KM and social business

Adrian Malone12 March 2013

About us

Faithful+Gould is a multinational cost and project management consultancy, providing expertise for construction and engineering projects in transport, property and industry.

• We have:• 2,000 experienced professionals• Turnover in excess of £200m• An international network of offices in

the United Kingdom and Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East and India

• A network that enables our teams to share knowledge and experience to serve our global clients.

• We are proud to be part of the Atkins Group, which has a turnover of £1.5bn and employs 18,000 professionals.

Our Journey

Static Content

Digital Discussions

Content connecting people

Social Business

Mostly Internal Focus

Both Internal and External

We are here(-ish)

Static Content – 10 years ago

Before• Information resources organised around business categories rather than project• Trial and error to find which folder desired content was stored in• Easy to get lost in the sub-folders• People often stored a local copy which was then not updated when new version

released

Static Content - Today

After• Information structure mapped to service delivery structures• Views tailored to needs of end user• Everything on one page

Digital Discussions

Content Connecting People - Internal

Content Connecting People - Internal

Networks

Category Illustration CharacteristicsStrong Ties‘A’ knows ‘B’ directly

High trust Shared context First port of call

Weak Ties‘A’ and ‘B’ are introduced to each other by ‘C’ who previously knew both separately

Weaker trust (based on recommendation)

Little or no shared context 2nd port of call

Latent TiesPersons ‘A’ to ‘G’ work for same company but are dotted across BU’s and global regions. None know the others directly, but are able to seek out the others based on skills and experience and then make contact ‘X’

Low trust (relationship must be built from scratch)

A wide variety of differing contexts likely Vast breadth of knowledge beyond

personal domain

Types of connection

• Social technology creates opportunity for connections beyond immediate peer group

• Latent ties can be creative, disruptive, and immensely valuable• Before new media similar networks were created by yellow pages and

communities

Based on Caroline Haythornthwaite, 2002.

Connecting to the outside

Beyond the Organisational Firewall

Small world....

• In this interaction two of the individuals work for the same company• Using LinkedIn they were able to connect and share ideas with others

from anywhere in the world and any organisation.

EdinburghGlasgow

Implications

Encouraging connections

• Organisation must recognise that social is productive

• Employees may need support to have confidence to express themselves externally

• A good social media policy is important

"Your employees already have a ‘social media policy’. If you're lucky, they included you." - Jane Bozarth