Every organization has problems. That is a truth that I have learned as I have gotten older. When I was younger, I thought that when I entered the "grown-up" world, organizational problems would be fewer and easier to solve. To the contrary, I found the problems to be more intractable, if not more common. However, once I accepted this reality, it was actually comforting because I did not expect organizational behavior to be perfect from the beginning.
One of the things I like about The Social Organization by Bradley and McDonald is that it addresses organizations as they are, not as abstract ideas. Moving an organization towards change is not easy, but it can be done.
Chapters five and six of the book address the development of a strategic approach to community collaboration and refining purpose. As Clay Shirky says, it's not technical capital that matters, it's social capital. I have found this over and over in my work with clients. How an organization functions as a whole will strongly influence the effectiveness of its social media. If the organization is secretive, afraid of contact with the outside world, or resistant to change, then the organization's social media of the organization will reflect these characteristics.
That is not to say that an organization has to be perfect in order to have a strong social media presence; in fact, Bradly and McDonald give examples of organizations that actually used social media to drive change in the organization as a whole.
And, it must be said that some organizations that are not at all "social" at all can be very effective with social media, including political dictatorships in various countries, as Evgeny Morozov would point out. However, these organizations are usually interested in social media as a way to deceive or deflect unwanted attention, not to build community power.
Generally, organizations that are interested in tapping the collective energy of employees, citizens, and customers will need to follow the model Bradley and McDonald lay out. Taking the initial steps of developing a strategic approach and refining purpose are often missed because organizations want to skip to the technical application. That is a mistake and will not be effective in the long run. Using a piece of machinery or firing a weapon can be more exciting than planning out a purpose or sighting in a target, but it usually results in wasted energy.
One of the things I like about The Social Organization by Bradley and McDonald is that it addresses organizations as they are, not as abstract ideas. Moving an organization towards change is not easy, but it can be done.
Chapters five and six of the book address the development of a strategic approach to community collaboration and refining purpose. As Clay Shirky says, it's not technical capital that matters, it's social capital. I have found this over and over in my work with clients. How an organization functions as a whole will strongly influence the effectiveness of its social media. If the organization is secretive, afraid of contact with the outside world, or resistant to change, then the organization's social media of the organization will reflect these characteristics.
That is not to say that an organization has to be perfect in order to have a strong social media presence; in fact, Bradly and McDonald give examples of organizations that actually used social media to drive change in the organization as a whole.
And, it must be said that some organizations that are not at all "social" at all can be very effective with social media, including political dictatorships in various countries, as Evgeny Morozov would point out. However, these organizations are usually interested in social media as a way to deceive or deflect unwanted attention, not to build community power.
Generally, organizations that are interested in tapping the collective energy of employees, citizens, and customers will need to follow the model Bradley and McDonald lay out. Taking the initial steps of developing a strategic approach and refining purpose are often missed because organizations want to skip to the technical application. That is a mistake and will not be effective in the long run. Using a piece of machinery or firing a weapon can be more exciting than planning out a purpose or sighting in a target, but it usually results in wasted energy.
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