Some interesting words reverberated around the lively agenda-setting session at the breakfast table at Roast on Thursday morning for the first SHR networking breakfast of 2012. Strategic review was swiftly followed by strategy, business objectives and restructuring; budgets, economy, offsite and time fitted nicely with volume; intranets and wikis; and last but not least governance, reliability and compliance.
One can be confident that 12 people working in strategic information roles will have something to say. Those present represented all the facets of information not just sectorally but also nationally and globally
It was exciting to hear of different organisations' views and usage of the myriad of communication channels. Not all firms are fast movers and adopters and it seems that IT still hold the reins and are hesitant to condone organisation wide of tweeting, yammer, wikis and more. Yammer implemented firm wide but working outside of the fire-wall raised eyebrows and certainly was of great concern to IT and we were greatly amused by the idea of a Yam Jam. The need to drive IT to manage cultural shift away from fear of sharing was high in everyone’s minds. At least one person found it frustrating and pointed out the difficulties in not being the owners of our destiny and thus needing to take a place in the IT queue which placed CRM ahead of KM. We needed more time to talk about wikis vs intranets vs web but I heard enough to think I could find a use for an internal team wiki.
I confess I came straight back to work and checked out http://digbig.com/5bfnkn a great blog by Austin Hunter on how he as a non social media user was able to use Yam Jamming as a way to discuss business priorities.
Concern about corporate memory and impact of its loss came to the fore. (Is corporate memory becoming an eroded value asset?) So too did the mix in old business values re new highly mobile bright social media communicators. This works well when we can ensure diversity in attitudes to work and life balance and boundaries. It’s good when oldies can understand young folks’ need to publicise all they do, and young ones understanding oldies need for boundaries between work and personal life in return!
We all felt strategic reviews were happening more frequently and not always with good reason. They shouldn’t’ be driven by panic. Some felt them hard to endure and wondered what the end game was but others had found them positive and resulting in the creation of exciting new opportunities, directions and ways of working.
Our delicious breakfast (eggs benedict, full veggie borough, boiled eggs with marmite soldiers and more) nourished us for the day and also nourished our minds.
Sounds like a very interesting discussion, Sue. I was looking forward to reading the blog post you linked to, and guess what? It was blocked by my organisation's IT policy...!! As with all such things, I will have to remember to look it up when I get home...
Posted by: Claire Lucas | February 13, 2012 at 01:00 PM
I discussed Yammer further with a friend of mine and their organisation has blocked access to it. She mentioned the risk issue of employees who have left can still access it so if people discuss client sensitive or confidential information on there, it will be open for ex-employees to see.
I am usually in favour of allowing access to social tools like wikis, yammer, etc. But this risk issue does put me of. How have other organisations got around this?
Posted by: Anneli | February 13, 2012 at 03:22 PM
I attended the breakfast event this morning (thursday 17 february), it was a very interesting discussion that gave me the oppurtunity to meet IM professionals from other disciplines and industries that I normally do not interact with.
Despite this we are all faced with the same or similiar problems - speed of IT developments and keeping pace with them, choosing the right tools for your organisation, getting buy in from (senior) management and users.......and many more.
Posted by: Paul Byfield | February 17, 2012 at 12:30 PM