I had a conversation with a colleague over lunch recently in which he admitted not knowing his wife’s work phone number. When questioned further, he admitted that the majority of their conversations were through BBMs. And therein lies the reality of modern communication.
A shift in how people communicate started with e-mail and further morphed with instant & mobile texting. Fast forward to today and we’re Tweeting, Friending, Liking and updating our social statuses more often than we speak to our colleagues or family members face-to-face.
The digital communication phenomena has been both lauded for giving a voice to oppressed peoples around the world and toppling governments, to being criticized for ruining the art of conversation and dinner-time family dialogue. Love it or hate it, we all have to acknowledge that technology has revolutionized how human beings interact with each other.
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve witnesses how social conversations are being embraced by communities or by brands and their consumers. Inevitability this will impact how organizations enable internal business communications and processes.
Can the Enterprise Adapt?
Social networking in the online world creates “communities”, which does not necessarily translate well to the kind of work groups that are formed in most businesses. So the inevitable introduction of social networking-style communication into an office culture will have powerful implications on how businesses are structured and managed.
The upside of working through the challenges is the creation of “community action”, awareness and knowledge about issues and events that are relevant to the overall business. Enterprises who leverage “community building” internally to encourage collaboration, will create a sense of intimacy that can lead to trust and closeness among larger groups of employees.
Most importantly, those that integrate social networking-style communication will see their inefficient siloed organization improve by weakening barriers between the various departments. The resulting enterprise forum will provide the infrastructure for teams to exchange insights and work collaboratively.
Leaders should welcome this evolving communication style within the workplace as it will democratize the organization. It will empower employees to make a difference beyond their cubicle and their direct responsibilities. C-Suite executives will experience a groundswell of ideas and insights from staff below their direct reports or top level managers – essentially tapping into a larger source of support. And recognizing those contributions will encourage greater loyalty and effort from all levels.
Are Boomers Ready?
This won’t be an easy transformation for larger businesses. The very nature of social networking-style communication creates what could be an overwhelming amount of content that many will consider “TMI” (too much information).
Older employees will experience difficulty with this and not be able to process the greater volumes of information. However, Enterprises must begin planning for this evolution as large numbers of Gen X and Y individuals start entering the workforce. This next generation has not only become adept at this form of communication, it’s the only way they know how to do it.
HR teams will have to be empowered to drive the necessary training and support to those earlier generations so that they will be open and learn how to manage larger, sometimes seemingly trivial data to effectively manage their teams.
There are models already in place from which we can draw inspirations and learning:
- IBM has integrated social communication tools into its operations by adding collaboration software for viewing documents, forums to post ideas and mobile applications.
- Dell has rolled out Chatter (Salesforce.com’s business social networking platform) to 113,000 of it’s employees. Company officials said they found this an effective way to connect the sales team to the manufacturing department, which has helped the business better meet delivery promises to their customers.
Do you agree that this transformation in how businesses communicate internally is inevitable? Do you have personal experience with this in your organization? Participate in the conversation by posting comments below.
By Sam Fiorella
Feed Your Community, Not Your Ego
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