Social Media inside the Agency BENEFITS BARRIERS TECHNOLOGIES
Social Media inside the Agency
BENEFITS BARRIERS
TECHNOLOGIES
The Governments Job:Never more important, never more complex.
Effects and Benefits
Enabling Technologies
Barriers
3 Points
• Social media tools make connections that drive collaboration and knowledge management.
• Culture is more important than technology.• New Technologies are pleasant to use, so
people use them.
EFFECTS AND BENEFITSEfficiency
Engagement
Innovation
COLLABORATION
Collaboration requires connections
People Information
Plans
Collaboration is many faceted
• Creative– Coordination toward
specific goals
• Connective– Ensuring like finds like
• Compounding– Ensuring Present finds past
Types Collaboration
Thinking Collaboratively
Prevailing Norms• Knowledge is power• I need to be perfect• Expertise• I’m on my own
Collaborative Norms• Sharing is power• We need to be perfect• Learning• I’ve got your back, you’ve
got mine• We improve each other
Values of the Collaborative Culture
• A shared sense of mission.– Very clear goals.
• Trust – it must be ok not to be perfect so as to pursue perfection together• Respect – it must be taken for granted that the people in the room are
good at their jobs.• A philosophical commitment to continual improvement
– Achievement enables further achievement.
• Collaborative teams– Find and solve problems fast
– Stay organized, focused and energized
– Are greater than the sum of their parts
TRANSPARENCY
Transparency: We can see each other
Visibility leads to understanding, sharing, learning
Benefits of Internal TransparencyOrganizational benefits:• I understand what you’re working on.• I see the type/quality of work you do• I get some insight into how you think
and how you work.• I can follow your best practices and
knowledge of company processes and resources.
• I can add/comment/question/direct your work
• I’m aware when we are working on similar issues or when problems arise.
• You get the same from me.
Personal benefits:• We are engaged, develop our
sense of teamwork and mission.• Our effort is seen, appreciated
and coached.• Cynicism, isolation and flailing
decline.• Integrity is encouraged.• We coach and support each other
– implicitly and explicitly
COMPOUNDING
Compounding: The key to efficiency
“If I have seen farther than others it is by standing on the shoulders of giants…”
- Sir Isaac Newton
Its not the wisdom of crowds – it’s the aggregated wisdom of
individuals.
Social Media Tools Capture Tacit Knowledge
• Most knowledge in the organization is tacit• It is nearly impossible to turn this tacit into explicit knowledge• Social media tools collect, and make tacit knowledge
retainable and findable.
“What if we simplified it by doing a transform?”
“We need to wait till the acme contract expires in Jan 09. Then we can.”
“Does anyone know who does the cost analysis?”
“Kyle in Waterloo does those. Ask him, he knows everything.”
ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
Wikis
Profiles
Blogs
Tags
Tweets
Projects
Discussions
Current Technology offers tools to
• Get to know other people• Connect ideas and information to people• Find information and expertise• Get feedback and input• Identify clusters/communities of practice• Contribute information and expertise• Organize• Leverage the work of other people and of your own
Evils of Email
What goes through my head when I get this?
Facebook-ish Goodness: Transparency
Blog Goodness: Value in Rough Ideas
Profiles and Workplace networking
Wiki-ish goodness: The team notebook
• Finding the RIGHT level of organization for your goal and team.
• File sharing – no more emailing around and trying to figure out what the latest version is.
Twitter-ish goodness
• Buzz or murmur?• Awareness. • Sharing• Relationships• Quick and dirty, but good
Basecamp-ish goodness:
• organization that works for you rather than vice versa
THE BARRIERSTechnical
Cultural
Historical
Adoption:
• People use a tool when its easier to use than not to.
– Adoption = Benefit + Corporate Compulsion/Ease of Use + difficulty of task
– And Corporate Compulsion is a relatively weak multiplier.
• In recent years, consumer software has leapfrogged enterprise software in usability
– People are loosing patience with it.
• Web 2.0 Social media tools set high standards of usability in the consumer world
• The new consumer usability and integrate-ability bar will revolutionize the enterprise software industry.
• The dominant paradigm is still management by fear– Information is status – No incentive to surface Mistakes/problems – Blame outweighs accountability– No team benefit– Inefficient, error prone, and unpleasant
Collaboration isn’t normal
How do we make these changes?
• Start Small
• Lead by example– Ask questions– Show drafts – Ask for and respond to input
Example: Starting Small
Existing Infrastructure
Existing processes and information stores exist and contain important stuff.
People willtip the Balance
gradually
THE HARD PART
Change is
THE POINT
3 Points
• Social media tools make connections that drive collaboration and knowledge management.
• Culture is more important than technology.• New Technologies are pleasant to use, so
people use them.
Deb Louison LavoyDirector of Product MarketingDigital Media GroupOpen [email protected]
FacebookLinkedInAIM: DLLavoyTwitter: Deb_LavoyBlog: ProductFour.wordpress.com