This document discusses strategies for managers to stay plugged in using technology in the workplace. It provides scenarios for different work situations and asks the reader to choose options on how to address them. It also discusses three practices of plugged-in managers: stop, look, and listen. Graphs are included to illustrate different scenario options. The document is authored by Prof. Terri Griffith and provides additional resources including her website and blog.
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Be clear with stakeholders
that all formal meetings will
be held face-to-face.
Discussion between meetings
is supported by technology
with voting, chat, and
collaborative documents with
pre-set templates.
Face-to-face
presentations, discussion, and
voting will be used to make
your decisions. Stakeholders
with prior experience will
share their methodologies
and best practices.
Virtual collaboration will be
used for each stage. Formal
meetings will be held using
the online meeting tools and
communication in-between
meetings will be by electronic
voting and other collaboration
tools.
Highlight technology and
organizational options. Have
stakeholders identify their
communication and
collaboration preferences and
restrictions. First meeting is
face to face and next steps
will be determined there.
Schedule a conference call for
all stakeholders. Ask people
from prior projects to share
their experiences. Hold a vote
during this call to determine
how the group will
collaborate.
Experts
Novices
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Let each employee decide for
him or herself which features
to make active. Employees
can make adjustments at any
time. Teams can make
adjustments as they work
through different stages of
their projects.
Take a viral approach to the
implementation of the new
tool. Make all the features
available to everyone in the
organization. Tell two of the
company's top collaboration
leaders about the tool and let
them spread word.
Provide detailed on-line
training covering all the
features and uses. Leave all
the options available. When
an employee logs on, they will
pick either "novice" or
"advanced" view so they see
expertise-appropriate options.
Activate the file sharing and
discussion features of the
tool. Cover uses of file sharing
and discussion in face-to-face
and on-line training. Hold
more training and activate
other features after the
employees have experience.
Provide detailed training on
file sharing and discussion.
Cover use cases for file
sharing and discussion. After
six months, review of the file
sharing and discussion
features and consider new
features and uses.
Experts
Novices
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Contact the service rep and
ask him to stop until you've
had a chance to clear this
approach with the company
information technology
security department. Also
contact the marketing
department and ask for
guidance.
Organize and train a team of
customer service reps to help
the first service rep as public
interest grows. Have this team
create guidelines and tools
for other areas of the
organization to use.
Add a computer monitoring
tool to keep track of the
customer and service rep
activities on public social
media sites. Create an
automated policy message
that posts each time an
employee goes to a social
media site.
Take a "wait and see"
approach. See if new
techniques are developed and
what happens to the
customer satisfaction ratings.
Encourage other reps to try
new techniques.
Create a technology system
that automatically blocks
access to social media sites
from company computers. An
automated message will
appear on employee
computer screens if they try
to access social media sites.
Experts
Novices
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Move up the pace of the
workflow automation
implementation. Use the pre-
configured templates
provided by the technology
vendor. These templates
include a full set of back-office
banking tools and the ability
to train employees using test
data from similar
Implement the workflow
technology given your best
analysis of how the work
should be done and based on
your extensive history with
similar organizations. Provide
training on how to use the
new tools effectively and give
case examples of how other
banks ha
Turn over the ultimate design
and implementation of the
workflow automation tool and
process to a group of
employees. They have heard
the assessment that there is
no creativity or motivation in
the bank and so understand
the difficulties they face.
Put the technology adoption
on hold. Work with a subset
of the back office employees
and salespeople via
workshops on workflow and
organizational process.
Facilitate their decision
making around new ways of
doing this work, but let them
drive the decision
Engage a recruiter to help you
hire five loan processing
employees from your
competitor where a similar
implementation has already
been successful. Implement
workflow management as it
has been done in their
organization. Provide training
to match this pro
Experts
Novices
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Break the project down into
tightly defined pieces for
which clear start and finish
metrics can be identified.
Have small teams made up of
either all United States or all
China employees work on the
tightly defined pieces and
assemble at the end.
