When I was first approached about addressing the social media challenge for EMC (e.g. how do we get proficient at this stuff), my first set of thoughts was about organizational resources -- how many people would I need, skill sets, funding, org design, etc. etc.
Luckily, I didn't think that way very long. Sure, over time, we'll have dedicated resources that do this sort of thing on a dedicated basis.
But I decided to take more of a MacGyver approach ...
Who Is MacGyver?
If you happened to miss the television series, he was a secret agent who always managed to escape perilous situations by conveniently lashing together whatever was around in a useful fashion.
He also had a knack for getting locked into rooms that conveniently had raw materials for explosives, detonators, etc. readily at hand. The series resulted in a pop culture term that referred to improvised engineering with whatever was at hand.
Having a swiss army knife and plenty of duct tape wasn't a bad thing, either.
The term also reflects a certain bootstrap thinking which turned out to be useful here as well.
Thinking About The Traditional Approach
Nothing wrong in defining organizational mission, doing an org design, getting reqs approved, interviewing candidates, etc. Lots of new business challenges require this approach, right?
But in this case, it didn't seem like the right thing to do.
First, I had to admit I wasn't 100% sure what the problem really was here. Not being sure about the problem, it's hard to say "well, this is the answer, isn't it?" and go hire a bunch of people.
Second, let's face it, this stuff takes time. If I started today, maybe I'd start to see the organization start to take shape in 4-6 months. That's a lot of time to own a problem and not make any headway. But people do it all the time.
Third, I started to realize that concentrating all the resources in one place meant that the spread of social media across EMC would be ultimately hampered. There's a natural human tendency in large organizations to say "well, that other group owns that problem, so I don't have to worry" and that has been demonstrated to inhibit progress on many occasions.
I decided it would be best to look around my surroundings, find some useful components, and use my swiss army knife and duct tape to fashion an immediate solution.
MacGyver Had Nothing On Me ...
I remember episodes where MacGyver would look around, and find raw materials for explosives, or acids, or electronics, or something else conveniently useful to get out of his predicament.
And as I started to look around, I found more than MacGyver could every hope for.
- As part of the EMC blogging community (an entirely different story), I had continual interaction with a great bunch of folks who were passionate about SM topics, and could help in several regards. They all had day jobs, though.
- I knew the people who were doing our existing external portal (EMC.com) as well as our existing internal portal (PowerLink). They knew that they had to get busy in this area. They were a potential good source of skills, experience and passion. Like most organizations, they were entirely consumed on what they were working on, but were willing to help.
- I had encountered more than a few internal organizations who wanted to use SM to do their own thing. They just wanted to be users, but since there wasn't a platform or a focal point for their needs, most of these had stalled.
- Everyone I met seemed to be interested in the topic, and willing to participate. But they weren't quite sure how to get involved.
- We had a few "official" uses of SM at EMC. None were exemplary, but there were people who had actually put the tools to work and had learned a few important lessons.
- And, of course, there had been more than a few exec discussions on the topic. There was interest, but no well-defined motion.
There's more to the story, of course. But you can see the picture.
Not to mention, one of the execs had told me "look, if you need some seed money to get this started, let me know what you need and I'll get it". Not millions of dollars in budget, but I knew if I had to buy a few things, my credit was good.
Lots of people with an interest in the topic, placed throughout the organization -- enough for us to get started, etc. -- but how to organize and move forward?
You can see why I thought this was a better path than waiting to build a team. Most of what I needed was around me.
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