Learning from Facebook!

This past week Facebook dropped a bomb on how they are going to begin to approach social media and how they fit into that! Facebook diag...


This past week Facebook dropped a bomb on how they are going to begin to approach social media and how they fit into that! Facebook diagnosed a problem which led them to make some major shifts!

The problem they stumbled upon was that people were using Facebook out of need and not desire. That there were so many connection points on facebook that people were only on it because they had to be and not because they wanted to be!

People were still using it! People were still active on it. But they were concerned with the fact that people didn’t want to be on facebook. So they made some radical shifts in their code and what they are going to do in the future. They want to create more ways for people to connect. If you are interested in some more specifics you can go HERE to watch some videos that talk a little more about it!

Now as the changes started being made I saw lots of complaints about the new facebook and all the changes! And it got me thinking about some things in my leadership and how our team prepares for changes! It taught me a few things!

Here are 3 things we could all learn from Facebook!

Don’t wait for a problem – don’t wait for something to go wrong before we make changes to improve what we do. Sometimes we live and die by the ole "if it’s not broke don’t fix it" addage! Facebook had a discussion that led them to make changes. They didn’t wait for things to go wrong but they took a proactive approach to make improvements for things they could foresee. They weren’t reactive!

Communication Bridges many Gaps – people really don’t like to be surprised. There is a picture below that really made laugh about all the reactions that people had towards the new changes. But it was a great reminder that people do better when they know what is happening! The more you can communicate the things to come the more mentally prepared people are when it happens. It lessens the emotional response and helps people approach changes a little more objectively. It also helps set you team up for a little more success so they avoid getting bombarded.

Go slow – I hate change. I never deal with it well. But when it all happens really fast too many changes make me want to hit things. If you are going to make over arching big changes make them slowly. Too much too fast is just going to throw people off! One of the things I did hear about the facebook changes that I thought was valid was when everyone would get use to one way of doing it they made a change! People need time to adjust or it affects the level of trust they have in you and your organization!

I think that Facebook is an incredible organization and I am fascinated with Mark Zuckerberg! I really think we can learn a lot from organizations like this!

What would you add to my list?? 


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