{"id":6671,"date":"2013-11-28T15:22:54","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T13:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poncier.org\/blog\/?p=6671"},"modified":"2013-11-28T15:23:44","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T13:23:44","slug":"reinventing-the-company-in-a-social-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poncier.org\/blog\/?p=6671","title":{"rendered":"Reinventing the company in a social world"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"msl\"<\/a>The new MSLGROUP’s<\/a> Quarterly<\/a> is dedicated \u00c2\u00a0to employee engagement. They’ve asked me to write an article about this topic and the shift related to the socialization of the uses in companies. Here is my article, you’ll find the quarterly at the end of this post.<\/p>\n

No man is an island, and no company either. Megatrends, like the downturn, digital, new generations and instability, show that the world is shifting and companies have to evolve too, to survive. Evolve means become more digital about customer experience and employee engagement, and a changing business model.<\/p>\n

Last year, the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that $900 billion to $1.3 trillion in annual value could be unlocked in just four sectors by products and services that enable social interactions in the digital realm. De facto, former CEO of Burberry Angela Ahrendts, who is moving to Apple to head retail, wonders how companies will survive without becoming digital and social.<\/p>\n

For this article we are going to focus on the internal part \u00e2\u20ac\u201c employee engagement.<\/p>\n

Employee engagement is not simple<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>We are no more in an industrial world where an employee runs repetitive tasks \u00e2\u20ac\u201c most are now automated. Today, added value is more about autonomy, creativity, innovation and\u00c2\u00a0nimbleness.\u00c2\u00a0Your employee has to be engaged, not just\u00c2\u00a0present.<\/p>\n

But many studies show that more than 70% of the employees are disengaged and at the same time 75% of CEO expect from their employees to be collaborative. Schizophrenic? Maybe. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why you really need to engage your employees to be social. Transforming an organization it is not a question of technology, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about\u00c2\u00a0establishing new relationships based on trust and transparency. But of course, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore the existing processes, and even if a decision is taken at the highest level, it takes time and often pain to come to life.<\/p>\n

You are not a start-up\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/strong><\/p>\n

You are not a start-up and can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t set up again from scratch. As Pascal Picq shows with the triangle adaptations in his book, A paleoanthropologist in enterprise: adapt\u00c2\u00a0and innovate to survive<\/em>, a company is based on a triangle : processes, history, structure<\/p>\n

We can rework processes\u00e2\u20ac\u02dceasily\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, buy history\u00c2\u00a0represents the culture of the company and\u00c2\u00a0its identity and cannot be shaken just like\u00c2\u00a0that. Similarly, the formal and informal\u00c2\u00a0relationships structures of the organization\u00c2\u00a0cannot simply be ignored. This is true at all\u00c2\u00a0levels of the organization.\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Make a clean sweep of the past\u00e2\u20ac\u009d remains\u00c2\u00a0an ineffective slogan in this regard. Change\u00c2\u00a0takes time, and must be brought about step \u00c2\u00a0by stepwith all stakeholders (who do not\u00c2\u00a0necessarily have the same vision).<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6But it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0change<\/strong><\/p>\n

When companies think about change, they\u00c2\u00a0often fail to think out-of-the-box. Companies\u00c2\u00a0shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just wonder why their business\u00c2\u00a0works like it does. Then they should dream of\u00c2\u00a0things that never were and ask \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwhy not.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Just\u00c2\u00a0imagine what their business will look like in\u00c2\u00a0five years:structures and practices that look\u00c2\u00a0nothing like the current corporate model\u00c2\u00a0but focus on the value chain and customer\u00c2\u00a0relationships.\u00c2\u00a0When you interrogate companies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c2\u00a0histories you find that they\u00c2\u00a0have shifted and taken risks\u00c2\u00a0multiple times, to transform\u00c2\u00a0their processes and structures to\u00c2\u00a0adapt.<\/p>\n

Today, C-suites are totally focused on the\u00c2\u00a0economic downturn. If social can be part of\u00c2\u00a0the answer, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a mid\/long term view, not\u00c2\u00a0really a short one. But companies need to set\u00c2\u00a0up a long-term vision and strategy too. Yes,\u00c2\u00a0a digital transformation can unsettle some\u00c2\u00a0employees and part of the management, but\u00c2\u00a0the actual situation is already unstable and\u00c2\u00a0won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t slow down. Employee disengagement\u00c2\u00a0is one of the most important warning signs of\u00c2\u00a0that situation. And yes, climbing the maturity \u00c2\u00a0curve can take long. For the moment, most\u00c2\u00a0of the companies (and competition) are\u00c2\u00a0walking, sometimes stumbling, but soon\u00c2\u00a0they are going to run. Mistakes that are\u00c2\u00a0forgivable today won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be in the future.<\/p>\n

(Re)Engage your employees<\/strong><\/p>\n

Companies must have an approach that\u00c2\u00a0combines both short-term and long-term.\u00c2\u00a0Showing employees that the company is\u00c2\u00a0not only focusing on cost killing, but also\u00c2\u00a0has a long term vision where employees are\u00c2\u00a0central is a strong signal, one that opens\u00c2\u00a0perspectives and allows for commitment\u00c2\u00a0between organization and employees.\u00c2\u00a0The issue is not about adding complexity,\u00c2\u00a0but focus on central points to spark a move.\u00c2\u00a0When you look at these central points around\u00c2\u00a0disengagement, you can see that a social\u00c2\u00a0approach can be part of the answer.<\/p>\n

Disengagement\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n