Presented at Interaction Intranet conference. London September 2015.
Sam Marshall ClearBox Consulting.
Digital Workplaces should be driven by an employee-centred view. Here I present a manifesto for what typical matters to them, arguing that the technology to serve these needs over time will evolve, but the needs themselves are more enduring.
2. Drivers
• Global markets
• Dispersed teams vs. silos
• Recruitment flexibility
• Office costs
• Employee engagement
• Floor / Field workers
• Innovation
• “One” Company
Strategy
• Knowledge work
• Work-life
balance
• Work
autonomy /
productivity
• Information
power balance
• Freelancing
• Consumer IT
Employees
• Social tools
• Cloud
• Mobile
• Broadband
• Search
• Big data
Technology
6. So what does that tell us?
We’re pretty bad at
predicting how
technology will be
used in practice
Technology
increases options
for how we work,
but doesn’t give us
a plan
We should define
the principles of
what matters to
people, and keep
that as the constant
as our digital
workplaces evolve
7.
8. 1. Work is no longer a place.
Let me be productive where I choose, but respect my home
life too.
Working from home can lead to a
13-20% increase in productivity
9. “ We need to stop thinking of
work as a destination and ask
ourselves: what’s the best place
for me to work today?”
—Dave Coplin, Microsoft
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15. 2. Manage the outcome, not the process.
Trust that I’m working productively when you can’t see me,
but hold me accountable for the results.
Best Buy saw a 35% increase in
productivity in departments
adopting a results-oriented
approach
16. The challenge of remote knowledge work
• Trust between
employees not by
managers may be the
issue
• The onus moves to
employees to ‘work out
loud’
• Introverts may need a
different approach
73% of office
workers felt
remote workers
wouldn’t work as
hard
17. 3. The digital workplace should be a
pleasure to use.
If it’s not as good as my digital home life, let me bring in my
own solutions.
21. 4. Collaboration only works if we do it the
same way.
The best tool is the one we all use, otherwise we create
digital divides to match physical ones.
22. 5. Let me be myself online.
My profile is who I am in the digital workplace, and many of
my working relationships may be with people I don’t get to
meet.
23. 6. Learning is good for me and the
company.
Give me the opportunity to acquire knowledge from outside
and in, and the chance to use it well.
24.
25. 7. Not everyone is an early-adopter.
Give support and guidance to those that need it, but also
freedom to learn by playing for the self-starters.
40% of social network
users say they are easier
to use than workplace
software.
44% of employees say
insufficient training is a
barrier to adopting new
workplace technologies.
26. 8. Work doesn’t stop at the firewall.
Our digital workplace should encompass customers,
suppliers, partners and contacts.
27. 9. Everything should be geared to
helping me do the work that matters.
You know who I am – once I’m logged in I should get
everywhere I need to go.
28. Do happy people work harder?
“we analyzed the 64,000 specific workday events
reported in the diaries: of all the events that
engage people at work, the single most important
— by far — is simply making progress in
meaningful work.”
Amabile & Kramer in “The Progress Principle”
29. 10. Working relationships involve
understanding each other.
Let me express my views and I’ll listen to yours.
30. “Internal communication is the
process by which the bosses tell
everyone what is happening,
followed by a feedback stage
where everyone can tell the
bosses what is really happening.”
—Guy Browning
33. The Digital Workplace Manifesto
1. Work is no longer a place.
2. Manage the outcome, not the process.
3. The digital workplace should be a pleasure to
use.
4. Let me be myself online.
5. Learning is good for me and the company.
6. Not everyone is an early-adopter.
7. Work doesn’t stop at the firewall.
8. Everything should be geared to helping me do
the work that matters.
9. Working relationships involve understanding
each other.
10. Collaboration only works if we do it the same
way.
