Social Business. It’s all the buzz now. Everyone who’s anyone in business is proclaiming the virtues of the social business model for success. Let’s cut through the hype. There are some things that the concepts derived from social networking for personal use can be leveraged in the business world.
Activity Streams - knowing what your co-workers are working on and providing relevant feedback without spending the day crafting unwieldy emails.
Status Updates - sharing with your team what is happening in real time instead of during the weekly status report.
Following - letting the system tell you when things are happening with people or projects of interest.
The hitch with all of these though is when there is no way to take practical action on the thoughts generated in “socialized” interactions. Any system, tool, or solution that fails to provide a method of managing the results of said conversations is no better than having a meeting without an agenda. Lots of talking may go on, but afterwards no one is responsible for anything.
When considering social business tools always ask this, “What are we going to do when the talking stops?”
Why is it that so many people want to make collaboration projects so darn complicated? Overloading interfaces with features, trying to fit every possible idea into one solution, and not doing anything until it’s “perfect.” There’s times when having something that is “good enough” is far better than not having what is “perfect.” The key is to design collaborative solutions in a way where they can be organic. They need to grow and adapt with your needs as those needs change. No one goes out and buys all the clothes their child will ever need in their life when they’re born, now do they? Concentrate your energy on design solutions that meet your needs rather than meet everything you think you want and you’ll find yourself making progress a lot sooner.
Doesn’t this make more sense than the traditional model?
So often in today’s hectic world we fail to extend each other the common courtesy of small talk. We’ll begin conversations with, “Did you get to this?” or “What’s the status of that?” before we even say, “Hello.” In the hunt for brevity and efficiency, the victim is the common exchange of pleasantries that was so often the norm in days past. How difficult is it to take five seconds at the beginning of a conversation and say, “Hi, how’s your day going?” before pounding into the impending interrogation?I know many will say, “Sure, people will say it but they really don’t care what my day was like. They’re just saying it to be polite.” So where’s the harm in being polite? You can tell when someone is truly interested in how you feel as compared to someone going through the motions. Which person are you likely to want to speak with again?
The same rules should apply to instant messaging and text messaging. How often do your conversations start with a “Did you…” or a “When are you…” instead of a “Hi, have a moment?” Why do we think just because we can interrupt someone that the interruption should be respected with the same level of importance we place on it? I’m a firm believer that voicemail, text messaging, and instant messaging are there for the benefit of the recipient as much as for the sender.
As we go through our days, take time to talk to people rather than just making demands of each other. The idea of social networking begins with the term social, defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations: a social club; seeking or enjoying the companionship of others; friendly;sociable; gregarious.” If we are to use technology to supplement our social interactions, we should practice the social graces we have lost touch with in our normal conversations.
So before you comment let me ask, “Hi, how are things going?”
