Tell Shell

[Nic Name]

Originally posted by Rich Lyon on his blog

Tell Shell

(Digital Business) Apr 25, 8:49 PM 0 comments | more »

Anyone remember InMotion? If you don't, it was an intranet discussion forum created to give employees a collective voice and allow them to share stories about the company and its new Brand. If you do, you will probably either recall it with fond memories or with a shudder.

Either way, it makes no difference - a brave opening move in the spirit of Radical Openness, InMotion proved to be a little too uncomfortable an experience and was closed down on September 11th 2001.

So it is interesting to stumble across Shell's discussion forum TellShell. This is, in effect, their InMotion - but what a difference. Clearly labelled forums ranging from corporate values, through social and environmental issues to technical and financial discussions. In them, customers, antagonists and employees trade views in what appears to be remarkably open and unrestricted dialogue.

What to make of this? It's obviously risky - David Weinberger has written a good piece on it in his aptly named Dirty Laundry. Here is what he says:

"So here's how it works. A company opens a forum. People post messages of every sort, from the supportive to the stupid to the righteously indignant. Employees respond in their own voices. Readers of the forum see in the answers not just words but a real sense that the employees care and that the company is confident enough in what it stands for to allow employees to say what they want. As a result, the company's social commitment avoids sounding like every other company's trendy mouthings. Shell's lack of control over the forum is precisely equivalent to the depth of its real commitment. It's that simple."

I think an awkward precedent has been set. Companies that don't do this are now at risk of appearing to withhold information. And as David Sirota says in Human Motivation in the Workplace, "when workers assume that the company is deliberately withholding information, the void is filled with paranoid thoughts about what is "really" going on".

What do you think? Is this a value-adding process?

Royal Dutch Shell Goup has been using the power of the Internet and this Tell Shell forum as a Customer Relationship Management tool since 1998.

In 2002 Shell released the second generation of the Tell Shell forums. Over the years they've invested heavily in this initiative, as an integral part of their Internet strategy.

As their website puts it, "These uncensored forums provide an area in which people are free to comment on any aspects of Shell's policies, practices and principles. Engaging our stakeholders is at the heart of our commitment to listening and responding."

But do they understand the Internet? Do they really get it? Do they even have a clue?

What do you think about www.tellshell.com?