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Real Adoption Changes The Communication Culture

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The communication culture is a key part of an organization's culture. The communication culture includes the tools we use for communication and it regulates who can talk to whom and what can be discussed. This also means that the ways we perceive and describe ourselves to others - such as our role, responsibilities, expertise, interests and status - depend on our communication with others, which in turn is dependent on the current communication culture.

Real adoption of new communication technologies such as social software implies that the communication culture is changed. The new tools will change how people communicate, what they communicate and with whom. The new or altered ways of communicating that will emerge will become part of the norm that regulates the communication within the organization.

Changes in how people perceive and describe themselves could be seen as evidence of a communication culture that is changing. When an open communication platform such as a micro-blogging platform is introduced and embraced by a critical mass of people within an organization, it is not unlikely that people will start to perceive and describe themselves differently. For example, this is could happen:

• Formally appointed experts start to perceive and describe themselves more as mentors and connectors than as know-it-all experts or gurus as they get recognition for guiding their colleagues how to find knowledge and information themselves as well as putting them in direct contact with the specialists in their own networks.
• Customer service people start to perceive and describe themselves more as sales representatives and innovators as they get recognized for sales opportunities and ideas on how to improve the customer experience that they share across – sales opportunities and ideas which they can source from their interactions with lots of customers.

What's your experience? Have you observed any changes in how people perceive and describe themselves as new communication tools are being embraced within your organization? Is real adoption happening in the sense that new ways of communicating have emerged and become part of your organization's communication culture?

This post and comment(s) reflect the personal perspectives of community members, and not necessarily those of their employers or of AIIM International