Work Nouveau

Like many, I suffered during each of the downturns in the early 80s, early 90s and in 2001, and fully expect to do so this time too. Looking around the blogosphere, TV and press, there is an abundance of opinion on how to survive the recession; much of it quite reasonable and correct. A few of these do make some reference to being prepared for the recovery, but quite obviously many anticipate the recovery as being a return to the same business environment as before.

The aftermath of recent recessions has been as damaging to some companies as the recession itself. By focussing on survival by drastic cost cutting and headcount reductions, companies can awaken to a market that has been significantly transformed, and find they lack the innovative products, services and talent to take advantage of the new conditions. Whilst this may not cause them to fail immediately, growth might stagnate or even contract, whilst former competitors forge ahead. The knee jerk reaction will be to try and catch up by doing those things that should have been earlier, only to find that another cyclical downturn invalidates these efforts, bringing them back to square one.

It is a familiar tale but some organisations manage to avoid this. How? In the process of survival, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Take good old George, he’s been around quite a while, is well known and well liked, but his appetite for binge working has disappeared and his performance has been tailing off for a few years. A candidate for early retirement, and his departure will apparently save quite a lot as he has a fair bit of seniority with the company. However, front line performance is not everything. George is always the font of knowledge for new arrivals. He knows how all the procedures work, who can be contacted to sort out a problem, who to contact with key suppliers, and has established relationships within key clients, etc. When he goes, someone will be able to carry out his main job function better and with more vim and vigour, but the knowledge he walks out the door with is not so easily replaced. Not only that, his social skills will not be available to shepherd the new recruits when the recovery cuts in.  Having been pushed into early retirement rather than the planned process that George had been working towards, he will probably not be well disposed to give a helping hand either.

Use the recession to put a plan together for George and others like him, and at the same time capturing all their valuable knowledge.  Enterprise 2.0 developments provide an ideal environment for giving George and those like him the possibility of contributing to a knowledge and social environment. This can be incorporated into a flexible work schedule that can enable a graceful reduction of commitment over a period of time. George’s contacts can be captured, his procedures tracked, his sources of knowledge and expertise documented, and his networking skills harnessed to integrate newcomers. Even as a retired employee a good environment will help him contribute and provide him with continuity.

No one knows how long this downturn is likely to last, but it is clear that it may be protracted and the skills needed during the recovery period are unknown, so all the more reason to start corralling the knowledge to feed the skill sets.

Knowledge retention is just one useful aspect of social business networking; it also provides an invaluable innovation platform. Although less structured and formal than brainstorming, it provides an ongoing environment for ideas to be discussed, encouraged and elaborated. New talent, old hands, the high and the low and even customers and selected external resources can contribute to a process that draws on the knowledge and experience of all involved. These creative forces can be harnessed more easily, inexpensively and rapidly in the process of preparing the organisation for the fury of the post recession reality.

Of course many of these arguments are also valid when not in recession, unexpected health issues, accidents, family problems or an irresistible offer from outside can rob the organisation of valuable resources at any time.

Any experiences of business social networking for retired or semi-retired out there?