Creating and Embracing a Social Media Culture (ConAgra Foods)

Last month, on Nov 10, 2009 the 7th blogwell session took place in sunny Atlanta, Ga. (this is meant to be a joke for I have been twice to Atlanta so far and have seen a lot of rain not to mention flooding). Nearly a month later – and I am a little late for that – now that the dust has settled I wish to recap on some of the best sessions I was able to attend.

Stephanie Moritz, ConAgra foods presented her company and its many brands of foods (Hebrew National, Egg Beaters, Peter Pan, Banquet, Slim Jim, Kid Cuisine, Healthy choice…), most of which are huge hits in the US although less or even not at all known in Europe (another tale-telling example of non globalisation; there are many examples of brands which are immensely successful this side of the Atlantic and unknown on the other side and vice versa).

Stephanie explained how a big brand like ConAgra could use Social Media to stir passion within its fans. Here are my notes from that session, the live transcript of which you can also find here courtesy of Gaspedal and the Social Media Business Council.

Embracing a Social Media Culture

By Stephanie Moritz, ConAgra foods, USA

Social Media is everywhere. It is now mainstream. Consumers refuse to be marketed at. They want to participate, they have a passion. The challenge is to adapt it within a large organisation. How do you create inspiring programmes for your customers? It takes:

Targeted manageable plan,
A plan that supports business goals,
A focus on consensus building:
Setting a plan that achieves and ties to your business objectives
How do your get champions on board?
Long term commitment:


Phil Nieman from Gaspedal and Stephanie Moritz

1st step: understand how social media fits in our culture and objectives. How can you amplify your PR effort using SM
Creating a masterplan: define clear business objectives and match them with the SM initiative
Enterprise-wide solution. Not just Marketing
Establish some guidelines before moving into that space
Building the foundation first and listen to conversations. Who Responding to consumers. Addressing issues in a transparent manner.
Getting to know the blogging community. We ourselves tried blogs and tried and understand => Building communities
2nd step: getting senior management to become a champion (through CMO)
Digital immersion
3rd step: create coalition: there wasn’t much budget or staff. Experts and specialists throughout the organisation have been identified. All cross functional teams were identified. Enthusiasm made it.
(Audit) Identified key bloggers and organised discussions on products and how they could work together.
Created a Twitter page, spent a lot of time on it
Created a facebook page
Benchmarks, listened to conversations
Attended blogger events and blogger media conferences for the sole purpose of listening
When should a brand use social media? Not everyone should jump on the bandwagon Benchmarks are carried out continuously Key to success:

Set clear goals,
Create enterprise-wide endorsement,
Determine roadmap,
Commit.
Original Post: http://visionarymarketing.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/creating-and-embracing-a-social-media-culture-conagra-foods/

Example—Capturing the Spirit of Independence

The workplace is filled with opportunities to tap into the spirit of Independence that runs deep in every individual and throughout our nation. Engaging this spirit is highly motivating, as this story shows.

Igrew up in Australia, not knowing the meaning of the Fourth of July. In 1965 I arrived in the US, and in 1988 moved to the small town of Larkspur just north of San Francisco. Since then I have regularly enjoyed our hometown Independence Day parade—a delightful expression of grass-roots America.

I recently read David McCullough’s absorbing biography on John Adams and was reminded of a fact—John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died just hours apart on July 4th, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration, a major life achievement for Adams and Jefferson, capped the long effort of the colony to break free from the oppressive, often authoritarian control of England.

History is filled with stories of oppressed people reaching for their independence. Modern corporations can tap into that same spirit we each share—to be independent adults, free-thinking, responsible, feeling and creative.

An Opportunity for Employee Independence

In a Southern California facility of a national firm, Meridian Group worked with the managers to establish employee problem-solving teams. One particular issue—Forced Work at Weekends—was contentious and divisive. Some employees liked the overtime pay. Many hated the disruptions to their family life. Management invited volunteers to form an employee group to study the issue and develop alternatives.

