The presentation I delivered to the Business Connect event in Hamburg, Germany on 19th March 2014, discussing how to overcome reasonable individual objections to Social Business and Collaboration software solutions.

1. SOCIAL BUSINESS: THE
IRRESISTIBLE FORCE TO
OVERCOME IMMOVABLE
OBJECTIONS
Stuart McIntyre, Social 365

2. STUART MCINTYRE
Social Business Strategist
Social 365 & Change Agents Worldwide
@StuartMcIntyre
stuart@social365.com
uk.linkedin.com/in/mcintyre

3. STUART MCINTYRE
Social Business Strategist
Social 365 & Change Agents Worldwide
@StuartMcIntyre
stuart@social365.com
uk.linkedin.com/in/mcintyre
@StuartMcIntyre

4. STUART MCINTYRE
Social Business Strategist
Social 365 & Change Agents Worldwide
@StuartMcIntyre
stuart@social365.com
uk.linkedin.com/in/mcintyre
@StuartMcIntyre
P
@

5. THIS SESSION
Abstract:
"I'm too busy", "My work is confidential", "I'm never in the office", "My position depends on my being the only source
of my knowledge".... We've all heard objections like these - reasons why key individuals cannot spare the time to
share knowledge or to collaborate with others.
Whatever their role, be it as executives, consultants, sales people or any other part of your organisation, for Social
Business to truly revolutionize your organization's culture and productivity, these objections must be overcome.
Learn from Stuart's many years of experience of driving adoption in organisations around the world, to find out how
to make the benefits of Social Business irresistible for all your staff, no matter how immovable they might appear!
It is not technical…
Not specific to IBM Connections
Based on experience rather than exhaustive study
Focused on users or groups of users, not the organisation as a whole

6. SOCIAL MEDIA

7. SOCIAL MEDIA
c. 2007/8

8. Text
SOCIAL MEDIA

9. Text
Social Media

10. A REMINDER: THE 6 KEY
CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL
Report available from

11. 1. SOCIAL IS NOT A PRODUCT
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12. 2. SOCIAL TECHNOLOGIES
ENABLE SOCIAL
BEHAVIORS TO TAKE
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2.
BEHAVIORS TO TAKE PLACE ONLINE

13. 3. PLATFORMS FOR CONTENT CREATION,
DISTRIBUTION, AND CONSUMPTION
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14. 4. CAN CAPTURE THE STRUCTURE AND NATURE OF
INTERACTIONS AMONG INDIVIDUALS
Get your own Social Graph via

15. 5. CAN BE DISRUPTIVE TO EXISTING POWER
STRUCTURES (CORPORATE AND GOVERNMENTAL)
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16. 6. ENABLE UNIQUE INSIGHTS
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17. IBM CONNECTIONS

18. OR:

19. OR:

20. Text
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Music via
YOU’LL ACHIEVE…

21. Text
Image via http://onlyhdwallpapers.com/high-definition-wallpaper/god-stairways-heaven-dreams-life-desktop-hd-wallpaper-1063961/
Music via
YOU’LL ACHIEVE…

22. Text
Image via

23. OBJECTIONS MIGHT BE VOICED
AND/OR UNVOICED
Image via Andrew Pollack &

24. CONSCIOUS OR UNCONSCIOUSImage via

25. Image via
SO WHAT C

26. Text
BRIBERY?
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27. Text
BRIBERY?
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Just kidding!

28. Image via
COERCION?

29. Image via
COERCION?

30. Image via
JUST GIVE UP?

31. NO!

32. Image via
IRRESISTIBLE FORCE

33. MCKINSEY & CO (MARCH 2013):
Nine out of ten executives whose organizations use
social tools report some measurable business benefit
with employees, customers, and business partners
20 percent of organizations using social technologies
now ‘fully networked’
About one-third of executives say their companies use
data from social-technology interactions to
respond immediately to either consumer or
employee concerns
Ref: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/evolution_of_the_networked_enterprise_mckinsey_global_survey_results

34. Image via
IMMOVABLE OBJECT(IONS)

35. SO WHAT ARE THE
OBJECTIONS?

36. IN MY EXPERIENCE…

37. Image via
FROM STUDENTS…

38. TO AUTHORS & EDITORS
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TO BOOK AUTHORS AND EDITORS…

39. TO MISSIONARIES
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TO AID WORKERS…

40. TO MANAGEMENT
CONSULTANTS
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TO BUSINESS

41. AND EXECUTIVES
AND EXECUTIVES…

42. MY TOP 5!
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43. IT WILL SLOW ME DOWN
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‘I’M TOO BUSY…’
1. ’IT WILL SLOW ME DOWN…’

