Social Networking vs. CB Radio

I am hitting the road later today traveling to Toronto for RecruitFest, meeting with the great folks at Rypple, then on to Ottawa to visit my friends at Halogen Software (and do a live HR Happy Hour show).

I am driving so there will be lots of time in the car, and that pretty much means lots of time 'off the grid' and disconnected from social media and networks.

Too bad I don't have my old CB Radio.I could do some 'old-school' social networking in the car.

For those who don't remember CB's check out the lengthy article on Wiikipedia.

CB Radio culture was celebrated in movies, television, and music.

In many ways the CB Radio was the early form of technology-enabled social networking.  The band served many of the same purposes that social networks like Twitter do today, news, ('the bridge is out on I-77'), inside information, ('Kojak with a Kodak on US46'), and pure socializing, ('Breaker one-two, this is Greasemonkey, anyone have their ears on, come back?').

But are today's social networks, like Facebook and Twitter superior to the classic CB Radio? 

The Tale of the Tape:

Feature	Social Networks	CB Radio	Advantage
Primary users	Pretty much everyone	Long haul truckers	CB Radio
Iconic figures	Robert Scoble, Ev, Jack	Betty Ford, Jackie Gleason	CB Radio
Star power	Hammer, Ashton Kutcher	Burt Reynolds	Push
Theme song	'United Breaks Guitars'	'Convoy'	Social Networks
Business Benefits	Connect with customers, prospects, candidates	Find cheap gas	Social Networks
Signature vehicles	Mini Cooper, Smart Car	Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am, Kenworth 18 Wheeler	CB Radio
'Anti-social' features	Multi-level-marketing	Disregard for traffic regulations	CB Radio
Networks fostered by	Friending, The 'ReTweet', 'Follow Friday'	Keeping each other out of jail, Truck Stop parties	CB Radio
Signal the end was near	Grandma is on Facebook	Cell phone technology	Social Networks

Well, it is clear- CB Radio tops Social Networks!

Time to figure out a new handle, I hope it doesn't wreck my personal brand.

Thanks to Jerry Albright for the original idea to write this post.

What's old is new again

Over the past weekend I caught up on some reading I had been meaning to get to for some time, mostly research papers and some Academy of Human Resource Development journals for an upcoming article I am helping to write.  After making my way though an article or two, and checking some citations to dig deeper into some areas I found myself really amazed on the dates of publication on some of the most seminal works in the areas of what today would be considered 'social networking'.

Some examples:

The Strength of Weak Ties - Mark Granovetter's theory of how 'weak' or more casual relationships in a network are more effective at diffusing or spreading information across the entire organization, enterprise or society, the theory that essentially underpins much of the design philosophies of community building, corporate social networking, and social network analysis today was originally published in 1973.

In that work, while asserting that in making important personal decisions most people do not rely on or act on recommendations delivered via forms of mass communication, unless these 'mass-media' recommendations are also reinforced by personal contacts, Granovetter cites the title Personal Influence by Katz and Lazarsfeld, published in 1955.

Some of the positions advanced first in by Katz and Lazarsfeld in 1955 are often echoed in current articles and thinking around social media and social networking.  Engage customers on their terms, build a community for your fans and supporters, stop broadcasting your message in an impersonal format, people don't trust corporate marketing speak, etc. all have some basis in theory from Personal Influence.

Lastly, in the past few weeks I noticed several excellent blog posts discussing 'Trust'. A few bloggers explored trust in the workplace and the importance of fostering trusting environments. See HR Bartender, the Compensation Cafe, and HR Observations, for some recent examinations on Trust in the workplace.

After reading those posts, I thought about offering my take on how trust might impact knowledge sharing; particularly in the context of online collaboration and knowledge management tools. As more organizations seek to adopt these platforms, to take advantage of and to try to enhance the organizational social network, the idea of trust is critically important. 

In this research, I stumbled upon an incredible source for better understanding of social networks and social capital formation, a title from 1983 called Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy by Robert D. Putnam.

