A World Gone Social — like yeah!
Social media has turned the economy upside down.
Today, businesses can foster significant value through sheer investment of time and energy.
But what does going social really mean?
Hire people that are smart and let them GO! — Ted Coine
Better brands empower employees to BE social and take care of customers directly — through active listening and communicating.
The better we embrace social, the more authentic we become and the more people want to build a relationship with us — Mark Babbitt
My emphasis on taking care
I am somewhat challenging all of us on how best to communicate in our so-called social age.
Some industry leaders won’t really bother harnessing love.
What does love have to do with business? Right?
This is where a model like the one developed by my good friend Achim Nowak has a lot of relevancy.
Let me explain myself.
His book Infectious Connections, in my opinion, provides a blueprint for how best to connect, not just at the superficial level — anybody can do that! — more profoundly.
More than ever, people can express their voices at any given time, in any given form.
That’s how social the world has become!
People make choices, every day.
Engaging in superficial chit-chat is easy.
Just like liking each other on Facebook.
To use Achim’s blueprint, going deeper, while holding much promise, is not so easy.
Why?
It requires you, it requires me, to make ourselves vulnerable.
My friend Josh Allan Dykstra, a few months ago, referenced the expression extreme vulnerability while him and I were engaged in a very stimulating discussion on the future of work.
In all honesty, I think he got it.
He captured, I believe, the essence of where the ultimate challenge lies for all of us.
Where social meets media, or if we wish, where social meets us deeper within.
Two remarkable leaders, namely Gail Harris and Philip Lopez (see their above infectious connection captured in the picture), absolutely get it!
The sky is now full of stars.
For you, for I, to celebrate our humanity.
We are living in an immense living eco-system.
All of us are now incredibly connected.
You are in Amsterdam, my friend.
I am here in Ottawa.
Suzanne is in Sarasota.
Marge and Susan are near Miami, in Vero Beach or not far.
Kelli, Sue and Josh are near Los Angeles.
Bill is in New Jersey.
Tal is in Dallas.
Ted is in Naples.
For some remarkable reason, many of us met in Hollywood Beach, Florida.
You know, The Chocolada.
Social?
Create an open space.
Call it whatever you want.
Nurture a real conversation.
Put your hearts on the table.
Care about people.
Be who you are.
Show up!
In the spirit of extreme vulnerability, of giving each others’ hearts, no matter where we are, no matter what we do, it is the sky full of stars that we are creating, in the here, in the now, together.
I am nowhere near you.
We don’t even know each other.
I provide you with a service.
You are the customer.
The guidelines developed by our enterprise emphasizes one key value: serve.
In between, you and I are empowered to take care of our customers.
Who cares if I spend 60 or even 90 minutes over the phone take caring of you.
I make myself vulnerable.
You do too.
Together, we achieve a state of flow.
Things become effortless.
If the new current-see (i.e. currency) is represented by how we connect, by how we make each other extremely vulnerable, then perhaps our view of workplaces is fundamentally shifting.
My question:
If people are empowered to create a new customer current-see, by engaging in kick-ass social media going social meets media and social meeting you and I deeply within…
… what does this mean for our workplaces?
Or more profoundly:
How is the relationship between the employer and the employees fundamentally shifting?
Going a bit further…
What does the new 25th Century Workplace look like? (I say 25th just to get you jumping high enough into the future ;)
I leave you on a Peter Drucker quote and on a magical moment in the making with my friends Ted Coine and Mark Babbitt. They also very much get it.
All for now.
Johann
