Leaders In the Know

Putting Networks at Work to Work

I marvel at how many people have given up watching TV, reading the paper or doing whatever else people do in the evenings to get on line and participate.

The sea level change that Web 2.0 has brought about is that it touches a very deep part of human beings who yearn to connect with others.  It stands to reason that this need to connect is as important - if not more so - at work than it is in their personal lives.

The challenge of  leading in the Web World is figuring out how to facilitate the right connections and leveraging them like crazy.

There's a terrific article in Issue 2007 Number 4 of  The McKinsey Quarterly called, "Harnessing the Power of Informal Employee Networks" that puts forth a business rationale for doing just that. Here's the "Article at a Glance":

Most large corporations have dozens if not hundreds of informal networks, in which human nature, including self-interest, leads people to share and collaborate.

Informal networks are a powerful source of horizontal collaboration across thick silo walls, but as ad hoc structures their performance depends on serendipity and they can't be managed.

By creating formal networks, companies can harness the advantages of informal ones and give management much more control over networking across the organization.

The steps needed to formalize a network include giving it a "leader," focusing interactions in it on specific topics, and building an infrastructure that stimulates the ongoing exchange of ideas.

Remember the old pre-Web days when "informal networks" met by the water cooler or in the designated smoking area outside the building? Now, they're meeting on line.

Personally, I've never cared much for discussion boards.  Patience is not my strong suit. So sifting through discussion threads - no matter how well organized - is a tough one for me.

But I've learned that discussion groups can ultimately save you a lot of time and help you make a more informed decision. They can be a terrific way to quickly connect to a network of folks you think may know more about a topic than you do and hear what they have to say.  When we were building our house, we checked out plumbers' discussion groups to find out what the experts have to say about bathroom fixtures. Eight years later I can tell you they saved us an enormous amount of time - and they were right.

It's safe to assume that employees have established informal on line networks.  Everyone is so busy in meetings all day that these networks are a matter of survival. How else can you keep up on what's really going on in the company? How else can you get quick answers when you need them for a meeting an hour from now?

As their manager, you probably have no idea any of this is going on.  And maybe that's ok. But if so much can be done through ad hoc networks just think how powerful the creation of formal networks could be.

Web 2.0 technologies like discussion forums, wikis, web conferencing and other collaboration tools make this possible and affordable.  The real gap we're facing is creating a leadership model for working through a medium whose members have come to expect it to provide an environment of equality, open discussion and sharing of ideas, where the members set the mores for appropriate behavior. Business leaders can have a tough time with this.

Many of us recall hearing how knowledge management systems would keep institutional knowledge alive. They just never took off.  Why is it that employees of a decade or more ago just didn't have the time, interest or motivation to add to the knowledge management database? For those of you who remember those days, think wiki.   The millions of anonymous contributors to  Wikipedia and wikiHow demonstrate that times have changed. 

What can leaders do so that communities emerge rather than stay underground and flourish rather than die on the vine?

·       Encourage online communities around a specific, clear business purpose

·       Encourage cross-pollination across communities where it makes sense

·       Assign a formal leader to the community with the resources needed to support it

·       Train the leader as well as members to maximize their effectiveness as a community

·       Listen and learn 

Who Wants To Take On The Boss?

You got that right: no one.

In Encouraging Dissent in Decision Making, the lead article of the current Harvard Business School Working Knowledge newsletter, author Garry Emmons talks about what most of us already know. People remain silent rather than disagree with or bring bad news to their boss. What surprised the researchers was that people are just as reluctant to bring forward a good idea even if it's about something important.

Somehow, I never mastered that skill.  A senior executive and I were riding an empty elevator down to his office following a meeting with the CEO. "Anne," he said with a sigh, "must you always tell the CEO that his idea may be based on wrong assumptions? Do you think he really wants to hear how his ok idea can be turned into a great idea?" My answer, "Well, he hasn't stopped asking me to meet with him. If it's going to upset you like this, maybe you shouldn't come next time." Although he didn't respond, I'm sure you can imagine what he was thinking. I have to admit it wasn't my most tactful moment. Much to my surprise, he let me go on my own after that.

According to the HBS article, people don't offer a dissenting view either because they think it's a bad career move or they believe their ideas will be rejected or ignored. I'm not sure if "the boss may yell at me" or, even worse, " will make me look dumb in front of my peers" were possible choices. All in all, a lose-lose no matter how you look at it.

I began to think about why it's easier for me than others to actually believe, "What do you all think?" is a question to take seriously.

• Bosses are grown ups and in charge. They're not shy about not inviting you to a meeting, asking your opinion or, in any number of ways, to discourage you from ever speaking out again. So, I've never really been worried about losing my job even if maybe I should have.
• As a former child and now as a mother of three, I'm used to being told I don't know what I'm talking about. For the same reasons - and having spent a lot of time in New York City -  I've been yelled at quite a number of times. I've actually come to expect this sort of thing.
• I am totally intrigued by business problems and thinking of better ways to solve them. I forget that not everyone gets as engaged and enthusiastic as I do.
• I have a hard time hearing "no." For some strange reason, my brain processes "no" as "not now" or "not that way" or "not you." So I'm not easily offended if others don't agree with me.

Now, for all of you leaders out there. Think about the last time someone on your team came to you with a legitimate concern, complaint, to tell you things are not going well on a project, that a customer is upset, or to just blow off steam. If it's been more than a week, you might want to re-think how approachable you are. How many times have you heard a manager say, "My door is always open?" Often the door is open, but the office is empty or the manager is on the phone. Some things are better said in person; they just don't come across well in a text message.

I hope you'll read the article. It's got some great advice about how to encourage dissent. But the fact of the matter is it's incredibly hard to do. So many things get in the way:

• People shy away from disagreement and conflict. That goes for being on the giving end, receiving end, caught in the middle - or just plain being anywhere near it.
• Ditto for hearing someone criticized in public.
• Some folks believe that lying is a legitimate way to avoid confrontation or communicating news someone else doesn't want to hear.
• Some people believe that disagreement with the boss is disloyal, disrespectful, disruptive, distracting or somehow implies that they don't know what they're doing. Same goes for disagreeing with an expert.
• People tend to want things to stay more or less the same. It's easier that way.
• People get tired of hearing, "Don't come to me with a problem. Come with a solution."
• The words, "That won't work" seem to be an almost spontaneous reaction to just about any new idea.

We've all done at least one of these things.

Personally, I prefer to think of dissent in a couple of ways.

One is to think of dissent as a problem to be solved rather than a conflict to win or a confrontation to be avoided. At the very least, it helps to diffuse emotions. At it's best, dissent can be dealt with in ways that are more comfortable in a business setting: coming up with and weighing alternatives, assessing the impact of possible options, and focusing on implementing a decision rather than rehashing the disagreement.

You may think it's hokey but in some ways dissent can be a gift. It can spare you from being wrong. It can get everyone to take an interest in an issue and become vested in the final decision. It reinforces that nothing too awful will come of having the courage to speak up; with practice, something even better might emerge. The goal is for dissent to become part of how your team sets strategy and agrees on tactics. With luck, eventually those who have a habit of disagreeing inappropriately will not do so as often. Arguing for argument's sake is no longer an effective way to draw attention to themselves.

Bottom line: Decision making improves when informed people can discuss all sides of an issue and bring thoughtful candor to the table.

If you have some observations you'd like to share, we'd like to hear from you!