HR - hold on to your hats - SM is here.

What makes an organization hum?

I am in HR,not marketing, and I think social media is going to change the way we do things for ever.

Jon Ingham wrote yesterday on organizational “mojo”.  An organization must have “mojo” - that undefinable something.  Yep, we know so many of them don’t have anything at all.  Dry and dusty as a deserted museum.

“Mojo” is that difficult to define thing - charisma, character, personality.

Over the key years, I have settled on a key concept:  collective efficacy.  It is a variation of self-efficacy - that very specific self-belief that says “I can do this!”  Maybe you can, maybe you can’t, but you give it a go, and you continue to give it a go.

It may not be enough to get you to the “top”.  You need luck, talent and resources too.  But you have fun trying, and without it, it doesn’t matter how much luck, talent or opportunity you have, you will not achieve anything - largely because you can’t be bothered.  You don’t have the interest or the staying-power.

Leadership and Schools

Collective efficacy is the only known factor to influence school performance beyond SES.

Raising the performance of a school is really, really hard.  Targets don’t help.  Money doesn’t help.  Busing doesn’t help. Collective efficacy is the only known factor to get one ‘poor’ school to out-compete another ‘poor’ school.

What is collective efficacy?

Collective efficacy is the teachers’ beliefs in each other.

We hand out a questionnaire to the teachers asking “how good are the other teachers?”  The school where the teachers believe in each other is the school that wins (handicapped by SES of course - reality still counts).

So how do we get high collective efficacy?

Probably off the self-efficacy, self-fulfilling prophecy spiral.  If the “Head” believes in him or herself, and in his or her ability to lead the teachers (meaning s/he believes they are quite good), then they all get going, and guess what, they get things done, and then they believe they get things done  .   .  .

So how does social media come into all this and into HR and management?

Social media is “mashed inbound communication”.   I only give a damn about what you say, if I I believe your mash-up is interesting, informative, informed, amusing .   .   . etc.  Wanting to listen to someone (not the faked ah, mm of a professional), wanting to listen communicates belief in the other person.  When I want to hear what you have to say

Collective efficacy is already there (in greater or lesser amounts.) By providing more channels for “mashed inbound communication”, we amplify the collective efficacy that is already there, and amplify the upward spiral.

What if there is no collective efficacy at the outset?

Some people do flame on the internet.  But that should be regarded as an opportunity - at least they are talking.  In an organization, it is always silence that you should worry about.  Someone who is not talking to you, really doesn’t care enough to be bothered.  So I am not worried about flaming.

If my “head” was lacking a little in confidence, or self-efficacy, but was essentially sound, I would “hold” his or her hand a little.  Get him or her to write a weekly round-up summarizing the concerns of the school.

Being listened to will have an immediate efficacy effect.

Actually, I think one laptop per third world child, be damned.  I think every school kid in UK should be issued a laptop and cell phone for free, every year!  The best part of all is that the kids can run this.  Communicate some belief in their efficacy too!

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June 25, 2008 | Filed Under Jo Jordan 

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