Blogger: Mike Gotta
Bill Ives (Portals and KM) provided a write-up of the workshop delivered in Boston last week. I've read his blog for some time as well and it was nice to meet Bill and many others in the E2.0 social circle at the conference. I'll get around to some thoughts on E2.0 event itself soon but wanted to share Bill's summary and remind folks that it's still not too late to sign-up for Burton Group's Catalyst conference in San Diego July 27-31. If you heard good things about the social networking workshop (described below), I will be repeating the session on Tuesday morning, July 28th (so why not register and attend?). If you heard less-than-good things about the workshop, then let me know so I can make corrections! Feedback is appreciated either way...
Social networking promises to address an array challenges and opportunities within the enterprise such as bridging generational shifts in the workforce, facilitating collaboration and community building, and supporting strategic talent initiatives. Despite these potential benefits, a number of organizations moving forward with enterprise social networking projects experience a noticeable level of uncertainty. The road to success is complex. Project teams need to overcome the perception that social tools and applications are not a critical investment. Common issues proponents of social networking face include: establishing the business case, acquiring funding, determining metrics, developing governance policies, and addressing security concerns. In addition, strategists need to anticipate how best to handle cultural issues and adoption barriers that will emerge over the course of social networking projects.
In the fall of 2008, Burton Group conducted a series of in-depth interviews with 65 business and IT personnel representing 21 organizations to gain greater insight on enterprise social networking. These unguided discussions captured a variety of real-life stories, emerging best practices and common barriers confronting social networking project teams. Indeed, analysis of the study data reveals a repeating pattern of 15 critical issues organizations will likely encounter as the move forward with their internal social networking initiatives. This workshop provides an interactive forum for people to learn more about what other organizations are doing - their challenges - their successes - as well as their pain-points. Q&A time will be set aside after each module. The workshop will end with a general summation, updates on market trends, and address any remaining audience concerns.
Who Should Attend
- Business and IT staff whose job responsibility involves the following: innovation, talent management, collaboration, knowledge management, or community-building
- Corporate communications and HR staff involved in employee engagement strategies, learning, and strategic talent initiatives
- Social networking project teams who wish to learn more about business and cultural barriers, employee profiles, expertise location, community seeding tactics, and adoption strategies
- Business or IT executives and managers with responsibility for creating, sponsoring, or implementing social networking initiatives
- Strategists who would like to expand their knowledge of social networking trends
You Will Learn
- What are the critical issues confronting social networking project teams, and how organizations are responding to those challenges and opportunities
- How project teams are dealing with the business case for enterprise social networking, including concerns over ROI and metrics
- What cultural issues do social networking projects tend to surface, and how did organizations in the study address legal, HR, compliance and security considerations
- What difficulties project teams will likely encounter as they try to convince employees to adopt social networking platforms (e.g., profiles), and what adoption tactics were used to jumpstart participation (e.g., expertise location, communities)
- How interviewees felt their IT organizations were handling the topic of social networking, along with high-level impressions from participants regarding their experiences with different tools (e.g., IBM Lotus Connections, Jive Software, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server)
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