One of the messages I’ve been lucky enough to be spreading lately is that of questioning the gap between business and human values. I started thinking about this issue almost two years ago, but wasn’t able to quite shape it into the message I needed to get across until earlier this year when I was preparing to give a workshop at Best Buy HQ for the Social Media Club Reality Check Series in January.
It occurred to me as I finished up The Whuffie Factor and was traveling around talking about it, there were parts of my message that were valued by business leaders and other parts that were glossed over. Those that seemed to make people squirm were the touchy-feely ones like Embrace the Chaos and Find Your Higher Purpose, which IMO are the most advanced ones. They require a major shift in thinking from being very traditional business thinking to being very human-centric. For me, this is a no-brainer. It’s key. Businesses sell to humans, why shouldn’t they align with human needs. But what I discovered as I delivered my message is that I seemed to be speaking a foreign language. And not only was it foreign, but it was undervalued. “Where is the 101? Should we have a Facebook page or a Twitter account or both?” “How do we measure ROI?” was thrown back at me like nothing I said had sunk in. I was told by colleagues that my message was too basic. Huh?
That’s when I began to realize that there is a deeper misunderstanding here than the economics of social currency – which is what TWF is all about and I started preaching in 2006. But as I heard more and more social media types describe these social economics (whether they used Whuffie or Social Currency or Social Capital or…), something wasn’t changing: the business approach to online communities. Social capital wasn’t being described as a currency that works differently, but in tandem with market capital, it was being described as a thing to be mined…a justification for a social media strategy. “Look at all of the social capital we can leverage to make more money!” This was so not my intention.
And then the lightbulb went on! I realized that what was wrong with the whole picture was the gap between the underlying values of business:
- Profit
- Process
- Efficiency
- Return on Investment
- Risk Management & Planning
- Maximize Resources, Minimize Waste
- Reliability
- Accountability
- Growth
- Hierarchy
- Competitiveness & Winning
- Dedication & Loyalty
- Control
- Etc.
…and the underlying human values that drive community:
- Compassion
- Generosity
- Connectedness
- Freedom
- Love
- Truth & Authenticity
- Courage & Fidelity
- Charity
- Wisdom
- Stories
- Openness
- Personal Growth
- Beauty
- Etc.
Certainly, there is reason to some of these value-gaps. As business has grown and the ability to reach wider, global audiences has increased, efficiency and process help drive the planning for expansion. And with profitability at the core of all these values, that is necessary. But as businesses started to move into a very sacred space (and I like to compare our online communities to that of the forests of Pandora on Avatar in my presentation), these values begin to poison the very human interactions we have there. All of a sudden, things shift and the things we hold so dear are being ignored (or de-valued “tweeting about what you are having for lunch is so inane!”), co-opted (community members, themselves, becoming ‘personal brands’ or what I call roboticized) or exploited (community sourcing is the process of exploiting generosity). And this is not the direction we need to go in IMO. I believe strongly that, rather than business injecting business values onto our communities to business ends, we really need to turn the tides and teach business how to espouse human values again…or as Gary Hamel writes in his excellent column, put soul back into business. It is human beings, after all, that are necessary to the success of any business (whether employees or customers).
Which is why I DO mind the gap between business values and human values and why this has become the focus of my most recent work and presentations:
As the presentation states, we humans are growing less and less trusting of where we are spending our money and our time (working), but we still desire that connection. No, we don’t want to be chummy with companies, but we are seeking out those brands that espouse human values to spend our time and money with. And that is the key here. It’s not just a nice thing to do, although I believe that without this shift, the world is going to get a whole lot scarier – think the current economic crisis but worse. It’s also a smart business move. There is much more business can learn from the values driving the growth of online communities than where to target the next generation of buyers. Call it a revolution or a paradigm shift or what you will, but it is happening and it needs to be said over and over until the shift is made universally. This doesn’t just make for a better future for humans, but for business as well. Like it or not, we are living in a consumer society and we may as well make it a harmonious relationship.
So, yes, I DO mind the gap and so should everyone else. We spend a great amount of time on connecting, sharing, being generous and creating beauty. This is incredibly valuable and IS making the world a better place. Let’s keep it move in that direction.
[photos by: shutterstock]
This presentation may well be my favorite of yours. It’s deeply troubled me to see the likes of CocaCola & others use their tricks to build community and make friends for products by gaming social networking communities. Same ol. Same ol. Every time we give credence to a unsustainable business or product to get a coupon or support another so-called charitable giveaway, we are not minding the gap. Thanks for the reminder. It matters.
Tara,
This was a great post and the presentation is fantastic!
I think many business (and individual professionals) struggle to understand the value of social media and the importance of social capital (I’ll admit that I call it “whuffie” because that word is more fun to say) because they continue to try to relate to it in a traditional business sense.
By that I mean, many view social media as the “new sales and marketing model” – i.e., “the new way to throw a relentless shitstorm of advertising at potential customers.”
Since I work in the computer science industry, I loved the concept of the new Turing test – and the quote “instead of a personal brand, why not get a personality?” is priceless.
Many of the companies I discuss social media with are very uncomfortable with being personal and acting human in online communities – they believe that would somehow be “unprofessional.”
Like you said, we certainly don’t want companies to try to act like (or try to become) our friends.
However, I believe the unrelenting growth and popularity of online communities is driving the commercial landscape back to the business model of the little shops on Main Street in small towns – where although you weren’t necessarily friends with the shop proprietors, you knew who they were as people, you saw them around town, in the park walking their dog, on the playground with their kids, at the local charity fundraising events.