Let the workflow and process
emerge based on the
experience and training of the
engineers. Have meetings at
important milestones where
you assess the current
methods and consider
whether changes should be
implemented.
Require a “level playing
field.― All team members
will telecommute (work from
home) and use the
company’s sophisticated
technology tools to share and
communicate the work.
Everyone is working from the
same location -- the Internet.
Create sub-teams with
engineers from both the
United States and China. Give
these sub-teams tightly
defined projects; then put
them all together at the end.
Use video conferencing and
small group trips between the
full-team meetings.
Create one team consisting of
all the engineers at both
locations. Give responsibility
for the whole project to the
single team, but let sub-
groups emerge. Give the team
a budget that they can use to
fund travel or
communications tools.
Experts
Novices
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Bring together
representatives from the
different functions of the two
companies. Give them a
budget, a target requested
time frame, information
about the square footage you
have, and the phone numbers
of the top facilities and
collaboration consultants.
Buy the "Innovation System"
furniture set from the world
leader in innovative office
space furnishings. This system
of furnishings has been
written up in your industry's
trade magazines and is being
used at a competing firm that
you see as having the most
Work with a merger specialist
who has helped many other
companies your size merge
effectively. Work with the
specialist to create a merger
taskforce made up leaders
from each of the functional
areas from both
organizations. Spend the
majority of your deci
Form a taskforce with people
elected from each of the
functional areas of both
organizations. Share the
merger goals with the whole
new organization and have
employees submit office
designs to support the goals.
Select office systems that
both support th
Use a merger and office
interiors specialist to assess
the new work space and new
ways of working. Have top
management from both the
merging companies decide
where different employees
will have their offices. Create
a system that that is both
efficient an
Experts
Novices
Rather than define them in words, let define them through a game
The joy of something like an iPhoneMany people say that the great success of Apple is do to the tight integration of their hardware and services and how they work with, rather than against us."iPhone 4 32GB Black" by Yutaka Tsutano (www.flickr.com/photos/ivyfield/4731067532) CC by 2.0, Derivative (?)http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivyfield/4731067532Cropped left and right sides, blank space
30” tube – Proponents of traditional MRI say that claustrophobia related to the size of the tube in “not a big deal” even though enough concerns were voiced by patients to prompt the creation of open-sided MRIs. At least at the time, around 1995 there were performance differences – a technology dimension – but these could be traded-off against physical size and feelings.
30” tube – Proponents of traditional MRI say that claustrophobia related to the size of the tube in “not a big deal” even though enough concerns were voiced by patients to prompt the creation of open-sided MRIs. At least at the time, around 1995 there were performance differences – a technology dimension – but these could be traded-off against physical size and feelings.
My own book, Plugged-In is about how we mix together people, technology, and organizational process 3 Dimensions – PTO – some of you may know this as sociotechnical systems design3 Practices3 Levels
No single technology tool can be a success, no single organizational practice change can be a success. We need to design our work as systems.We’ve known this since the 1950s if not before. Some No Silver (Magic Bullets)The interviews and research I’ve done suggest that there are three practices that plugged-in managers follow:Stop-Look-Listen: Be reflective about your needs and options, then listen to feedback as you take your first steps.Mixing: Create an alignment of people, technology tools, and organizational process that works for the given situation.Sharing: Practicing plugged-in management in public through modeling, being explicit about your methods, mentoring others as they try the plugged-in approach on their own.
30” tube – Proponents of traditional MRI say that claustrophobia related to the size of the tube in “not a big deal” even though enough concerns were voiced by patients to prompt the creation of open-sided MRIs. At least at the time, around 1995 there were performance differences – a technology dimension – but these could be traded-off against physical size and feelings.
30” tube – Proponents of traditional MRI say that claustrophobia related to the size of the tube in “not a big deal” even though enough concerns were voiced by patients to prompt the creation of open-sided MRIs. At least at the time, around 1995 there were performance differences – a technology dimension – but these could be traded-off against physical size and feelings.
