Getting people onboard
April 21, 2008 — Richard
by procsilas
Parlez Vous Twitter? Evangelizing Social Media In Your Nonprofit Organization and Paving the Way for Adoption:
[Via Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media]
This slide show from Stephen Collins make me think about teachingInternet Skills Workshops for Nonprofits that I used teach over dozen or so years ago. During a discussion about the merits of email versus the fax machine (I’m not kidding), someone shared this insight, “I feel like a stranger in a foreign country and I don’t understand the language.”It has stuck with me.The slide show is from a session he did at BarCamp Sydney called “All You Do Is Talk Talk Talk.” He talking about building shared language and understanding in order to successfully introduce a change (adoption of social media principles and tools) in an organization.He suggests that resistance will remain because people don’t understand, feel stupid, don’t speak the language, don’t have a compelling reason for change, or feel insecure. The advice is don’t speak social media geek, speak in simple English, be a bridge, establish trust, and become the understanding guru.
The slide show provide some useful insights into getting people on board, including their concerns and other barriers to adoption. Very nicely done and a great presentation.
April 21, 2008 at 9:16 pm
What have you discovered in terms of getting people on board for web2.0 strategies?
April 22, 2008 at 2:49 am
Our board is mainly baby boomers like myself but with little day-to-day experience with Web 2.0. Many had only read the blogs of friends who were writing diaries or had seen some political blogs. I spent some time educating them about the technologies.
I really hit the fact that our website, as with many non-profits, is static. The only area for a conversation is where we ask for them to join an email newsletter and tell them where to send money.
I then used the rapid prototyping aspects of Web 2.0 to quickly demonstrate just what was possible.. I created a weblog at WordPress for our foundation. I only gave board members access. This overcame their fears of ‘losing the brand.’ I then populated the blog along the lines I described and invited them to leave comments.
Over half of the board examined the blog within two days of the board meeting. They all left comments, many thanking me for a specific bit of information that they had not known. They have seen very rapidly how information is moved and how conversations begin.
They are smart people and realize now how some Web 2.0 approaches can begin conversations, starting a dialog that is much more powerful than asking for money.
We are now making a blog a part of our strategic plans and will have one up soon. It would not have happened if the technologies were not mature enough to leverage WordPress, or the equivalent. If I had needed to get approval first, it would have taken a much longer time.
Rapid prototyping while working towards perfection is one of the features of web 2.0