How digital social technologies can help create a more responsive and productive organisation. But to benefit requires aligning the right tool with the desired outcome

1. Degrees of Social Capital
Creating a more responsive and productive
organisation through digital social technologies
Sharon Richardson
Joining Dots
@joiningdots
www.joiningdots.com
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

2. What is Social Capital?
The benefits from cooperation between people
Digital technology can enable cooperation to
scale and perform beyond physical constraints
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

3. Productivity is not just about efficiency
The world is a lot more unpredictable and
ambiguous than standard routines suggest
When facing uncertainty, the value is in discovery
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

4. Degrees of Social Capital
1. Messaging
2. Social Network
3. Collaborative Sites
4. Knowledge Management
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

5. Messaging

6. www.joiningdots.com
1.
3.
2.
Participation optional
Response expected
1.
2.
3.
Broadcast news
1:1 conversation
Group discussion
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

7. Messaging
Great for
Terrible for
Email benefits personal productivity more than social capital
Broadcast news Receive to a single repository (usually email inbox)
regardless of source, consume when convenient.
Individuals can choose how to filter and manage
1:1 conversations Easy to manage and personal choice in response
time – instant if available, delay until later if busy
Group
discussions
Somebody has to try and coordinate the responses. Can
waste time for everyone trying to keep track of multiple
emails and determine if a response is still needed
Knowledge
capture/re-use
Lacks transparency: Information disappears into
personal stores – email, voicemail, private chats
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

8. Social Network

9. 2.
3.
1.
1.
2.
3.
Group-based discussion (Community of Practice)
Seeking knowledge beyond peer group
Network conversation / ‘Jam’
www.joiningdots.com
Participation optional
Response expected
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

10. Social Network
Great for
Weak for
Community of
Practice
Enable peer groups to connect and converse across
time and geographical boundaries: ‘strong ties’
Network of
Practice
Bridge peer groups when asking for help, to broaden
reach of knowledge: strength in ‘weak ties’
‘Jams’
(Prediction
markets)
Network conversations / Open votes. Discover new
ideas and preferences through wider audience
participation. Best suited to occasional uses
Structured
Collaboration
Lack the supporting tools to formally coordinate
completion of required activities within deadlines
Frequent
Communications
Important news can get lost within personalised
streams of updates, risk of more noise than signal
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

11. Collaborative Sites

12. www.joiningdots.com
Participation optional
Response expected
1.
2.
Group-based collaboration
Network assistance with activity
3. Additional help, often unacknowledged
2.
3.
1.
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

13. Group Collaboration
Great for
Weak for
Better with: A social network to connect and expand groups
Structured
group activities
Team and project-based outcomes that require
managing/accountability, usually to a deadline and with
specific deliverables and expectations from participation
Team admin Coordinating standard group-based responsibilities, with
templates, processes, reports and checklists
Unpredictable
requirements
Sites are designed around expected content and
processes. If the process or content needs change,
the site may no longer be effective
Rewarding
contributions
Sites rarely accommodate or acknowledge external
participants or voluntary contributions
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

14. Knowledge Management

15. www.joiningdots.com
Knowledge capture for
potential re-use value
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

16. Knowledge Management
Great for
Weak for
Social networks can add reach and speed to discovery
Intelligence Provides a central validated source of prior experience
captured for its future reuse value. Can reduce effort to
acquire beneficial insights to improve future outcomes
De-duplication Curating content sources to identify and promote useful
content, demote and eliminate noise, spot patterns and
help avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ – BUT – takes effort!
Rapid response
times
Whilst quick capture is recommended before value
degrades (events can eliminate relevance), the
process is slower than conversational networks
Long-term
records
Difficult to capture the context independent of the
people involved making long-term re-use unreliable
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

17. Technology is just a tool

18. “What’s best for something is usually
worse for something else…”
- Bill Buxton, Microsoft Research
The best solutions leverage multiple channels…
Social Capital Range of
Responses
Speed of
Response
Quality of
Response
Social Network High High Variable
Knowledge Store Medium Low High
Collaborative Site Low Medium Medium
Messaging Low Variable Variable
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

19. The Social Fitness Test
The benefits that can be achieved from social
technologies depend on the organisation:
Requires:
• An appetite for honest feedback
• A willingness to set aside time for play
• A tolerance for making visible mistakes
…How well do you treat your whistle-blowers?
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.

20. Degrees of Social Capital
Creating a more responsive and productive
organisation through digital social technologies
Sharon Richardson
Joining Dots
Linkedin: /in/sharonr
sharonr@joiningdots.com
Thanks for
watching!
© 2014 Joining Dots Ltd. All rights reserved.
For additional notes: http://joiningdots.com/2014/08/06/degrees-of-social-capital/