The topic of risk isn’t new and I’ve discussed it here along with a risk assessment framework. However the typical types of risks we keep hearing about are those which pertain to the company as an entity. What about actual risks to employees that work at these organizations? We haven’t really spent enough time talking about these things have we? Think about it, what are the risks for employees using these tools at their companies?
One of the biggest risks that employees face is the fear of looking stupid in front of co-workers. It’s blunt but it’s true, in fact this is the exact wording that was used several times by employees who described their risks to me. It’s almost silly but at the same time it’s very real, nobody wants to look stupid especially in front of co-workers. This was a problem that was experienced at Oce when they first rolled out their collaboration tools, nobody wanted to participate because of the fear of being judged and being perceived as being weak and stupid in front of colleagues.
Imagine your an employee at a large company that just rolled out a collaboration platform. Let’s say you have a few questions on a project your working on or need some help with something, would you be willing to publicly admit your weakness or tell your colleagues and co-workers that you are unable to do something that you were assigned? The reality is that many employees at companies are not comfortable with sharing such information, especially when many organizations are so competitive with employees going up against each other for the same job.
Other risks that employees personally face are:
- time and effort needed to learn a new technology which can cause a temporary slow down in productivity
- not wanting to share information because employees might lose their competitiveness
- risk of other people taking credit for or using work that employees share
Regardless of how great a product is or how integrated it is into employee workflows, if employees don’t feel comfortable using it for whatever reason then they aren’t going to use it. Let’s not forget about the very real human and personal aspects of emergent collaboration.
What other risks do you believe employees are faced with?
(Cross-posted @ Social Business Advisor: Social CRM and Enterprise 2.0)
I’ve been a UX designer for about 15 years, and making your users feel or look stupid can be one of the most painful and costly mistakes any PM/Developer/Designer can make.
The instant your app makes a user feel stupid they shut down. Minor usability problems become show stoppers. Users begin to reject your product and start complaining publicly. But they don’t complaining about what made them feel stupid to begin with. Rather they complain about problems that often don’t exist. This false negative feedback then makes its way back to development who then tries to solve these non-existant problems and ignore the real ones because there just isn’t enough time to address everything.
Painful. Very painful.
Users of course will b reluctant to tell you straight out that something makes them feel stupid. So forget focus groups. There are no metrics. Just be empathetic.
Thanks for pointing out this very real risk that employees face on social intranets.
At the Social Intranet Summit in Vancouver last year (http://www.socialintranetsummit.com/) I coined the term “intellectual nudist” (http://bit.ly/nvweKP).
This is what a social intranet and other online collaboration tools force us to be. Collaborating on a wiki-type document means our unfinished thoughts are visible, our work is accessible while in process. Anyone can see our comments.
For people not comfortable exposing themselves in these ways, social intranets are daunting. In companies that don’t foster high amounts of trust, the organizational culture can really prohibit the type of sharing and open discussion that leads to real value.
You’ve highlighted an important point here – thanks very much!