Social Culture- Change or Get Eaten

It's hard to focus on the shore when the sharks are biting at your ass. In this recession, where most corporations are fighting for their economic life, trying to focus on changing corporate culture and social engagement is the last thing on anyone's mind, but it's probably the only thing that can save these corporations.

One of the bloggers I enjoy following is David Armano, VP of Experience Design at a company called Critical Mass. He just recently attended the Marketing 2.0 conference in Paris and wrote about the highlights in his latest blog post. In it he describes the experiences that companies such as Lego, Ford and SouthWest Airlines have had by getting involved with social media and social networks. The culture shift that this engagement required was tremendous, but if you ask anyone of them, they would tell you how valuable it has been for their company.

Interestingly enough, SouthWest Airlines has one person dedicated to responding to their customers via Twitter. Now there's commitment, and admittedly they weren't sure how they were going to leverage the service, but they jumped in and eventually figured it out. It's not surprising though. SouthWest Airlines has been recognized as one of the leaders in effective management with their core values focusing on people inside and out of the organization.

In fact, most leadership management consultants have used a video describing the cultural transformation of Southwest Airlines to kick off initial discussions with their clients in an effort to guide cultural change. For years Southwest trumpeted the value of transparency, leading by example, open door policies and authenticity. Employees genuinely love to work at Southwest, and when times got tough, employees remained committed and loyal, as did their customers.

I won't name any organizations, but the same loyalty or commitment to helping the company survive is totally nonexistant at some of the big auto companies, banks or grocery companies that I see. Quite the opposite is happening. Corporations that received big bailouts have to pay their critical staff huge bonuses just to stay.....what does that tell you.

It's never to late to start making cultural changes, but ignore it and look out.

It's not what business you do....it's how you do business that will save you from the sharks, especially in today's social environment.

It's time to get social!