This blog is about improving the relationship between organizations and the people who work for them. And, it’s dedicated to the millions of people around the world who go to work every day wanting to do a great job.
Julien Smith
Tension that’s good for you
This past week two of my favourite blogs have posted about tension – In over your head and Six pixels of separation. They both refer to the need to create tension if you want to create. And the second, refers to a conversation I had with Mitch Joel the other day. I thought it would be worth expanding on that discussion here. Even Internal Communicators are creators at heart [and often in reality] after all.
So what is this tension? This tension isn’t emotional tension. It isn’t the kind of tension that’s caused by stress, anxiety, or fear. It is the kind of tension described by my friend and teacher Robert Fritz as structural tension. And, what’s great about this kind of tension is that once you know about it you can use it, design it into your life, your projects, your business to increase the likelihood of your achieving what you want.
Hmmm. Sounds a bit like magic doesn’t it. Well, it’s not. And on some level it will seem so obvious you will be scratching your head. And yet to master its force takes discipline and focus. Here are the basics.
First, know what you want to build, create, bring into being and by when [ Time is a powerful force for good in creating]. You can’t fake this part. You either really want it or you don’t. In the case of the discussion with Mitch that could be something like:
A  fun, visually interesting blog for people like me who love baking and where I can share my favourite recipes ideas on healthy eating and observations on life [inspired by my friend Helen's blog]. My friends like it and are sharing it with their friends. I’ve posted [insert real number] posts and have [insert real number] followers by September 15, 2010.
Second, know where you stand in relationship to that end state. To me this is always the part that’s a bit tricky. We like to fool ourselves by making things a bit too good or bad about where we are in relationship to what we want. And that, can really muck up structural tension.
I have a cupboard full of recipes. I’ve got lots to say about my passion for baking and life. I have a handful of friends that I know will love this. I don’t know anything about publishing on line. I’m good at taking pictures but I don’t have a camera.
Now here’s the interesting thing. The more you really want and are passionate about the thing you’re trying to create and the more discrepant the end state and the current state are the more power there is in the system. And the actions you need to take just pop out [trust me, it's true. And that can create emotional tension. You'll get over it if you really want what you want.].
I need to start commenting on others blogs so I can get a feel for what it’s like. I need to find out about wordpress. Get a camera. And, get technical advice. And,….
So that’s structural tension. And that’s a very good thing.
In the conversation with Mitch we were talking about web analytics and how it can get you off track. How is that?
Well it doesn’t have to, but if it does this is what happens.
I want to create a blog that attracts my friends and people who love baking the way I do, so I create the blog and have a 100 followers.
And then you start tracking the analytics and realize that 100 isn’t a very big number of followers. After all Mr Big Blogger has 175,000+ followers and can get speaking gigs for $15,000 a time and…book deals and….
I want to get my numbers up, so I start doing things to get the numbers up.
Your focus shifts to building the numbers and away from the original spirit and intent of your blog. You start manipulating yourself and your readers. And when they’re not they create a structural conflict. Over time these competing forces will drive you away from the thing you wanted in the first place and kill the power of structural tension.
Now, here’s the good news. Once you’re aware of structural conflict you can choose. You can decide if you still want what you wanted when you started – a fun little blog with a few loyal followers. And if it is knowing where you stand against your end state is a good thing. Web analytics can help.
And, if not, it’s time to go back to basics and consciously build some structural tension.
Are your Internal Communications driven by structural tension or structural conflict? How can you tell? Something to think about.
Random Posts:
“Resistance is futile”
At first glance social media is pretty alien. It’s another technology getting in the way of face to face relationships. And, as communicators we know in our hearts this is not a good thing.
And yet this is the irony of social media. This technology that on the surface seems to dehumanize in the end enables us to accomplish one of the most human of all needs – to connect with each other.
In the past week or so I’ve been reading about how GM management believe that giving employees access to social media “humanizes” the company with their clients and potential clients. But, I’m afraid this misses the real power of social media: The power to “humanize” institutions internally.
The organizations that embrace social media on the inside are enabling their employees to connect with each other across:
- time,
- geography,
- function, and
- level.
They’re helping employees access the information and expertise they need, when and how they need it to do their work. They’re energizing not just the formal organizational networks, but the informal as well.
Today the number of organizations who are giving employees full access to social media inside and out are few. Tomorrow they will be many. “Resistance is futile.”
What will this change mean for the Corporate Communications or Internal Communications functions? Not only what we do, but how we do it. I’d love to hear what you think.
By the way, as predicted by my social media mentors – Michelle Sullivan, Julien Smith, and Mitch Joel - I’ve learned that social media doesn’t get in the way of face to face relationships. In fact, quite the opposite.   And, that’s a very good thing. Thanks you guys.
Random Posts:
Friendly. Not familiar.
There’s been a lot of talk about making organizations more human from a customer point of view lately. I think the most recent iteration of this idea has been inspired by Design Thinking and the role of empathy in customer relationships [thanks Dan Gray and the gang at CommScrum for getting me reading this literature].
The idea is that if you really understand and care about your customers and show it you can build long-term sustainable relationships with them. Not exactly breakthrough thinking.
Anyway it’s not the idea that’s bad. The idea’s fantastic. And there are organizations that do it and do it well. It’s authentically who they are. The problem starts when not particularly nice organizations decide they are going to institutionalize niceness. And, a recent post by Julien Smith got me thinking about something that had just happened to me.
A story. I called my bank about something a few weeks ago and the person on the end of the phone asked if she could call me Deborah [a little familiar] and then began using my name in every second sentence. Then she asked if she could wish me happy birthday… it was the next week.  I felt completely creeped me out.
My grandmother ran her own business successfully for years. Her mantra: “Be friendly. Not familiar.” This clearly broke that rule. This woman didn’t know me. I didn’t know her. I wasn’t calling for a personal relationship with her. I wanted to complete a transaction with the institution. This was simply a pretence of friendly. It was manipulative. She knew it and I knew it.
And this got me thinking about what it must be like to be an employee in an organization that’s decided it’s time to be warm and friendly with customers when the organization has never been warm and friendly before.
Imagine you’re the employee who’s asked to behave this way. You’re given the scripts – customer says “x”, service rep says “y”. If you’re the Borg it’s perfect. If you’re a customer service rep who’s really trying to understand a customer need and meet it? Not so much. It must get pretty hollow pretty fast for the employee. I know it did for the customer.
What do you think? Can you be more human from a customer point of view when you aren’t from an employee point of view? Can organizations institutionalize empathy?
Post script – Had to call the bank again this morning and different person same script… although this lady didn’t ask for permission, just asked if this was Deborah and promptly hung up on me twice! I’m really feeling the love.