Most of our customers use corporate blogs internally only. The motivation of employees to actually show presence and initiative on these blogs is varying from 0 to 100%. Of course not everyone is a blogger by nature but still, I have the feeling that reluctance to post is still a sensitive topic that deserves quite a lot of attention. There can be many reasons behind it; I tried to picture different misconceptions below, sometimes with a provocative tone. Let us know if you experienced others, as a provider or as a user.
If I share my good ideas, it will serve other people’s ambitions.
Experience proves that nobody will actually steal your ideas, simply because when you post them in a public space such as a corporate blog (internal or external), it is obvious to everyone that they are yours. Any attempt to scrounge your ideas or to take advantage of them is easy to identify and it will be spontaneously pointed out by the community.
To make it work though, you need to prove some sort of self-confidence and self-assertiveness. Stick to your ideas, be proud of them and make it clear that they are yours.
My ideas may be criticised by other people.
There is criticism and criticism. Usually, when you receive it by e-mail, it can look like: “Gee, your idea really s**ks, forget it” or “I don’t have time for this, leave me alone.” Worse, any initiative you undertake by e-mail can be simply ignored.
On a collaborative space, it can’t be ignored.
Whilst someone may criticise your idea, he/she perfectly knows that the discussion is taking place not only between you and him/her, but in front of a group. Thus, there are 99% of chances that criticism, if any, will be made in a constructive way. If it isn’t, the author actually harms himself more than anyone else.
Finally, what’s better than constructive comments? It is the best way for you to leverage your projects and ideas by using the feedback of the rest of the community.
Oh, there is one more thing: if you don’t publish fast, there are good chances that someone else will have the same good idea right after you.
If I post my ideas, my manager may not like it.
Well, if you prefer to have a green light before posting, just go and ask him/her! Your manager is unlikely to refuse.
Now, the problem that may arise (not for you though!) is when you post lots of good ideas, and your manager doesn’t. Worse, if he/she doesn’t take action or even react on your good ideas, he/she will look suspicious.
Don’t take me wrong, I am not saying that you should discredit your manager. We are talking here about good ideas and positive initiatives. Attempts to discredit someone are easy to identify and perceived negatively.
If I give my feedback, it may be misinterpreted or generate conflicts.
If you post an idea - a good one of course otherwise you wouldn’t post it, would you? - there is no reason why it should provoke a conflict on its own. If it does, it is certainly not because of the idea itelf, rather because there is an existing problem underlying the matter raised, within your group or your departement or your company.
Really, the question you have to ask yourself is: “Am I willing to make things progress or do I just prefer to shut up and take on me?”. If you chose the second option, don’t bother and skip this article.
A long time ago, someone told me “Complaints are a gift.” Actually they aren’t, but they are definitely an opportunity to solve a problem. Most of the difficult problems in a company are taboo, that is everybody carefully avoids to even mention them. As a consequence, they just get worse and worse; as you know, the more you wait, the more difficult it is to solve a problem.
So, really the 3 main things to bear in mind are:
- If you have something to say, just say it. And do it now!
- Always be factual, not personal. If you feel the need to criticize, criticize a situation not a person.
- If you need to criticize, always propose a solution.
I don’t have time for this.
This is actually the worst excuse one can find. I don’t necessarly want to play around with figures here but the statistics show that quite an amount of time is spent by employees at interacting socially with each other: coffee machine, chitchat on the phone, instant messaging, various meetings, etc. And this is alright. It should be like this.
Still, there is one problem. Most of what happens there is intangible because: 1/ it is not captured or kept in any way, 2/ it usually happens among a small number of people.
What I am suggesting here is that you should maintain your social interactions in your job, under any circumstances. Moreover, you should develop them! Simultaneously, take the chance to give some more consistance to your most sensible conversations. Put them online and give yourself a chance to extend the debate with a wider audience. Explore the richness of human interactions and collaboration, beyond your closed circle of coworkers. Open up to your whole department or region or business unit or sector. Whatever. Ideally, you should even be able to open up to the world.
Modern tools such as Traction TeamPage allow very easy publishing. Use e-mail to post if you feel more comformtable with it. Use your mobile phone to record a conversation or a corporate presentation you’re attending (with the speaker’s approval of course). Then post it as a sound file or as a video. Use XML-RPC if you have a preferred blog client to publish online. Use whatever is easy and simple for you.
In the end, the real question is: “what is the proportion of communication in my job?” Even if you are a programmer (usually perceived as being less active socially), there are good chances, that communicating with your peers actually represent a significant part of the 8 hours you spend in the office.
Why should I bother? Nobody cares.
While I write these lines, some people are probably still trying to convince you it is true. And there is one very effective method to make you believe it is: silence. In other words, the best way to discourage people from sharing is to carefully and systematically ignore whatever they say. In some extreme situations, it can lead to depression.
Today, this is over. Yes it is. Even if you (apparently) operate in a closed environment, in a niche business; even if your company has the most conservative and authoritative approach of communication by impeaching feedback and sharing, noone can prevent you anymore from talking. This time is over thanks to technology and in particular social media.
Bear in mind that what you share is no longer just restricted to you and your direct manager, or to your office mates. When published on a corporate internal blog, your ideas are shared with the rest of your company; when published on a corporate public blog, they are shared with the world! Companies have to understand it. They have to understand that they cannot stop it. What they can do though, is to take a positivie approach and make best use of their employees’ ideas. Those companies who refuse the change, usually face difficult problems (such as private employee blogs, negative feedback, bad image, lack of motivation, no morale, etc); the others significantly improve their corporate culture and their image.
I don’t have anything to say.
This is nothing else than a consequence of the previous paragraph. Believe it or not, I heard it quite a few times. The tone behind it is similar to “I don’t have any ideas.” Such a lack of self-confidence is often generated by a highly restrictive and negative corporate culture where people are constantly discouraged to show initiative. As a consequence, some employees end up in truly believing that they have no imagination and no capacity for innovation.
This is pure nonsense. Everyone has ideas. Some are good, some are less good, but that doesn’t really matter here. Everyone has an opinion too. Everyone has imagination. Everyone has wishes. Everyone has things to say.
My knowledge is my only asset in difficult times. By giving it away, I am at risk.
This is not specifically related to ideas only but to knowledge in general.
It is all about control. We, as individuals, but also companies (which are living entities too), have a natural tendancy to keep everything under control. At least we are trying to. The reason behind it is simple: we assume that giving something away equals losing it, equals becoming weaker. This is a natural but shortsighted view of life.
Maybe you already heard or read the following proverb often used by the defenders of collaboration:
“If I have an apple and you have a pear, and we exchange them, you will have an apple and I will have a pear. If you and I both have an idea, and we exchange those ideas, we will both have two ideas.”
What does it mean? In a nutshell it means that sharing what you know brings you a lot more advantages than keeping it for yourself. Don’t take me wrong, this is not an idealistic or philosophical defense of altruism, this is just pragmatic common sense.
Hereafter a few reasons why this actually works (try it!):
- By sharing what you know, you show that you exist. Even if you have tons of brilliant ideas, nobody will notice them if you stay silent; actually, there are good chances that nobody will even realise that you exist.
- By sharing what you know, you show that you actually know something. Isn’t it logical? Moreover, you show your talent. Yes, you are talented.
- … as a consequence, you take the chance to promote yourself.
- … you demonstrate initiative.
- … you are willing to collaborate with others.
- … you benefit from more and richer interactions with your peers. As a consequence, you learn faster.
- … you encourage others to do so; as a consequence everyone learns faster beyond his own area of expertise.
- … you contribute to make things progress.
1 Comment
