Patience is a virtue, but only one
June 26, 2008
IDC analyyst Rachel Happe is one of the sharpest tacks on the analyst block. I know because I had her on my microblogging panel at Enterprise 2.0 earlier in the month where she rattled out facts and explanations that added genuine value to the conversation. So her post: Do Enterprises Have the Patience to Develop Communities? struck a particular chord with me.
Unless you are incredibly fortunate and/or are part of an organization that has a high social quotient, it takes time to build up the community aspects of a community network. It also takes a lot of work by a few dedicated people, prepared to reach out to the community they are trying to serve. Rachel identifies one metric which serves to work against community building:
Measuring communities based on quarterly earnings calendars is a bad way to go but most businesses are focused on short term performance. We are under such intense pressure to show results that we often abort efforts that play out over longer periods.
This is precisely why I think many companies will fail. The benefits of robust communities to a business are enormous and those tantalizing benefits will lead many companies to try to adopt a community strategy…
Regardless of adoption and tool use robust communities require community leaders (not just sponsors), rich interactions between members, and a collective sense of the community as a whole. Those subtle characteristics cannot be manufactured in any other way but to have the community develop those traits organically over time.
Rachel goes on to describe three stages of development and growth spanning two or more years. On the basis of my experience to date with IT Counts, I think she is right, with the greatest concentration of effort required in the first 12 months. Oliver Marks, who is both a ZDN blogger colleague and good pal comments that:
To some extent this is about tapping the zeitgeist and amplifying it, this seems a quick way to get up and running.
The challenge is that many of these pre existing employee communities and relationships are working together despite the adversity of their corporate conditions.
I’d take that a step further. In the patterns I see emerging, it seems that a tiny group - less than a dozen in a very large organization - can be the ongoing locus for driving content and value while the wider community circles around, perhaps dipping its toes into the water from time to time. These community rock stars (trust me, I’m not over using that hackneyed phrase when I take into account the effort they put in) need to be fed through encouragement and mutual support. That’s why for example on the SAP community network, there are mentor areas where issues can be worked through in private. It’s not about secrecy but about protection and safety for those who put their time, effort and reputations on the line in what is almost always a voluntary capacity.
The more I think about these kinds of issue, the more I believe that companies willing to support community initiatives really need to embed nurturing of their own people into their DNA. The humanizing issue to which Euan Semple alludes. For many middle managers, this is anathema. In a recent discussion with colleagues, one person said: “Job number one for middle managers is keeping their job.” If that means taking zero risk then that’s what they’ll do.
Professional firms are, by their nature conservative yet they advise clients on taking risk day in day out. It seems a paradox then that the very people you would imagine capable of articulating policies that would help build community are most likely to shy away from such things. Yet curiously, IT Counts seems (as an example) to be heading in the opposite direction and doing nicely as a result.
When I wrote What is your social quotient, I wondered whether there would be a strong backlash. Instead, one member said:
But you’re all talking like accountants - what about the intellectual stimulation of a robust exchange of views/knowledge on a subject you care about (or just are interested in). Unfortunately, it appears from the number of views compared to the number of comments on these pages, that the majority of people (including myself up to now) get sufficient intellectual stimulation from reading other peoples exchanges rather than joining in!!!
That to me shows the 1:9:90 rule in action yet I draw comfort from the reader’s analysis that IT Counts is delivering value for this nascent community of some 3,200 people.
I’m not sure whether the timing is right but I also have a sneaking feeling that Oliver is also right when he argues:
Appropriate formal patterns and processes that fit the needs of specific enterprises are badly needed in order to execute the promise of Enterprise 2.0: agile, efficient and economical solutions that increase efficiency while meshing well with existing infrastructure.
Community fits squarely within that thinking and for professionals it might well represent the comfort factor they need to see and which tips them in favour of actively supporting community initiatives.
Of course this is only a small part of the cookbook of ingredients needed to successfully build community. But it’s a pretty important set of considerations. IMO.
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This is a really interesting question to me - ultimately I think it boils down to leadership. Do senior managers have the spine/strength/vision to support something that they feel is the right thing to do through some potentially trying times?
Unfortunately I think there is a general crisis in enterprise leadership in many companies where short term gains outweigh most other decisions and investments. Too many people are chasing the money and not the value creation…short term revenue is often easier to get than long term sustainable value. In the process it is gutting companies of their souls and creating a lot of bubbles….but that is a whole different rant
Thanks for continuing the conversation Dennis - I think this will be a real issue for a lot of companies and one of the only ways to get around it at many companies is the sunk works type projects you are alluding to.
Rachel
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Thanks Rachel - thoughtful as always. IT makes me think of the parlous state of my profession which mirrors what you are saying. Paradoxically, my sense is that community can help restore confidence and rejuvenate reputation but as you say - it requires a dedication combined with attributes that are sorely lacking. Needless to say: ‘I’m working on it.’
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