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The negative side-effects of Social Technology

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2013

The New York Times has an article on how the web is creating unwanted side effects in small towns – http://tinyurl.com/44q8bzk

As the web becomes increasingly pervasive, interactions even in small towns, that used to take place in diners and cafes are becoming public. While gossip around these tables did indeed happen before the web – after all what is small-town life without gossip; in fact what is any social life without gossip? However, gossip has a different effect in small town setting, where there are different implications to identity, highly personal interactions in daily life, and the meaning of relationships that often span the real and virtual worlds in a smaller space.

So, while transparency and the free flow of information have demonstrated beneficial effects, in this case, gossip, which perhaps serves a beneficial purpose in society, takes on an undesirable avatar on the web.

It goes to the point, that social technologies must be used with more thought. There are appropriateness and readiness issues to be considered. In this case, without appropriate governance mechanisms, and new approaches to verifying information, new identities etc, the negative consequences can far outweigh anything positive.

So what exactly is “Social Business”?

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2013

As the term “Social Business” become more prevalent, there is naturally some confusion about what the term exactly means. In my opinion, the term only has a temporary meaning, since business in my opinion has always been and always will be ‘social’. However, we are now at a juncture where there are some interesting innovations happening in the Enterprise, in Business Value Models and in the way we design functional processes using ‘social’ concepts, that are further accentuated by developments in technology.

There are a number of interpretations of the descriptor “Social Business” in current practice. There is the one that puts emphasis on the ‘social’ aspect of business, as in one whose main aim or purpose is to serve some ‘social’, and perhaps ‘non-commercial’ objective.

There is another context in which the term is also used quite often – that is in the context of for-profit businesses and enterprises. That usage has to do with leveraging the ‘social’ dimensions of an enterprise in order to further its purpose.

The ‘social’ dimension of an enterprise, as the term suggests, recognizes that enterprises are constituted of humans and therefore are social in nature, just as the customers they serve are members of society and therefore social too.

Recognizing the human and social characteristics of the enterprise ecosystem, allow us to better understand customers and the way they behave, are influenced, make decisions, and can act in concert and learn together. These aspects have a bearing on how an enterprise can get their message across by leveraging social networks, use the power of crowds to make better decisions, create a community that is loyal to its brand, etc.

Recognizing the human and social aspects of the members of the enterprise, enables enterprises to engage their employees better, thus enabling them to become more collaborative and therefore in turn enable better sharing and flow of intangible assets and knowledge. Such enterprises can also respond to situations by creating flexible structures rapidly and therefore become more agile.

When enterprise leverage such concepts to create more value for their customers or to become agile and smart, they are using ‘social business’ concepts. Since these are not ideas that are used in isolation, it is hard to say, that an organization that leverages these ideas is ‘social’, since it could also be more ‘digital’ for example.

There are now a number information technologies, that enable the ‘socialization’ of the enterprise. The term ‘social media’ is loosely used as an umbrella term to describe these tools and applications. Enterprises that use those technologies might be referred to as ‘social businesses’.

In any case, the practices I describe above, that leverage the understanding of “social physics” inside and outside the enterprise, whether commercial or non-commercial are also termed “social business”

Is being Social conditional?

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2013

On Quora there was a question that was phrased rather interestingly – to paraphrase – “Given that the world’s systems are becoming more intelligent – how should an enterprise become a social business”?

My answer follows:

I would have to start by asking which “world systems” you mean, since there are so many kinds of systems that enterprises deal with or are a part of. Traffic systems, Healthcare Systems, Communication Systems – you can see how ‘systems’ is quite a broad term.

As long as my statement about enterprises being social is true, then their need to be a part of such systems is due to the fact that their being ‘social’ adds value.

Even though there is a significant increase in the amount of information available to systems, and perhaps also there being much more automated ‘intelligence’, there is still a need for humans to be involved.

Such enterprises therefore must necessarily also excel at being social. A ‘Social Enterprise’ performs several activities as part of a system – It makes sense of information, takes decisions, innovates, develops solutions/designs and interventions, acts, often collaboratively or at least cooperatively and learns from its experience. Most importantly it produces value – value that is consumed by other social beings.

As long as this remains true, and I would say that will be the case for a long time to come, all enterprises and businesses must aspire to be socially competent/excellent.

The answer to how enterprise/business should become social has been extensively written about. Where an enterprise starts its efforts depends on its specific strategic context and needs.

It depends on the nature of your enterprise and where the opportunities happen to be. In general if you look at what is happening, the marketing function and its activities are a good place to start, though Customer Services and other support functions are also good candidates.

Others start with various attempts at creating capabilities and becoming a Collaborative Enterprise, with initiatives ranging from Knowledge Management, Product Development, Accelerating Learning etc. Eventually a social business leverages the power of ‘sociality’ pervasively in all aspects of its business, though the extent and degree might differ.

If the enterprise does not have experience with introducing such initiatives, since there are new competencies involved and quite a paradigmatic shift, it is of course best to start small, do a pilot and then learn and scale rapidly.

As maturity increases, the enterprise can take on wider ranging and more complex transformation challenges.As long as their is human activity, there will be Social Enterprises – whether or not this current interest wanes in the near future, the need to be social will remain. And, yes, we will increasingly included online/virtual sociality in the design of our enterprises.