Social Media at Work: How Networking Tools Propel Organizational Performance

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PUTTING SOCIAL MEDIA TO WORK

Emergent Solutions, Inc., is a global leadership and organi-

zation development consulting firm headquartered in Palo

Alto, California. With an extended team of more than sixty-

five trusted and skilled consultants across the globe, Emergent

Solutions considers collaboration o ne of its hallmarks. The

company actually refers to its network of consultants as ‘‘the

Guild,’’ connoting the supportive interaction that has been

essential to its success.

Social media has played a large role in Emergent

Solutions’ productivity, improving its collaboration and

streamlining its operations. Says Chris Cavanaugh-Simmons,

managing director, ‘‘Precisely a year ago, circumstances

conspired to get me to look at social networks. An

acquaintance told me that I should look into social

networking and wikis, and recommended that I read up on it.

The first thing that struck me was how Emergent Solutions’

goals and values meshed perfectly with the principles of a

wiki: being open, peering, sharing, and acting globally. So I

got incredibly excited about the possibilities.’’

Chris realized that as Emergent Solutions grew, it had

increased client projects globally, but was not adequately

leveraging the collective intelligence of its skilled consultant

community. It subsequently missed opportunities for synergy,

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130 SOCIAL MEDIA AT WORK

innovation, and agile responses to clients. Emergent Solu-

tions also had to focus on operational processes and basic

workflow. Cavanaugh-Simmons remembers how frustrating

this was: ‘‘We’d been buried in the transactional processes

needed to run our business, and our high-level strategies and

long-range dreams were temporarily on hold.’’

Enter social media. Emergent Solutions’ initial primary

tool of choice was a wiki because of its intrinsic value as a tool

for community collaboration. The company looked at several

solutions, and finally selected SocialText as its partner.

To date, Emergent Solutions has developed several wiki

workspaces:

•

The Community Space for sharing current topics, events,

discussions, resources, best practices, and lessons for

improving internal effectiveness or customer solutions.

•

A ‘‘design lab’’ for the full-time staff to post projects for

tracking, visibility, accountability, and transparency

•

A ‘‘wiki hub’’ accessed via Emergent Solutions’ Web site,

where clients can go without a password to learn and share

insights regarding strategy, leadership, and organizational

challenges. Emergent Solutions consultants often post

current research and lessons gleaned from their ongoing

work experiences.

•

A Strategy as Narrative wiki for the community of consul-

tants, external thought leaders, and customers who have

assisted in the creation of this new premier offering.

•

Private client spaces set up to capture insights, questions,

and ideas in ongoing executive coaching relationships or

consulting engagements.

The benefits have been clear. Playing on the term ‘‘Web

2.0,’’ Emergent Solutions now uses the term Consulting 2.0 in

explaining to clients how its collaborative approach delivers

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PUTTING SOCIAL MEDIA TO WORK 131

better results quicker. According to Cavanaugh-Simmons,

‘‘We call social media a utility. It has become a critical

component of our operation—it’s just as important to us

as the light and the heat.’’ Emergent Solutions has seen

clear improvement in the quality of its service for its clients

as well as in operational efficiencies. Once, for example, a

customer sent a difficult request to Cavanaugh-Simmons,

and she immediately blasted the request to the Guild. The

collective responses were captured on the wiki, and Chris

was able to review their input, transfer it to a document, and

deliver it to the customer overnight. She ‘‘wowed’’ the client

with her speed and depth of insight. ‘‘We really walk the talk

in using Web 2.0 to enable our Consulting 2.0 strategies of

partnering, transparency, and agility,’’ says Chris. ‘‘This is a

great way to illustrate to our client how our global capabilities

and collaborative power add value.’’

In fact, the use of social media has improved Emergent

Solutions’ internal processes so much that the company

was able to avoid hiring a full-time employee. Of course

implementing social media wasn’t easy. Many of Emer-

gent Solutions’ highly experienced consultants were not

as tech savvy as they wanted to be, and some of Emer-

gent Solutions’ previous technology implementation efforts

had fizzled. However, Emergent Solutions’ partner, Social-

Text, was responsive in smoothing out technical glitches and

improving features.

Cavanaugh-Simmons viewed Emergent Solutions’ imple-

mentation of social media as successful in part because the

company viewed the process just as it would any complex

organizational change for its own customers. Here are some

of the lessons learned:

•

Share the vision and begin the conversation. First get

the partners aligned, then key staff, then the larger com-

munity, so that everyone can see where you’re headed,

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