Mike Handes is the social business innovation lead at IBM Australia and New Zealand
business outcomes. If we look at current technology trends and the core human values discussed earlier, we can gain insight into how best to proceed. The success of social media technologies like Facebook and Twitter suggest that humans crave interpersonal connection; we want to be part of something larger, which is why we use such technologies to share content, engage in dialogue, and develop new relationships. Professional networking tools such as LinkedIn, and the potential value and abilities of Facebook and Twitter in critical disaster events provide examples of how these platforms and activites centred around them are not simply frivolous – they can be harnessed by the business world and reap great benefits for those involved. A social business, then, is a community rather than a factory or a machine. It brings employees together in clusters rather than separating them into silos. By encouraging collaboration and co-operation, it gives employees the freedom and means to work in the manner and with the people best suited to them – not according to the rigid procedures enforced in traditional top-down business models. While this may seem a terrifying prospect to managers, they need to understand that the most productive outcomes arise when employees know their actions matter, not only to their personal performance ratings, but also to the broader business community of which they’re a part. In a social business, information flows more freely. Having the wrong information or taking too long to find it can not only dishearten the individuals who make up any business, but also slow down overall operations or in some cases derail them entirely. It may appear somewhat counterintuitive, but replacing linear bureaucratic processes with loose networks of information sharing allows information to be transferred between individuals much more efficiently. It means that the people who need information can get in touch with the people who have it, faster and more intuitively than before. Finally, social businesses dissipate the rigid hierarchies that characterised earlier models. In the internet-mediated communities of today, everyone has an equal voice and an equal chance to be heard. Value judgements about this aside, we are living in an age where being able to speak up and be heard is considered one of our inalienable rights – and if organisations are not going to embrace it, their employees will find recourse in social media and online. This has implications for everything from corporate image and branding to the hiring and procurement processes: as the emphasis on transparent and flexible working environments grows, it will become increasingly important for HR executives to be able to demonstrate such attributes to potential employees and job-seekers.
The success of social media technologies like Facebook and Twitter suggest that humans crave interpersonal connection USERS IN CONTROL
Most of us already know this at some level; but there is some apprehension when it comes to restructuring. First of all, restructuring an organisation is an immense task, one which can take up significant resources and time across the board. Continuous attempts at restructuring are not only prone to failure, they can generate even more inefficiencies due to policy discrepancies and general employee fatigue. However, the problem with this model of restructuring is deeper than just time and effort. In reference to the earlier analogy of a machine, restructuring is like taking the machine apart to perform a different function, but finding after the machine has been rebuilt that the requirements have shifted and another restructure is required. If we are to build social businesses, we must recognise that cohesive social networks and relationships are not instituted from the top down. Rather, they are created by the users or employees themselves. What HR professionals can do is open the internal communication channels for such networks. They can work alongside IT executives to make available to the business the technological tools and channels that are already changing how we relate to our friends and families. They can also advise the C-Suite on the tangible benefits – adaptability, productivity, employee retention – of social business, and help fashion sustainable strategies to ensure the longevity of such ventures. Finally, they can communicate directly with their employees to ascertain what measures are in fact most likely to succeed. We now understand businesses to be less like machines and more like living organisms. It is the connections between employees, the cells of the organisms, which determine whether it thrives or perishes. If we give our employees the tools to develop these channels of information and expertise, we stand the best chance of success for the future.
HCAMAG.COM 33