The Ontario Government just released a paper entitled "Framework for Action" that outlines the organizations vission, mission, and objectives. Around the province ministries have been holding consultations with the staff to see what they think of the document and how people think it is going to effect them.
In the consultation that I attended, there was a lot of talk about communication within the organization, and I had to really try my hardest not to take over the meeting by lecturing on the benefits of social media both inside and outside the organization.
In his blog, Neville Hobson talked about a blogging initiative that Coca-Cola are undergoing as part of a similar "philosophical" roll out. I think it's a fantastic thing when a company goes to the effort of putting out these documents, but it is even better when you can get your employees engaged in discussion around it. The Coke initiative is only a week long though, and I wonder what kind of response they will get from employees.
A lot of the discussion at the meeting I attended revolved around having "grassroots evangelists" to help change perceptions of the Public Service. In our government good news goes out in press releases that are rarely picked up. But when something bad happens, i.e. a big pile up on the 417, then we are painted as negligent, lazy public servants.
People who work in the Ontario Public Service know that everyday we find ways to save money, we develop new and more efficient services for our citizens, and provide services that are really hard to appreciate unless they are broken. The image of the fat, lazy public servant is still predominate in people who work out side of the OPS.
So what do we do to change this? Talk about the good stuff. Not in contrived press releases and carefully positioned news articles. We need our employees to tell their stories to their friends, families and people you meet at the bar. I do this all the time. I talk about all huge fleet of hybrid vehicles that we have established. I talk about the tools we have to make sure that contracters are delivering services in strict accordance with their contract. I bet that any employee could come up with three stories about how their department is making a difference in Ontario. If we had our 60,000 employees telling these stories, I bet we could make a difference in the perceptions of government.
We need to give the employees the tools to do this. Blogs are an obvious tool that would have huge benefits both inside and outside the organization. It would be so fantastic if, like IBM, we empowered our work force to speak on behalf of the organization.
There are problems with this though. The "command and control" structure is so ingrained in our organization that even the thought of having an almost outsourced employee with access to communicate with the whole world is enough to squash the whole idea before it starts.
I can hear management now:
"How can we trust people not to bash our decisions?"
"How do we police this?"
"How can we ensure that we stay on message across the board?"
I'm still working on the counter arguments to these.