What does a text on the political structure and institutions in Italy have to do with corporate social networking, collaboration, or workplace trust? Actually quite a bit. Chapter 6 of Making Democracy Work titled 'Social Capital and Institutional Success' focuses on the essential elements necessary for the development of social capital in organizations, trust, norms, and networks. On the idea of trust, Putnam strongly asserts the link between trust and the end goals of many of these new technology-based initiatives, 'Trust lubricates collaboration'. Putnam further explores the fundamental conditions needed to build trust in networks, like reciprocity and the virtuous cycle effect.

The point of all of this?

I think that at times many of us that participate, advocate, and attempt to implement tools and technologies for social networking, collaboration, and knowledge management think that we are truly in uncharted waters.  We can at times, get beguiled by the notion of 'newness'.  Since Twitter, Facebook, wikis, blogs, etc. are all relatively recent inventions, it is easy to think that the scholars and researchers of the past don't have much to offer us today. My experience with just the three works I mentioned above (three out of potentially thousands) tells me that ignoring or dismissing these works as irrelevant just because the 'tools' are new would be a mistake.

My recommendation to you - take the half hour you may have spent reading more 'How to be more effective on Twitter' posts and read the Strength of Weak Ties this week. Press the pause button on 'Personal Branding' for an evening and read Chapter 6 of Putnam. I guarantee you will find something in there that will help you today, tomorrow, next week, next year.

I would love your comments and recommendations on other 'classic' works that you swear by.

Social Network Analysis and HR

Note : I decided to include some content and discussion questions on Social Network Analysis in my HR Technology Class for the first time, and as I was writing the introduction to the topic, it seemed only sensible that I post it all here as well.

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What is Social Network Analysis?

In the last 10 years or so scores of research papers and several books have been written on the subject of Social Network Analysis (SNA), which simply stated is the study of how information flows in organizations, with whom are employees most connected, to whom do they turn for information or advice, and identifies the roles individuals and departments play in the overall social network of the organization.

It is a way of quantifying the answers to questions like:

"When faced with a complex problem, who do you typically ask for assistance?"

"Who would you turn to when discussing a new or innovative project?"

 "Who are you most confident will give you accurate and truthful information?"

Why study Social Network Analysis?

Why is Social Network Analysis important for the HR professional?  To help answer that question, lets take a look at two charts.

First, the organization chart of a division of a typical company:

Source - Saba/HCI - Tapping the Power of Social Networking to Manage Talent

 And then the Social Network Analysis diagram for that same division. For example purposes, assume that this is an 'Information' network analysis. That is the connections in the diagram represent requests for information needed to perform a person's job requirements.

Source - Saba/HCI - Tapping the Power of Social Networking to Manage Talent

The key conclusion from the analysis of the SNA diagram is that while employee Mitchell occupies a relatively low position on the 'official' organization chart, she is central and highly connected in the SNA diagram. Many, many employees turn to her for information in the course of performing their jobs. Generally speaking, Mitchell is more more crucial to the overall efficiency and operations of the organization than say, Avery who is higher up on the organization chart, but on the periphery of the SNA diagram. This is just one, really simple example of the value and insight that you can gain from Social Network Analysis, but even this simple example is powerful, and helps illustrate the importance of SNA to the organization.

How can HR leverage Social Network Analysis?

There are several important aspects of Social Network Analysis that can be leveraged by Human Resources departments.

1. Organizational Design - If the SNA reveals a lack of communication and information flow due to too strict adherence on formal organizational hierarchy, some re-design may be in order to try and help facilitate more cross-organization communication

2. Succession Planning - SNA can assist tremendously in the identification of key employees, ones that either have a central, highly connected role in the network, or that serve as the primary or only 'connector' between different departments or offices. HR would likely want to take steps to insure that an adequate succession strategy is in place for these individuals, who are not necessarily 'high' on the official organization chart.

