I think it’s great that to see the term “social business” being used more and more frequently when people want to move beyond a discussion of social media or technology alone. Dachis Group first started talking about social business in January 2009, expanding the idea into the social business design framework later that year.
One of the concepts we reconsidered for social business was the meaning and purpose of information as part of collaboration. Traditional business communication is filled with one-way missives that pile up in inboxes, requiring users to clean out these spaces like mucking out a horse stall. But what if we took a fresh approach to communication and its role in knowledge transfer? What if messages, updates, and check-ins are considered as signals rather than noise?
In today’s Dachis Group Collaboratory, my colleague David Mastronardi explores this approach in Communication as Work.
Peter, I would love for the concept of signals rather than noise to be reality. Because the fact of the matter is people DO need to communicate to get work done, brainstorm, transfer knowledge, etc., etc. And even the smallest bit of information may provide a major breakthrough for someone else. Why is it that all of that is seen as non-work that causes decent of some sort?
I once worked at a F500 where we literally had to hide in conference rooms, go out to lunch to have project conversations, or IM the co-worker that sat next to us! Why? Because in the marketing department (yes, marketing) conversation was viewed as not being productive, interruptive and invaluable. If we were caught talking, business or otherwise, there were repercussions. Sad, isn’t it?
I hope we can all work together in this industry to demonstrate to organizations and employees that conversations and information (large or small) can be the most important step to solving challenges, innovation, ingenuity, and… prosperity (of all sorts).
Beth Harte
Serengeti Communications
@bethharte
Right on. It’s time for companies to stop paying lip service to open communication! (ironic, huh?)