Some individual contributors, managers, and organizations – just get that silver bullets won’t work – they are plugged-in. A couple of examples:
3 Dimensions People, Technology, Organizational process, 3 practicesThe interviews and research I’ve done suggest that there are three practices that plugged-in managers follow:Stop-Look-Listen: Be reflective about your needs and options, then listen to feedback as you take your first steps.Mixing: Create an alignment of people, technology tools, and organizational process that works for the given situation.Sharing: Practicing plugged-in management in public through modeling, being explicit about your methods, mentoring others as they try the plugged-in approach on their own.Providence shared through talking with their peers and the pressZappos by creating an entire arm of training outreach ZapposInsights.
If you address all three dimensions and follow three simple practices – your work, your team, and your organizations will benefit.
In Teams – Decide if you want to change any of your marks – new marks on the left…3 Dimensions People, Technology, Organizational process, 3 practicesThe interviews and research I’ve done suggest that there are three practices that plugged-in managers follow:Stop-Look-Listen: Be reflective about your needs and options, then listen to feedback as you take your first steps.Mixing: Create an alignment of people, technology tools, and organizational process that works for the given situation.Sharing: Practicing plugged-in management in public through modeling, being explicit about your methods, mentoring others as they try the plugged-in approach on their own.Providence shared through talking with their peers and the pressZappos by creating an entire arm of training outreach ZapposInsights.
3 Dimensions People, Technology, Organizational process, 3 practicesThe interviews and research I’ve done suggest that there are three practices that plugged-in managers follow:Stop-Look-Listen: Be reflective about your needs and options, then listen to feedback as you take your first steps.Mixing: Create an alignment of people, technology tools, and organizational process that works for the given situation.Sharing: Practicing plugged-in management in public through modeling, being explicit about your methods, mentoring others as they try the plugged-in approach on their own.Providence shared through talking with their peers and the pressZappos by creating an entire arm of training outreach ZapposInsights.
If you address all three dimensions and follow three simple practices – your work, your team, and your organizations will benefit.
Stop-look-listen = recognition
If you address all three dimensions and follow three simple practices – your work, your team, and your organizations will benefit.
Just like these ingredients on their own don’t make a chocolate chip cookiehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/14657061@N00/5606687561/sizes/m/in/photostream/
The joy of something like an iPhoneMany people say that the great success of Apple is do to the tight integration of their hardware and services and how they work with, rather than against us."iPhone 4 32GB Black" by Yutaka Tsutano (www.flickr.com/photos/ivyfield/4731067532) CC by 2.0, Derivative (?)http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivyfield/4731067532Cropped left and right sides, blank space
Keith Glynn & Tony HsiehMoved away from drop shipping as they realized that their entire strategy should be built around Wow! Customer service.Eventually this led to them running their own fulfillment center right next to UPS in Kentucky – It’s all about reliability and speed.Random storage of items on human-sized racks – random so people can quickly differentiate the product they are looking for as they reach the location.Each item is individually marked with a license plate number so it can be tracked as it goes and and if it comes back.Employee excursions from HQ to the Fulfillment center are vice versa
Moved away from drop shipping as they realized that their entire strategy should be built around Wow! Customer service.Eventually this led to them running their own fulfillment center right next to UPS in Kentucky – It’s all about reliability and speed.Random storage of items on human-sized racks – random so people can quickly differentiate the product they are looking for as they reach the location.Each item is individually marked with a license plate number so it can be tracked as it goes and and if it comes back.Employee excursions from HQ to the Fulfillment center are vice versa
Nurse Judy and the Cardiac critical care teamScheduled bi-pass4-6 hoursWent on a field trip to see about bringing care to the patientChanged the technology,the training, and the shifts, expected that this would be better for patient & familyCNO Kim WilliamsDr. Brevig
Think about how many blood pressure checks and hospital meals their patients avoid
If you address all three dimensions and follow three simple practices – your work, your team, and your organizations will benefit.
Sharing
3 Dimensions, 3 practices
3 Dimensions, 3 practices
3 Dimensions, 3 practices
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