change is hard: online communities and organizational change management
DESCRIPTION
Using an online community is a huge change for people from more traditional backgrounds or for less web-savvy audiences. This is especially true for communities used inside of a company or organization where people are being asked to change the way that they work. An online community can be a large organizational change, and these changes take time and effort with plenty of education and training. People building online communities sometimes underestimate the amount of resistance and fear that can come from many people within the organization. As community builders, we can learn quite a bit from organizational change management principles to come up with some interesting nuggets of information for how community managers can help people through the change to a more community-oriented organization.TRANSCRIPT
Dawn Foster
Sr. Executive & Community Practice Manager at Olliance Group
olliancegroup.com @geekygirldawn fastwonderblog.com
Change is Hard
Online Communities and Organizational Change
Change is Hard on People
Fear
Anxiety
Worry
Resistance
Revolt
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Community Can Be Big Change
Many of us thrive on learning and using new technologies and finding new ways to collaborate
For others, an online community is a huge change Shift from reading websites to being expected to create content Need to learn new technologies
Communities can be especially scary because Mistakes and failure are public for your peers to see Anything you say now could be around forever
Some organizational cultures make it difficult to build community Government, conservative companies or professions, regulation
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Scope of the Issue with Change
Entire industry / ecosystem Government, regulated industry, less tech-savvy industry,
certain demographics
Company or organization Internal corporate community, non-profit organization community
Some portion of the population One of more audience segments Certain individuals having difficulty with the change
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Organizational Change Mgmt
Definition (Wikipedia) Change management is a structured approach to transitioning
individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. It includes both organizational change management processes and individual change management models, which are used to manage the people side of change.
We can learn from organizational change management principles. Used for many years within organizations to deal with change Historically used with top-down change within organizations
We can apply some of their best practices to community building Even when it isn’t a top-down initiative
Kotter’s 8 Step Change Process
Establish a sense of urgency Help people understand the importance of getting involved now Opportunities, market / competition concerns, potential crisis
Create a guiding coalition In an organization, get executives as champions For corporate communities, get key customers Industry leaders, influential community members, etc. can also
be champions for industry efforts
Develop a vision and strategy Know what you want to accomplish (vision) Always have a strategy for your online community efforts
Kotter’s 8 Step Change Process
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate For people who are afraid or resistant, a single communication
will not win them over Over communicate with as much information as possible Provide plenty of opportunities for training. Many people will
need more than a single training session Communicate using a variety of methods (written, video, etc.)
Empower People to Act Remove obstacles Change systems or processes that make
it difficult to build community Encourage risk taking and non-traditional
ideas
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Kotter’s 8 Step Change Process
Generate Short-Term Wins Find easy ways for people to be successful quickly and frequently Recognize and reward members who are helping build community
Evolution Figure out what works and what doesn’t Evolve the community to change those things that aren’t working
as well Continue to improve the community over time
Culture Focus community management on reinforcing
and building this new culture Develop new leaders who support the culture
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Summary
Q&A
Resources: John P. Kotter: Leading Change
About Dawn Foster Author of Companies and Communities: Participating without
being sleazy My Blog: Fastwonderblog.com Consulting: Olliancegroup.com Twitter: @geekygirldawn Email: [email protected]