3. Job Description modification - sometimes SNA reveals certain individuals are 'too connected', meaning there are far too many demands on their time, and too many other folks in the organization looking for their insights.  Many times this leads to bottlenecks, that can disrupt the flow of information and ultimately detract from productivity. If this situation occurs, HR can assist in an intervention to modify the position roles and responsibilities, removing or re-aligning certain duties to promote a better balance, and hopefully reduce the information bottlenecks.

4. Training and Development - SNA can help identify and analyze the makeup of the networks of the organization's top performers.  It could be that the structure or patterns of high-performer networks could be replicated to others in the organization, potentially leading to increased overall personal and network effectiveness. HR can be instrumental in developing learning opportunities to help educate the workforce on these approaches that top performers utilize.

5. Internal Social Networking technology - Conducting a thorough SNA for an organization typically reveals areas that need improvement, either a need to increase collaboration and communication overall, desire for better inter-departmental processes, or more widespread organizational changes. Internal or corporate social networking technology is one tool that can be brought to bear to attempt to address these challenges.  Platforms ranging from internal microblogging, blogging, wikis, activity streaming, or more robust platforms that encompass all of these functions are becoming more common in organizations, and HR departments, armed with information from the SNA, should be in an excellent position to drive these efforts.

Additional Resources

If you are interested in reading more on Social Network Analysis, I recommend the following two books

The Hidden Power of Social Networks - Rob Cross and Andrew Parker

Driving Results Through Social Networks - Rob Cross and Robert Thomas

In addition, Jon Ingham at the Strategic HCM blog and Mark Bennett at Talented Apps frequently write on these topics.

The topic of Social Network Analysis, while not exactly new, is getting more and more attention, and new tools and technologies to assess and improve internal networks are emerging all the time.  It is an important area for the HR leader of today to become more familiar with, and to leverage in their quest to improve organizational performance.

Closing thoughts for 2008

Some quick thoughts for the last day of 2008:Flickr - Nal from Miami

1. HR Technology is only partly about the technology. It is usually more about the will and courage of the enterprise to embrace and handle change.

2. The most important technologies to HR in the future may not even need the 'Technology' department to be that involved. Check out this prediction for HR in 2018, courtesy of Workforce

In the "Structure of Work" category, experts collectively pointed to collaboration as a key in 2018. The top-ranked prediction was: "There will be an increased focus on infrastructures—such as social networks and wikis—to support building strong relationships and collaboration"

 3. The HR Technology space is fast-moving, interesting, and changing.  To me, that is what make its fun to practice, teach, and blog about.

What do I want to get out of 2009 personally?  I want to continue to learn from and if I can, assist the dozens of great HR and HR Technology folks that I have met this year. 

I want to continue to improve my HR Technology class to make it more relevant, meaningful, and fun.

I want my South Carolina Gamecocks to win the Outback Bowl on January 1, 2009.

I hope more great folks follow me on Twitter

Happy New Year!

The Net Generation in Class

Been spending some time this week reading the fantastic, 'grown up digitial' by Don Tapscott.

It really is a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in understanding how Generation Y, or the Millennials, or the Net Generation, or whatever you would like to call the group born between 1979 and 1997 will forever change education delivery, workforce management, social networking, and collaboration.

To me the key points I have taken from the book center around the ways that Gen Y students generally prefer to be 'taught'.  The classic mode of delivery with the teacher in front of the class expounding his or her words of wisdom which the students dutifully transcribe and hopefully successfully regurgiate later on for the exam. This method is tired, old, and frankly boring for everyone.

Gen Y students want to to give their opinions, insights, and help to co-design the curriculum and content.  They are much more comfortable in a collaborative environment, and will gladly assist and help each other in their efforts.  They have the tools to explore and inject concepts and content from everywhere.

A key takeaway for me as the insructor is to stop talking so much, start listening and start asking more questions. 

In class I introduce a number of technologies like Performance Management, Succession Planning, wikis, blogs, and microblogs.  But rather on 'telling' the students what they are used for, perhaps I need to spend more time having the students tell me what these tools can be used for.

I think, then we will both learn more, and be better for the experience.

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