In the current world economy with its essentially “flat marketplace”, technological innovation or financial restructuring can have little positive impact on your organizational performance. However, organizations can gain market share by leveraging skills, abilities, knowledge and experience within human systems and the contacts and networks available through social systems. Valuable resources housed in your organization’s human and social systems could be used to grow business by targeting markets driven by fear and dominated by complacency.
Organizations can expand the capacity of their human and social systems for information exchange without major additional costs by increasing the velocity, volume and efficiency of exchanges between staff members. In particular non fulltime staff such as contractors, temps, part-timers and casuals should be given extra opportunities to relate to, and communicate with, others at work. This can result in increased mutual recognition, reciprocity, and a greater sense of social acceptance.
Developing high quality workplace contacts through increases in social acceptance can strengthen the capacity of communication exchanges and improve group-wide communication processes. High capacity communication processes built on mutual trust and shared acceptance can create healthier workplaces and lead to more profitable enterprises. Healthy workplaces can contribute to organizational well being and through innovative use of interpersonal communication and shared social systems create longer term positive organizational growth.
By taking new and different approaches to your organization’s human and social systems, you can grow your business beyond the limitations posed by a flat marketplace. Ways of leveraging your organization’s human and social systems could include:
- Reframing workplace social relations within your organization by discarding any age gender–based stereotypes and replacing any discriminatory decision processes with new and improved ways of working together.
- Rewarding your managers for exploring ways of catching people doing something right at work and praising staff members for doing their work well.
- Discarding any currently used 360 degree systems of performance feedback based largely on anonymous feedback and replacing them with more transparent, authentic systems of performance evaluation.
- Helping new staff members, including non fulltime staff become well socialized into your organization’s practices, safety procedures and ways of doing things.
- Using available work space, systems and social opportunities to encourage the exchange of information on workplace related issues between your organization’s staff members.
- Replacing on screen computer-based self directed learning systems with mentors - widely respected staff members who are familiar with the business and its products and services - to lift staff members’ confidence and resilience, enhance “connectedness” and accelerate understanding of the business and its customers.
