This post contains publicly available content and my responses to exercises from this unit of the course created by Julian Stodd and Sea Salt Learning.
As I started the course, I decided that I would go for 100% completion of all exercises given that there was a leaderboard for completion and learner engagement. On the back of that decision, I decided to do the exercises using “wild mind writing”.
Unit Introduction
In this level, we will explore the nature of the Social Contract in the Social Age, and consider how leaders and organisations more widely can work to develop a new type of contract, and hence a new type of engagement, based upon trust.”
Overview
An overview of the new contract between us and our organisations.
Video
My response:
Organisations of all types will always concentrate on the formal contract. Even charities are not charities. They need to fund their activities. 1 year + ago I was a director/trustee of a social action charity delivering multiple services that we had to place into administration after 30 years of service delivery due to funding drying up from UK government, local government and EU.
An organisation has a right to expect engagement from their employees and will be managed out if they do not perform.
As I have said elsewhere in this MOOC, the best organisational leaders are those that will go even beyond social leaders and will perform with both formal and social leadership.
I have been made redundant 4 times in my career so my view of the formal contract has been badly damaged.
I am a loyal person at my core. Any organisation I work for will always get my full engagement formally and socially.
There is also the issue of organisations delivering services etc with employees, agency and freelance staff as well as third party suppliers so the issue is more complex than just formal and social contracts between employer and employee.
Forward-thinking organisations will treat their staff as assets which are worth investing in, trusting, clearing obstacles away from etc so the value of those assets to the organisation appreciates and not depreciates.
The Social Contract
Does a legal contract adequately cover the relationship between individual and organisation, or are there higher social considerations we should be thinking about? Can you share a personal story of when you feel the Social Contract has failed?
My response:
Some thoughts that came to mind as I read the article.
The challenge of taking a long term view when there are short term issues that take priority.
If staff turnover is high, there is a challenge of continuity of service delivery and the overhead of onboarding new staff.
The complexity and volatility of an organisation's market will be a factor where the need for the social contract ideas will be more acute in high complexity and highly volatile markets.
Is any organisation truly and totally altruistic?
There is a free market for jobs with supply and demand fluctuating over time. This will be another factor in how employing organisations need to respond to their respective markets.
Employers will consider the whole range of incentives and benefits to attact and retain staff.
I was also remembering contract staff that I have worked with over the years. Many were really good and contributed but many were mercenary-like. This started begging the question for me of where does the social age square with these workers.
The Social Contract
Podcast
In the Social Age, the Social Contract between individual and organisation is fractured: we explore how.
My response:
There is no reason why social contract elements should not be part of the formal contract. Reminded of Zappos culture handbook and Valve’s handbook for new employees
Patriarchal employers for me are a good thing! I worked for one. Personal development was open to all. You just had to volunteer. They introduced an Academy with a certificate programme and a Masters programme just for staff delivered by Leeds Met Uni. I was on yhe academic board.
I recognise the issue of staff moving organisation for pay increases. Often this is simply the market in operation with some organisations only responding when turnover rates become unsustainable.
Not all jobs can or probably will ever be scalable via vids/podcasts etc.
For me as a commercially-minded manager/ leader, the value for money calculation of resourcing the organisation is around forecasting work demand and determining the best way of meeting that demand via permanent staff or contract or third party staff. This is where some organisations then get caught out with the high cost of agency staff in e.g. the NHS and schools.
Personally starting to use my blog etc as a shop window more assertively than previously which was then more of a hobby. I am increasingly aware that my online presences may well become an important asset to me in the job market.
For as long as there are more people looking for new roles than positions available, organisations will have the upper hand. I suspect that the social contract will fully kick in when organisations are chasing a smaller pool of workers. As always the market will rule.
For the worker, social contract considerations will be but one factor in where/ how they work. Unlikely that a majority of workers will ever only look at social contract factors.
An Imperfect Humanity?
The strength of a good leader does not come from being right all the time: it comes from being humble enough to know when you are wrong.
How fair is your Organisation, or your wider community?
Are you happy with what you see around you, or do you desire change?
Part of the Social Contract is held by us all, as individuals. If you could change one thing, what would it be?
My response:
Two days ago I finished my first 12-week Working Out Loud circle. This was an amazing experience with me recruiting 4 strangers online to work on a goal specific to us as individuals. Highly recommended. My story summarised in this post.
The theme in this unit reminding me of a cultural intelligence MOOC that is well worth doing. Very helpful:
A central part of that MOOC is core and flex:
Reminded of part of a recent #ESNchat on Twitter where one organisation has to lay down rules for their social networks whereby no religion/politics can be discussed as colleagues are incapable of playing nicely. What would you do in that situation? Leave it to the social leaders to do the crowd control?
Reminded again of a post that I did on diversity and conformity in teams and how market volatility is a factor in what works best:
I assume we are not after one world order where there are no differences? I strive for freedom of expression but everyone has a line. Equally for roles in eg Christian/Muslim organisations I would expect people of those faiths to get those roles where faith is a distinguishing characteristic in the organisation's service delivery. Some Muslims choose to send their kids to Christian schools where standards and results are higher in those schools than in their local area and vice versa.
There is a challenge for formal leaders in working out loud as often their work has to be confidential due to market impacts, people impacts. This is not an excuse for not getting on with it though!
The Social Contract Challenge
Thinking about what you can do to help your organisation develop a strong social contract between organisation and individual.
Video
My response:
I am defo curious, defo doing my own thing, this is my 21st MOOC, just completed my WOL circle, been blogging for 10 years, about to start an online book club on the back of my WOL circle experience.
Good experience at previous employer re access to mandated training and an academy that was open to all but not all bothered, including an internal Masters Degree programme run in partnership with Leeds Met Uni.
Some people will always not be bothered at all. What do social leaders do with them? Leave to formal leaders to sort out?
Change presumably will need social leaders if that is where change in market is coming from.
I am defo a fan of exit interviews to learn why people are leaving.
The issue of how the organisation can make a person successful needs to run through the whole of the employee's life with the organisation.
Contribution: What does the Social Contract mean to you?
Share some of your own thoughts on this new type of contract. How does it relate to you and/or your organisation?
My response
I definitely think that these two contracts should be merged.
Why should there be two streams of contracts? I reckon this would confuse people. It is like there are two parallel universes when there should just be the one.
I agree that the formal contract needs sorting out along these lines.
I assume one way of doing this is spelling out the social aspects in the organisation's Learning and Development Strategy or Business Strategy and why the organisation thinks social is important.
Working Out Loud has one stream relating to onboarding new employees which would be an ideal way of introducing social to significant numbers of staff.
At a day's review of WOL in large German corporates, 7 companies were involved which together have 1.7m employees. Lots of staff to be introduced to social.
Key thing with working out loud is that it is voluntary and needs to be. But what do you then do with those employees that have no interest in social whatsoever? Equally what do you do with staff who simply turn up to get paid for the work they do? Are these formal or social contract issues? Do we leave these people to the formal leaders to sort out as it is too hard for the social leaders to address and such staff then just get managed out?
OOh interesting comments about how to deal with those employees that have no interest in social whatsoever. In my experience, this is many of the employees - or certainly, the trust between them and the corporation isn't there. This would have been an interesting and engaging topic of discussion. I wonder if it's the same issue in say, start ups or smaller companies?
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