Everyday Influence

Managing Experience and Influence in a Social Business Environment

“Influence is like water.  It is always flowing somewhere.” – Gary Hamel

There is amazing truth to Gary Hamel’s observation when associated to the hypercompetitive and social business environment that we live and work in today. 

Over the past two years we have seen new ‘sources of water’ or ‘pools of influence’ form in and around our companies and our respective industries at an extremely rapid pace (fueled by the affects of social media tsunami).

As a result, many marketing and communication leaders (and their agencies) have struggled to make the right adjustments required to help their companies navigate the new realities of managing influence and doing business in a social environment. 

The truth is, we live in exciting times.

Old communication and marketing platforms and the 1:1 relationship models that we have all come to appreciate have been disrupted - to the point that mainstream media, industry analysts, NGOs, etc. are no longer the primary sources of information available for our customers and the market at large to draw upon to inform and shape their opinions and decisions.

Social media and online social networks provide us with instant access to a wealth of rich information for insight, education, advice and shared experience to support our decisions - be it to purchase, vote, endorse, etc. 

The key word here is experience. 

Experience is the most important and credible factor of influence that affects any individual or community to take action.

As consumers, we rely on our own experience (with a company or issue) as well as the shared experience of others to support our decisions and/or shape our opinions. 

Good or bad, experience is authentic, extremely credible, trustworthy…and very hard to buy.  

A bad experience shared on the Internet can travel at a velocity that can reach millions of people over night. 

As people begin to identify with or share their own similar ‘bad’ experiences - the impact on a company’s reputation and sales can be dramatic.  This alone should be enough to cause concern for any business leader. 

Perhaps more important though, is that every bad experience exposes a root issue (e.g. product or service quality, sales experience issues, etc.) that if ignored or not addressed in a timely manner can further expose a company to massive short and long-term business challenges.

In today’s social environment, the spark that often ignites the flame comes via a tweet, a blog post or a status update to a social media peer group.

In this regard, experience is perhaps the most disruptive factor of influence to companies in a social business environment. 

So how do you manage or generate positive experience?

The Leadership Imperative to Facilitate Innovation and Design Thinking

In a recent blog post I discussed the virtues of Design Thinking as a framework to facilitate the creation of innovative marketing and communication strategies.

In this post, I offer thoughts on what leaders need to do to create a culture where innovation and design thinking can actually thrive.

Lessons from Harvard Business Review.

In an article published in the December 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review entitled “The Innovators DNA" authors Jeffrey H. Dyer, Hal B. Gregerson, and Clayton M. Christensen discuss the characteristics of leadership that drive innovation cultures within organizations.  The article is the result of a six-year study to uncover the origins of creative - and often disruptive - business strategies in innovative companies.

The authors discovered that the best leaders in many organizations are not the genius behind ground breaking innovations.  Rather they are the curators of ideas and design and are the facilitators of collaboration that often lead to great innovations.

The ability to innovate is the secret sauce of business success. 

Companies that embody the spirit of innovation through design will lead and win in the market.  Companies like Apple, Amazon, and Proctor & Gamble are great examples of companies that are leading and transforming the competitive landscape of their respective markets based (in large part) by the culture of innovation that runs through their DNA.

In an effort to isolate the characteristics of innovative leaders the authors of the HBR article identifed the following fundamental characteristics and skills that leaders must posess.

Design Thinking for Developing Innovative Communication Strategies

 
I have drawn great inspiration from concepts of design thinking over the last four years as a basis to create and implement innovative communication and influence programs. 

After a recent conversation with a member of my team at SAP - Carly Cooper - I am further inspired to delve more deeply into the realm of design thinking as I feel that it represents one of the best frameworks for marketing and communication professionals to understand as they adjust to the current socioeconomic trends transforming business - as a result of social media.

The unstated ideas and principles of design thinking have been in practice for centuries and have served as the basis for many technology and business model innovations.

Companies like Apple, Dell, Proctor & Gamble and recent upstarts like Better Place and Salesforce.com have famously validated these principles to create significant game changing business models and innovations that in many ways have redefined the landscape of their respective industries.

The team at IDEO have formalized these concepts over the last decade with frameworks that have been refined, debated and discussed among an impressive group of thought leaders, practitioners and innovators.

Hasso Plattner a co-founder of SAP has become a patron of design thinking through his great efforts to sponsor the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University and the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany.

What is Design Thinking?

Wikipedia defines design thinking as: