In last few chapters, Li&Bernoff main talked about what is the groundswell and how to use groundswell to help your companies to manage social media and public relation. That's all about how companies facing the outside groundswell.
However, have you thought about the groundswell inside your companies? Li&Bernoff mentioned in the book:" In any company, on any given day, employees may or may not feel committed to their company's goals. But with some forethought, internal groundswell applications can make them feel empowered, connected, and more committed on a day-to-day basis." Now we know the importance of the internal groundswell.
"Internal groundswell" sometimes seems too academic. In my perspectives, the internal groundswell is what employees talk about the company. But how to engage into the internal groundswell? Li&Bernoff mentioned in chapter four about how can we pursue in the groundswell: " Listening, Talking, Energizing, Supporting, Embracing." For the internal groundswell, we can use the same ideas that Li&Bernoff provide us in the groundswell. The employers should listen, taking, energizing, supporting and embracing to their employees.
"Google" has been a successful organization with internal groundswell communication. Their maternity leave policy has been the most considerable of all big companies. I believe this kind of humane policy is the symbol of a successful internal groundswell communication.
However, have you thought about the groundswell inside your companies? Li&Bernoff mentioned in the book:" In any company, on any given day, employees may or may not feel committed to their company's goals. But with some forethought, internal groundswell applications can make them feel empowered, connected, and more committed on a day-to-day basis." Now we know the importance of the internal groundswell.
"Internal groundswell" sometimes seems too academic. In my perspectives, the internal groundswell is what employees talk about the company. But how to engage into the internal groundswell? Li&Bernoff mentioned in chapter four about how can we pursue in the groundswell: " Listening, Talking, Energizing, Supporting, Embracing." For the internal groundswell, we can use the same ideas that Li&Bernoff provide us in the groundswell. The employers should listen, taking, energizing, supporting and embracing to their employees.
"Google" has been a successful organization with internal groundswell communication. Their maternity leave policy has been the most considerable of all big companies. I believe this kind of humane policy is the symbol of a successful internal groundswell communication.
As we all know that the high-technology companies own several female employees dedicating their career for hard-working. However, the United States in the past did not have specific rules for maternity leave. New mother often found out that if she got pregnant, she would have no paid-leave. Some mothers when they wish to go back to work would surprisingly found out somebody was already got her position. So female employees were seeking to make some change in the policy.
However, seldom companies had listened to their female employees' groundswell. Many big companies lost their female employees who were an important part of companies' development.
"YouTube CEO: Longer maternity leave keeps women at work"
However, Google at that time talked with their female employees about maternity leave policy. Google understand how the internal groundswell influences the whole company and also external groundswell. They said:" Our female employees are pretty important to our development, we should listen to their need." Finally, they set up a new maternity policy with 18-months full paid maternity leave. Also if employee's spouse is pregnant, he all she will also get paid maternity leave. This new policy shows their internal groundswell's power, and also the employers made efforts to listen to what their employees care about, how to support, and embracing with it.
The future of groundswell, as Li&Bernoff suggested, will be "ubiquitous". There is a sentence in the chapter:" When groundswell surrounds you like a cocoon, when you breathe it like air and depend on it always, the world will feel very different." That's totally true. I have already felt the groundswell nowadays influenced every aspect of everybody's life.
After finishing all the chapter of this book especially the last chapter, Li&Bernoff left me an idea "attaining groundswell thinking". Even though we learned a lot of basic rules and techniques of groundswell, the most important is to keep groundswell everytime is our mind and try to solve problems from groundswell's way of thinking.
"Groundswell" is not a none. It is a verb, is an action that we need to start from now.
Hey Vanessa,
ReplyDeleteIt is good to see that someone cast light on gender equality in the work place, and had a deep touch of maternity leave. It is not something happen merely in the U.S. Many female workers in China facing direct or subtle discrimination in the process of job hunting, and one big reason is that many companies don't want to waste their money and resource on pregnant women. So any female who shows a desire of giving birth to a baby in the following years is likely to be turned down by the company at the first place. It is good to see big business including google has utilized the groundswell to fight for the right of maternity leave.
I really love your content because you do not purely talk about how to take the Groundswell thinking into the company but also gives example to explain how it works exactly like the Google. Then you also mention the important thing for the internal Groundswell like listening and embracing, they are really important to take and use. Good job!
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