According to the authors of Social Media at Work: How Networking Tools Propel Organizational Performance (Jossey-Bass), there are three basic ways an organization can implement change. Though these methods lend themselves to many types of change initiatives, the book mainly focused on the adoption of business-oriented social media type applications in the workplace.

 In the first approach, top leadership mandates the change, and all facets of the change are implemented at once, across the entire organization. They call this the “all-hands-on-deck” approach, as everyone in the organization is required to adopt and participate in the new system. This works best for small organizations and where the employees are tech-savvy and ready for new systems to reduce confusion and increase efficiency.

With the second approach, the application is phased in with particular groups—usually based on geographical location or function—making the changes at different points in time. The change initiative is is still mandated from the top and requires 100 percent participation, but it allows for learning and adaptation along the way.

The third approach is the “bottom-up” approach, which is the most common way social media takes hold in larger organizations.  The “bottom-up” approach is voluntary, with a few people experimenting with the new system, then word spreads, and more people explore in their small subgroups. Over time, success stories promote more experimentation and critical mass builds within the organization.

Organically grown support initiatives allow for experimentation, learning and buy-in, without mandates from above. This gives employees ownership of the system and increases their commitment to it.  When executive leadership hears about tangible successes and benefits, it becomes viable to give structure and support to the system.

Change, to truly take hold, needs to be on an individual, internal, attitudinal level. Only when people are ready and willing to make the change, will they do so. This is the advantage of the “bottom-up” approach.

But what if you want to make change happen organically, without having long experimentation and buy-in phases?  

There are ways to speed up the implementation of all these methods of adoption. They will be addressed in part 2 of this blog.

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Your organization is embarking on a change initiative. Top management is excited about it, and the organization’s managers have been tasked with pushing it out to staff. Your first step is to announce it to everyone in your division, and the easiest way is via email. But many a change initiative flounders before it even gets out the gate because employees don’t read the emails.

In a world of overworked employees, suffering from information and e-mail overload, how can you improve the chances of your e-mail being opened and read?

With e-mail, you only have a few critical seconds to grab your employees’ attention:  When they are scanning the subject line. If the subject line is compelling enough, you have almost made it across the finish line! E-mail experts have made a science of subject lines and e-mail content, but they are mostly designed to sell something to the public. Here are some tips for tailoring your emails to sell something – an idea or a process –  within your organization:

• Subject line – Shorter is better. Three to four words are best but use no more than ten. Those words need to be the most carefully selected words in the entire e-mail, as they will determine whether or not the email gets opened. Make it compelling, that is, in the employees’ interest. For example, “New App for Marketing Dept.” Urgency and surprise grab attention:  “New Marketing App Starts Next Week.” Questions that the reader wants to answer are also good for piquing interest:  “Would you like fewer staff meetings?” Last, never use an exclamation point — there’s no surer way for your e-mail to end up in spam!

• E-mail content:

• If you have a request, place it first and explain later. Assume no one will read beyond your first sentence
• Keep it brief and to the point.  Simplicity is key for ease of reading, remembering and replying to requests. If any scrolling is required, it is too long
• “A picture is worth a thousand words.” If you have an image that encapsulates abstract ideas, use it!
• Appeal to the emotions. A message that ignites desire/fear/greed is infinitely more powerful than a dry argument based on the facts
• Be quotable. Tell a brief story or use a pertinent quote, which are great memory devices and are apt to be cut and pasted and forwarded on to others.

Finally, test your e-mail with a couple different subject lines on a select group before sending it out to everyone on your list.  Ask for feedback on the subject line and the content. When you have refined it to the point that your test group finds it compelling, press that send button!

But don’t stop there. Follow up regularly until you get the response rate you are aiming for.

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Last week, Wall Street Journal journalist Christina Binkley wrote that a group of about 100 apparel makers and retailers developed a software tool that rates the environmental impact of their apparel and footwear, from production to garbage dump. The Eco Index is scheduled to be unveiled at the Outdoor Retailer trade show next month, but the group is unsure when it will be unveiled to the public.   

There are several stages companies should go through before publicly announcing their “greenness,” according to Christoph Lueneburger and Daniel Goleman in “The Change Leadership Sustainability Demands.” To do so (before going through the necessary stages) can set the organization up for negative publicity and the accusation of “greenwashing.”

As Luenenburger and Goleman state, “First, sustainability is about operational reality first, and public perceptions second. Companies that market their external image beyond their actual accomplishments are risking serious damage to their corporate reputations, the impact of which can extend far beyond any individual brands.”

The first stage of an organization’s sustainability initiative, when it just begins, is not the time to make public announcements, as there is no track record to substantiate claims of success. The sustainability initiatives are just being planted and haven’t been ingrained operationally, yet.

The second phase is when sustainability systems have been adopted and there are measureable, short-term commercial successes. The organization is proactive on sustainability and tracks its economic, environmental and social metrics over the business-planning cycle. 

But it is not until the third phase that sustainability becomes “embedded in the corporate DNA.” At this point, sustainability is incorporated into long-term strategic planning and decisions can be made that may not be immediately profitable, but have a greater positive business and environmental impact further down the road.

This is when an organization can publicly share its sustainability practices for maximum effect. Providing information on production processes—from acquisition of materials through production, to the obsolescence and disposal of the product—will be a competitive advantage for those organizations that have a longer term track record of sustainability. Consumers are demanding more and more transparency, and those who provide it, along with a history of sustainable business practices, will have the edge over those who do not.

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