In the last edition, I included the following findings:
"...The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) finds that twice as much potential value lies in using social tools to enhance communications, knowledge, sharing, and collaboration within and across enterprises. MGI's estimates suggest that by fully implementing social technologies, companies have an opportunity to raise the productivity of interaction workers-- high-skill knowledge workers, including managers and professionals-- by 20 to 25 percent."
I then asked the following questions:
Question one: What type of agent do you want to build your organization around? If you answer that you "don't care," then there is little need to read the remainder of this article.
Answer: Most companies want agents who enjoy collaborating and sharing with the rest of the organization. They typically will put up with lone rangers, but much prefer community-minded individuals, who are willing to give back and share. The reason is simple: Lasting communities are built by people who contribute to the whole rather than by those who are parasitic to the whole.
Question two: What would attract agents who would want to collaborate and share?
Answer: Organizations that visibly collaborate and share will attract those who will collaborate and share.
Question three: How do you build a collaborative community through social media that is visible to outside agents and provides collaboration as the first open door toward recruiting?
Here is my 30,000 foot view of what I am implying: You potentially have two complimentary goals: (1) Recruiting collaborative agents and (2) Encouraging the practice of collaboration. Up until the last decade, very few methods existed to support or fuse these two, much less measure either one. But now the groundwork is being laid for this to happen. That's right...you guessed it...from the the Social Media platform.
In their Forbes article titled "From Social Networks to Collaboration Networks: The Next Evolution of Social Media for Business," Karl Moore and Peter Neely write that the smartest companies have realized the power of asking "customers and followers to participate in brainstorming with them so they can learn how to be a better company, offer better products and services, or support the values and issues of the community...They understand that ideas can come from anyone, anywhere and at any time."
They site several examples of this. Below are two very interesting examples:
- Toronto-based Goldcorp, a gold mining firm, sought a new approach to finding gold deposits on their 55,000-acre Red Lake, Ontario property. With analysts believing that the fifty-year old property had been emptied, high production costs, labor strikes, and lingering debt...the firm was desperate to find new life. Without options, CEO Rob McEwan created the “Goldcorp Challenge,” whereby he placed every piece of information about the property on the web for all participants to download, study, and submit recommendations. More than 1,000 participants from over 50 countries signed up to solve Goldcorp’s problem. Submissions came from a diverse group of participants, many not trained in geology. This open-source innovation network proved to be invaluable, identifying 110 targets worth more than three billion dollars. By opening the information to a wider network, the company benefited from collaboration of internal and external knowledge banks.
- The second example uses the idea of social and collaborative networking within the four walls of the organization. In mid-2007 IBM created Beehive, an internal social network to connect employees worldwide. The network gained momentum and currently supports 30,000+ employees. Each employee can add a bio page, photos and connect with employees from other IBM offices around the world. What’s interesting about Beehive is how the employees use the internal network. There are three distinct categories of use: The first is to connect with employees they meet at conferences or when working on inter-departmental or inter-divisional projects. The network provides a mechanism to stay connected and get to know other employees and their area of expertise. The second use is to gain project support and brainstorm with others on how best to complete a project. The connections provide a collaboration channel to promote the project to others and gather ideas from other people at different levels. The third use of Beehive is the opportunity to connect with people at higher levels of the organization that are not accessible via traditional channels. Employees use connections to these executives as a method to share ideas and get career advice with the hope of advancement. IBM Beehive is a great example of leveraging an internal social network to cultivate communication, interaction, and collaboration within the widely distributed company.
With stories like this, it's no wonder that Oracle bought Involver, Microsoft bought Yammers, and Sales Force bought Buddy Media.
You are probably asking should we build something on Facebook to begin this process? Probably not. Facebook is far too general in scope to use for something like the above and gain any traction within your office or company. But, what if you had your own community site...sort of a virtual office where outsiders could peak in and see how you think....where your agents could collaborate and problem solve. What if outside agents could join in the discussion and contribute to ideas and vice-versa?
Are you seeing where I'm going with this?
We at Tidemark, are interested enough in the power of this direction, that we began thinking hard and developing strategies in alignment with this movement. More on this sometime in the near future....
Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.
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