Twenty-four people volunteered. Management decided to select twelve people as a workable group. I suggested they facilitate a problem-solving meeting with the volunteers with the subject, "Reduce the 24 volunteers to a working group of 12 people."

The management team was skeptical that the first-line employees could successfully reduce their group's size. However they had already accepted the logic of the Golden Rule: "If people are affected by a decision, they should be involved in it." Because it was my suggestion, and because the meeting was potentially difficult, they asked me to facilitate the discussion.

Creating an Effective, Self-Determined Work Group, or “Look, We Shrank Ourselves!”

All 24 volunteers came and I outlined a process they could use to cut their numbers."First, you decide on your selection criteria. Then you vote and rank order everyone against the criteria. You take the top 12 and see if they are OK. The results are in your hands."

Everyone agreed and I could tell they were very excited by the sense of control they would have over this decision. The criteria they listed were fairly straightforward. The final group should represent:

• Each department.

• Different age groups.

• People who want to work weekends and people who don't.

• People who are angry and outspoken and people who will speak up for others.

I passed out copies of a sheet of paper with everyone's name on it and asked them to keep their selection criteria in mind while privately ranking their top 12 candidates. This took 10 minutes or so. I tallied the results and made a copy for each person. I asked them to look at their selection of top 12 vote getters and compare them against their selection criteria, "If we go with those top 12, do they represent the areas you said should be represented?" The response was a resounding “Absolutely!”

Everyone left the meeting surprised, impressed, proud, and pleased with what they had accomplished. Those who did not make the cut may have been disappointed, but because they were part of the decision, they were satisfied with the result.

Management was more than pleased

The management team's response to the 12 names was, "That is an exceptionally good group. We couldn't have done better ourselves. If we had done done the selection, there would have been a lot of opposition to our decision, particularly from those not chosen. I think we’ll use this process again.”

Example—Culture Change in Three Days

A highly motivated midwest management team began their culture change overnight.

This was a 300-person supply division of a regional retailer. During our first phone conversation the division vice president told me that the workforce was overworked and demoralized—turnover exceeded 80%. The management team wanted to improve employee morale and motivation, and help new hires quickly become more productive.

We Meet the Management Team

Wednesday morning at 8:00 a.m., my partner and I met on-site with the division vice president. We discussed the morale problem in detail and what we would do during our three days. At 9:00 a.m., we attended the daily Operations Meeting, met the unit's managers and supervisors, and discussed why we were there.

We spent the rest of the day in one-on-one interviews with the managers, establishing relationships and learning about the culture. That evening, my partner and I reviewed our interview notes, making our first preliminary description of the culture to share next day with the managers.

Thursday at 9:00 a.m. we joined the weekly Senior Staff Meeting. Just as we had done at the Wednesday Operations Meeting, we discussed company culture—what it is and how to change it. Now with information from the interviews, we discussed their own culture and outlined the basics of culture change:

Culture Change Basics

"Think of culture as a circle. The bottom is the operations half, WHAT we do, the hardware, systems, controls, production, and profits. On the top is the human half—HOW we do operations. This includes communication, trust, relationships, involvement, motivation, morale, and the meanings people give to management's actions. Most companies have a well-developed operations half, but their human half is underdeveloped.

What people do at work is largely outside of their direct control, driven by customers, markets, financial constraints, laws, and technology. But what we do is only half the picture. How we do it is the other half and establishes the culture. Fortunately we have almost total control over how we work and the message this gives others."

Managers Decide On Their Direction

We asked each manager to, "Think of a situation where you felt involved and motivated. What was special about that workplace?" They replied, “It's a situation where:

• I am recognized.

• There is camaraderie.

• I get honest feedback.

• I get support from management.

• I am trusted—give and take on ideas.

• There is respect from the top down—not fear.

• Expectations are in line. We know the goal and what to do.

• People help each other—teamwork.

• I feel I am a part of something bigger.

• I receive mentoring and training.

• There is pride in accomplishments.

• Leaders take care of my needs.”

We titled that list "Qualities We Want More of."

