The Community Loop in the Connected Workspace

I'm keynoting at Workspace Connect in Dallas this September, together with Joe Park, Walmart’s chief digital architect.

I'll be speaking about a strategic approach to the connected workspace, ie how we get IT, Property and HR collaborating together to deliver strategic objectives for a business.

I'll be suggesting that re-organising these areas into one bigger function isn't the right answer, but I accept that if we were to start with a blank sheet of paper, we'd be unlikely to create what we've got now.

I think part of the answer is communities. Not just today's communities of interest or practice or even of excellence or expertise, but real communities of performance that tap people's intrinsic motivations to deliver important business results.

I'm not going to talk (much) about that, so instead have contributed some thoughts on communities and their IT aspects to a pre-conference whitepaper. In this paper, I suggest that common ways of thinking about technology support for organisational groups, and in particular, Microsoft's inner and outer loop schematic, miss the important community focused role (because they don't have the technology to do this):

Ingham points to the inner and outer loop schema that Microsoft uses to define modern teamwork, a la Microsoft 365. The inner loop, supported by Microsoft’s team collaboration and meetings software, Teams, provides connectivity for people who regularly work together on core projects (virtually as well as in physical meeting spaces). Outer loop communications, via Yammer in Microsoft’s case, is for informing and engaging people across the organization. SharePoint sits in the center, for sharing information with teams and across the organization, and Outlook is for classic targeted communications.

I talk about a decentralized vs a centralized or distributed approach:

The centralized approach is characterized by hierarchical functional structures, with knowledge shared centrally via intranets, including those run on SharePoint. “These are becoming more social, but the prime focus is on knowledge management, as centralized approaches don’t need a deeply social way of working.

The distributed approach is about creating a space where anyone can work with anyone else, manifest in the rising trend of the use of organizational networks, particularly for change management, Ingham says. This is what Microsoft refers to as the outer loop, supported in its case by Yammer and in other domains by enterprise social platforms from software providers like Jive Software, an Aurea company.

The decentralized approach can take shape in one of two ways. In the first, work gets done by decentralized groups of people working together in teams, especially horizontal, cross-functional teams. This is Microsoft’s inner loop; for non- Microsoft users, this includes tools such as Slack and Cisco Webex Teams.

The second approach to decentralized work is my additional 'community loop'.

This is more of a “volunteer” nature. Perhaps Joe in Accounting, Sue in Marketing, and Paul in Sales are all passionate about wellness in the workplace. They can work as part of a decentralized group dedicated to wellness projects. “This taps people’s intrinsic motivation rather than needing to extrinsically motivate them, which tends to be the case in teams. [Work] gets done in communities, traditionally communities of interest or communities of practice, but increasingly more proactive ones, which I call communities of performance, as they can achieve important outputs for a business,” Ingham explains.

At some organizations, communities of expertise have begun replacing centers of excellence. “These can be around the same size as teams but operate from a different basis and with a different dynamic,” Ingham says.

The community aspect is so important because it offers the opportunity for deeper connection and discussion, allowing people to keep track of topics and each other rather than just enabling chat about what’s happening now on a project, Ingham says. Because Microsoft doesn’t offer a tool that fits neatly in the community space, its schema is missing this critical component, he adds.

While Ingham says his favorite community tool is from Telligent, a Verint company, he adds that plenty of others are available. Workplace by Facebook more or less falls in this sweet spot, for example, in that it “allows people to operate in a community- based way very easily.” However, Ingham points out, neither Workplace by Facebook nor inner-loop tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams allow community managers to facilitate and engage community members so are missing a critical community- building element.

What do you think? would communities be a valuable, additional 'loop' for other vendors (or for Microsoft to buy or develop?)

If you'd like more on the topic, please do download the whitepaper from Workspace Connect.

Or you can watch the conversations I had with Workplace by Facebook about this a couple of years ago:

Even better, come and see me speak at Workspace Connect in Dallas from 9-11 September, 2019.

The deadline for the conference Advance Rate is this Friday, June 28.

In addition, with my speaker discount (my last name), you get an extra $200 off your Enterprise All Access registration, which entitles you to a local workspace tour, keynotes, conference sessions, networking receptions, and access to the business hall of sponsors.

Jon Ingham, People and Organisation Strategist, The Social Organization

#WSC19