Social Networking in the workplace - embracing the creativity of all employees:

Recently, while with Levi Strauss & Co., we conducted an assessment of the learning and development aspects of the SAP implementation, and I was holding interviews with managers and employees across the Finance organization. Because of technical problems, most technical support staff had been pulled back to try and solve the problem, creating a situation where users in the field where left to fend for themselves. I was amazed at how resilient many of these people were in the face to having to perform with a totally new process and technology, with little or no technical support to answer an ever changing scenario of technical fixes that were being put in place. Most impressive was how some teams had set up informal collaboration networks to pose questions on how to perform tasks or were instant messaging each other to share knowledge in this rapidly changing environment.




While adhoc and localized, I was amazed at their drive to use technology to realize the collective knowledge of users across functional boundaries. At the same time I was reading an amazing book, "Wikinomics" by Tapscott and Williams, which delves deeply into social networking in society and organizations. As a result I, together with Jean Heller (the SAP OR lead), developed a SharePoint knowledge management and collaboration portal that focused on engaging over 2000 SAP users. While in its early days, this system is showing real promise in providing employees with an environment to dynamically network and share knowledge on SAP and end to end processes. A bit like an internal “FaceBook” inside the company.

But technology is not going to be the total solution for companies to engage the innovative energies of employees and to share this knowledge with others. It will take supportive leadership, a culture that fosters employee involvement, innovation and fun (read the section on the Geek Squad in Wikinomics - amazing). My career changing "Ah Hah" about the power of engaging employees was back in the 1990's in a large retail bank, where I implemented a GE Workout type program that involved over 15,000 employees. In an incredibly militaristic culture, the level of energy and innovation by employees to find ways to streamline work processes and improve customer service was truly incredible. With this system, this bank improved from worst customer service to best in the industry over a six year period. Almost entirely due to the innovation and efforts of employees - bottom-up! The punch-line of these success stories is to link these two powerful phenomena - encourage and engage employees in their natural work groups to be innovative on how to work more efficiently and effectively, and use technology to allow them to interact, be innovative and share knowledge dynamically (for example using Twitter type messaging for immediate updates). Amazing things are possible in the workplace by engaging employees in this way - BUT, top leadership and corporate culture must be supportive or the latent creativity and energy of employees will lie dormant.

Posted by Kevin Weitz at 7:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: Social Networking in the workplace - embracing the creativity of all employees