Advanced
social technologies and the future of collaboration
The
next generation of social technologies is beginning to transform the way people
communicate and work with each other, according to a new survey.
After nearly a decade of
research on the business uses of social technologies, executives say these
tools are more integrated into their organizations’ work than ever before—and
that the most sophisticated of these tools, message-based platforms, are
gaining traction. At the companies where messaging platforms have taken hold,
respondents to the latest McKinsey Global Survey on social tools report that
their fellow employees rely more often on social methods of communication than
on traditional methods in their work.
The use of advanced
tools has implications for broader process-level and organizational changes,
too. Where message-based platforms are in use, respondents are likelier than
others to say their use of social tools has enabled employees to communicate
more often and to self-organize with team members. They even say these
technologies have changed the very nature of their work to become more project
based, rather than team or function based.
The communication evolution
When asked about their
own use of communication tools in their day-to-day work, most executives report
that social technologies overall are largely supplemental. Nearly
three-quarters of respondents say they rely primarily on older technologies,
such as email, phone calls, and texting, to communicate with others at work.
At the same time,
respondents report that the integration of social technologies in day-to-day
work is greater than ever before. In the latest survey, 45 percent say social
technologies are very or extremely integrated into day-to-day work at their
companies, up from one-third who said so one year before.
Usage of these
technologies is especially common at companies that have adopted message-based
platforms—a share of respondents that more than doubled between 2015 and 2016.
Respondents at these companies are 2.5 times likelier than other executives to
say social tools are extremely integrated into company work. Relative to their
peers, they also report less reliance on email and phone. On average,
respondents at organizations with message-based platforms report spending 62
percent of their time using traditional communication tools and 38 percent of
their time using social tools, compared with a 71-29 split for all other
respondents.
What’s more,
respondents at companies using message-based platforms also say they
communicate differently within their teams—and across levels, roles, and the
entire organization. Within their day-to-day work groups, these respondents are
half as likely as all others to report using the phone and about twice as
likely to connect with colleagues through interactive, real-time tools such as
team-collaboration apps and collaborative document editing.
Even across
organizational units, the results suggest a similar pattern. If respondents’
companies have adopted message-based platforms, they are likelier than
executives at other companies to report the use of the newer, social
technologies.
The scaling up of social technologies
The changes in
employee-to-employee communication that more sophisticated technologies are already
bringing about—and the potential they have to drive further change—is notable
for a few reasons. First, the internal use of social technologies remains the
most common reason companies adopt these tools. Eighty-five percent of all
respondents say their companies use social technologies for internal purposes,
up from 80 percent in 2015 and
69 percent in 2014. At the same time, a growing share of executives say they
use social tools with partners: 59 percent in 2016, up from 49 percent the year
before.
Second, the increasing
relevance of social tools also appears at the process level. As we saw in 2014 and
2015, the use of social tools remains most common in externally facing
processes such as PR, recruiting and hiring, and customer relationship
management. But there have been notable jumps in several operations processes
that three years ago were among the least social out of 27 processes we asked
about. Since then, greater shares of respondents now cite the use of
technologies in procurement, supply-chain management, and after-sales services
.
The organizational value at stake
When we asked about the
specific benefits of social tools, responses show that communication and
collaboration are again top of mind. Reducing communication costs remains one
of the most common advantages of using social tools internally, and also
externally, with partners. And whether or not their organizations use more
sophisticated tools, respondents recognize the value of social technologies to
improve communication. When asked about the critical features of the tools
their companies use, executives most often identify real-time interactions and
internal collaboration—two elements that define message-based
platforms—followed by voice and video conversations.
Executives also report that
in the past three years, social tools have increased employees’ ability to
communicate more freely and to self-organize with members of their teams. They
even say that the nature of work is changing—that is, work is becoming more
project based, rather than team or function based. These first two effects are
felt relatively strongly at the companies using message-based platforms, where
clear majorities of executives report more frequent communication and
self-organization.
Looking ahead,
respondents most often expect that these same three changes—broader
communication, changing work, and self-organizing teams—will continue over the
next three years.
Looking ahead
Tools should follow—not
lead—new ways of working. Most companies have begun adopting digital tools,
including social technologies, or even transforming their businesses with
digitization in mind. But a mistake that many make is choosing the tool first
and then expecting change will follow. Any improvement via social tools must
begin with people changing the way they work first, then using the tool that
fits best. Agile ways of working (such
as cross-functional teams, scrums, or innovation hubs that are apart from
company hierarchy), as well as user-centric approaches to product development,
require the greater collaboration provided by the message-based platforms. And
the more that message-based platforms are integrated into business processes
and systems, the more critical they will be. But these tools will only ever
enable organizational change, not fundamentally change the way organizations
work on their own. Companies would do well to think first about the broader,
holistic changes they want to make and then decide how social and digital
technologies can play a supporting role.
http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/Advanced-social-technologies-and-the-future-of-collaboration?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth-1707&hlkid=4a054a1be00a413ea466fde32e6e3e45&hctky=1627601&hdpid=f83ee761-a672-480c-9f44-6a6d4a1736c7
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