Earlier this week I had the good fortune to be able to hear Charlene Li, author of Groundswell (which I use in class) and Open Leadership, speak at Newell Rubbermaid in Atlanta (thanks Bert!). After bulldozing my way through Atlanta traffic, it was great to sit back and take in all of Charlene's insights on open leadership.
Charlene began by explaining that she wrote the book because, following the publication of Groundswell (co-authored with Josh Bernoff), she got tons of questions about how to open up a company on social media: "How open should I be?"
She emphasized the social media is not about technology but about relationships. No person is always authentic and transparent in every relationship; why should a company be any different? So you don't have to be all open, all the time. Rather, openness requires confidence, humility, and discipline, and it inspires commitment from others. "The New Normal," she explained, is conversations, not messages; human, not corporate; and continuous, not episodic. Openness therefore consists of 10 elements that fall into the categories of information sharing and decision making (see her Openness Audit).
Charlene also described four open leadership archetypes: Cautious Tester, Worried Skeptic, Realist Optimist, and Transparent Evangelist based on two continua -- independent--collaborative and pessimist--optimist -- stating that the Realist Optimist is most important because they can see the light but also have the skills to overcome obstacles that are sure to arise. She identified Dell's Lionel Menchaca as an example of someone who shares easily and is authentic, transparent, and disciplined.
She provided four important steps to creating a social media program based on open leadership:
- Align with strategic goals: pick one of your organization's current goals where being open and social can have an impact
- Prepare your organization: create a response map for how to handle social media comments or problems (i.e.: are there factual errors? If yes, this; if no, that response)
- Understand the value: don't underestimate open/social just because it's hard to measure
- Prepare for failure: dialogue increases trust and speeds recovery from problems
Charlene drew many examples from the new book, which I'm definitely adding to my reading list.