11. If I don’t like it, I can always leave
Download the poster:
www.clearbox.co.uk/digital-
workplace-manifesto
34. Digital Workplace Framework
Strategy
Governance &
Operation
Adoption
User
Experience
Technology &
Security
Services
Management
Communicate
& Engage
Collaborate Find & Share
Business
Applications Agile Working
37. Digital workplace framework - Services
Communicate
and Engage
Formal
Communication
Two-Way
Communication
Orientation
Collaborate
Formal
Collaboration
Informal
Collaboration
Real-time
Collaboration
Innovation
External
Collaboration
Personal
Productivity
Find & Share
Find People
Search
Store & Retrieve
Classify
Notify & Filter
Business
Applications
Business
Systems
Employee
Services
Agile Working
Mobile
Anywhere
Access
Physical Spaces
Agile work
support
38. Intranet vs. Digital Workplace Homepage
https://richarddennison.wordpress.com/2015/06/17/10-differences-between-an-intranet-and-digital-workplace-homepage/
39. Don’t think of your intranet in the middle of
your Digital Workplace….
40. …think of how it enables the flow between
people and content
42. References/Credits
Original cartoons commissioned
by ClearBox from:
www.businessillustrator.com
& Duncan Scott(1) 13% - Stanford University study
http://www.stanford.edu/~nbloom/WFH.pdf,
20% - BT case study
www.anywhereworking.org/case-studies/
Office layout at GSK:
www.forbes.com July 16th
(2) 73% Stat from Ipsos MORI poll of a
representative GB sample of 1,000 office workers.
http://anywhereworking.org
(3) Cisco Connected World report 2011"
www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns1120/
Old office pjoto: http://www.old-
picture.com/american-legacy/001/Workers-Office-
Women.htm
(6) http://blog.adidas-
group.com/2014/03/bringing-the-adidas-group-
learning-campus-to-life-learning-in-the-21st-
century/
(7) Oracle study “Enterprise 2.0: Driving creativity,
productivity and collaboration”
(8) Kudos to xkcd.com
(9) Office design by architizer.com
(10) Digital workplace survey by NetJMC
http://t.co/M5IsOSfF
PC icon from Freepik @ Flaticon.com
30 mins 9.40-10.20 [timer, laser pointer, check video sound, water]
It’s been 21 yrs since I worked on my first Intranet. I feel a little bit closer to death every time I say that.
It was Nott uni. I’d downloaded Mosaic about 2 weeks ahead fo everyone else so that made me the de facto expert. Set up Psych dept site – didn’t know called intranet but you’d recognise it. News, info about teams. Even ‘Useful links’… not that there was anything useful to link to as it was the only page in the whole Unviersity, but I found a cool website about a shark museum
So 21 years makes Intranets quit ean enduring concept. But I wonder if they’re facing something of an identity crisis.
Increasingly I’m asked “What’s the role of my intranet” alongside DMS, Yammer, Salesforce, SharePoint….
We shouldn’t worry TOO MUCH about what the intranet does, we should worry about how all elements meet our objectives –
In reality we ALREADY HAVE digital workplaces by default, the risk is that we’re not managing the impact that it has.
Big Messages:
We need to see our intranets as part of a wider DW <== goal of supporting employees and in turn our orgs
Tempting to define DW by technology....but
We often fail to predict actual usage
So better to ground in people-driven principles: The Manifesto
Once we have that we can think of the practicalities (more later)
If we don't, we're destined to be trapped in the Jurassic workplace
ROBERT HALF – Recruiters polled HR Excs about Exit interviews from 200 firms. 30% said leaving for better work-life balance (cf. 2011 when it was pay). IN 2015 pay slipped to 27%.
TECHNOLOGY creating new OPTION for organisational forms
So I thought, where else do people look into the impact of tech on our lives and decided that Hollywood might have the answer.
The illustrious cannon of work from MICHAEL CRICHTON
Lex - Witness Jurrasic Park 1993 – the children are trapped in the Park control room, trying to restore the power to the electric fences.
Lex loosk at big glowing monitor…
One of the most impressive moments in women’s computing since Ada Lovelace sorted out the difference engine.
1994 Disclosure Sex and power – of no interest to an intellctual audience like yourselves. SO I sat throuhg it all on your behalf… turns out there’s a really interestign DW scene
Boiled it down to a small set of principles
13% increase was teleworkers in China (Stanford Uni)
20% increase found by BT
But in allowing work to follow us wherever we go, it makes it really hard to leave behind.
