Harnessing our unseen talent the Facebook way
 In one of the companies I worked with there was so much talent. We had two girls who had degrees in Film and TV Media, a couple of photographers, an artist of some talent, writers and a guy who could write Flash based games. That's talent enough to create any mix of stunning client facing documentation, websites, Twitter feeds, apps, digital giveaways and YouTube videos. A talent base that surely any progressive marketing department would kill for.
So why wasn't this talent used? Was it because there was a lack of will? Or was management unaware of their abilities? How can companies let this mass of untapped talent go unused?
Most of the firms I've worked with have not had the know-how to get this knowledge base working for them. They don't know who has what hidden skills because they don't encourage their staff to share, and they don't have the culture that grasps this "outside interest" and give it full reign. Instead they place clauses in their contracts that prevent staff from running businesses on the side, or they frown one anyone who maybe takes a few minutes out of the day to work on their portfolio.
For years, when I worked in the Knowledge Management arena, I was fascinated by "Communities of Practice." The idea was an organisation would develop informal teams who would share similar knowledge or interests, then find ways of developing this to the benefit of the organisation. Set up correctly these communities can take organisations forward very quickly and in new exciting directions because they operate outside of the usual constraints of organisational structure. That and the individuals concerned are usually involved because they enjoy the topic.
Social media, it seems to me, gives us the opportunity to create COPs with very little outlay. This isn't to say everyone needs to run off to Facebook and join up immediately, but there are tools that will let the enterprising business create its own internal social network. That's a social network that is contained within the boundaries of the organisation, that allows staff members to create profiles, engage in discussions, share photos and videos and do all the other things they should be able to do. When I started in Knowledge Management it would have cost tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds just to implement a Lotus Notes infrastructure to let me do this. Today I can do it via a web browser and a monthly subscription to SocialGo.
There can be huge benefits to business, not just in finding talented marketing professionals, but also in creating new and more effective approaches to training, sharing experiences in sales - the opportunities are limited only by the imagination of the people involved. Of course it needs some ground rules and management, but there is a world of difference between wasting time on Myspace and a member of staff updating their status on the corporate social network, or uploading a 30 second video clip of their latest objection handling technique.
The tools are out there so in business we can have the best of both worlds - the free flowing ideas of social media and the security of the corporate network. We ought to start using them.
Previously on this blog...
the global leader in Contact Center Consolidation 2.0
2.0 has become a meaningless addition to already poor tag lines.
A dozen beautiful images of Saturn
Wired presents a dozen of the best images from the Cassini mission
Setting up shop in a new country: beyond the website
Building a website for multiple languages is not just about translation. It is a critical business decision that has to be taken carefully.
Why call centre staff deserve your respect
If call centre staff set the first impression for your business, why do we treat them so badly?
Becoming a Specialist? A hard decision to make ...
Specialising requires hard strategic decisions to be made about your business.
When good people move on
Losing a member of staff to another company is not necessarily a bad thing
The quest for quality in Agile Software Development
Why quality assurance remains a central part of project management, regardless of the use of Agile methods
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