4 Keys to Get Your Colleagues to Embrace Web 2.0 and Second Life

Ease ‘Em In ·  Show ‘Em Why & ROI  ·  Involve ‘Em  ·  Leave ‘Em Wanting More

Posted by: Jonena Relth

Everyone is looking for ways to improve our organizations while decreasing costs. It’s a fact – no arguments here.  So now you just need to show ‘em how!  Yes, this is easier said than done, but let me share my personal journey into Web 2.0 and Second Life®.

 

Yep, I’m a boomer and proud of it!  And yes, I admit to kickin’ and screamin’ while being coaxed by my employees into the world of Web 2.0 and Second Life®.  And yes, TBD is now proud to be using Web 2.0 technologies and Second Life® to train, conduct meetings and communicate more effectively with our virtual staff and customers. 

 

So, how did I become a boomer totally convinced that our company should embrace these new technologies and help others to do so?  Well, I’m a bottom line kinda gal.  As I look back, I can see how my awesome employees, especially Mike Abrams, strategically and methodically introduced me to the new technologies as they showed me the whys and WIIFMs.

1.       Ease ‘Em In - Our corporate decision to branch out beyond our current ways of doing business was an easy decision.  Our staff and contractors are located across the US and the current economic realities demanded that we…       

• Use less expensive ways to communicate

•  Implement faster and cheaper ways to host interactive meetings

•  Use less expensive methods/tools to get our staff and customers trained and ensure transfer of knowledge and skills

 

Mike and all the TBD’rs starting looking at new ways to do our jobs better, cheaper and faster.  Of course, this is an ongoing process with TBD, but the stakes are even higher now with the state of the current economy.  Because we’re a totally virtual company, communication costs can be hard to keep under control, so the first technologies they chose to introduce to the “ol gal” were Internet Messaging and GoToMeeting®.   To ease me in, they introduced me to ONE tool at a time.  This is key for boomers.  Remember, we moved to DOS and green screens straight from electric typewriters!  Believe me, those were scary days that make moving to Web 2.0 seem like a piece of cake.  And yes, they set everything up for me and patiently showed me how the new tools simply replaced the old ways of doing things.

 

2.       Show ‘Em Why & ROI - Remember the bottom line kinda gal I mentioned above?  Well, a simple spreadsheet and keeping up with the Jones’ was enough to peak my interest and support.  By using interactive webinars, Second Life®, blogs, our new online assessment tool (TBD Q®) etc., we’ve increased our revenue streams and decreased our expenses.  And being performance consultants at heart, it’s been a blast teaching others how to use Web 2.0 technologies and Second LifeÒ to help their businesses, as well.

 

3.       Involve ‘Em - I can still remember the first TBD leadership meeting we held in Second Life® in our virtual conference room.  We like to drink our own “Kool-Aid” and do what we recommend to our clients, so it made perfect sense that we would have “free meetings” in Second Life® and enjoy each others’ company - - even though we are scattered across the country.  Each meeting since, Mike has taught us more techniques to help us become proficient so we’ll be fully prepared for to conduct meetings ourselves in Second Life®.  To learn how to buy things and place them where we want, we went virtual Christmas shopping at different locations in Second Life® and then brought the things back and decorated our building.  It was a fun, team building event that helped us all build skills.  Go buy and see our handiwork!  Learning Innovation Island in Second Life™ http://slurl.com/secondlife/Iru/37/167/24 

 

4.       Leave ‘Em Wanting More - This is where we are now. We’re marketing through social media avenues; using streaming video and tools like Flickr to post pictures to our blogs; hosting webinars with accompanying blogs; and so much more. 

 

Yep, I’m excited for 2009 and all the Web 2.0 technologies and virtual worlds we’ll explore. Our corporate mission will remain the same: to focus on improving performance management, employee engagement and process effectiveness.  And of course, as a bottom line kinda gal, I’ll make sure that what we implement helps increase revenue by helping our wonderful clients while decreasing our/their costs to do business. I hope you’ll join us in this journey.

 

Please join me in Second Life® on January 6^th, 8:00 am PT at  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Iru/29/195/23  We’ll be delving deeper into the topic of how to involve our bosses and colleagues in Web 2.0 and Second Life® to help our organizations thrive and grow in 2009.

Comments

[Lynnda Joyce]

Jonena, Thanks for sharing you insight and experience. I'll look forward to seeing you in Second Life on the 6th!

[Marv]

Hi Jonena, I'm a boomer, too. I've never played a video game in my life, but I've watched my kids waste hour after hour playing games. I'm having a hard time understanding how training in Second Life can be anything but distracting and a waste of time!

[Jonena]

Hi Marv,
Well, I just have to ask you to give it the 'ol college try. Second Life is different in many ways from video games. While there are avatars in both, in SL you converse real time with real people. SL adds the needed dimensions for transfer of learning for the visual, kinesthetic and auditory learners that just aren’t possible with regular distance learning methodologies like webinars and even WBT.

Honest, attending a workshop in Second Life is as close to being in an Instructor-led classroom as you can get without the travel. Web 2.0 and virtual worlds, just like the Internet, aren’t going away. We owe it to ourselves and our organizations to at least explore the possibilities of what they can contribute to our overall learning strategy.

[David Miller]

Great post and I echo your sentiment. Adoption for us is difficult because of firewall issues and our use is as a tool to create video for the use in our eLearning (reaches 70K people in 110 countries.

Rather than get our clients into SL, we bring some of the richness of SL to them. I do Blender 3D as well, but for the creation of high quality video quickly - it's hard to beat Second Life (or OpenSim for our purposes).

I market my sl land business heavily through Flickr (about 2000 images of my sims and builds).

I also speak at conferences on this and am quite evangelical (a la Torley).

Best of luck and thank you for such a clear presentation of this!

[Jonena Relth]

Hi David, Thanks for your input. We'll be talking about Web.20 and SL adoption at 8 am PT on the 6th and would be great to hear your experience and insights. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Iru/29/195/23

[Zane Safrit]

Beautiful! I love it. Especially Number 2. Too few presentations on social media's power failt to include the ROI in meaningful terms for the client's decision-makers: dollars and cents, revenue increased or expenses reduced. But not you and your post is a great way to start my day.

Thanks for the follow on twitter, too.

[Jonena Relth]

Zane,
Thanks for your input. My soapbox for 17+ years has been to show ROI for ALL process improvement interventions. How else can HR/Training/OD/Performance Improvement get and keep our seat at the Sr. Leadership Table? Glad to know someone is listening.

Looking forward to your tweets, as well.
twitter.com/relth

[school_dubl]

Hi Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, a cool site I like