Making the Case for Social Networks in Organizational Settings

Making the Case for Social Networks in Organizational Settings IA Summit 2009 - Olga Howard Note: Please read the accompanying paper at http://olgahow.com/research/

Olga’s Identity iend Wife Artist Mom Fr We Are Not Just Our Work Title! IA

Hal Got a Job in Copenhagen

SixDegrees.com We need someone. Let’s talk! Anybody in Copenhagen have a job for me?

Let’s Meet Charlene Created by Janet Clarey two years ago

home 24/7

work 9 to 5

home broadest possible audience

work one

home contributes knowledge to the broadest possible audience

work doesn’t know who people are

home uses new communication technologies

work she uses old technology

At home: 1) We can gather information fast 2) We participate within the broadest possible audience 3) Our knowledge base is as broad as we want it to be 4) We meet and get to know people through persistent chit chat in social platforms We want this kind of efﬁciency and freedom at work!

The Small World Problem

Six Degrees of Separation

3 Steps 6 Steps Which is faster?

Erik Johnson of Cubeless If we think about how long it takes for a person to • open the email, • consider if he or she has the information, think about • who else might have the information, add those people to a • new forward message, and • send, each person going through that process could easily spend.... How long? 4 minutes

In this small sample the company spent 7.25 hours of company time looking for information!

This company spent 40 minutes of company time looking for information!

AFTER 9/11 the federal government mandated better communications within the Intelligence Community.

Opinion Opinion I wrote a John has brief on that Good Meh Opinion Opinion Opinion Opinion info The Broadest Possible Audience

Question? If we agree that the value of the organization is its people, then we will also agree that the value of the organization is the sum of the knowledge of its people. If this is true, and your organization is operating in an email platform, your employees only have access to a small portion of that knowledge.

Erik Johnson of Cubeless “Social platforms strip away function, geography, and titles. All that’s left is what makes us people. “

Titles are constructs created by organizations in order to classify us into a monetary and task system. Anders Ramsay

The 150 Rule Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist whose research is the basis of the 150 rule, found that peer pressure is a powerful tool in getting people to do their best work. When groups are larger than 150, employees start to become strangers to each other and begin to look at things through the framework of ‘what’s-in-it-for-me’ rather than ‘how-can-I-help-you-do-better.’

The 150 Rule There are no traditional organizational charts, no chains of command, nor predetermined channels of communication.

The Serendipity Factor “As it turned out, Tom was also developing an application for mobile phones, and I soon discovered that he was an expert on Symbian. I was elated because I had found someone who could help me with some difﬁcult programming problems, but I couldn't help feeling some regret. Had I only taken any number of chances to introduce myself earlier, his expertise would have saved me weeks of frustration. Nathan Eagle Nathan Eagle at MIT decided to take advantage of mobile phones and create a piece of technology that would connect people who don’t know each other, but should.

But serendipity is not the best part of tweeting......

In the survey I asked 4 questions: 1. Stuff in my work email box that does not pertain to me is.. 2. The stuff in my work email box that I can ignore is.. 3. The stuff in my work email box that I need to respond to is.. 4. The stuff in my work inbox that is imperative I respond to is..

Wasted Effort 40 30 Response percent out of 32 people 20 10 0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% % of email that does not pertain to me % of email that I can ignore

Must Do 50.0 37.5 Response percent out of 32 people 25.0 12.5 0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% % of email I need to respond to % of email that is imperative I respond to

Imagine a social environment: • Twitter-like feature in intranets? Everyone in the company would know what everyone else is doing • People would scan the conversations, and ignore what’s not relevant. • Once in a while, they would ﬁnd something meaningful that they could contribute to.

Imagine a social environment: Waste time & Misbehave

Imagine a social environment: Most users have ‘edit wars’ and debates. Which is exactly the point of Intellipedia. • Your reputation is your calling card. • Has seen less than 1% of misbehavior. Sean Dennehy Intellipedia and Enterprise 2.0 Evangelist at the CIA Current trends say people DON’T misbehave

When an employee leaves? In a social platform there is a contextual blue print left by the chit-chat.

Who Beneﬁts Most? Yep. Human Resources

The Future of Organizations? • Like Gore, companies will create smaller groups around products • Companies will become ﬂatter, less hierarchical • Managers will become less like managers of people and more like party planners (what person should sit next to what person)

Who’s Already Doing This? PBS Cubeless Thought Farmer

Thanks! olgaHOW olgahow.com 703-627-1847

http://olgahow.com	57
http://ohuxlabs.com	18
http://trainingkonzepte.blogspot.com	8
http://www.joecar.demon.co.uk	7
http://www.joewilsons.net	6
http://www.slideshare.net	2
http://contextblueprints.com	1

Making the Case for Social Networks in Organizational Settings

by Olga Howard on Apr 01, 2009

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Making the Case for Social Networks in Organizational Settings — Webinar Transcript