In the post Organizational Development 2.0 I started to touch on some of the ways we can combine social media and organizational psychology.

Facilitating Change By Blogging

One of the biggest reason for why organizational change initiatives fails happens because the organizations’ leaders have made decisions without making sure their employees know the result they are going after, as well as not knowing why and how they expect to make their goals through a given change process.

Imagine that you’re the leader in a company, and that you had the tools available to speak to your whole organization and get direct feedback from the very people that make the wheels go around. With social media you can.

How about the other way around; You’re working at a company, and on the company blog there’s a post saying “Here’s what we want to achieve, and here’s why we need and want to achieve this. We are considering the following course of action. What are your thoughts?”.

In a post covering possibly 1000-2000 words, a conversation with all the players in the organization is initiated. This simple act of opening up and involving everyone is great step in creating organizational awareness.

Social Media Use Through Change Phases

The combination of blogs, twitter and facebook could easily be implemented into a change processes throughout the endeavor.

• Pre-Change: The change project or initiative is presented to the organizations members. This is where the what, why and how are presented and where feedback is actively asked for. Dialogue is initiated.
• During Change: The change process is ongoing and blogs, tweets and facebook updates are used to keep a conversation open and honest. Change, restructuring and training projects are bound to run into challenges. Social media ser ves as an immediat e channel to create awareness of these challenges and they can be addressed fast and on a continuous basis.
• Post-Change: An enormous challenge in any change or development project is to keep new work routines and knowledge alive afterwards. Letting the organization slide back into the old ways. The post-change phase is where social media works both to reinforce the changes as well as for clarification.

It should go without saying that like any organizational communication this process is dependent on openness, clarity and honesty. By allowing people to offer their advice, thoughts, and even to vent out their negative emotions towards what is about to happen several important things can be achieved:

• People perceive the organizational leadership as one promoting dialogue and communication.
• By asking fo r employees’ input and feedback they promote inclusion in the process and ownership to both the process and the result.
• Conflicting issues can be taken on early and be solved while they are still at a constructive level.

Implications Of Change Process Blogging

Depending on the size of a company the amount of feedback may vary, and this is a must to take into consideration. A hundred employees may yield a response from each, many from each, or maybe just a handful from the company’s informal leaders. Key members from each company department and division may be a solution as well. As long as the conversation stays fruitful and provides useful feedback and a feeling of community organizational use of social media will yield positive outcomes.

Let me hear your thoughts on organizational use of social media for internal development. Pros and cons.