Touching A Starfish at Monterey Bay Aquarium: Source Flickr Photo by Beth
A few weeks ago, we drove down to Monterey for a visit to the Aquarium. The kids loved, especially the hands-on exhibits. What better way to learn about a starfish than to pick up and hold it in your hands. My daughter was scared at first, but after learning that the starfish would not bite, she tentatively dipped her hand in the pool and picked it up. She had a safe place for hands-on learning.
This morning I had the opportunity to participate in a discussion at the Community Roundtable hosted by Rachel Happe and Jim Storer. The participants were from corporations, but the issues are creating a culture that isn't afraid to fail are the same for many nonprofits, particularly larger organizations.
One of the key takeaways was the importance of hands-on learning through pilots and careful experimentation. What makes people nervous or creates a kind of "stage fright" is the learning in public. Participants suggested the need for providing a safe place for hands-on learning and that the experience is scaffolded. It is important both as an organization and for one-on-one coaching.
I thought about the discovery pools and hands-on learning exhibits at the Aquarium.
How is your organization providing a safe place for piloting social media strategies?
The best way to learn social media is by doing--but that's a scary proposition when you're dealing with an organizational brand, in a media where what you do is documented (and searchable!) for all time...
What's worked for us is to introduce social media to key players within an organization in the form of *personal* pilot projects, where they go through the same steps they would for the organization (watch/listen; identify audiences, outcomes, content sources and needed resources; engage; measure; analyze; adjust) but for themselves in whatever non-organizational role they choose. After a month or so of the personal pilot, we bring the group back together to discuss lessons learned, and to apply those lessons for setting the social media strategy for the organization.
We're still experimenting with the format, but so far, it's been a success.
Posted by: Tamsen (@tamadear @sametz) | September 09, 2009 at 06:46 PM
Really an awesome posting..That picture signifies the values of this post..For a helathy life style there should be protection in each organization. Thanks..
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Posted by: Robin Smith | September 16, 2009 at 06:14 AM
Great post, Beth--As Tamsen says, you can only learn by doing, so you have to play with this stuff. One of the strategies I suggest is that people try experimenting with these tools within their organizations, like doing an internal blog or wiki or having people set up protected Twitter accounts and only allowing colleagues to follow them. That way they can practice, but it isn't in the wider world of other stakeholders.
On a side note--LOVE the Monterey Aquarium. We have pictures of my now 21-year old as a baby looking at the fish there. I'm jealous now! :-)
Posted by: Michele | September 21, 2009 at 09:32 AM