How Social Networks are Transforming Corporations
How can “employee social networks” help increase productivity and transform the corporation into a place that values people and collaboration above hierarchy?
On Monday, our co-founder and co-CEO Daniel Debow joined Kendall Collins of Salesforce Chatter and Deborah C. Hopkins of Citi at the Techonomy 2011 conference in Tucson, AZ on Monday to answer this question.
Techonomy is an annual conference that explores the significance of technology to business and social progress, as well as its centrality to innovation and change. The 2011 conference focused on Revolutions in Progress, and featured some of the most influential leaders and minds in tech, including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, management guru Gary Hamel, and Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff.
The “Social Path to Productivity and Corporate Transformation” panel focused on how social graphs can be applied to greater efficiency within corporate culture.
Watch the video of the panel here:
Some highlights from the panel:
- Stats from Gary Hamel’s Broad Survey of Employees show that only 14% of employees are actually engaged in their work. If over 75% of a company’s workforce is not engaged, that will have a substantial negative impact on the business.
- Enterprise social graphs are different than personal ones. They need to use a “follow” model instead of a “friend” model in order to focus on work and collaboration instead of just being an internal Facebook.
- People want to be measured on more than their ability to manage up. Social enterprise tools can identify the people who help others, have great ideas, and are having a real impact in the company.
- Recognition, having connections, and having meaning at work motivates people more than money. People want to learn, and they want to be engaged.
- In the same way that the Internet is open, Rypple values transparency, and it uses transparency to enforce trust. Social behavior amplifies real engagement, and social platforms mimic existing behaviors. They highlight the conversations that are the most important to people.
