Access to social media in the enterprise can be a boon to business, or, perhaps more often than not, a major productivity-destroying distraction. So – it’s not really about what you’re doing right now, but rather why.
So, I got a call from an editor who was curious about the “most disruptive technology companies in the enterprise… companies that are making consumers’ lives easier and, in doing so, make life a little more challenging for IT”. I didn’t get back to him because this required some thought, and I’ve been astonishingly busy lately, and this opportunity just slipped away. With the advent of the consumerization of enterprise IT – that era is truly upon us, what with BYOD and all – I suppose the simple answer is just that: how to integrate a broad range of user devices into the enterprise. Specific companies really aren’t that important here; it’s the whole shift in emphasis and approach that matters.
But given the broad range of recent announcements with respect to new BYOD systems, and the fact that BYOD is really just guest access 2.0 at its core, the real answer to this question is what Twitter asked us for most of its early years: what are you doing? And, well beyond Twitter’s scope amd much more importantly, why are you doing just that right now? Is whatever that might be getting you closer to your (and your groups’) goal, or it just a time sink?
Management is all about the allocation of resources in the quest for an optimal result. In my many years in management I always viewed myself not as a boss, but rather as a facilitator. By analogy, my job was to find and carry water for those really doing the work. But there’s no escaping it – my job was also to deliver a result via the allocation of those resources. Making sure the direction of the effort stays on target with respect to schedules and budgets is critical.
And therein lies the challenge today: while there have always been distractions in the workplace, I think it’s fair to say that some view Twitter and Facebook as way more important than getting their jobs done. Media of all forms, social and otherwise, can indeed create huge time sinks in the workplace, with those doing the work occasionally blind to the effect that such may be having on their productivity. And there are complicating factors – the creation via clever marketing, of what practically amounts to a requirement to use these resources, um, yeah, let’s go with that, as often as possible, and the fact that these resources, being more serious here, also can serve a valuable business purpose. But I suspect that many people are simply addicted to what becomes at the very least a contextual waste of time, akin to futzing with screen savers, an immensely satisfying but ultimately meaningless activity if there ever was one.
Cognitive psychology tells us that the mind wanders from activities that give it less satisfaction to those that give us more. This is really just evolutionary neuropsychology in action, and we can’t blame individuals for occasionally indulging distractions as they become available. But, as managers, such also can’t be used as an excuse – either we take care of our customers and clients, or somebody else will. While all kinds of fancy IT solutions to address this challenge are available, an occasional reminder of why we all go to work each day may be all that’s really required here. A deep appreciation of goals – the why of business – can clarify one’s time management skills with very little additional effort required.