In other words, you knew that in addition to being businesspeople who wanted to sell you something – they were always human beings who weren’t all that different than the actual people you did call your friends.
Best Regards,
Jim
I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In Tulsa people who ran businesses built places that made the community better. Business owners helped create museums. They brought symphony orchestras, opera and ballet to the area. They built parks. They fought to make Route 66 go through their town. They built a community and took actions to make their community better for their children and their childrens’ children.
IMO business owners have a responsiblity to lead others in the fight to make their community better. Many business owners today don’t have their community on their org chart. Therefore the community doesn’t exist. Whether the community is on Facebook, Twitter or some other place, only members of the community who might be customers or potential customers are important. Not the communities where their families live.
Granted, not all businesses are built that way. But the majority are.
Business schools don’t teach “Building Your Community 101″ in their MBA program. Yet many great business people who built our cities 50, 100 or 200 years ago, made building their community as important as looking for potential customers in their “marketing plans.” Somehow that fact is overlooked in our business schools and our executive leadership training programs. Thanks for talking about how important communities are (even if it’s difficult to measure ROI on your community building activities).
Tara really has such an amazing way of explaining all of this, even for those of us who are just entering the world of social media for business. But you’re so right. I watch my children as they text at the speed of light and race home from school to log into Facebook so they can reconnect with the friends that they left only moments ago. People need — indeed crave — that connectedness. Community IS about human values, but I DO believe that from positive human values ultimately come the positive business results that people also seek.
If corporations have the same rights as individuals, including (now) the right to make massive campaign contributions and leverage their wealth to lobby politicians, then it stands that they should have the same responsibilities…including social responsibilities. You know, like “look at my eyes while I’m talking to you.”
Otherwise we’re heading for life under an oligarchy of zombies.
A useful post on the same sort of theme can be found across the water on the Headshift blog: ‘Unlocking social media ROI through business transformation’ – albeit without quite so much warm whuffie-ness
Great to have two posts on this theme in as many days.
Thank you Tara, really good stuff (as ever).
For about a year, I’ve been managing a small online community for a software company. This presentation *really* resonates with me, as I’ve been navigating some murky waters in the gap between controlling/managing risk and authenticity.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a big enough team to engage customer ideas in our development cycle as quickly as our customers would like. However, as a customer of other software companies with the same problem, I know how lame it feels to have the company answer “Yes, good idea, we’ll add it to the list.” (When there are 100 threads with that same response.) We clearly have a lot to learn from our customers, but I feel nervous about pushing beyond the “evil robot” mold because I’m afraid of losing future customers by admitting/acknowledging our problems publicly. However, this unwillingness to acknowledge is costing us the energy and participation of the customers who care enough to actually post and engage with us. There’s a segment of our company who feels that these customers aren’t “statistically significant”. While this *might* be true, the rules obviously change when you have public/community dialogue.
Anyway, thanks Tara for giving me the language to discuss the challenges I’m encountering. I think you’re dead-on. We need to take a risk, get a personality, open the door, and stop measuring the size of our hearts in the corporate locker room.
-
As an aside, an interesting trend I’ve noticed with some online community customers/members is that SOME CUSTOMERS EXPECT US TO BE EVIL ROBOTS. These customers often approach us with a harsh tone of expectation, refer to us as the infamous “they” and need to be reminded that we are human too. This is yet another indication that companies are not doing a good job across the board. When this expectation changes, we’ll know the evil robot has left town.
This is fantastic, Tara. Thank you, again, for saying what so obviously needs to be said. Just yesterday I was feeling like we’ve hit a plateau in business social media in that companies are still only comfortable using networks to mine for customer data that they can use in marketing (I generally only work with marketing), and that’s only if you can get them to even pay that much attention to their community. These changes you call for are going to have to happen at the top, or come from a revolutionary marketer who’s got the balls to take on the execs. As usual, you’re a few years ahead of the times. Thanks for leading the charge.
This presentation was fantastic at the Leading Social Change conference at AdWeek. You were even quoted in a government meeting the next day.
You don’t raise little issues, do you? You just like to knock people between the eyes with your observations.
I commend you.
If I could bottle what I have learned over 60 years in business… it would be this…
Find something that really helps people move their lives forward. Embrace that activity with all your heart. Be humble, gracious and accepting. But don’t ‘in your heart of hearts’ settle for second best.
Oh… and be sure that activity pays the rent.
“Find something that really helps people move their lives forward.”
Mars, I’m going to keep that one, if you don’t mind.
This post was wonderful! As a student, it’s frustrating to see teachers spout the metrics that detach us from ourselves and reduce our very human minds, actions, and feelings down to ROI, profit, and measurement. I’m proud to say what I ate for lunch
Just hip!
That’s all!
What a pleasure seeing you deliver this presentation yesterday in Montreal at 3rd Tuesdays. I think you put the finger on what will be the biggest differentiator in business in the coming years. Those companies that are able to manage to close the gap will definitely end up on top.
@anonymous
Why are you anonymous? Why not try transparency since you are obviously not satisfied with what you are doing now. There is nothing wrong with being human and having limitations…even for companies.
There is nothing wrong entering into a conversation with a customer and admitting you are not perfect. As long as we respect their intelligence, they usually respond very well…
Engaging customers in this way shows human values…compassion, courage, connectedness, openness, transparency….Like Tara points out, robots are only evil when they lack these values…
Wally->Nice robot….Terminator->Bad robot, very bad robot…