A few weeks ago I attended the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston.

One of the standout presentations was by Gentry Underwood of IDEO, a design and innovation consulting firm.

During his presentation, Gentry defined three key principles for creating innovation at an organization. Here’s my take on them.

3 Principles for Creating Innovation

1. Empower people, not ideas. Ideas come and go. They’re cheap. They don’t always fit your organization, your workforce or your current business strategy. The people who generate those ideas, though… they’re priceless.
2. Create a platform that brings people together. Historically, this might have meant things like brainstorming rooms and dedicated “innovation spaces.” In an increasingly global and dispersed workforce, it often means some sort of social media tool.
3. Facilitate and reward participation. More specifically, remove every single microscopic barrier to entry. The biggest problem with creating an innovative culture is adoption, usually because managers don’t support it or it’s integrated into other aspects of a person’s job.

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One of the ongoing themes at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference was the power of social media to drive collaboration and community at organizations.

My Take: Social media is just a tool.

It doesn’t create collaboration. It doesn’t create community. It just helps facilitate it.

People create those things. Social media tools simply amplify and enable your culture.

If you want more collaboration and community, social media can definitely help. But you need to make sure you’re creating a culture that supports those things first.

What do you think?

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Facebook has 500 million people. Twitter has 100 million. LinkedIn has 70 million…

And real life has over 6 billion people.

(via Lance Haun)

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About a month ago, HR rockstar Victorio Milian asked me a very straightforward question:

I’m looking to use Linkedin groups as a branding and employee engagement tool and I’m looking for some suggestions. If you have any ideas or best practices that you could share that would be greatly appreciated.

Amazingly, my response was longer than most of my blog posts. I thought I’d share it with you…

Keep reading…

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Recently, I’ve been wondering why I use Twitter.

Truth be told, I started using it solely to promote Renegade HR. I thought it was stupid. I used it anyways, but I thought it was a waste of time.

Then I became hooked. Like hardcore hooked. Then I finally settled into a more reasonable amount of usage.

Steve Jobs Doesn’t Tweet

But recently I’ve been thinking about how the people I most admire – the Seth Godins and Steve Jobs of the world – typically aren’t on Twitter. They’re out there making amazing shit that changes the world. They’re not talking about it on Twitter.

And I think that’s why most people are so hesitant to get involved with Twitter in the first place. They’d rather do things than talk about them. So here I was, thinking, “Should I stop Tweeting?”

Keep reading…

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My buddy Ben Eubanks from Upstart HR tipped me off to this awesome, free ebook on HR Marketing and Social Media.

Written by Kevin Grossman and the HR Marketer team, it’s a great primer for anyone looking to get more involved in social media as an HR pro.

Download HR Marketing: A Conversation Starter

PS: If you haven’t yet, you may also want to check out my work-in-progress, Culture Convo. It’s a step-by-step guide to getting started with employer branding through social media.

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How would you react if someone said to you, “I don’t use that email thing.”? Would you hire them for an HR job?

Thirty years ago, the internet was just a fad. Only it wasn’t.

Twenty years ago, email was just a fad. Only it wasn’t.

Today, social media is just a fad. Only it isn’t.

If you don’t use “that social media thing,” you need to. Not knowing how is going to be the same as not using email in five years.

Bonus: If you’re social media savvy, why not teach your colleagues and employees how to use these tools?

PS: I’m writing a book on employer branding with social media. Click here to learn more.

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