Managers Decide What to Do

We then asked, "What do you do here that you could use to reinforce the qualities you just listed?" They said:

• How we do everything everyday.

• How we manage staffing, retention and training.

• How we talk with associates—be more balanced, more personal.

• How we talk one-on-one with new hires.

• Recognize when people do things right.

• By introducing new people at the start of the shift.

• By finding out something personal about a low performer and encouraging them.

• By using rotations positively as cross training.

• Encouraging more discussion by meeting with smaller, nine-person teams, not just the full 30-person shift.

• Follow through on issues employees raise—involve them in the solution.

• Involve people in designing and implementing the new production process.

We titled that list "Opportunities".

Almost everyone said that they would do something from that list that same day, and agreed to discuss what they did at the next morning's Operations Meeting.

Managers Discuss What They Did

It was now Friday, our third day at the facility. We were again at the daily 9:00am. Operations Meeting. Five people were there who had been at the previous day's Senior Staff Meeting. They had each done something:

• One had conversations with several people he didn't normally talk with.

• Two had brought their teams together to get their ideas on new proposed procedures.

• Two decided to meet each day with a different team member one-on-one. They had had their first meetings. As they said, "Quality Time."

I was impressed—so was the Operations Manager. He asked the group if these discussions—on how things are done, the people side—should be a permanent part of their daily operations meeting. They enthusiastically agreed.

I knew from experience that if they continued like this, the division's problems with employee morale and motivation would soon be history.

Example—A Plant Turnaround

By engaging employees, a manager improves productivity and avoids closing the plant. This is his story in his words.

“Iwas a Plant Manager at the California Plant of a multi-plant Fortune 50 company. There I worked with Meridian Group for a number of years, and with their help, became a student of the cultural approach to leadership. During all my years at the California plant, this operation was the number one or number two performer in a thirteen plant nationwide production system. My job was to get quality products on the dock, and I did that through people.”

“I was recognized for my management accomplishments with a promotion to Vice President of the company’s flagship plant in the Midwest. In my five years there, I applied the lessons I learned in California, to take this plant from the highest cost producer to among the company’s lowest cost producers.”

“While much of this was done through capital improvements, the attention to the plant culture allowed these improvements to come on stream with a minimum of plant disruption. I kept this question in front of my mind. ‘How do you get the hearts and minds and interest of the people?’”How do you get the hearts and minds and interest of the people?

Getting Everyone On-Board

“At the first management meeting at the mid-western operation, the managers were ready to give me the production numbers. But I asked ‘How many people were laid off this week, and on what shifts?’ I also asked about accidents. Second I said ‘I want a measure of the quality of production. Then last I’ll want the numbers.’ The response was silence from my managers.”

“I said ‘Here is the direction, how can we get there?’ I got the message out in weekly meetings, and annual meetings. I repeatedly explained the overall goal, and opened the plans to the people affected. This really threw them off base. They were used to management keeping things close. I kept asking [myself and managers], ‘How can we ensure that the people will trust management?’”

“We had weekly meetings with supervisors. These were "No-Agenda" meetings. The topic was relationships. The Plant Manager was there week after week.”

“First I explained the numbers, and if we don’t go from here to there, all our jobs will go, and the plant will shut down. ‘Do you agree with my figures? My choice is to do it or shut it down.’ I put all the numbers out for everyone to see and understand.”

“We had many different unions on the production floor. Because of the increased production, it meant layoffs in one area but more work in another. I committed to no long-term layoffs. That meant a lot of retraining.”

Operating Results

“Over five years we shrank the workforce from 2,500 people to 1,700 people, all by attrition and retirements. On the way we had 1 million man-hours without a lost-time accident. And we did all this while keeping people on-board.”The actual savings were almost double our goal over the five years.

“I had a coherent master plan—reduce cost by one million dollars a month. We aimed at sixty million over five years. We easily achieved that. The actual savings were almost double our goal over the five years.”

“I used lessons I learned at a smaller plant, to change the largest plant in the system.”