| We have
been operating companies and
organisations unchanged for over 100
years. Inside these structures are
separate companies, departments,
divisions and sections with walls so
impenetrable that even Genghis Khan
could not take them. Over the years
there have been many attempts to find
ways to lower these walls, to gain
efficiencies and to harness the whole
workforce or to at least get them facing
in the same direction. These internal
fortresses have in some cases become
home to damaging ambitions where the
individual or divisions aims surmount
those of the company or organisation.
 |
Looking to reduce costs and
increase effectiveness,
organisations and companies have
on occasions invited consulting
organisations like McKinseys to
re-engineer the structures but
when they leave, often the old
habits and internal walls
gradually rebuild.
 |
| Today most organisations can
very readily list some of their
key problems: |
- Retention of staff
particularly those of the Y
generation
- Harnessing the mental
horsepower of the whole
staff
- Finding innovation from
within
- Containing operational
costs
- Retention of knowledge
(when the person leaves so
does the I/P)
|
For a global, national or
diverse organisation, connecting
the personnel would seem to be a
number one priority. Most
organisations already possess a
portal containing static data
but this falls well short of
allowing staff to engage with
each other or supplying them
with high value workplace tools.
We believe that the starting
point to addressing some of
these issues will be found by an
organisation embracing an
internal social and business
network.
So how can social and business
networks make any headway in
such a challenging environment?
A social and business network
extends over and beyond the
internal structures. Its basis
for existence is around
collaboration, communication and
knowledge sharing of all the
employees regardless of location
and status (the antithesis of
departmental structures). It is
a secure and safe site for your
employees to utilise.
Employees would use social
network tools to create forums,
networks, internal web sites,
communities of interest, chat,
find a friend as well as posting
their own blog.
They would browse and search the
Knowledge House containing the
organisation’s information
located in a series of
repositories (Learning Blogs,
It’s a Fact, Ask an Expert, FAQs
and Web pages of info).
Workplace tools would then bring
project and program
collaboration where employees
could participate from outside
their current structures. Using
tools such as “Post a Project”
employees could participate in a
published project thereby
allowing the organisation to
gather under utilised capacity
and increase the cross division
learning.
Use discussion forums across
selected categories to spread
and share knowledge. Provide a
place for your employee’s good
ideas and publish them. Turn
them into a fun place where
these ideas can be rated and
expanded upon. Post a problem
and see what solutions emerge
(from outside the nine dots).
An “Assignment” tool allows
individuals and teams to
collaborate in preparing briefs,
documents and papers and then
publish them.
The hidden talent will emerge
from within your organisations.
Those who perhaps are not the
most visible and are rarely
heard may well have some of the
answers to an organisation’s
vexatious issues.
This is a new way for an
organisation to think about
harnessing the mental horsepower
of its employees, to get them
involved, interested, excited
and to be noticed. Think about
the possible cost reductions as
it related to efficiency,
effectiveness and ultimately
headcount. |
But don’t
think it will be an easy journey, for
those mandarins found within most
organisations may find this to be very
threatening. Also this is a new path
where we have much to learn!
Knowledge Community for Workplace’s
software solution is not the panacea but
merely the starting point. |
In a 2005 survey conducted by the
McKinsey Quarterly of senior and top
executives, 60 percent said their
company’s size and complexity had made
it somewhat difficult or much more
difficult to capture opportunities than
it was five years ago. Little wonder
then that ineffective bureaucracies
develop within large companies, that the
head office seems remote from the field
and that the “left hand doesn’t know
what the right hand is doing”. Aligning
the whole workforce spanning these
generations across the globe will be
particularly challenging and there will
be many lessons learnt along the way.
 |
