ADDED 10/06/10 - Another idea is to join the vendor community. Our document management vendor has a new microblogging/activity feed module. They drink their own champagne by using this module on their customer community. If it’s a selling strategy, it’s only by accident, as we “the customers” find it very useful that we can connect with lots of the vendor staff and other customers like ourselves…good from an engagement, help, and co-creation point-of-view.
Now if I want my work to buy this module, “show and tell” is the most effective way…you have to “feel” micro-blogging. So I could simply show my boss how we work on the customer community using microblogging (getting things done, sense-making, engaging with people, building relationships, sharing)…my boss could even give it a go to get a real taste.
There’s nothing that says “Yes” to buy-in like “seeing and playing” what you want in action, it makes it less a prediction of success for your boss and more a certainty (given cultural constraints of your organisation)]
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Hi John,
Could not agree more, what you have described is exactly the process we followed about 18 months ago. We started using Yammer when a colleague and I wanted to see how it could work. Within 6 months it had over 200 users!
Interestingly it stayed with a group of 20 or so for around 3 or 4 months, then someone (we are still not sure who), invited around 20 other people who in turn invited 20 other people and before we knew it, people from all over the business were on it.
I must admit, there was some consternation from senior management when it started to spread so quickly! The one piece of advice I would suggest, is let your own senior manager know that you are trying it out, as they will inevitably get the first question… we didn’t do that. :-S.
My Colleague Zaana wrote up our experience for a conf paper earlier this year: http://bit.ly/a8NgUu
Comment by Mick Leyden — May 6, 2010 @ 4:47 am
Thx Mick for sharing your experience…just read Zanna’s blog posts, about to read the conference paper.
Like Socialtext say, microblogging really is a stepping stone or the training wheels before moving on to higher effort participation tools like blogs, etc… That’s why I see them offering Signals (microblogging) both as part of their package, but also as a standalone offering.
Great to see that your experience is pretty much spot on to what I was posting about. Not only the flattening or reach you have in the organisation when using these tools, but also the ability to introduce them in the first place…very empowering.
I agree that at some stage management should be in on it…really it’s in their best interest, and what better proof do you want of its viability.
Comment by John Tropea — May 6, 2010 @ 10:41 pm
I forgot to mention. This week our document management system that also has a communities module, just got a microblogging/network module, and it’s FREE!
I’m guessing they figure that if it’s free, people may use it and move on to higher effort participation tools like blogs, forums, wikis that you have to buy as part of the communities module.
But get this, due to low resources our work is getting strict on ad-hoc implementations. So we now require a charter and approval process, that not only goes to my boss, but his grandad boss.
Tick tick tick
Maybe even more so important that we use Yammer in the interim as an example of viability.
BTW
Luis Suarez as a good post and video on miroblogging http://www.elsua.net/2010/04/15/top-10-use-cases-enterprise-microsharing-will-help-you-get-less-email/
And Ross Mayfield has a superb whitepaper
http://www.socialtext.com/offers/images/Microblogging_whitepaper.pdf
Same with the NASA pilot
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12759868/NASAsphere-Pilot-Report-2008-Public
Comment by John Tropea — May 6, 2010 @ 11:16 pm
Mick,
Something I forgot to mention.
Agree with Zaana that integration is key…accessibility, mobility, and design are key to ubiquity (aim is for participation to be a non-thing if it’s embedded in what we do).
I guess you are at the stage where you do need buy-in from others so you can at least provide a link to Yammer on your Intranet and other applications.
I wonder if Yammer provides stats on how people access it.
I’m an early adopter and even I forget to visit for just a read (lucky for the email digest).
I think the desktop app (and I guess the mobile app) is key to accessibility, therefore participation…this is a way to imitate the inbox concept.
To read or update needs to be available 5 seconds after you think about it just like flicking emails
Comment by John Tropea — May 7, 2010 @ 1:44 am
Thought I’d share a great comment about this post that happened over in a LinkedIn thread by Martin Farley:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=20130656&gid=112679&commentID=16960091&trk=view_disc
“I realised that John’s blog post covers most of my points.
Put simply, I am reluctant to place too much architecture or structure to it, until users have had a chance to lead the process. I view initial use of micro-blogging as a bit of an experiment (proof of concept if you like), which can be integrated into the rest of our systems/processes at a later date (maybe 6-12 months in). What I love about E2.0 is that once you open something up, other people always come up with uses/ideas that I (or any other central facilitator) would never have thought of.
I have been involved in many projects over the years that have been carefully structured, expertly built, and comprehensively rolled out and have then gone absolutely nowhere because users just don’t take to the new system/product. I’d rather start with the problem of popular, if erratic or chaotic, use and then build restrictions and structure in a more reactive way.
In John’s parlance, I think that makes me an “IT Rogue”! I wonder if my boss will let me change my job title to that!
)”
Other valid comments were about the disadvantage of standalone micro-blogging products as they cannot be integrated into the context of projects or collaboration workspaces.
Our document management vendor just released a micro-blogging/activity stream module and I am already realising the benefit of microblogging within the context of a document or folder, etc… eg. each document can have a comments stream, same with folder.
Further to this we already have profiles in the document management system, as we already use it, so it’s a place people already visit.
Comment by John Tropea — May 28, 2010 @ 7:43 am