The best boss I ever had—Ed Hahn, who directed Organization Development at Mattel—made it clear: You’re only work colleagues until you get to know each other. After that, you’re friends, acquaintances, or enemies. Work, Ed said, is social.

via Facebook at work isn’t an either/or proposition

In this post, Shel Holtz talks about how Facebook is becoming a more responsive form of communication than email. Too often, important messages get lost in your email (sometimes on purpose). I have emails in my inbox which have been there for months just waiting for me to action them one day. I’ve even taken the little red flag off some because I know I’m not ever going to get to them.

Email has been around now for decades. It’s a staple of our information diet and we’ve learnt how to deal with it. We have even developed specific behaviours around email, mainly because there is just so much of it to deal with.

Shel describes a distinct difference with social networks. The difference being that there is a strong desire to respond when a friend contacts you via Facebook, Twitter or other “social” tools.

• Is this just because social networks are still a new phenomenon?
• Is it because the “status update mountain” is still a molehill, unlike the “email mountain” becoming Everest?
• Or is there perhaps something else at play here?

Transience

The nature of conversations in social networks is transient. There is a “now” feel to much of what is posted. This also gives it a non-persistent feel as well. In most of the networks I participate in, there isn’t a “keep unread” or “flag for later” notion. What you see when you look at the screen is what is going on right then and there. I find myself caring less about what happened whilst I wasn’t online. This is what people are calling the “real-time web.”

This “real-time” nature may be why I feel an urge to respond as soon as I read the tweet or status update. Because it’s happening right now, I feel a connection to the present moment and therefore the urge to engage. Email no longer has that effect on me. We’ve learnt that you can keep an email in your inbox for years with no repercussions. We haven’t figured that out yet with social media – there is a huge desire to not miss anything.

Relationships

In her article, Shel talks about the increasingly social nature of the workplace.

It’s another example of the intermingling of employees’ work lives and their lives away from work. People used to keep these dimensions of their lives separate, mostly because you interacted with your work colleagues at work and your friends and family at home. Those distinctions are rapidly evaporating when you add your work friends to your social networks; they all become part of a single relationship pool.

via Facebook at work isn’t an either/or proposition

It is now very easy to keep in touch with work colleagues and learn more about them, their interests and their everyday lives. This voyeuristic relationship building is different from the traditional face-to-face getting to know you many of us are used to. Whilst you can debate the effectiveness of it, in the workplace something very interesting is happening.

I would say that most people turn up to work with their “work face” on. When they leave, they put back on their “true face.” I’ve written a bit about this duality before and it’s a topic I’ve very passionate about. I believe it is truly changing the nature of work and the nature of our relationships.

Becoming “friends” with your colleagues bring this duality into line. Your work and non-work self suddenly come closer. People get to know the real you. You get to know the real people you work with. Your ability to work with one another is enhanced, significantly. Ultimately, you become free to become yourself and your organisation benefits because of it.

We respond quickly to work friends who ask for help via Facebook or Twitter because we have a closer relationship with them. They have become a part of our social circle. We know when they’re having trouble raising their children. We’ve seen the photos of their wedding. We may have read about their religious beliefs (which is not something usually discussable at work.) We feel connected to them and therefore our desire to engage increases.

As Ed Hahn says, “work is social.” I would add that “work is becoming more social.”

An aside: For any of my staff members reading this, it doesn’t mean I will accept your sick leave announcement via Facebook or Twitter. I’m not quite that progressive (yet)!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 7:06 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.