A session at the youth engagement and social media unConference on the 50 barriers led by Pete Cranston

• Changing the status-quo

• People are reluctant to go along the the change agenda because they're not sure where they fit, or even if they have a job role, in the new setting;

• IT Department are not a space of creativity. Focussed on only one area of organisation (for example, in University IT Dept are focussed on students, not on interesting new projects).

• Silo mentality - social media cuts across;
  • And there is a fear of engaging with something so big;

• Fear of the organisation becoming pourus;

• Fear that things won't work. Can we really dedicate our time and resources to this?
  • We can carry on doing things the old way;
  • You're asking for a big investment - but we're not sure of the return;

• Fear about the lack of control;
  • We've controlled the brand; And what happens when an employee is allowed to post stuff online;
  • Do we say 'It's going to happen anyway'
  • “It's not whether or not you loose control, but whether or not you loose control gracefully”

• It's easy to see the need for change when you came in new to an organisation. But people have been keeping going with lots of 'broken bits' for ages. Car metaphor: you kept the old banger going, but scared that if it stopped it wouldn't start again.

• Safety issue - managers almost shut down my network because of fear;

• Safety ends up being about protecting the organisation, not protecting the people we're meant to support;
  • We have to get the organisation to put people first, not organisations.

• Senior managers are not using social media;

• Without jobs for life, if you mess up - even if something happens outside your control - you could be out of a job. It's your name on the line.

• Risk assessment culture leads us to limited activity: “Ships are safe in harbour; but that's now what ships are for.”

• Fear of 'deluge' of content and activity when more content is out there. (Or just this creating more work…).
  • More engagement = more discussion = more change (?)

• There are not great metrics; There is not great research about the benefits;
  • And old metrics

• An organisation which recruits on Facebook; But blocks Facebook in work!

• Feed in new ideas. Ideas get blocked and ripped apart. Two weeks later the ideas come back as suggestions for things I should do;
• Brining the ideas up - making sure the counter-arguments are in the attention of senior managers;

• Find the trigger point to engage a senior management.
  • If they are target driven - make the case in terms of targets;
  • Talk the write language;

• Offer 'closed door courses' for managers to get support; Ask any questions; One-to-one training;

• Encourage immersion - get managers immersed in use of social media;

• Set up shadowing schemes; Get senior managers to shadow good communicators;
  • Social media surgery mentality;

• Recognise that middle manager is most threatened by some of this (bottom can talk to the top);
  • Show how there is a shift from 'controlling' to 'co-ordinating' and 'enabling';
  • Show how this can help; release the pressure;

• Explore unambitious pilots;
  • Good statistics;
  • Closely monitored;
  • Good for the promotion prospects of middle managers;

• Find the activists within the IT department;
  • Usually people in quite junior positions;
  • Identify the champions and form small groups - usually with a link into somewhere senior;
  • engage with the IT middle managers, as above
  • important to see this as long term, plan and coordinate
  • address the issue of risk head-on: BIS worked with security specialists and developed an agreed risk analysis for all social media projects
  • engage with IT from the beginning as a core part of the team

• run a website for youth service for blackpool; host website away from corporate service

• Very different issues amongst staff with shared professions.
  • E.g. Some IT managers / press officers far more up for being open than others;
  • Good to get professionals together to share their learning (e.g. Get the IT managers together)

• Howard Rheingold speaking at RebootBritain mentioned that many many more young people at risk of abuse from relatives & friends than online (50,000 in 1 million as opposed to 6 in 1 million) [Check figures…]