As I keep you apprised of our journey here, I want to point out unique, special -- and sometimes surprising -- things that are happening on our internal platform.
Our internal platform, EMC|ONE has been up since last September. We're at 3,000 registered, named and participating users, and a much larger number of lurkers who've shown up to look around -- often repeatedly.
And we don't need to sell this thing internally anymore. Our users are doing it for us.
That's cool.
The Importance Of The Internal Sell
To get any big project off the ground, and to get people to use what you've got, there's going to be some internal selling involved.
If you remember, we opted for a viral 'soft launch' of the platform (friends telling friends) for a variety of reasons, all of which turned out to be good ones.
We also opted for a 'soft sell' -- we didn't want to push too hard on people, again for a variety of reasons.
First, I think this social media stuff has to be fun. You do it because you want to, not because someone told you to do it.
Second, even if they weren't directly participating, we wanted to make sure that everyone knew that other people were participating -- including, in some cases, your coworkers, your boss, your direct reports, and so on. Awareness was just as important to us as participation. This set up a fascinating social dynamic that was fun to watch.
And, finally, I just don't like badgering people. And I'm sure they don't like it, either.
What Happened
Someone on the platform asked for a "business justification" around EMC|ONE -- why it existed, why it was good to use it, and so on. A reasonable enough question in any business environment, no?
None of us who were on the core team really responded.
But lots and lots of other people did!
They offered up personal stories about where they saw the value coming from, including some pretty surprising ones.
They talked about how it helped them do their job better, how it helped them understand what the company was up to, how they could find out who did what quickly, or just ask a question and likely have it answered.
They spoke to it on an emotional level as well -- how they now viewed their careers differently, their role as leaders differently, how they felt about working at EMC, and with other EMCers.
Dozens of personal testimonials, far more effective than any ROI study, or a spreadsheet, or a powerpoint deck.
It's kind of cool when your best sales reps are the people who are using your platform, isn't it?
I think the person who asked that question might have been a bit overwhelmed with the response. I wonder if she got what she was looking for, or was just scared to ask again!
The Challenge Of Business Justification
I have been in the business world for about 30 years, and -- as a result -- I've problably seen perhaps every flavor of "business justification" you can imagine.
Usually, a business justifcation takes the forms of economic inputs in (time, money, people, etc.), anticipated economic outputs (money, market share, or other benefit), couched by risks, timelines and assumptions. And, for big parts of the business world, it's an essential tool and methodology.
But there are some really important things in the business world that are very difficult to quantify in terms of economic value.
How do you quantify the value of making your knowledge workers more effective?
Or avoiding a big mistake on company strategy?
Or being able to drive hundreds of new initiatives across the company at almost no incremental cost?
Or having employees that really want to work at your company, and not another place?
Or, perhaps, the next product, market or solution breakthrough?
Traditional business justification has its role in the world, but -- I'd argue vehemently -- there is a class of real important things in this world that are inherently difficult to measure and quantify -- we just don't have the tools at our disposal to do this easily or cost-effectively.
So we have to use our good judgment. I tell people that a business plan is a poor substitute for good judgment.
Thankfully, the company I work for (EMC) has a surplus of good judgment these days.
The Cynics Get A Beating
The community is getting awfully protective of itself these days.
One poor fellow opened up on one of the message boards, and characterized most of the content and discussions on EMC|ONE as "company propoganda". While I appreciate the courage it took to say this, and I defend his right to share his opinion, it probably wasn't the best move.
I really felt sorry for the guy, because the community took him to task in a big way. They did it professionally, but it was pretty darn thorough. I almost felt that I should have jumped in and let him off the hook, but I didn't, just because the outpouring was so fun to watch.
I hope he comes back. We forgive you.
The Best Possible World
We've now created something here that promotes itself, justifies itself to others, and answers the critics with a sharp community tongue.
Sure, it took a while to get to this state (about 6 months live), but I'm glad we had the patience to do this organically and naturally, rather than construct an arbitrary schedule with milestones that had no bearing in reality.
This is social engineering, folks. You're creating social constructs, and -- as a result -- things tend to move at people speed, and not according to some project plan.
Sure, we had to do some selling (and defending) early on.
But not anymore -- our users are doing it for us.
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