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Perspectives on decentralized organizations at South by Southwest Interactive Festival

As technology has increasingly created a number of self-organizing online or real communities, companies are also experimenting with cultural changes such as  decentralization.

This trend was discussed in depth at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival, led by Amgen, Inc. Executive Director James Taylor, Burning Man Human Resources Manager Kat Steinmetz, and Second Life Founder Phillip Rosedale.  These professionals discussed the burning question of “Decentralized Organizations: Do They Really Work?” Highlights …

Thought leader and author of The Future of Work Thomas Malone shared insights into why things are changing

  • “For the first time we can have big business economy of scale and small business human culture.”
  • “We’re in the early stage of change in business, similar to change we saw in democracy/government”
  • “Old structure for corporations are based on efficiency. Today’s is about innovation; new focus is intelligence”
  • “Benefits of decentralized decision-making are exactly the same as drivers for business success-innovation and flexibility”

Exploring and using non-traditional techniques to structure their organization

  • It’s not just about cool tech startups (example Zappos model), huge productivity boost
  • Burning Man has no CEO. Instead 6 execs who decide by consensus. Slows decision-making, but speeds up implementation
  • We need to rethink the efficiency metric, place more emphasis on collective intelligence
  •  The point is to build community, not to be efficient

The future forecast for organizations is uncertain

  • In a few years maybe no one will work for technology companies. Employment is going to change so substantially.
  • Anonymous surveys, voting systems for both customers and internal employees, organic management, and peer-based recognition systems are becoming more commonly used

Thanks for your insight, @bombaycowgirl, @ACoulton, and @CofoMan!

Small Organizations Can Create a Big Social Media Presence

Aimee Roundtree

When time, money, and help are hard to come across, it’s time for organizations to incorporate strong social media strategies. Many small brands are seeing big success with social media, whether for outreach, education, PR, or promotion. South by Southwest Interactive provided tips on how to create a strong social media presence.

If you want to do big things with social media at your small organization, you have to be creative and flexible, use what works, and know thyself to create a campaign that’s effective and works for you (and most importantly, your audience), according to Aimee Kendall Roundtree, University of Houston-Downtown Associate Professor in the Professional Writing Program. Highlights from Big Social Media Results for Small Organizations:

Social media for small organizations: Best Practices

  • Invite participation
  • Set and know your metrics and perform sentiment analysis
  • Know you purpose and set policies and training programs invite participation
  • Set smaller goals and achieve them
  • It’s good for small organizations to be talking about news, events, and partnerships with other organizations
  • Track interactive patterns, build metrics and tools as you need them.
  • Do what works for your organization, which may be unique to your audience and brand
  • Being adaptive is a best practice because money and time are the biggest barriers
  • Hashtags build community structure, be sure to put your mission first
  • When establishing strategies, small organizations should use messages for content, not memories
  • Small organizations can often do well by amplifying user-generated content

Make the voice of your organization heard through social media

  • 73% of small orgs using social media. Of those not using, 81% plan to start
  • For small organizations, often the best social media posts don’t support the strategic plan or goal
  • Use social media to embody the organization. Share daily goings-on and be intimate in a brand-appropriate way
  • Film events, share anecdotes and other clips to help feed social content. This helps a small organization to show activity
  • Be aware: Despite organizations’ goals/purpose, users can change direction through contributed content

 Be brave when branding your organization through social media

  • It’s OK for small organizations to wing it! Just use your intuition
  • When it comes to social media, intuition can be more effective than best practices
  • Don’t be afraid to say what you need to say, provide real content about what’s happening. Be concise and consistent
  • Consider the ant: How is it that ants accomplish so much without someone telling them what to do?

Thanks to @akroundtree, @ACDunbeck, @inthekisser, @mirandaLwilson for your insights!