Social Media at Work

The challenge: Act Smart, Act Fast
Today’s business faces an increasingly complex and dynamic
world, and needs to be as alert, agile, and responsive as possible.
Social Media technology is a collaborative engine supporting:
- Alignment around mission and goals
- Dynamic and participatory awareness
- Efficient execution that leverages
- existing work
- existing expertise
- fast and continual improvement

What is collaboration?
 Creative Collaboration
 A team with a specific objective
organizes, tracks and communicates
to achieve a goal.
 Connective Collaboration
 Personnel who may be working on
different teams or goals are aware of
relevant information and activity, can
identify trends and patterns.
 Compounding Collaboration
 Prior work and existing information is
found and leveraged to the greatest
extent possible.

Connective collaboration:
Information Penetration
 Awareness of dynamic situations
 Military challenges are complex and
changing rapidly.
 Social media is the most efficient way
to spread critical information fast.
 Agility
 spreading awareness of new policies,
procedures and best practices
 Access
 to the right information at the right
time by the right people

Connective Collaboration:
Thought leadership
 Leaders both appointed and emergent
need more opportunity to share their
thinking and get input from those they
wish to influence.

Compounding Collaboration:
Identify Expertise
 I have a question - who might know the
answer?
 There are deep pockets of expertise
available. You need to identify the right
person right now.
 Social Search returns people and
communities as well as content,
discussions
 Result - I can find the information or the
people to ask
 Who is the right person to task with the
job?
 Deep, instant knowledge of who knows
what.

Tacit Knowledge
 Most knowledge in the organization is
tacit
 It is nearly impossible to turn this tacit
into explicit knowledge
 Social media tools collect, and make
tacit knowledge retainable and
findable.

Compounding Collaboration:
How do I…
 Policies, procedures, plans and
documents are readily findable and
available.
 Find people with expertise as well as
resources.
 Eliminates starting from scratch when
work has already been done.

Growing Experts: Learning
 People are constantly getting new insight
from the field, customers,, peers and the
world around them.
 Information and best practices need to be
spread in a cohesive, manner that keeps
people aware and aligned.
 Visibility (transparency) into what one
another is doing allows personnel to learn
from one another quickly.
 Discussion makes for better learning.

Creative Collaboration:
Innovation
 New challenges require new solutions.
 Discussion and co-working can rapidly
develop and vet options and ideas.
 Developing insight
 Team Q&A and contribution of ideas,
processes.

Compliance
 Some information is sensitive.
 Some information is very sensitive.
 Information access control is essential–
its spread as well as its containment.
 Many businesses have complex legal
regulations, policies and procedures
that require the ability to track, preserve
and direct how information is accessed
and stored.

Social Media Enables
Leadership and teamwork
 Leaders are in constant contact with
team. Low or high touch as nec.
 Ensures teams are aligned around
goals.
 People see executive thinking as it
develops
 Engenders mutual respect and trust
within and amongst teams.
 Enables continual improvement.

Social Media Enables
Transparency
Team Benefits Individual Benefits
 Mutual awareness of work  We are engaged, develop our
sense of teamwork and mission.
 I see the type/quality of work you
do  Our effort is seen, appreciated
and coached.
 Mutual insight into work and
thought processes - mentoring  Cynicism, isolation and flailing
decline.
 Sharing best practices and
knowledge of company  Integrity is encouraged.
processes and resources.
 We coach and support each
 I can other – implicitly and explicitly
add/comment/question/direct
your work
 Deep situational awareness
by/of all

 debralouisonlavoy
 dlavoy@productfour.com
 aim: dlouisonlav
 twitter: deb_lavoy