Simon Sinek has a fabulous speech that he gave at one of the TED conferences discussing his philosophy Start With Why. Nothing could be closer to the truth when looking at ways to incorporate Social Technologies into the workplace. Web 2.0 tools are almost ubiquitous in our personal lives. We live, learn and play with these tools at home, and the generation entering the workplace will be demanding these tools to make their jobs easier and more fulfilling. In order for your employer brand to remain competitive, you'd be well advised not greet this new workforce with "oh, we have a policy against that here". You need to convene your Training, HR, and IT heads and strategize how these technologies fit, or not, with your culture's values. Then ask yourself, looking at your firm's goals-could adopting one of these technologies accelerate achievement of your goals or maybe even help you blow past your goals and into performance territory you never even dreamed possible? What stakeholders in your business would benefit the most from the use of these tools? Could your supply chain be streamlined or accelerated by better connecting your staff to your suppliers?
Look for KPI's in your organization that could be positively impacted by the introduction of one of these tools. It's important to do this in order to select the right tools for your culture, and to establish some baseline from which to measure benefits to your business. And I'm not just talking about ROI. Also, look for workflows or communication channels that could be streamlined by the introduction of one or more of these tools.
After you have defined your Why's for incorporating these tools, it's time to narrow down your selection... and boy what a range of possibilities you have available to you. We'll take a look at some of your options and their use in the business world next week.
- Alex Santos
Alex is a co-founder and Managing Member of Collabor8 Learning, LLC, an instructional design and performance management consultancy. His firm collaborates with organizations to enhance the way they develop and train their people. To learn more about Collabor8 Learning, click here.
Alex can be reached at 786-512-1069, alex@collabor8learning.com or via Twitter@collabor8alex.