One of the big questions that comes up at my Social Media workshops concerns how to “control” staff behaviour online.
The U.S. military had the same issue. Now that everyone (okay almost everyone) owns a smartphone, tablet or laptop and WiFi is universally available almost anywhere on the planet, calling home from just about anywhere has become really really easy and virtually free.
So what did the military do?
Did you ever see the Steven Seagal movie “Under Siege”? In it there’s a scene where the top military brass are sitting in a tactical operations room.
The head guy is on a satellite phone talking to Seagal, the ship’s cook, who is single-handedly taking on a bunch of terrorists who have commandeered a US battleship (Remember this is the movies!).
The top guy realizes that he can’t get Seagal to obey his commands so like any good commander he says something to the effect “if I can’t control you, I have to support you.”
And that’s the wisdom of the U.S. military and it’s a lesson for everyone in social media. If you can’t control the behaviour of your people, then you’ve got to find ways to support them in what it is that they are doing.
The U.S. Airforce’s “Navigating the Social Network” is available online.
It’s a good read.
