Social media drives culture change
~ October 15th, 2009It’s not often that CEOs are excited to hear that their product could be made obsolete.
But two weeks ago at HRTech in Chicago, David and I heard just that from one of our more prominent corporate users and we couldn’t be happier!
Of course, Rypple isn’t really going anywhere and the comment was actually good news with respect to the impact of social media on organizations. Let me explain.
HRTech is an annual trade show and conference. It’s coordinated by the dean of HR technology writers, Bill Kutik, who moderates a “Cool New Technologies” panel every year. My co-CEO, David Stein, delivered a fantastic demo of Rypple at this year’s session. The feedback from the live audience was super-positive and we got some great feedback via Rypple afterward!
One of our executive users pulled me aside for a quick conversation the day before the demo. He’s the CEO of a mid-sized professional services firm who’s been using Rypple for a year. He wanted us to know he loved Rypple. Awesome!
Then he said:
“I think you might have a real problem. I’m concerned that using Rypple might make Rypple obsolete. We’ve been using it for a while now, and I’ve noticed that people are much more willing to give me feedback face-to-face. They’re willing to talk to me — and to each other.”
To which we said:
That’s the furthest thing from a problem we can imagine! In fact, your observation of “increased feedback” is actually the goal of our service. Using a social tool like Rypple to drive an increase in face-to-face interaction is precisely what makes Rypple so compelling.
The point is: social media is not simply narcissistic self-exposure online. When carefully and thoughtfully designed, social media can enhance real world interaction (ask anyone who’s been to a TweetUp!). We’ve worked hard to help support and encourage feedback as a social behavior in our customers’ companies because we believe it leads to learning, better execution, and success.
In fact, we’ve found that when an organization or senior executive integrates Rypple into their operation, they do so because:
- feedback, transparency, and communication are important to them
- there is a real commitment to continuous improvement
- what their people think matters.
Great social apps encourage people to develop real, actual social interaction.
If introducing Rypple to a firm filled with smart, high performing individuals made them more open to giving and getting feedback and increased teamwork and collaboration, then we hope more CEOs tell us that Rypple is going to be obsolete!
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