I have worked with a lot of different organisations over the years, I’ve always found it really interesting how easy it is to pick up on the culture of the company within minutes.  It only takes a few comments from one or two staff to gain some significant insight.

One day, I was working on a computer in a room with two other people.  My back was toward them as I worked to solve a problem.  A conversation started to gain some momentum with the lady (let’s call her Sally) and her colleague (we’ll call him Tom).  Tom was talking about how he had asked his boss for some extended leave, and that he was now awaiting for his approval to come through.  Sally, who usually had a thing or two to complain about, then told Tom that she had asked the same boss for a pay rise 5 years ago.  Sally was upset because she had not had an increase.

As their conversation drew to an end, I too had finished what I was doing.  I turned around to leave the office and could not help but notice that Sally was playing a card game (solitaire) on her computer.  I thought to myself “and you wonder why you have not had a pay increase”?

Unfortunately, we all know people like this.  The sad thing is that the problem usually lies with the management of the organisation.  Yes, as a manager there have been times when I have unintentionally bought about similar situations.  The sad thing is that when Sally started that job, she would have been really happy to have had a new job and most likely would have wanted it to have been a success.  But something changed and she became disengaged.  I would hazard a guess and suggest that she felt undervalued.

By nature people are social.  The conversation being had by Sally and Tom was in fact a social conversation, but one which could have had great value to the business.  Have you ever considered what it would take the reengage people like Sally?  It often takes time, but it is often as simple as giving them a voice. A voice which they know will be heard.

In a Social Business, the culture is driven by people having the ability to share their thoughts and views in a non-structured manner.  The key is that there are people to listen.  We have all heard the quote “The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing” .  However, in a Social Business, the left and the right hands are always talking.

To get people to collaborate and to work together, they need to know that there is more value in sharing their ideas rather than keeping them to themselves in an effort to become indispensable. They need to understand that job security comes from being able to contribute to the rest of the team.

What barriers are there within your organisation which prevent people from being able to collaborate effectively?  What is it that prevents the left hand from knowing what the right hand is doing?

Common barriers may include:

• Multiple offices spread over geographical locations
• Different lines of business or departments
• Individual email accounts
• etc

The result being that information easily ends up in silos and becomes either hard to get to or is easily forgotten about.

For a long time I have worked with organisations where these barriers have suppressed productivity and profitability due to ill-effective collaboration tools.   This is why we have seen people adopt social media (the likes of facebook, wikis and blogs) as their preferred tools of communication.  So much so, some people consider themselves to be addicted to facebook and twitter.  They even seem to share thoughts and ideas that they wouldn’t otherwise share.

In a business context.  It is important to be implementing social business tools.  These tools are typically in-house tools which are only available to the business or those they wish to share with.  I’m not talking about using Facebook, Linkedin or twitter.  I’m talking about using business grade tools for internal use, such as IBM Connections.

Globally, 57% of stand-out companies are now running Social Business tools to collaborate more effectively.  Want to be a “Stand-out” company?