The Social Business: aligning social learning and leadership to the values driven organisation

There’s a shift towards a more social culture of business: not just engaged in social spaces, but values driven and responsible. Being proud of your credentials is no longer the preserve of niche cosmetics manufacturers and cooperatives: it’s now on the mainstream agenda of many global organisations.

The values driven social business is founded upon great leadership, engagement in communities and a social model of learning

Values driven? It’s about deeds, not just words. It’s about a social contract between employer and employee, about recognising that in the Social Age this relationship may be impermanent, but it can persist over time through different iterations. Employed, in community, freelance. Organisations no longer exist in splendid isolation, but rather within an ecosystem of associates and a community of brand. Their reputation is forged in this space: by their leaders, their teams, their competition and the wider community of consumers.

In the Social Age, brand is owned by community

So you need to be engaged: as an organisation you need to be engaged in a responsible way with an authentic tone of voice in the social spaces that surround you. As an individual, you need to curate your reputation (to use the principles of NET) and as a leader you need to facilitate the relationship between the two.

Social learning and Social Leadership come together to support the values driven business, because the narrative of the business has to be co-created and co-owned by the teams and communities. In the Social Age, brand is a collaboratively defined experience, not solely owned by the organisation, so only authentic engagement with community will allow the building of a social brand.

Learning needs to be broader and wider than previously thought: it’s about engagement over time, about supporting the holistic development of the individual, so not just needs driven and planned learning, but also learning driven by curiosity or forged within communities.

I believe that the values driven business, a business that is responsible and engaged, can only be grown by the organisation if it finds and develops a social leadership model and enhances it’s formal learning interventions with social learning spaces. It’s a social model of learning to deliver the social business.