Tag Archives: risk aversion

Micro-participation in Social Media – making it easy to join in, and build confidence.

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If you make things really easy to do, people will participate, in theory……..(more to it than that I know, but stick with me).

Previously I’ve gone on about why I think people don’t engage on a much bigger scale with social media in the workplace. Once you remove the organisational barriers (like a lack of empowerment and trust), what else stops people participating? I have suggested that it’s down to a lack of confidence. Strange really when it seems that half the population is on Facebook, yet a much smaller percentage are involved in work based online communities of practice. Even if people do join up they mostly lurk, watching but not joining in and contributing, why? Is it lack of confidence?

There is a big difference between going to the dance and actually joining in and well, dancing. Believe me; my wife drags me to salsa dances on a regular basis. I think it’s the same with social media. The controlled learning environment is fine, but doing it for real, ‘out in the wild’ is a whole different prospect (like salsa). The world of social media is as ‘out in the wild’ as it gets for many people, particularly if your work reputation is exposed. Confidence is everything, but how do you grow confidence?

Here is an interesting take on confidence and micro-participation. Thanks to Mike (@artvoid) from The Knowledge Hub for introducing me to the concept.

As I understand it, micro-participation is about making participation very easy and on a very small-scale. It’s basically at the level of a ‘like’ on Facebook. These are actions that require virtually no effort, but register your opinion and leave behind a mark.  It’s not just a Facebook thing; most people will be familiar with the like / promote / rate micro-participation activities from Amazon to Reddit to You Tube.

The idea behind micro-participation is that once people are comfortable with this level of participation, they will move onto bigger things, commenting on content produced by others, joining discussions and eventually developing their own material and publishing it.  A great way of building up confidence, step by step.

There’s not that much written about micro participation on the web, not even a Wikipedia entry. Slightly worrying, this may be so obvious that I’ve got it all wrong; it doesn’t feel like that though.

One example is, microparticipation.com which focus upon promoting citizen involvement in government and democracy. They talk about the ideas of “participation at the convenience of participants” and draw together resources, examples, ideas and discussions about micro-participation. One of the examples on their site is FixMyStreet.com. This is a UK-based site which enables citizens to report issues to their local council, such as fly tipped waste, graffiti or potholes. I have used it, successfully, and would say that it is a great way of engaging and building confidence. A step above the like / promote / rate level and good confidence builder. microparticipation.com are looking for other examples, maybe 38 Degrees is an example they would be interested in?

So what’s the PONT?

  1. Not everyone is confident using social media, especially in connection with work.
  2. Small and easy to do (low risk) things can help to build confidence.
  3. Micro-participation is a useful way of helping people to build confidence to use social media in the work environment.

Laughter turns strangers into friends………… sometimes

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This week I’ve been attending the Distinguished Lecture Series at Cardiff University where I heard Professor Robin Dunbar (yes, he of Dunbar’s number) talk about some incredibly interesting topics.  I aim to post a few things about the whole lecture series, but for the minute here is what’s grabbing me, the importance of laughter and humour in human relationships.

I’ve been struggling with this for a while after someone suggested to me that humour in the workplace was about ‘hiding from the truth’, ’not dealing with difficult things’ and ‘not confronting our buried emotions’. Blimey, that’s all a bit distressing and depressing.  As I’ve always tried to have as much fun as I can in work, using humour and laughter, I must really be suppressing something huge!

Fortunately Professor Dunbar said a few things that have lifted my spirits and put me back on track:

  • Laughter triggers the uptake of endorphins in the body which makes us feel happy;
  • Laughter increases our tolerance to pain (so it is the ‘best medicine’);
  • Laughing with other people helps to form emotional bonds with them;
  • The more we share a sense of humour with someone the more we feel engaged with them; and
  • Laughter turns strangers into friends (sounds like a strap line for some Christmas  drink advert, but it makes a lot of sense to me).

I’m not doing credit here to what Professor Dunbar said and I would encourage you to watch the video.  What this has done however is given me the chance to relive one of my most epic failures, where an attempt to introduce humour into the workplace almost cost me a friend.

My friend was having a great deal of trouble trying to get their superiors to make a decision. The process involved countless iterations of a business case, double and triple checking,  risk assessments, procurement policy checks and meetings to go over and over the same ground. You may be familiar with this, or have heard about a similar type of situation, its shocking, I know.

Like all good friends I listened to their troubles over several weeks and tried to offer comfort and advice where I could. As it happens about this time I was on holidays in the US where I saw this ‘Make a Decision’ note pad and my friends predicament came straight  to mind. Perfect I think, a bit of humour is just the thing to get things moving.

Make a Decision notepad. I laughed!
Make a Decision notepad. I laughed!

It sank like a lead balloon.

The boxes to fill in on the ‘Make a Decision’ form were leapt upon with greedy enthusiasm, but when it got down to the detail there were totally bemused responses. “what do they mean by ‘apocalypse’ for worse case scenario? Do we have a corporate definition of apocalypse?”.  This might of course have been an elaborate double bluff, but I don’t think so. Some rapid diversion tactics were required and refocusing onto some familiar territory like, ‘updating the risk register’. Perfect, order restored.

In our post project learning (over beer) my friend and I discussed where it had all gone wrong. Definitely the delivery method could have been better (they say comedy is all about the timing), but for this audience a blatant attempt at humour was probably just too alien.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Humour and laughter are useful but you need to consider the audience. For some groups and settings it’s just too alien.
  2. Getting the delivery and timing right is important. Tabling the ‘Make a Decision’ form enthusiastically at a project update meeting was not the best option.
  3. Put yourself in their shoes. This was probably seen as highly threatening to the  group rather than something humorous. A real shame.

Picture source (also available to purchase) http://www.perpetualkid.com/make-a-decision-notepad.aspx