Canadian HR Reporter

Strategic capability Network'S paNel of thought leaders brings decades of experience from the senior ranks of Canada's business community. eir commentary puts HR management issues into context and looks at the practical implications of proposals and policies. CanaDian hr reporter october 20, 2014 ExECUTIvE sErIEs 9 www.scnetwork.ca Barbara kofman organizational effectiveness Join our professional community of Canadian HR & Organizational Leaders: • Connecting @ monthly events • Collaborating with peers • Challenging conventional thinking The Power of Human Capital CULTIVATING LEADERSHIP FOR 35 YEARS Great Leaders GROW www.scnetwork.ca Going social? We know many employees are not engaged in their work and we also know social technol- ogy has the potential to increase productiv- ity. Research from McKinsey & Company found it could increase worker productivity upwards of 25 per cent. is has prompted organizations to consider using social technologies to release new value. A recent Strategic Capability network session present- ed different perspectives on how this might be done; there are five areas to understand: Reach: Social technology enables connections across lines of business, geography, organizational level and function. It goes beyond one-way information-sharing to facilitat- ing information-seeking and broad collaboration, enabling business to interact directly with existing or po- tential customers. Real time: Social tools can re- duce routine lags and delays, cut through organizational layers to ac- cess information and indicate how employees and customers are feeling right now. But the snapshot of how employees or customers feel is just that — a snapshot. Downsides can be mitigated by education, feedback and looking at trends and what is in real time. engagement: Many attempts at using social technology fail be- cause they forget the social aspect. Users must pull. ey must see util- ity and interests met and pull others to engage with them or become ad- vocates. Users decide the best uses. new employee skills: Older employees may need to learn some new skills but even younger em- ployees who may be more savvy also need to learn how to use social tech in a business context. Older employ- ees may need to develop new habits: connecting through new media, engaging in interchange using social technology. All employees need to understand the collaboration tools. Curiosity needs to be nurtured. ey need to be able to use courtesy, provide thoughtful and constructive responses, use critical thinking and judgment around information that may not be relevant or accurate, and know how to sort through a mass of information or set parameters on desired information. operating infrastructure: Us- ing social technology to do work is still evolving. As a result, significant communication, education and management are needed. Because its value is most readily realized on a broad scale, the temptation is to "roll it out" across the entire organization. however, learning and successes through pilots should be considered as part of a pull strategy from one part of the organization to others. ere are also design and operating decisions that will need to be made, as in any operating infrastructure. Karen Gorsline is SCNetwork's lead com- mentator on strategic capability and leads HR Initiatives, a consulting practice fo- cused on facilitation and tailored HR ini- tiatives. Toronto-based, she has taught HR planning, held senior roles in strategy and policy, managed a large decentralized HR function and directed a small business. She can be reached at gorslin@pathcom.com. karen gorsline Strategic Capability Sharing knowledge is power e business world may have finally hit a tip- ping point where social technology plat- forms are no longer a nice-to-have. We may finally be at the point where leaders are realizing social technol- ogy will change the way people work in many jobs and lead to a redefinition of "best fit" competen- cies. hearing the social technology experiences of corporations such as IBM and RBC establishes the posi- tion that creating an enterprise plat- form strategy, rather than a business line platform, promotes the internal network becoming fundamental to everyone's way of working. As more leaders embrace social technology and begin to give social tools a purpose in people's jobs, how does this change the complexity and ambiguity between people manage- ment, daily challenges and technol- ogy know-how? how does this im- pact the knowledge management strategies some business leaders have been steadfastly focused on? What do we want tomorrow's leader to be mindful of when taking into account the transformational possibilities so- cial technology tools present? Anna Dreyzin and Colleen Burns, repre- sentatives from IBM, pointed out that the adage "Knowledge is power" is being replaced with a new axiom — "Sharing knowledge is power." If the intention is to build a work- place that embraces and fosters a sharing-knowledge-is-power cul- ture, it would seem you will readily introduce fresh and practical mean- ing to