Experiencing the Groundswell
Now that I’ve finally finished writing, I can turn my attention back to reading. And what better place to start than with Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s Groundswell.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a chapter on “the groundswell in your company” so having dutifully absorbed the introduction and first two chapters, I skipped straight to page 215.
Charlene and Josh look at three types of what they call “internal groundswell applications” - an internal community at Best Buy, wikis at Avenue A/Razorfish, Organic and Intel, and an idea exchange at Bell Canada. All five case studies are worth exploring further, even if the business impact isn’t as clearly defined as you might like.
The Forrester Research analysts also offer three strategies for nurturing the internal groundswell:
- promote a listening culture from the top down;
- ease and encourage participation with incentives (the equivalent of what I mean by leading on individual value);
- find and empower the rebels in your organisation.
I’ll let you know how I get on with the rest of the book.
Congratulations on your book Niall. I look forward to reading it.
I too jumped to the “Groundswell in Your Company” section of the book, knowing that some of the work we’ve done at Bell Canada was being referenced.
I recently gave an interview to Business Digest, that elaborates a bit more on the business impact of ID-ah! environment referenced in Groundswell. Not sure when the publish date will be, but for those interested you will find out more there.