44. CONFIDENTIAL
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2. ’

45. Image via
3. ’THAT’S THE ROLE OF INTERNAL
COMMUNICATIONS OR MARKETING…’

46. Image via
4. ’

47. 5. ‘I’M NEVER IN THE
OFFICE…’

48. BROADLY MATCH RESULTS THAT
MCKINSEY FOUND
Ref http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/evolution_of_the_networked_enterprise_mckinsey_global_survey_results

49. ‘My position depends on my being the only source of my
knowledge
‘It’s a fad’
‘It’s a waste of time!’
‘I’ll lose control’
‘I’m worried we’ll cause a crisis’
‘Social is what my kids do…’
OTHER COMMON OBJECTIONS

50. ‘I don’t want to…’
AND IF ALL ELSE FAILS…
Image via

51. SO HOW TO
OVERCOME THE
OBJECTIONS

52. TWO COMBAT STRATEGIES…
Anticipation
Pre-empting objections – in other words by anticipating and responding
to the objection before the user has even had a chance to voice it
Adaptation
Dealing with the objection as it arises
Image via

53. SOME GENERAL TIPS WHEN
HANDLING OBJECTIONS
Listen carefully
Gather information
Check your understanding
Trial solution (talk it through)
Handle objection (plan/execute changes if appropriate)
Check objector’s satisfaction with solution
Ask for/continue discussions Image via

54. SO
TOP FIVE IN MORE
DETAIL…

55. IT WILL SLOW ME DOWN
Image via
‘I’M TOO BUSY…’
1. ’IT WILL SLOW ME DOWN…’

56. A) ALWAYS START WITH
PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY…
Personal is much easier to discuss than organisational…
How do you ‘do business’?
How can you do it better?
How much time do you spend finding information?
How do you find people?

57. THEN GO DEEPER…
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How do you run your meetings?
How do you distribute information?
How do you run projects?
How do you capture ideas?
How do you gather feedback?

58. FOR EACH TASK, THERE IS A
BETTER WAY…
Determine the nature of the meeting
Create a community for the team
Set up the meeting as an activity
Define purpose and draft agenda
Collaborate on the agenda
Schedule the meeting
Meet using Sametime
Follow up in the community
‘An effective meeting is 80% planning, 20% execution. Too often people spend
most of their time in the meeting and the least amount of time getting ready
for it. Plan better meetings. They don’t just happen.’ Tim Lewis
Image via Quote via

59. http://www.michaelsampson.net/doingbusinesswithconnections.html
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED…

60. Image via
B) FOCUS ON MOBILE AND
‘CONTEXTUAL ACCESS’

61. HOW MUCH TIME DO WE WASTE?
Pace Productivity Study:
How Sales Reps Spend Their Time, 2010
Pace Productivity Study available at
National Bureau of Economic Research
‘What Are We Not Doing When We're Online’, October 2013
NBER study via

62. C) REWARD AND RECOGNIZE
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63. IT’S ABOUT RECOGNISING CONTRIBUTION, NOT
DISTRIBUTING BADGES!
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64. IT’S ABOUT RECOGNISING CONTRIBUTION, NOT
DISTRIBUTING BADGES!
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65. IT’S ABOUT RECOGNISING CONTRIBUTION, NOT
DISTRIBUTING BADGES!
Images via

66. D) OFFER MEASURABLE POSITIVE
TRADE-OFF IN RETURN…
Successful collaboration initiatives need to:
Take into account the specific business activity, or context around which
people collaborate so that collaboration becomes a natural part of what they need to do
every day.
Compensate for any change in the routines or habits of individual participants
— for example, this compensation could be in the form of a reduction in the amount of effort
required by those individuals to carry out their work (especially when individual workers can
carry out their collaborative work using email or other personal collaboration tools)
- Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace 2013

67. CONFIDENTIAL
Image via
2. ’

68. A) SO HOW DO YOU ‘DO
BUSINESS’ TODAY?

69. B) HOW DO YOUR CUSTOMERS
EXPECT YOU TO DO BUSINESS?

70. Virgin image via
BA image via
C) WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE
CONFIDENTIALITY REQUIRED?

71. Virgin image via
BA image via
C) WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE
CONFIDENTIALITY REQUIRED?

72. Company BCompany A
C) WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE
CONFIDENTIALITY REQUIRED?

73. D) SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE
ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
More details on Actiance Vantage at
Many archiving, governance, security tools for Social Business
platforms, e.g.

