Asking attendees at his very well-attended SPC session this morning how many of their SharePoint deployments amount to a glorified network share, Dux Raymond Sy said in response to the sea of raised hands that “80% of SharePoint in large organizations is just a glorified network share.” The key, he went on to say, is in learning how to drive real business value with SharePoint, and this is exactly where “the social revolution” can come into play.

“Whether you want it or not, whether you like it or not, social is here,” said Dux. “Consumerization of IT is prevailing,” and signs of the social revolution include the increasing proliferation of the need to support a “bring your own device” methodology, the increasing pace of the speed of business, the common need to do more with less, and the fact that collaboration is critical.

Sharing a quote from Gartner, Dux encouraged the crowd to read it aloud together: “Enterprise social [is] an important method for enhancing communication, coordination, and collaboration for business purposes.”

Be that as it may, however, Dux cautioned that “if [enterprise social] doesn’t mean the same thing to the same people … it’s [just] a freaking tool.” Addressing some of the reasons why enterprise social typically doesn’t work, Dux listed: a lack of executive support, a lack of ownership, a generational gap, and a “what’s in it for me?” attitude.

Saying that “we need to shift our thinking from social as a tool to social as something to drive business value,” Dux then segued into the five steps to drive culture change in an organization:

1. Gain Executive Engagement (“It’s not executive buy-in … its executive engagement“). As Dux explained, it’s all about driving business value, so educate the high-level folks by speaking their language (e.g., financial gains, drive innovation, facilitate engagement, etc.).
2. Develop Relevant Business Use Cases. As Dux said, you need to “stop pushing SharePoint, [and] talk about solutions … [to] get everybody on the same page.” Next, “identify their pain points and deliver quick wins.” By way of a quick win example, Dux said that “Excel is enterprise social” when someone can enter data in SharePoint from a mobile device and the data shows up in Excel at the home office for the accounting group. This is easily accomplished out-of-the-box via Excel synchronization with SharePoint lists.
3. Establish a Social Roadmap, because “it’s a journey.” Steps on the journey include: connect, empower and, ultimately, engage with each other. Don’t forget to prioritize along the way.
4. Identify and Groom Champions, because “you want common people to achieve extraordinary, uncommon results.”
5. Deliver Sustainable Adoption, and be aware that doing so “is a constant process.” To be successful, the desired results should be to drive excitement, facilitate change, and empower and assist users. “When you want to have sustainable adoption, you have to take a phased approach,” and the phases are: awareness, buy-in, and engagement. Start with the influencers you’ve identified to get the wind at your back, move on to a larger group (e.g., HR) to pick up steam, and only then take on the whole organization for enterprise-level engagement. Don’t forget to put a timeline around the project, and be sure to earmark a budget at the outset.

As Dux cautioned by way of conclusion, “change can never be overnight,” but by following these five steps, you’ll be able to drive real and lasting culture change in your organization.

This being a Dux Raymond Sy session, he ended with a bit of razzle-dazzle in the form of a “culture change” demo by teaching and leading a brief “Gangnam Style” dance:

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0WPzia4L6o&feature=plcp:725:0]

Missed any of Bamboo Nation‘s SPC 2012 coverage? Catch up here:

• Greetings from Booth #941 at SPC 2012 in Las Vegas!
• Notes from the SPC 2012 Keynote
• Dux Raymond PSY Leads the ‘Gangnam Style’ Flash Mob at SPC 2012
• Dan Holme’s ‘Deployment Wizard: SharePoint 2013 Installation Tips, Tricks, and Scripts’
• Surrealism at SPC 2012: Jon Bon Jovi, Speaking at Colligo’s STP Africa Luncheon, & More
• Dux Raymond Sy’s ‘Lead the Enterprise Social Revolution – 5 Steps to Drive Culture Change
• Sharing the Point is About Much More than SharePoint…
• Microsoft SharePoint is Inconsiderate to Ladies
• Jon Bon Jovi & the Kings of Suburbia Play a Pool Party for SharePoint
• John Pruitt & Robin Miller’s ‘Building Vibrant Communities in SharePoint 2013’
• Chris Bortlik’s ‘Overview of the Top 10 Ways that SharePoint Will Help Drive End User Adoption’
• The Sharing the Point Roundtable Discussion, & Some Ruminations on This Year’s Microsoft SharePoint Conference