The Social Workplace

Lately, I have been thinking of an idea where Facebook style social networking technology can be used to reshape the workplace.

Technically, the idea is to put a working copy of Facebook ( or a similar copycat) on a server and put the Facebook server inside the corporate LANs of big multinational companies. By big, I mean MNCs which have employees in thousands. For example, IBM has around 300,000 full time permanent employees working around the world.

Now, how does a MNC which is spread around the globe benefit from such social networking and that too in the workplace? Well, imagine this; how many Googlers have instant access to what their CEO is thinking? How many IBMers can "Like", "Agree", "Disagree", "Share" or "Comment" on what IBM CEO Sam Palmisano thinks or says. It seems that company's like Google and Facebook are already harnessing the power of social network to re-shape the corporate workplace into a social workplace. E.g. Google employees and the general public can read what Larry Page is thinking, reading or sharing at his workplace by simply visiting the the URL below

https://plus.google.com/106189723444098348646/posts/4wkYwTCCgAc

Sergey Brin from Google also has his social networking presence which can be visited by visiting the URL below

https://plus.google.com/109813896768294978296/posts/dwmWyNSoXTh

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg can be followed on the following URL

https://www.facebook.com/zuck

What if the IBM's CEO can instantaneously share his thoughts with the IBMers across the globe with a "status" update. A status, shared with "friends", "followers" or "subscribers" would spread an idea or an opinion much faster than a corporate email which by the way comes from an anonymous email address with the boring caution "Do not reply to this message as the mailbox is not monitored" at the end of it.

What if IBMers can comment, share and like the status update of their CEO.  News would spread much faster with a status update than it would with a corporate email.  Senior management would be able to gauge the response to a particular proposal by counting the number of "Likes".

What if professional networking is replaced by socio-professional networking. The work place would be a lot more fun to work if I can know who I am working with and how many people share the same interests and hobbies with me.

Social networking has already revolutionarised  our social lives. It can be used to add the human and social touch to our workplace as well.