Social Lessons from the 3 L's
By Keith Brooks, Social and Collaboration Practice Leader, VoiceRite

I want to tell you about a session at Connect that not only met my expectations, but exceeded them.

Tuesday's session by the 3 Socials, Louis Richardson (@inter_vivos), Luis Suarez (@elsua) and Luis Benitez (@lbenitez), all IBMers, was just what we needed at IBM Connect 2013. Aside from Luis Benitez who is a product manager, they represent no specific product or solution. Instead, their discussion focused on the real value of being social.

For those that do not know the Three L’s as some of us call them, let me explain. Louis Richardson is an in your face, take no prisoners artist of persuasion.  Luis Suarez of the “work without email” manifesto always has a fresh and bright perspective. Luis Benitez represents, as Louis pointed out, the proper way to answer a question.  With the powerful combination of the 3 L’s, I couldn’t imagine a customer not wanting whatever they had to sell.

Their session, Pardon the Interruption, was really the type of presentation you want at a conference.  It was unscripted and based on feedback solicited through Twitter. Each presenter had one minute to cover the topic.  If they went longer than 60 seconds, audience members rang bells to show they were done. Improvisation in business is the key to successful sales and they performed admirably.

They covered topics ranging from the simple, what should we do in 2013 to encourage adoption, to one of my questions around what to do when management doesn’t encourage social

Many in the audience were social advocates themselves, creating a very familial feeling atmosphere. Those of us who really understand being social often miss out because we may be the only ones in our company who “get it”. So it was a gathering of a tribe of, dare I say, L(o)uis groupies.

Imagine if roadmap sessions were performed this way -presenting multiple angles to the choices being made. Technical presentations generally are defined as education sessions, and they serve their purpose.  But we can’t forget the key to adoption is management of your HR, your human relationships. One example, if you lost your data could you recover and be a viable business tomorrow? Usually the answer is yes. Now if you lost all your staff? The answer is no.

People matter.

What would you do differently?

All three were asked what they would have done differently, knowing now just how influential they can be.  Two said they would have leveraged the tools, meaning the products or solutions, sooner.  

This is usually the case, hindsight may be 20/20, but for many companies and the people at the show, the best time to start is now. Try it, do it, do not be afraid to fail.

I encourage you to reach out to each of them and follow their Twitter accounts if you have any interest in transforming how your company does business in the future.