Increasingly I’m being asked about how to implement and manage a more social way of communicating. Sometimes within organisations, sometimes with customers, and when really lucky – sometimes with all stakeholders. I recently gave a talk for the CIPD on Social Media for HR, covering subjects like fear, authenticity, support and learning together. I’ve had some lovely feedback from the talk so I’ve written up the essence of it into a short report.

Here are a few headline thoughts:

We started the talk with a game, designed to help guests get to know one another and to start talking about social media and social tools. It was easy to play and great fun.

Then we acknowledged that social is here and isn’t going away anytime soon. That doesn’t mean you have to get involved, just be aware that many others are. Is it better to engage, or have people engage around you?

We talked about fear. Many people in the audience worked at places where access to social tools is blocked. I asked how many of these companies felt email overload was a problem. Many hands went up. How many people keep their email open all the time? Again, many hands raised. A question then – why doesn’t your company introduce an appropriate use of email policy? OK, I was playing along but it’s amazing how companies let people be a slave to email and yet acknowledge it is a problem and often counter productive. Perhaps there are other tools available that could be used to facilitate smarter, more interactive working?

The discussion moved on through authenticity, be yourself and do what you say you will, or get ready for the consequences. We talked about creating supportive and learning environments and a few other things besides.

There’s more information in the report including a copy of the game for you to use and adapt, and some further reading links on this subject. You can get a free copy here. And I’d love to know your thoughts on this subject. Useful for work, or a waste of time, or somwhere in between maybe?