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If you aren't one of the 740,000 (and counting) people that have seen the Social Media Revolution (refresh) video on YouTube yet, then you absolutely need to check it out here. This should give you some context for what I'm about to describe.
Four years ago, I was a practicing entrepreneur. I ran in entrepreneurial circles, subscribed to the thought leaders in that space, worshipped the fabled serial entrepreneurs, and spent my creative time in internet cafes instead of a traditional office. My "colleagues" were other entrepreneurs by default, and my knowledge network was derived from my social network of like-minded individuals. We (for the most part) were a group of early adopters. Some of this comes from the fact that we were all Millenials...but some of it comes from the innovative, entrepreneurial spirit that we were caught up in. I've really enjoyed getting more active in Twitter and other social media activities lately, which has revived my spirit and yearning for innovation. As I've juxtaposed that entrepreneurial experience to my corporate environment, I see some considerable trade-offs. While my corporate colleagues and I benefit from structure, support resources and a worldwide brand... we don't fully capture the spirit of what I became accustomed to as an entrepreneur. Now, this might come across to you as an obvious result of "going corporate"... but I believe the two should not be mutually exclusive. Anyone who blames "corporate bureaucracy" for the failure to adopt innovation is grossly underestimating a few key variables, which I believe play an even bigger role in delaying corporate adoption of social media and other innovative resources.
What are the variables that delay corporate adoption of social media?
1. There is virtually zero generational diversity among senior executives. No explanation of new media can fully do it justice, for people who do not experience it first-hand.
How many Fortune 500 companies do you know that are willing to promote a 20 something star performer to the senior executive team? Regardless of education or performance, no 25 year old is going to be placed on a senior executive team, which means no one with any real level of authority or implementation power will understand new media in this decade. By the time Millenials reach an adequate age to be placed on senior executive teams, their visibility to new media will already be outdated...and the 25 year olds of their day will look to them with the same frustration that they are now looking at senior executives.
General Electric will promote a geeky, innovative Millenial to its senior executive team when pigs fly...and on that same day GE will gain a huge advantage on its competitors.
2. Most executive teams are self-replicating. They value people with mindsets and talents similar to their own.
Some of you might be reading this and saying... "Hey, I'm 40 or 50 or 90 yrs old, but I think I get what you're talking about." If you do, then you are a rarity. By nature of being a rare entity, there is likely to be no one on your senior executive team like you. Because they are not like you, they are not likely to value your ideas which seem different or outlandish, and therefore they will never promote you to a high enough level to make an impact. Okay...now there are $200 million or $500 million companies out there who might, because a founder is still involved who values innovation... but none of the really big players ever will. The bottom line is that the current way of thinking among senior ranks, breeds more of that type of thinking. They hire, promote and empower people who think just like them.
3. The champions of social media have no credibility in the eyes of senior corporate executives.
Going back to my previous point, people don't value the ideas of outcasts. To senior executives, entrepreneurs and innovators are outcasts. Most of the people reading this fall into that category. Because futurists and visionaries are seen as outcasts, their ideas don’t count. These futurists and visionaries live on the fringe, and senior executives have a difficult time connecting the dots to the mainstream. Because futurists and visionaries are independent thinkers, many of them shun top tier universities. Conversely, senior executives almost always promote the person with the better educational pedigree. One of the best futurists I know doesn’t have a college education. Meanwhile, one of the Harvard grads I know is just about the least innovative person in my network. In the eyes of a Fortune 500 CEO, the Harvard grad who thinks like a brick will always be promoted ahead of the rebel innovator.
4. The business case has not been adequately made for new media in a corporate setting.
How much time has Twitter saved you this week? If that seems like an odd question, it is. That is because Twitter and other social media tools were never about saving time or cutting costs. They were about enhancing experiences, expanding influence, increasing collaboration, or just having fun. Having fun, and some of the other reasons for social media are not really in the corporate vernacular. Senior execs don’t see that when you build a platform for learning or information sharing that actually seems fun, then people will invest more in those platforms without getting burned out on “work”. Try quantifying this in a traditional business impact analysis and you’ll run into all sorts of problems trying to define productivity, measure inventiveness, or assign a value to the number of connections a person has. Because social media has not been yoked to key performance indicators that align with big business strategy, social media is always forced to be viewed as something that would be nice to have, but sits outside of corporate budgets and priorities.
5. Social media is considered a taboo and new media is too vague. This leads to conversations focused on platforms and communities instead of methods and behaviors.
Try having a conversation with a senior executive about “social media” and the first thing they will ask is “Are you talking about Facebook?” You see, for people who don’t “get” social media, it is impossible to separate the idea of social media from the platforms their teenage kids use to peep girls at school or chat with friends. This creates a huge barrier, which most executives cannot get past. Tell them you’re not talking about Facebook, and they’ll say “You mean Twitter?” Try going further and breaking social media down to concepts such as: real-time, concise, relevant, push, or viral. None of this makes sense either. The problem is one of connotative association. Because of the heuristics that influence thought and understanding, those who are not fully engaged in social media simply lack the ability to associate adequate connotations to the ideas surrounding social media. Meanwhile, those who understand the power of social media suffer from what Dan and Chip Heath call the “curse of knowledge” in their book Made to Stick. This idea illustrates that once you know something, it is nearly impossible to remember what it was like to not know something. In their book, they use the example of the tapper and the listener. In this activity the tapper has a song in his head (Happy Birthday) and is asked to tap the rhythm of the song on a table. The listener is tasked with guessing the correct song. When asked whether the listener will guess the song correctly, tappers grossly overestimate this likelihood. Actually, a huge proportion of listeners mistook Happy Birthday and the Star Spangled Banner. Now, as the tapper you fail to recognize that the listener cannot hear the music in his head. So your assumptions are based on additional information, which the listener is not privy to. This is exactly how it is with social media. Those of you who read this and, like me, are frustrated that social media is not widely embraced by senior execs suffer from the “curse of knowledge.” We forget what it was like to have inadequate connotative associations related to social media to understand its value. To overcome this challenge, innovators and early adopters have to free ourselves from terminology or vernacular that limit our ability to create the right connotations for senior executives. Find words that work.
For more on social media and business strategy follow me on Twitter @clintcarlos
