What am I working on?

Who cares what I am working on?  Flickr - P.Mike

Who cares what I have to say?

These questions were the gist of a comment left on my Microsoft and Microblogging post by Stuart Shaw.

I think Stuart hits on an important point, and it sheds some insight on why organizations attempting to embrace so-called 'Enterprise 2.0' or social collaboration that lead with simple status updates or microblogging certainly could face this issue.

If you think about corporate e-mail, the primary enterprise technology that microblogging and many other collaboration platforms are meant to supplant (or at least compement), this confusion and hesitation by some organizations and employees is understandable.

Consider the main categories of corporate e-mail message that a typical information worker receives and how they get dispatched. Fitting many of them in to the 'status update' paradigm is kind of silly.  Now I know that there is much more to Enterprise 2.0 than the status update, but the culture of the status update is so prevalent in the 'social' world online, that it can often dominate the thinking in the enterprise, particularly among the rank and file workers that you are trying to reach.

E-mailed generic company announcements get deleted, lots of other emails are dismissed as unimportant, usually when you were copied on a long thread that you either are not interested in, or don't have any specific additional input towards. Most of the other emails, the ones that actually are important either consist of specific questions directed at very targeted people, or advance some kind of ongoing dialogue again with a discrete set of people.

And on and on.  None of the typical corporate e-mail use cases really touch the 'What I am working on?' or 'What's Happening?' launching points that frame typical microblogging status updates.

Once an organization grows large enough such that people don't actually know everyone else personally,  the idea of sending out a company wide e-mail essentially consisting of a 'status update' is pretty unusual.

And for many, if the message doesn't 'fit' into any of the familiar e-mail buckets, it can be easy to conclude that the message has no value, no one really cares about what I have to say, and to simply shrug and remain comfortable in the familiar tools and processes that have dominated workplace collaboration for that last 20 years.

So do the tools influence the messages themselves? Do they determine the kinds of messaging and information exchange that is 'acceptable'?

It does seem that we look at and assess new tools through that kind of a prism.  If as a knowledge worker I only send/receive/evaluate a given set of messages, ones that support a defined process and reflect organizational norms, then it can be a significant switch to simultaneously adopt both brand new technologies and a new mindset and approach to communication and process.

The question I think many people (rightly) ask is, you have given me a new toy to play with, but I don't necessarily have anything new to say.

Do Amazing Things - E-Book

Chris Ferdinandi from the Renegade HR blog had a great idea a few weeks ago, enlist a number of HR professionals and bloggers and collaborate on an E-book project.

The premise : Write a short piece for the HR practitioner focusing on the question - 'What is one thing that the HR pro can do in 2010 to get better?'

Twelve contributors combined to produce the completed E-Book - 'Do Amazing Things: Things you can do to become a better HR Pro in 2010'.

Chris has a post on Renegade HR with the official announcement here, and the E-book can be downloaded as a PDF file here.

I was really pleased and honored to participate in the project offering a piece on how to better understand and leverage collaboration tools and technologies in the organization.

There is so much excellent insight and information in the E-book and I really encourage you to head over to RenegadeHR and download and share the E-book far and wide.

The contributors you will find in this excellent resource:

• China Miner Gorman from SHRM
• Michael VanDervort from Human Race Horses
• Lance Haun from Rehaul
• Karla Porter from the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber in PA
• Paul Hebert from I2I
• Jim D’Amico, recruiter extraordinaire
• Victorio Milian of Creative Chaos Consultant
• Ben Eubanks from UpstartHR
• Steve Boese from Knowledge Infusion
• Nathaniel Rottenberg from Rypple
• Trish McFarlane from HR Ringleader
• Jessica Lee from APCO Worldwide

Do something amazing in 2010!

Great job Chris and everyone else who participated in the project!

An Opportunity for 2009, Wait 2010

NOTE: I thought I would re-run a few posts from 2009 during the holiday week, and I came across this one, originally posted December 28, 2008 - almost exactly one year ago.  Then, I opined on the tremendous opportunity for HR organizations to lead and drive the implementation of new tools and technologies to support workforce collaboration.  I wonder if in 2009, that this opportunity was really largely missed, consumed by the recession, survival-mode thinking, and too much debating and strategizing, and not enough 'doing'.  Let me know what you think, did HR really miss on this in 2009? And can we take advantage of this in 2010?

Flickr - sebastien.YEPES

An Opportunity for 2009 - December 28, 2008

Ok, you are probably sick of reading blogs, analyst opinions, and watching Webinars that all keep saying the same thing: in 2009 there are opportunities for HR Technologists to make substantial impact deploying systems or platforms to improve collaboration, networking, and information sharing. 

Take a look at this quote from the Collaborative Thinking blog by Mike Gotta:

An opportunity for HR in 2009

Generational shifts: GenY and aging workforce trends create opportunities for HR groups to take on a much more strategic role. Employee, retiree and alumni social networks for instance have the potential to help organizations become more resilient and agile by allowing it to capitalize on its internal and extended relationships - often in ways not constrained by formal institutional structures

 How about this one from the Aberdeen Group's Kevin Martin:

While HR and IT can often butt heads regarding HR systems implementations, Aberdeen's research has uncovered that HR should collaborate with IT to advance Web 2.0 initiatives and achieve the above-referenced common organizational objective: organizational knowledge capture and transfer.

And if you come to the realization and conclusion that social networking and collaboration technologies are the right tools for your organization and want to champion their adoption and deployment but are faced with skeptical or less-informed management? How do you convince the 'old-guard' managers and influencers that social technologies are a valuable, soon to be essential tool, and not just a distraction from 'real work'? How about this answer from Knowledge Infusion:

 Don't try. Start at grassroots level with a ripe and receptive department or business unit. Once there is success and viral effect, the old school executives will take notice and support an enterprise approach.