Quora report said NOT a GenY phenomenon – 40% wanted time/place flex vs 70% for older staff. Gen Y want to be visible to their boss (and see office as social life)
Widget machine didn’t follow you home from the factory after you’d clocked off.
53% US employees checked mail on holiday in 2015 http://www.krcresearch.com/end-of-summer/
Daimler last year offered to automatically re-route emails for employees when on holiday.
We need to put employees in control.
People in open plan offices take 62% more sick leave
The media too has run away with the flexible working concept…
But the reality doesn’t work out like that
Client with ironding board
This is where all the mothers with babies are really hanging out
Sometimes the best place to work is still work.
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/05May/Pages/Could-open-plan-offices-be-bad-for-your-health.aspx
>> ROWE at Best Buy - turnover down by as much as 90% BUT NOW now abandoned.
Results ONLY Work Environment by Ressler and Thompson
>> Relies on leaders clearly communicating STRATEGY and what is needed.
>>Face time may yield GROUPTHINK rahter than collaboration
Research by the Anywhere working consortium found that 73% of the UK workforce felt remote workers wouldn’t work as hard as office based staff. (Cited in “Business Reimagined” by David Coplin)
The study was carried out in March 2013 by Ipsos MORI of a representative GB sample of 1,000 office workers. It was commissioned by Microsoft on behalf of the Anywhere Working Consortium.
BUT 76% of office workers don’t work remotely as often as they'd like (YouGov poll of 726 office workers, Jan 2014).
How long does it take to write a proposal?
To come up with a new advertising campaign?
TO create an intranet strategy?
BYOD cannot be held back!
If people like a device, they will train themselves to use it.
Bad tech sends out a message about how much your employees matter to you – like bad polyester uniforms
The more we have work-life blend, the more work tech spills over into non-office hours, so it matters.
BUT, the key word here is LET ME
BYOD is great until it becomes compulsory. “I don’t want to have to go out an buy my own laptop for work”.
‘Come in you gorgeous employees, have a comfy seat. We lve you, do your wonderful, creative work in this dazzlignly upholstered cuddle”
VERY important bcos increasignly the digital is employee smain tocuh point with company brand, they may never get to HQ
Goal is to handle 80% of queries on front desk alone (about 60,000)
For the more complex 20%, these go into ‘social task management’
Like BYOD, but applied to SERVICES.
Imagine you organised a sports day where everyone could bring their own kit and their own rules? Ever played Tennis with a frisbee?
This is the flipside of BYOD and why its legitimate to manage it.
Silos of Dropbox, Yammer, Basecamp – non integrated
Story of a Client with 17 extra intranets built on Google Sites, Facebook groups etc. Employees didn’t do it to be rebellious!!
Workplaces are NOT CONSUMER markets. “Freedom of choice” leads to paucity of outcome.
“Do you want to see traffic jams reduced? YES! Do you want to give up your car and use the bus? No!”
>> Still need to architect the Digital Workplace.
The more we work virtually, the more we have to manifest our individuality online too
Story of “Worked with someone for 2 years and blanked them in the corridor”
People are more than their role. “I’m not a typical accountant…”
Work interactions are better if they have the context of the individual
Charles Jennings talks about 70:20:10 learning – 70% on the job, 20% through ‘social learning’, feedback and coaching and 10% in the classroom
https://www.702010forum.com widely used by GSK, Oracle, Ernst & Young etc.
You know the bait-and-switch tactic of recruiting graduates via Facebook then blocking access once they work for the company?
Why stop them getting help from their networks?
USING KNOWLEDGE important for fulfilment. “Not making most of my talents” common reason for leaving a job.
Adidas now do this with their “new way of learning approach” and LEARNING CAMPUS
Includes
TED Talks
You Tube Videos
Quizzes
http://blog.adidas-group.com/2014/03/bringing-the-adidas-group-learning-campus-to-life-learning-in-the-21st-century/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHiVmhRfI4w
#Number Twitter user globally? 280M
#Internet users globally? 2.5bn
Some people will play and don’t need training
Other will be cautious and DO want to feel like it has been explained.
