Today’s global economy is an information economy and the workers that drive it are knowledge workers more than anything else. Jobs consisting of knowledge work make up nearly half the workforce in some markets.
At the same time as the Internet connects us anytime and anywhere to others, there’s a nagging feeling that we’re getting further apart in the workplace, despite all the technological improvements.
Part of this is historical: information technology has replaced many jobs and often it is implemented with an eye firmly on cost savings and reducing headcount. But there’s a deeper problem that is part of technology itself.
“Today’s workplace is full of technology to make us more efficient,” says Richard Firth, serial entrepreneur and CEO of MIP Holdings.
“But we’re all familiar with the technological obstacles there are between us and collaborating effectively with our colleagues. Information can be hard to find, we may not even have permission to access it, we may not know who would be best to ask questions and keeping up to date with it all takes too much time. And in a process-driven environment, a lot of time is wasted just waiting for your turn to contribute to a project or the business.”
Firth says the rise of social media provides part of the solution to making collaboration easier.
“Few would doubt that social media and interaction with customers is getting more important. But the social network model can be used effectively internally as well. Any Facebook or Twitter user knows about the strong ties that we have with people who are our friends or colleagues. But in an organisation it’s the weaker ties that matter.
“By enabling people to leverage their weaker ties – the person sitting in another office for example – business collaboration is made much stronger. By formalising weaker ties within an organisation and giving employees incentives to contribute, people become more creative and there are fewer internal obstacles to the really good ideas.”
Firth says MIP implemented its own social network as the foundation for the company’s new vision, with gamification providing incentives for the staff to come up with ideas. As a result of the success of the platform, the company is now using it as a standard operating tool, allowing staff to collaborate and providing better project management.
“It’s all about how it is integrated into real work, and how the interaction with the customer can be enabled too. There is currently a client-server approach to designing systems, based on technology problems. Thanks to cloud and connectivity, companies can start designing things for the real world. Social business platforms improve the ability for networked projects, and increase the ability of people to work from home,” he concludes.