You know, deep down you know, that jumping in to the Web 2.0 world is the right thing to do in 2009.  The start-up investment is extremely low, the learning curves are short, and there are loads of articles, blogs, case studies describing how numerous organizations have approached and have had success with these tools.

Don't wait for the jokers in IT to do this and grab all the glory a year from now!

Welcome to the Company! Here is your iPhone

Abilene Christian University made news last year with an innovative and interesting program for its incoming freshman class in 2008; it provided free of charge a new iPhone or iPod Touch to each incoming student.

The University developed a number of custom applications for the iPhone, ranging from homework Flickr - fanfan2145submission tools, to in-class polling and response systems, to checking campus maps and cafeteria menus.

But more important than the specific applications and use cases is the underlying philosophy that fueled the decision to 'give' iPhones to all the new students.  Students expect to 'consume' content on the go, from any location, and when it is convenient (which is almost never the 8:00 AM lecture). The campus-developed applications can stream class notes, videos, and other interactive content to the students in real-time.

And in another interesting twist, Abiliene Christian students are finding that they can leverage the iPhones in ways beyond the 'official' or expected uses.  One student observed:

Kasey Stratton, a first-year ACU business student, said her favorite aspect of the iPhone program was how apps are changing the way students interact socially. Many Abilene students use Bump, a free app downloadable through the App Store, which enables them to swap e-mails and phone numbers by bumping their iPhones together. Also, the campus’ map app helped her become familiar with the campus quickly when she arrived.

“At ACU it’s like they see [the iPhone] is the way of the future and they might as well take advantage of it,” Stratton said in a phone interview. “They’re preparing us for the real world — not a place where you’re not allowed to use anything.”

There are two really interesting notes to take from those comments, both are applicable to HR and HR Technology.

When given the opportunity, people will find new use cases for technology

The school distributed the iPhones with some specific, and fairly modest goals. Let students participate in class polls, have access to some information systems, etc.  These were important and valuable benefits.  But the students proceeded to leverage the technology to better connect with each other, to facilitate their own projects and group activities, and ultimately to derive more value than the administration had ever foreseen.

We see this all the time in consumer or public platforms, like how Twitter users 'invented' the concept of hash tags and '@' replies.  When technology is designed to promote adaptation, or is developed and consumed in ways that can support changes to configuration and flexible levels of personalization the opportunity for end users and employees to 'discover' new and better uses is significantly enhanced.

In the 'real world' (your companies), entering employees have high expectations

Before I get in trouble with Lance Haun, I am not going to the Gen Y/Millennial card on this.  Just simply noting the importance of this student's expectation that in the 'real world' tools and technologies like the iPhone, BlackBerry, access to social networks, and 25 things that have not even been invented yet will all be present and available in the workplace. Students that grow up with these tools absolutley will not understand why if indeed they walk into a new organization that is relies on ancient desk phones, MS Outlook email systems with limited storage, and have network file shares as the de facto 'collaboration' tool.  And not just new and younger employees, soon, and for the foreseeable future almost all of your employees will feel the same way.

Abilene Christian certainly seems like an unlikely place to be at the forefront of an innovative, cutting edge technology-based project like this.  And it is.  But it shows that even from unlikely sources, ones without national reputations, and billion-dollar endowments, that fantastic innovations can arise.

Maybe your company is also and unlikely launch pad for technology innovation.  Maybe you are small, not that well funded, or stuck in the 90's when it comes to technology.  But if Abilene Christian can do it, then so can you.

How about next year, when your first batch of new recuits come marching in the door, you hand them a brand new iPhone, and encourage them to use it to connect, learn, share, and experiment?

I know what you are thinking, where is the budget for that going to come from? I would bet the extra productivity you will get from the program will more than fund the phones over the year.

Ask Abilene Christian if the investment was worth it, they have gotten more mileage as the 'iPhone College' than they ever bargained for.

Abandon Ship

A recent article on MSNBC.com titled 'Workers may jump ship as economy improves' articulated several reasons why many employees, and in particular high performing and high potential employees will look to leave their current employer once the economy and jobs market improves. Flickr - Sea of Legs

Some of the reasons cited for this conclusion will likely be familiar: lack of trust or feeling that employers care about them, compensation cuts, lack of career development opportunities, and low engagement levels all could conspire against employers seeking to retain their top performers.

So what can an employer do, even today when times are still ridiculously tight, resources are scarce, and everyone feels stressed and overworked (when they are not just thinking about being happy to simply still have a job).

Some of the most important points raised in the MSNBC piece -

'To ensure that employee engagement does not suffer, organizations must rebuild peer networks — especially across teams and departments — to increase employees' connection with their colleagues', and 'Whether an employee's job matches his or her personal interests has the greatest influence on engagement in comparison to all other aspects of the EVP', both have direct implication in the HR Technology space. 

Technologies that can help distributed colleagues find each other, surface common interests and skills, and enable some aspects of 'socialization' in the workplace will become more and more important. And workforce planning tools that can be leveraged by both management and employees to help identify and align career aspirations with opportunity can play a major role in determining whether or not some employees choose to move on.  A great internal opportunity may be present, but if the right employee does not 'find' it , (or get found), it may as well not exist.

I think in 2010, a major trend in HR Technology will be the development, application, and execution of tools and platforms that will facilitate these connections, help build these networks, and hopefully align worker's interests with the organizational opportunities.