New social and collaborative technologies are rapidly changing workplace communication and disrupting internal organizational culture. Approaches to creating borderless connectivity and collaboration will vary enormously between and within companies and industries. What works for one company will not necessarily work for another – but the fundamental mind and skill sets required to facilitate effective collaboration are human and all pervasive. This presentation offers best practice advice for communicating effectively through social media and collaborative technologies in the workplace. For more information, contact us: enquiries@tmaworld.com

1. Reappraising
the Collaborative Benefits
of Social Media in the
‘Borderless Workplace’
MindLines
Steven Pritchard
TMA World │ Director Global Client Engagement

2. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
New social and collaborative technologies are rapidly
changing workplace communication and disrupting
internal organizational culture.
The adoption and usage patterns of such technologies vary across
industry sectors.

3. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Unsurprisingly the technology and electronics industries are the most
active adopters of new technology, but even for laggards, the direction
of travel towards a more ‘borderless workplace’ in which
collaboration and communication is streamlined to flow easily across an
organization’s silos, is fast becoming a realistic aspiration for many
businesses.

4. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
The
Convergence of
Technologies
From a technical perspective historically, ‘collaborative technology’
and ‘Social Media’ have different origins and utilization, but with
advances in software development they are merging to the point where
it will be irrelevant to make a distinction between the two.

5. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
The
Convergence of
Technologies
The contribution that Social Media makes to borderless working is to
digitally humanize, characterize and personalize the work environment
in ways that previously collaborative technologies or groupware could
not. This convergence has been primarily driven by the needs and
vision of enterprise rather than social forces.

6. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
The
Convergence of
Technologies
Technologies are no longer passive or merely functional, the growing
influence and use of Social Media in the world of work is a trend that
now significantly changes, reshapes and determines the character
and nature of an organization’s internal culture for better or
worse.

7. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Socializing
at Work
For many organizations the term ‘Social Media’ has unhelpful
connotations. Linguistically, the term ‘social’ is not commensurate with
the idea of ‘work’ for some people.

8. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Socializing
at Work
Unfortunately, the social label distorts perceptions about the ways in
which such technologies can be used to add value to the nature of tasks
that employees under take at work.

9. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Socializing
at Work
The idea of ‘social’ suggests informality, personality and even a lack or
seriousness, which challenges traditional ideas of ‘work’ being
conducted in a place that is formal, functional and sober.

10. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
It’s becoming clear that many
organizations have introduced Social Media
New without any real sense of its purpose,
potential or practical application.
Horizons
but some False Starts

11. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Technologies have been introduced without
a strategic perspective or real
New consideration of how they can add huge
value to cross company collaboration or
influence positive cultural change.
Horizons
but some False Starts

12. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
This has led to many ‘false starts’ in
companies, who despite the well intended
New adoption of Social Media, have
encountered negative experiences
introducing it into the workplace.
Horizons
but some False Starts

13. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Some common negative or unplanned
experiences among early adopters are:
Access Analytics
Proportionality
Control
Preferences
Substitution Uneven Usage
Trivialization

14. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Access
The inability to access and contribute to open source dialogue,
for non-office based employees, leading to a sense of exclusion
among some managers.
Analytics
The extent to which open source comments and links to third
party sites are monitored and analyzed by the company and for
what purpose.

15. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Control
Attempts by management to heavily moderate critical or
potentially controversial contributions being perceived as over-
controlling.
Preferences
The degree to which individual preferences govern the style and
nature of participation in Social Media, with ‘digital introverts’
reluctant to have their comments brought to full public view,
scrutiny and displayed in perpetuity.

16. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Proportionality
The disproportionate influence (positive and negative) of
digitally vocal opinion formers distorting the shape and nature
of dialogue around issues.
Substitution
The idea that Social Media is a substitution for active face-to-
face employee engagement by management.

17. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Trivialization
The trivialization or under valuing of open source networks in
which employees offer only trivia rather than value creating
contributions, or conversely over formalizing an informal
communication medium and thus ‘killing the joy’ of it!
Uneven Usage
The non-participation of certain employee groups or segments
creating an uneven landscape of organizational perspectives.

18. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
No doubt the debate about the use and misuse of Social Media in
the workplace will continue, however, before ‘bruised’ early adopters
clamp down or even withdraw from using such technologies, it is
worth recognizing two factors that have become apparent in the
light of experience.

19. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Active Management for Success
The benefits of social technologies will certainly outweigh
the risks for most companies as the latent potential of the
collaborative advantages that they bring becomes evident,
however, two counter measures reduce the risk of
mismanaging their introduction:
Organizational Communication
Virtual Leadership

20. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Organizational Communication
It helps to have to have
enterprise-wide vision and
strategy for the role and use of
collaborative and social
technologies in the workplace, so
that employees know how to best
to engage and benefit from their
use.

21. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Virtual Leadership
Managers equipped with the appropriate network leadership skills
and capabilities are more likely to get better participation and
engagement rates from contributors.
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22. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Virtual Leadership
The most fundamental shift and liberating benefit that social
technologies offer is in the slow death of ‘one-to-many’ dialogue
(e.g. email) towards ‘many-to-many’ dialogue.
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23. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Virtual Leadership
Great virtual leadership assists in setting both the tone and
tempo for meaningful online collaborative engagement in the
workplace.
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24. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
Approaches to creating
borderless
connectivity and
collaboration will vary
enormously between and
within companies and
industries.

25. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
What works for one
company will not
necessarily work for
another – but the
fundamental mind and skill
sets required to facilitate
effective collaboration are
human and all pervasive.

26. Reappraising the Collaborative Benefits of
Social Media in the ‘Borderless Workplace’
To learn more about how we can help your organization,
please contact us at
enquiries@tmaworld.com
or visit
http://www.tmaworld.com/training-solutions/