74. D) SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE
ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Many archiving, governance, security tools for Social Business
platforms, e.g.

75. Connections and other Social Business platforms have very granular
levels of security
Image via
By community /
sub-community
By library
By file
Not limited by entity type - can mix communities and individuals when sharing
Backends are
highly compliant
Many governance
solutions available
B)

76. C) HOW DO YOU CONTROL
SECURITY TODAY?
Typically… Policies, procedures and guidelines
IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines provide excellent template:
Available as PDF and on Slideshare
Also very useful list of List of 40 Social Media Staff Guidelines
IBM PDF at
IBM Slideshare at
List of 40 Social Media Staff Guidelines at

77. C) HOW DO YOU CONTROL
SECURITY TODAY?
Typically… Policies, procedures and guidelines
IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines provide excellent template:
Available as PDF and on Slideshare
Also very useful list of List of 40 Social Media Staff Guidelines

78. Image via
3. ’THAT’S THE ROLE OF INTERNAL
COMMUNICATIONS OR MARKETING…’

79. So is it happening?
Do they always ask you so they can tell others?
Do colleagues actually read the updates?
How do you update your team today?
How do you find out what your peers are working on?
HOW’S THAT WORKING FOR YOU?
Images via
http://www.interact-intranet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Content-Image-1-881x1024.png

80. Image via
4. ’

81. MORE ON NEGATIVITY…
These behaviours and opinions are not new
They were voiced at the water cooler, at the
bar or over the phone
But if they are an issue, then fall back on:
Governance tooling
Policies and ethical standards
Complaints & disciplinary procedures
Image via

82. 5. ‘I’M NEVER IN THE
OFFICE…’

83. REDUCE THE FRICTION
In my experience, Social Business adoption is hindered more by
barriers to access than any other factor
E.g. One of my customers requires the following:
!
!
Would you bother?
Native apps on desktop and mobile devices make all the difference,
particularly when VPN or access to DMZ is seamless. If not, why not?
Power on PC UNLOCK BIOS START WINDOWS
LOGIN TO
WINDOWS
LOGIN TO VPN
LOGIN TO
PRODUCTION
NETWORK
SSO TO
CONNECTIONS
SHARE

84. THE MEASURE IS ALWAYS
TWITTER AND FACEBOOK*
Sharing and access to shared resources and content must be as easy as the public Social
networks
If it’s not, why not?
All of the major vendors have mobile apps, improving all the time… Use them and ensure you
deploy to all devices
Pre-configured with user names and passwords
With notifications enabled
With security and remote-wipe etc. enabled
Should feature strongly in immersion workshops (see later slide) * And often Dropbox too…

85. Image via
Build company and culture-centric platform and data set
Not live/production platform - all content will be deleted
Create manufactured personas
Run workshops where users get to experience platform and interact with others
Then give access to production platform
CONSIDER “IMMERSION
WORKSHOPS”

86. NO BETTER WAY TO DRIVE ADOPTION
THAN TO ADOPT ONESELF
As an advocate for Social Business in your organisation you should
live and breathe it…

87. NO BETTER WAY TO DRIVE ADOPTION
THAN TO ADOPT ONESELF
As an advocate for Social Business in your organisation you should
live and breathe it…

88. IN SUMMARY…

89. IN SUMMARY…
Users have reasonable objections
Listen, understand, document, propose, revisit…
Focus on personal productivity before organisational productivity
Mobile access is a massive part of overcoming objections. Make it
seamless!
Security and behaviour concerns can be managed using
governance tools and policies

90. IN SUMMARY…
Users have reasonable objections
Listen, understand, document, propose, revisit…
Focus on personal productivity before organisational productivity
Mobile access is a massive part of overcoming objections. Make it
seamless!
Security and behaviour concerns can be managed using
governance tools and policies
And finally…
You will likely never get 100% buy-in or adoption, even if all objections are overcome…

91. ELEPHANTS CAN DANCE!

92. socialconnections.info
SO WHAT NEXT?
Prague, CZ
16-17 June, 2014
Free to attend
Great speakers & social agenda!

93. Remember...
But in truth, social software
users do and the business
problems the tools address.
Jakob Nielsen, Usability Guru

95. Thank You!
THANK YOU!