social + process

SOCIAL + PROPER PROCESShow Social Media could make a big leap

Social media excels in free-form Discovery:

Work instigators - Ideas, Issues, RequestsResources - Who knows? Who’s available?

Like Nick’s issue above....

WHAT THEN?

You stumble across an Issue, an Idea or a Request, one of the classic three seeds of all work, what then?

Work is always a process; a sequence of activities with a goal. But most work is Barely Repeatable (BRPs), and the existing process based IT is made for the Easily Repeatable (ERPs).

In the absence of BRP support, social media is useful for collaboration and unpredictable workflows.

IS THAT ENOUGH?

By using Social Media, or even collaboration tools, you can distribute tasks and get “done” messages back. You can attach information to messages, or you can create a project page to

manage the mess in one place.

But the flow-work is still manual:

Stuff has to be found, reports have to be created, hand-overs are manual, to-do lists have to be kept, accountability is so-so,

history is flimsy and we still use the term “manage”.

GIVE THE JELLYFISH A SPINE

Social Media is important. It has to be noisy and unstructured, it includes meeting people on the tram, going to a party, and

reading newspapers. It’s about discovery, the source of action.

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Process is action as a sequence of activities that has a goal. Without the process you won’t reach the goal and the

discovery is worthless. The blob needs a spine.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Social Media is a dynamic container of information.

But information often leads to action.

That is where the real value of the information lies.

To supply a framework for activities and information in the same place is like having both nouns and verbs in a sentence.

Social Media needs a process engine, it needs verbs... otherwise the nouns will go wandering:

NO PROCESS FRAMEWORK

A day at the workshop 1910: The Business Flow

NO PROCESS FRAMEWORK

A day at the office 2011: The Business Flow

PROCESS FRAMEWORK

Note that wheels and doors were fastened with the same tools and same movements, only the flow-work was automated.

But the result was a productivity increase of 8.5 times.

A PROCESS ENGINE CAN:

•Deliver all pertinent information with the task, then capture the full context of who, what and when.•Do mundane operations automatically and precisely.• Ensures proper handover, no glitches, no manual to-do lists, no

management of anything and automatic real time reports.

• But it has to be flexible, allowing participants to decide the path during the run - a BRP engine. Knowledge work is not car assembly.

What if Nick’s message had a “Grab this” button?

and it punts you to this pre-populated interface:

Grab this

Grab this

...while leaving a message in the Social Media Message Stream that you’re on it.

Or Social + Process could simply be in the same place...

Note the action buttons - ‘Comment’ plus ‘Make this discussion into a Project’!

... click on the action button and this pops up:

TIMELY REMINDER:A Project does not have to be huge nor important!

It can be anything from “buy milk” to “solve world hunger”, including anything in between: “Organize my wedding”, “Let’s

organize a conference”, or “Here’s a new venture”.

The idea, issue or request that initiates the action could be from anywhere; your favorite Social Media message stream or from

your company’s discussion fora.

OK, back to the process...

You add some notes, then click ‘complete’ and the next interface is automatically there where you shall select or create a team:

When the team is set, the members get a message in the Stream that a new “Project has been initiated” for their team. Teams can be temporary, you can be

member of any number of teams, no reason to have rules really.

[Note: This example is of the Kanban Lean & Agile kind, alternatively the choice could be the usual “define and assign” tasks to any participant.]

Kanban style project

Reports are real time so without delay you and anybody else with the rights can see all about the team:


In this case any participant can add him/herself to the team at any time. This prompts a message (in the Stream as well) to the team owner who has the last word and can punt members out again.

Then you (and those who has the right) can add “User Stories” directly in the Project Overview:

[Note: “User Story” would be just another term for “Task”, but with built-in customer focus!]


When clicking the “Add user story to this Project” all pertinent information and fields to fill in pops up:

New tasks goes to the pre-backlog / pre-todo list where they wait...

[Note: Blue text means click to expand]


Project Lead can at any time ‘move’ the tasks to the Backlog...


...where Team Members can pick up Tasks:

If you pick it up, the Team Members could receive a message in the Stream from the BRP platform about what’s going on.


With the Task, all pertinent information and context pops up:


...when completed the user story adder will review:

where he/she can choose to send back for more...

Classic style project

And so it goes until solution and the project is declared finished....

And all can be done in a mobile fashion obviously:

On your iPad on the train... On your iPhone on the beach...

And all the reports will reflect every step accordingly...

...while your reports allow you to do things as well:

in case you remembered something one morning, no need to notify anybody, just add to the Project object and all the involved will see it immediately.

The reports can use information from other systems...

...like something simple as Google maps, or anything else with an API.Here the flags are interactive, click on one and person overview displays,

then click on the “location” in the person overview, and the map zooms in.

Always good to see what the others are doing:

Being curious is fine, but more important, everyone will know that all can see when you got the task, and leaving things undone for long does not look good or what?

Way more effective than deadlines!

Add the instant reporting of what you’ve done and the magic combination of peer recognition and pressure ensues. Nothing beats that motivation-wise!

ANY PROCESS MODEL...Sometimes it makes sense to create models for different

versions of BRPs as they do differ in important aspects, like:

- Projects or Cases (specific or generic)- Coaching and training

- Technical support & development- Disaster Prevention

- Sales Process- Global trade

- Patient handling- etc.

And all instances could be “sourced” from any Social Media of course. Or it could deliver a message Stream itself.

social + process

Technology