competencies such as trans- parency, collaboration, influence and productivity. is not-so-subtle change will shift — if not make ob- solete — any traditional hierarchi- cal structures, business operating processes and people practices that were originally designed to rigidly manage daily activities. Current evidence confirms that when employees find a social tech- nology platform useful or interest- ing, they are more likely to share their knowledge, invite feedback and seek help with ideas more quickly and easily within the larger community. Both IBM and RBC show how they have raised the game through improved interactions among employees, greater engagement, higher productivity outcomes and an increase in innovative ideas and solutions. trish maguire Leadership in action Maximizing business value frequently, I notice ideas that origi- nated decades ago are being recycled with slight tweaks and updated research. Take, for example, the late 20th-century correlation between employee satisfaction, customer loyalty and financial results, which has been referred to by several speakers at sCNetwork as if a revelation. So it was refreshing to hear this concept spoken about with new terminology reflective of the gen- erational shift taking place in the workforce. e term "employee satisfaction" seems a relic when positioned against the new moni- ker of "employee happiness." is is how Jim Moss, CEO of Plasticity Labs, restated the value chain and seamlessly linked it to the entirely different mindset gen Y brings to the employment bargain. Taken as a whole, this group of presenters provided clear evidence a seismic shift has taken place in the employment contract, one that savvy organizations have already adapted to. No organization signals this change more than IBM. e titles alone — of spokespersons Anna Dreyzin, education program manager, social engagements and insights, and Colleen Burns, man- ager influencer engagement, social business — reflect how far IBM has come from the days of conformity, secrecy and grey suits parodied in films like the Matrix. But when coupled with out-of-the-box value statements such as "dare to be the wild duck" and a culture that touts the sharing of knowledge as power, it is clear this is an organization to be admired and emulated, one that has inculcated a 21st century cul- ture into its fabric. Rather than monitoring em- ployees for unwanted online ac- tivity, it is expected. It is the means through which design innovations and services become potent col- laborations, from the sharing and tweaking of PowerPoint presenta- tions to product development. For those who choose to work at home, there is recognition of the need to be heard — or "to work out loud," as they labelled it — something they emphasized can't be done by living in an inbox. Email is reserved for communi- cating what's private while inter- nal and external forums and social access tools maximize value. A corollary to this fresh way of getting things done is if someone is on vacation, sick or on leave, productivity is not affected as others in the online community answer questions as they arise. e implications for organiza- tional effectiveness are far-reach- ing. Gone are the days when bosses and co-workers get away with hoarding information based on the false belief knowledge is power. Now, all levels of the orga- nization are expected to actively participate in online forums and evaluated based on their contri- butions in these realms. Except where legitimate, the measure of individual success is no lon- ger secrecy, signalling a welcome change to culture where con- tributions can be provided and valued at all levels — a kind of balanced scorecard in real time. The work done at Plasticity Labs further erodes the conven- tional way of getting things done. Decades-old tools like annual employee and customer surveys are obsolete now that technol- ogy enables organizations to continuously collect data and pinpoint trends over time, rather than one moment in time. e implications are far-reaching, challenging the validity of how organizations currently measure everything from engagement to performance appraisals and the use of leadership tools such as 360 surveys. e unmistakable message for organizations that want to maxi- mize productivity through en- hanced employee "happiness" is to constantly evolve the process- es and systems for getting things done through effectively updating and leveraging an array of social technologies. Failure to adapt will, in due course, result in extinction. Barbara Kofman is SCNetwork's lead commentator on organizational effec- tiveness and founding principal of Ca- reerTrails, a strategic career coaching and HR solutions organization com- mitted to providing clients with the personalized processes and informa- tion they need, to achieve the individ- ual and organizational outcomes they are seeking. She has held senior roles in resourcing, strategy and outplace- ment, and taught at the university and college level. Based in Toronto, she can be reached at (416) 708-2880 or bkofman@careertrails.com. soCIAl > pg. 12

• Cover