The difference between networking and not working is more than just one letter

By Ian Wooler

A common theme that crops up in discussions with clients as part of assignments, or with delegates in workshops and training sessions, is the difference some employees experience between work and home life – not in terms of ‘balance’, but in terms of being ‘connected’ or ‘disconnected’. Let me give you an example: the employee who spends some of his/her home life connected to friends, associates, on-line networks and things of interest; and all via the speed of light (broadband?), feels ‘disconnected’ when they are in the work place where their view of organisational systems is that they are “clunky”, search is difficult, and access to social media restricted.

Whilst this view may not be an accurate reflection of the organisational truth; perception for many is reality. Others comment that they need to be able to network and collaborate quickly and easily with work colleagues to complete ever demanding and complex business tasks, but are restricted from so doing by “the system”. To support their point they go on to quote a success story from the use of social networking. A current example given is that of ‘boy band’ Blake. They met (there are four of them) and then found their manager on Facebook and have just signed a £1m, 5 album deal with Universal! Of course, there are many pros and cons to consider before an organisation makes the decision whether to embrace and implement a new (or their version of new) technology, or give employees access to one in ‘open-space’ – but in the meantime, the ‘connected’ and ‘disconnected’ discussions continue. Looked at another way, these discussions provide a great opportunity for knowledge and information management professionals to facilitate, negotiate, and harness the positive energy around this debate for the benefit of their organisations and fellow employees.

Comments

[Simon Carswell]

I wonder if there will come a point quite soon where organisations that harness social computing will have a strategic advantage over those that do not, by attracting good staff more easily, innovating more, leveraging knowledge, and engaging better with customers?

[Ian Wooler]

Simon, a number of interesting points. I've yet to see hard evidence that an organisations use of/approach to social computing has resulted in attracting good staff more easily - although if you ask my two nephews (still at school)which type of organisation they would prefer, you know the answer they would give! I think there will soon be examples of strategic advantage, a simple example being the time saved by employees in organising social/team events using social networking tools rather than company email (an distribution list) ping pong - with all the associated information management issues. In terms of engaging better with customers, many organisations should be searching the web to see what their customers are saying about them, and respond where appropriate.

[Ian Wooler]

An example that gets closer to Simon's 'strategic advantage' point (Facebook ebreaks make staff work harder) is to be found in an article in the Daily Telegraph last Friday; viz:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2049372/Facebook-%27should-be-encouraged-at-work%27.html

Interesting to note how things have changed when, in mid 2007, the following article talked about organisations banning Facebook.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1558630/Facebook-banned-by-City-firms.html
Is the tide turning or has the 'tipping point' been reached?

[Melanie Goody]

This was a hot topic during discussions at the recent TFPL Connect event, The Future of Work: Technology. There was a general consesnus from the participants that simply trying to ban Facebook is not the answer - misuse or poor use is a management issue and should be tackled in the same way as any other innapropriate or unprofessional behaviour. We can compare organisational attitudes to social computing with the initial corporate reaction to enterprise wide access to the Internet years ago.

[Melanie Goody]

There are a number of very interesting findings in the Chartered Institure of Management's recently published report, Generation Y,: Unlocking the talent of young managers. http://www.managers.org.uk/listing_1.aspx?id=10:106&id=10:9&doc=10:5599