Seth Godin stands out as one of the most important business writers of this generation. Not only has he been at the forefront of ideas such as The Purple Cow and my Dad’s favourite, Tribes, he has also recently pushed forward the idea of the Linchpin. (Link Here) The Linchpin is an essential person to be, but also an essential person to have around you in your organisation.
I believe this is even more apparent when companies want to become more social. The rise of social media and the clamour to talk about its size always ignores the fact that numbers are irrelevant if what is being said isn’t powerful. Simply put, social media allow people to become the centrifugal force, the linchpin, the advocate, the shining light for their business. Therefore, if companies want to become social businesses they need to learn how to cultivate Linchpins, people who are willing to go that extra mile for the business, people that are willing to say “I’ll talk about that” or “I’ll run that.”
Seth’s rallying call is pretty motivational, become a Linchpin or just do your job (it is all about the Lizard Brain you see…). Socially, businesses need these people that want to go the distance. All you need to do is look at Zappos and their 400+ members who engage with consumers everyday through Twitter, Facebook, etc. Or take a look at IBM who, out of 400,000 employees, have 17,000 blogs. These are linchpins who are happy to use their company name, knowing that they have the support and trust of the company behind them.
These are the three ways a business can cultivate Linchpins:
1) Freedom of Information drives freedom of speech.
Enabling your colleagues to become linchpins is about equipping them in the right way through t0ols, technology, training and information. Without the right information they will make the wrong, potentially ill-informed decision, start the wrong conversation, engage with the wrong people.
2) Nurture in the beginning, nature in the long run.
By nurturing the initial conversations and forays into social media, the business has an element of control over tone, behaviour, and conversation. However, this should only act as guiding principles until trust is established, nature should then take its course and the linchpin will be on the journey required to be a key member of the business. Just as there may be times when your child is growing up that you live in fear of something happening, you learn to push this fear aside through trust, education and responsibility. It should be the same for your linchpins.
3) Collaborate with Linchpins and get Linchpins to collaborate.
Collaboration is a driver for momentum in social businesses. Having linchpins collaborate around the company and around the world, enables fast-paced changes and increased momentum for the business. Simply put, if your linchpins aren’t collaborating then there is a real need to make that happen so that all other parts of the business feel there is a collective forward movement.
