is social technology behind high performance in organizations?

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The Path to High Performance is Paved with Social Collaboration

Lance HaunThe Starr Conspiracy

+What we will be talking about:

Why collaboration and why now?

Demonstrate how social media can blaze new paths for information exchange

Review a case study of organizations that leveraged social collaboration

Next steps

+Who is this guy?

Former HR guy for seven years

Former editor for ERE Media and contributor to TLNT.com

Currently: Editor with The Starr Conspiracy

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Thesis: Social Collaboration drives not only high individual performance, but high organizational performance as well

+Why Collaboration?

+A distributed workforce is becoming the norm

More organizations are using distributed work to accomplish business objectives

Reasons include: Globalization pressures Employer costs Employee demand Increase in technology use

Staying connected is a challenge

+Collaboration isn’t optional —A look at the stats

Almost 90% see their collaborative efforts as highly productive

Over 90% like to work in teams, most preferring to do so from a location of their choosing

Most believe technology can bridge the gap

Meetings Around the World: The Impact of Collaboration on Business Performance, Frost & Sullivan

+Pre-social technologies like email don’t actually help

“Employees in virtual environments may develop perceptions of exclusion or isolation due to their need to rely on technology to communicate with others; common forms of communication technology (e.g., email) do not provide a high level of information richness and can inhibit social exchange”

Busch, E., Nash, J., & Bell, B. S. (2011). Remote work: An examination of current trends and emerging issues. Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, Cornell University

+Why social?

+Social is …

A technology that allows people to interact with ease across physical divides

A philosophy that believes that adding social enhances an integral part of the human experience

A set of platforms that can encourage sharing, collaboration, and high performance

+The general social media landscape

Adoption curve: mainstream, trending toward laggards

Networks used: Facebook, Twitter, Google+

Tools: HootSuite, Tweetdeck

Adoption curve: early adopter, trending to mainstream

Networks used: LinkedIn, Quora, Twitter

Tools: Argyle, Radian6

Consumer Enterprise

+A different take on social

Social traditionally a promotion channel (marketing and recruiting)

Secondarily, can be used to enhance support

When most people talk about social, this is what they mean

+A different take on social:Collaboration

Using social as both a collaboration tool and an indicator of high performing employees

Focusing on user’s skills being built by using social media

Encouraging employees to use social as an enhancement to their toolbox

+How can social help?

+Why social collaboration?

Social naturally encourages Communication skillsTechnology skill developmentTime management skillsSharing and collaborative focusPerformance focusUnderstanding of data

+Why social collaboration?

Communication and collaboration are two skills employers want the most

A very close second: familiarity with current technologies

People who can manage all of these concepts

+Building the social case: Training and development

Reduced training costs

Greater training effectiveness

Continuous skill enhancement and self-directed learning

No positive effect on learning or development

Unequal access or usage

Positives Negatives

+Building the social case: Knowledge transfer

Fast and inexpensive dissemination of

Information

Easy sharing of knowledge from few to many

Unequal access or usage

Too much information

Quick spread of negative or private information

Positives Negatives

+Building the social case: Creativity and problem solving

Increased problem solving accuracy and speed

Innovation spread throughout organization with minimal effort

Consensus process slows decision-making

Consensus leads to pursuit of poor choices; lack of critical thinking

Positives Negatives

+Possible speed bumps

People won’t always be smart about it

Some don’t want to participate

Resources could be devoted to other programs

Time waste?

+Tools to consider

Internal Enterprise social collaboration tools like Infor

Ming.le

External LinkedIn groups Quora

+Social collaboration is rocket science

+Case Study: Boeing-Rocketdyne SLICE

Background: A team made up of a variety of professionals from different companies collaborated from different geographic locations to create an optimized rocket engine

Malhotra, Arvind; Majchrzak, Ann; Carman, Robert; Lott, Vern (2001). Radical innovation without collocation: A case study at Boeing-Rocketdyne. MIS Quarterly.

+Strategy Setting

Set out first to understand the strategy across three companies

Set responsibilities and accountabilities at the very beginning

Set foundation for open sharing of information

+Technology Used

Online collaborative notebook

A project vault with shared files

Twice weekly teleconferences (not originally planned)

+Issues Faced

The ability to meet face-to-face on occasion was still necessary

Organization and order of ideas not easily apparent

Other tasks and multitasking interrupted set meetings

SLICE had to restructure to meet requirement and enhance the experience

+Results

Duration: 10 months

No more than 15% of any one member’s time

Each member working from a different location

Designed an optimized rocket engine with fewer parts and a 14-fold decrease in manufacturing costs

Highest quality performance in the industry at the time

+Learnings

Multimodal communication

Technology enabled

Collaboration as the goal

Expectation set at the front

Flexibility

+Conclusion

+To recap:

Assess your understanding of social within your role and company

Examine how social media and collaboration can help drive new learning and performance management initiatives

Understand how companies are leveraging social collaboration within their organization

Consider next steps

+Next steps

Assess your current use, organizational comfort with social media

Investigate several different tools and beta test with trusted users

Measure beta results, recalibrate

Roll out to staggered areas of the business

Measure and optimize your process continually

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Thanks!This was fun

Lance Haun

(206) 801-1348

lance@coug.rs

lancehaun.com

thestarrconspiracy.com