Leaders say the funniest things – these days it’s only worth listening if it’s funny.
Before the internet went social and we still lived in an age of push, companies that wanted to engage with big issues through their CR programme would pump out mega treatises on their approach to dealing with their social, economic and environmental issues.
Focused on their business risks and their impacts, these papers, reports, campaigns and eventually microsites (!) were consistent with their way of doing business. For although stakeholders were involved in producing the stuff, end results quickly lost relevance. The debates and issues evolved as the thought leadership stood still, stacked in piles in a back office or hiding out at a lonely url that no-one knew about.
Thankfully this walled garden approach is no longer consistent with a new operating environment that requires collaboration, openness and new types of engagement with new consumers.
Embedding sustainability + deepening partnerships
As these things have evolved, companies have learnt to deal with the wider issues that effect the sector that are not only material to their business but also have a wider impact. For example for SABMiller, taking on water use is helping them become an effective partner in water stressed regions where they operate.
Deeper partnerships with civil society and the growing strength of industry initiatives such as the FSC, the Equator Principles, the IBLF and the ICMM, to name a few, have helped wage a more united front in response to big issues. But in a constant effort to outdo each other, companies are still hooked on the need to demonstrate leadership. Collaboration too, has to be set within a few walls and have clear benefits.
How mass collaboration (and crises) changes everything
The financial and environmental crises have shown up weaknesses in the structural inability of companies to help us get sustainable. And now that everyone can all talk feely and cheaply and cut out the marketing, people don’t need to trust companies.
Now that no-one is listening, companies need to move from thought leadership to creating the enabling environments and help people come together to tackle big issues. This is about facing the big challenges with mass collaboration.
This type of facilitation is ably demonstrated by Openideo (in partnership with Sony and WWF don’t you know). Openideo is an online platform for people to come together to work on solutions to big social and environmental challenges, such as:
From behind the walled garden you may be wondering why anyone would contribute their time to this –they aren’t getting paid so the quality will be rubbish etcetcr. Watch the video to see how it works:
Why does it work:
- v low/no cost to entry. The concept takes design thinking of Ideo and funnels the wisdom of the crowd to find the most effective solution.
- Thanks to the platform all ideas are shareable, remixable and open meaning there is plenty of scope for refinement and repurposing.
- People contribute/self-select because they are passionate
- People are rewarded with kudos and a type of ranking (called a design quotient). This ranking may help them in other things they do.
- People gather from all parts of the world with a variety of skills and life experiences (rethink who your stakeholders are).
- It is constantly evolving, changing and adapting… and its fun.
Creating enabling environments
I’ve posted before about mass collaboration (here and here) and remember Clay Shirky being asked in his talk where should a company go to tap into mass collaboration. His response was to sit on the sidelines and be humble as people work together (without you) to create new things.
This is the natural evolution of thought leadership and companies should be happy about this. By curating and ‘taking the friction out’ of helping people collaborate, you can help speed up the search for solutions to big challenges and build new conversational relationships.
So if this suits you, don’t feel you need to build a massive platform – go and find one and help them do more. Sit back and watch it work. If you want to go a step further release some data sets or patents. It might actually help to shift other parts of your organisation to explore ideas of open innovation and co-creation and help you realign the rest of your business to a rebalancing world. It also means that you don’t need to say something funny just to get heard.
Related posts:
Rebuilding blocks: sustainability, economics, design
Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age (for everyone?)
RSA: Animate -What motivates us
How to: Futuregazing, sustainability and creative content
