Get Connected
By Jay Forte, Humanetrics LLC
Submitted for publication June 2007
How many hours a day are you connected to the internet? Many companies believe time spent on the internet is a waste of time or prohibits it because it is time spent in areas that employees should not be in. True…some of this happens. But let’s consider something else.
It has been said that the net is not about pages or information; it is about people and ideas; think of it as a depository for some of today’s best thinking and best ideas. Well organized and reasonably easy to locate and access, the internet has completely changed our ability to invent.
As more of our economy shifts from manufacturing to service, we become increasingly focused on ideas. Service economies are thinking and idea economies. The products become less important; service and the treatment of customers becomes more important. And depending on the response, a company’s service perspective has become an area of competitive advantage or disadvantage. With this significant change, we must change the way we approach our workday, train our employees and maximize our performance. All of this starts with ideas.
In an intellectual economy, the employee is at the center. What this employee thinks and feels determines the employee’s level of commitment and performance. Management’s role is to understand the employee well enough to match the employee’s intrinsic interests and abilities (talents) to his job to create the possibility for this employee to be successful. When properly matched (talent to role) and well supported and developed, employees start to commit greater performance because they feel connected to what they do and see the difference they make.
This, however, is only half of the story. Back to the internet. Let’s say we have an engaged (inspired) and passionate employee. We now need to help this employee with a bigger version of the world and the job. During our workday, we may see other customers, employees, vendors and other situations. A good employee has been trained to watch these situations and people for ideas and new ways of thinking. Imagine if they were also connected, watching for ideas and perspectives from the expansive pool known as the internet. A field of data and ideas limited only by the quality of the last idea added to a website…in other words, virtually limitless.
We were creative and perceptive children, noticing everything and imagining without limitation. Years in school directed us to follow the rules, color in the lines and comply; the result is that we have significantly inhibited our ability to be creative, non-conventional or offer innovative solutions to problems or business situations. Disconnected from other creative thinkers, our responses stay small. In this world of ideas, staying small is a death wish; it will insure the end of our business. Exposure to bright, limitless thinking is the key to harnessing the passion of the engaged employee and directing it to extraordinary non-conventional performance.
Having employees in an IT field review the websites of commercial businesses can offer ways to make their work more user-friendly. Employees in customer service can review websites of engineering firms, design companies and others to see how technical information can be clearly presented to be easily understood. Companies that have not approached on-line selling can review those company sites that have for guidance in setting up a user-friendly process. We benefit from the creative genius of organizations that help their employees by imposing no limits on what they can do and what they have access to seeing. This shows up in their websites, in their ideas and in their use of technology…all out there, all available to inspire us to new levels of greatness. Our goal is not to copy these, but to see them as inspiration to help us invent something even more dynamic. Great ideas breed greater ideas.
So let’s get back to the employee and the internet. Company internet filtering systems help to keep employees off of the undesirable sites – porn, gambling, and other things that seem to show up in all cultures. Filtering employees out most sites on the internet rules out their ability to see what others have done and limits their inspiration to at least match it in effectiveness if not raise it to a power. This can only happen with the right tools.
So first, work to create a powerful trusting and engaging culture and workforce. Then, eliminate some of the limits on their thinking by requiring them to access and research what others do and have invented on the net. Use this to start your teams thinking in more significant ways. Soon, some other company will see your site and raise the bar again for all of us.
Humanetrics LLC. All rights reserved 2007.