Actually, some of the tools we expect people to use are quite complex…
Workplace increasingly outsourcing services.
One company had outsourced HR helpdesk, but the outsource company couldn’t update answers on the company intranet. So they built a new extranet for employees to go to that they could maintain. Another logion for employees, another area of content that the search engine didn’t index. Not only payign €35 for a support call, but paying €35 for password resets now too.
Same with the huge growth of dropbox, box etc. for file sharing. Collaboration tools gettign much better internally, but with partners we’re effectively back to email and network drives.
Imagine needing a different pass for each set of doors in the office.
Single-sign on is one of those things that comes up time and again from employees but is seen as poor ROI. I think it would do a lot to reduce annoying distractions.
It’s not that signing on necessarily takes time, but that forgotten passwords and authentication is an inhibitor. For example, if I get an email alert with a question I could answer, but then have to fiddle with a password reset, I won’ bother.
From an employee perspective, its this that we need to be enabling.
INTRANETS CAN HELP – this is what we should be aiming for
Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School, and Steven Kramer, an independent researcher, are the authors of “The Progress Principle.”
To gain real-time perspective into everyday work lives, we collected nearly 12,000 electronic diary entries from 238 professionals in seven different companies
Our intranets should aim for this more than anything
Leads to a state of flow
>>> but don’t expect users to thank you!
we analyzed the 64,000 specific workday events reported in the diaries: of all the events that engage people at work, the single most important — by far — is simply making progress in meaningful work.
we asked 669 managers from companies around the world to rank five employee motivators in terms of importance, they ranked “supporting progress” dead last. Fully 95 percent of these managers failed to recognize that progress in meaningful work is the primary motivator, well ahead of traditional incentives like raises and bonuses.
Statistic from NetJMC’s DigitalWorkplace Trends Survey 2009 correlated with the global “Great place to work” rankings
This is why its so important for leaders to get involved in the conversations – or as Guy Browning put it:
Works both ways – sounds like a threat to the employer, but there’s also the retort back to the employee – if you want to see change, why do you stay?
2 economists at Univerisy of Zurich, Stutzer & Frey in 2004 found that “people with long journeys to and from work are systematically worse off and report significantly lower subjective well-being”
To fully compensate the cost of commuting, someone with a 1 hr daily commute would need to earn 40% more than the equivalent person doing the same job without a commute.
Swedish study found you’re 40% more likely to divorce with a45 minute commute.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/01/secrets-worlds-happiest-cities-commute-property-prices
Swedish study found you’re 40% more likely to divorce with a 45 minute commute.
2 economists at Univerisy of Zurich, Stutzer & Frey in 2004 found that “people with long journeys to and from work are systematically worse off and report significantly lower subjective well-being”
To fully compensate the cost of commuting, someone with a 1 hr daily commute would need to earn 40% more than the equivalent person doing the same job without a commute.
Or more positively: you stand a much better chance of cutting your commute than getting a 40% pay rise!
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/01/secrets-worlds-happiest-cities-commute-property-prices
DW isn’t about one HUGE €10M project, but it is about PLANNIGN and MANAGING across all of these elements.
5 blue – SERVICES or CAPABILITIES
5 green – MANAGEMENT
We need the balance of the TWO SIDES so that provide not just a technology change, but manage the way in which it impacts people’s working lives.
So identity fo an intranet? It’s this!
If we don’t do that, then, as Michael Crichton may have put it, we’ll be stuck with a Jurassic workplace.
Intranets NOT ESSENTIAL
This means Intranet is fading into the background
(1) 13% - Stanford University study
http://www.stanford.edu/~nbloom/WFH.pdf,
20% - BT case study
www.anywhereworking.org/case-studies/
Office layout at GSK: http://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickallen/2012/06/27/inside-the-new-deskless-office/
(2) Amabile & Kramer in “The Progress Principle”
(3) Cisco Connected World report 2011"
www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns1120/
(7) Oracle study “Enterprise 2.0: Driving creativity,
productivity and collaboration”
(10) Digital workplace survey by NetJMC
http://t.co/M5IsOSfF