In 1996, the congress passed the Telecommunications Act which allowed, for the first time, a company to own more than one FM radio license in a market. This deregulation opened the door for a consolidation of license ownership. An industry that was full of family businesses quickly was transformed into a few media empires over a period of two years.

All of that consolidation meant that the employees experienced a series of ownership changes as the family-owned stations were purchased by small companies. Those purchases were followed by a merger – and another – and another.

Each ownership change meant an effort to consolidate duties and resources to take advantage of scale. Each ownership change meant a twinge of stress in the minds of employees for fear of the unknown. Each ownership change meant an added level of pressure passed down through the ranks as middle and upper managers jockeyed for position and politicked for their own preservation. Mission statements and mantras were tossed about wildly and then set aside in the interest of short-term gains.

The aftermath of consolidation left a few monstrous companies that owned hundreds of radio stations across the country. These owners milked the boom of the internet bubble and sacrificed product quality to make way for more advertising space. These same owners, along with their employees felt the sting caused by the internet bubble burst. That stress continues today as advertising dollars migrate from traditional media to the internet and more direct channels.

This back story may have distinct parallels to the industry in which you work:

-Fearful or frustrated employees

-Efforts to consolidate duties in fewer positions

-Multi-location enterprise covering a broad geographic area

-Stress and pressure brought on by industry change

-Stress and pressure brought on by economic change.

It is this media back-story that was the foundation for starting Redandnater.com. “Red” and “Nater” are two media pros who started the site as a post-college project with award winning dreams and a desire to stay connected with classmates. This is five (plus) years ago – pre-Facebook. “[There] were other radio message boards that required registration and banned people, two things I didn't like. We started the radio portion of the board to see if we could take over the radio world.” said Red.

That rule has served to create a site that has all the key ingredients for great collaboration. The users are passionate and candid. The site is transparent and (at times) relevant. Discovery of the site has happened virally and now has forum segments for regions around the Midwest and “Out West.” This enormous growth has nothing to do with dollars spent. The site was built with the founders personal investment of time and a few dollars for the URL and hosting. They report 8,000 - 10,000 uniques per typical weekday.

Redandnater.com really represents that which company leaders fear most about opening a social network inside their company. Users are anonymous and are filled with enough angst that many of the posts become an unproductive and sometimes an abusive bitch-session. Yet, it seems to me that Redandnater.com is THE reason why a company or an industry needs to find the Red and Nater inside the organization to help build an enterprise social network.

You can be sure that if your enterprise is big enough to be called “an enterprise” that there is some conversation happening online about your business, your practices, your performance and your leadership. Some of it may be flattering. Some of it likely is not flattering. Your customers are having the conversation if you're a B2C organization. Keeping track of what is being said by customers and ways to engage in it is a WHOLE different topic. You can be almost as assured that if you look hard enough, you can find a similar critique online being lead by current and former employees no matter if your company is B2C or B2B.

The cost of of ignoring the employee conversation online is the same as the cost and damage caused by a disgruntled employee who secretly stirs the pot and gains credibility by adding internal supporters over the company's watercooler. Employees begin to feel trapped and work time becomes an opportunity to freshen up the resume and to search employment sites. An exodus may follow. Perhaps it's needed. Perhaps, however, an exodus can be traded for an evolution that strengthens the organization by harnessing the knowledge and experience held by those you trusted with your business when they were hired.

<Insert hearty voice of authority> “We have an 'open door' policy in our organization. My people know they can talk to me about issues at anytime.” How many of your people (below the ranks of TOP performer) have utilized your open door policy? If the answer is “many,” you should consider yourself fortunate and consider teaching management techniques. If the answer is “few” then your employees think they are working in their version of heaven or you are missing out on a bubbling cauldron of issues.

Empowering those employees to speak freely so that EVERYONE can hear allows other points of view to be suggested. Granted, no one wants to create a virtual Wild West inside their organization. However, sites like Redandnater.com, cafepharma.com and Targetsucks.org are great examples of what happens when the enterprise does not give the employees an internal outlet to air grievances, to collaborate and to work internally on improvements. Read what happened at Sprint before their internal collaboration site, SprintSpace, exsited.

Just having an internal social collaboration site up and running is not enough. The site needs to feel like it belongs to the users. Employees have to feel like they can speak openly. That open dialog should be prefaced with some simple rules about site etiquette that allow for self-policing and a minimum of moderation. Encouraging open dialog allows for both agreement and disagreement. It allows for discussion. It gives resolution and change a chance to develop. Giving the employees a space that is their's to have these conversations doesn't create gunslingers – it creates vested artists for internal improvements. 

In follow up to this post, please read "The Reward for Doing Something."