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Conversational engagement versus static accessibility: sharing knowledge in the 21st century
Written by: Jon HansenArticle Overview: Key points • Old mindsets must be set aside in favor of a more progressive view that is commensurate with the growing awareness that an organization’s purchasing team is not merely a functional extension of another department, but plays a critical strategic role in the emerging global enterprise. • This is not just limited to purchasing, as both CIOs and CFOs are going through a transformation that is based on a collaborative versus a siloed view of organizational duties and complacent relationships. • A key enabler for this change in outlook is the various social networks and mediums. But it is painfully apparent that the recognition of how social networks can and ultimately will influence both conversational insight and the purchasing function itself is lost on the majority of procurement professionals.
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Conversational engagement versus static accessibility: sharing knowledge in the 21st century
Key points
•Old
mindsets must be set aside in favor of a more progressive view that is
commensurate with the growing awareness that an organization’s
purchasing team is not merely a functional extension of another
department, but plays a critical strategic role in the emerging global
enterprise.
•This
is not just limited to purchasing, as both CIOs and CFOs are going
through a transformation that is based on a collaborative versus a
siloed view of organizational duties and complacent relationships.
•A
key enabler for this change in outlook is the various social networks
and mediums. But it is painfully apparent that the recognition of how
social networks can and ultimately will influence both conversational
insight and the purchasing function itself is lost on the majority of
procurement professionals.
In
August2008, I wrote an article titled “The Web 2.0 Association: a
dynamic engagement between stakeholders sharing the same interests and
goals”. The basis for the article was tied to the fact that, by and
large, the majority of associations and the models under which they
operate have become somewhat stagnant as a facilitator of dynamic (and
meaningful) interaction among their membership.
This
is a sentiment that was reflected in the numerous comments I received,
such as the following from a global logistics specialist in Panama.
(Note: the fact that the article was able to solicit responses from
Panama and other parts of the world gives testimony to the reach and
therefore expanded perspective provided through a dynamic Web 2.0
engagement capability.)
“Where
it once did, the value gained from the traditional association model
can no longer compete for my attention. I need to collaborate bigger,
faster, stronger — and at my convenience.”
This
is a telling statement, especially given that the Rodney Dangerfield
mantra “I get no respect” has dominated the collective psyche of a
profession that has traditionally been viewed as an adjunct of finance.
The
fact is that the increasing recognition that an organization’s
purchasing team is not merely a functional extension of another
department, but in reality plays a critical strategic role in the
emerging global enterprise, means that old mindsets must be set aside
in favor of a more progressive view that is commensurate with this
growing awareness.
Part
of this revised outlook — which is not just limited to purchasing, as
both CIOs and CFOs are themselves going through a transformation that
is based on a collaborative versus siloed view of organizational duties
— is to break out of the manacles of complacent relationships. In
short, we have to stop going to the familiar wells of knowledge and
long-held bastions of outdated expertise, and begin to expand our
horizons of understanding. And a key enabler for this expanded insight
is the various social networks and mediums.
Unfortunately,
and as demonstrated by a recent question posed on LinkedIn regarding
Twitter, it is painfully apparent that the recognition of how social
networks can and ultimately will influence both conversational insight
and the purchasing function itself is lost on the majority of
procurement professionals.
While some associations, such as the Institute for Supply Management,have
established at least a presence within the realms of various social
networks, rather than leveraging the conversational dynamic of the new
medium to broaden engagement, they have simply resorted to the same
kind of broadcasting practice that is indigenous to a static website.
In short, they are going to where the new people are but are failing to
engage them and therefore capitalize on what Ecademy’s Thomas Power
referred to as “the law of random connections”. (Note: according to
Power’s law, it is “the people you don’t know who are the most
important”.)
This
is tantamount to a nomadic strategy whereby associations simply pick up
the entire outdated infrastructure (website), and move it to a social
media platform. Or worse, maintain the same static website (which, of
course, does have a purpose in terms of serving as a transformational
bridge) and dutifully establish return links in the hope of generating
traffic. Traffic activity means very little, of course, if it is not
reflective of either a practical utilization or an expansion of the
existing knowledge base but is instead a repository of the same people
saying the same things.
It
is therefore not unreasonable to think of most association websites
(or, for that matter, websites in general) as a stationary library with
endless “shelves” of information. While you can search through the site
to pull a topic of interest, the hushed atmosphere (isolated
experience) of a library provides little opportunity to actively engage
others — especially those who may not be members of that particular
branch (or association).
Alternatively,
if you bring your book into a nearby coffee shop, the opportunity for
open discussion in a welcoming atmosphere enables you to expand your
understanding of a particular topic through the conversational
engagement of other patrons, be they known or not. The value of the
social network platform is that it removes what for many are the
uncomfortable barriers of approaching a stranger face-to-face.
I do
not want you to mistake my reference to a static website as a
denouncement of websites in general, because it is possible to have a
site that is truly interactive and in the process complements the
various social media platforms with which it is connected. In fact, in
certain instances a website structured around a proactive inclusionary
framework might even be preferable, as it serves as a filtering
mechanism for the infinitely expanding sea of information that is
available through the internet. However, and as research clearly
demonstrates, the majority of websites lack the capacity to both engage
and maintain the conversational give and take that is necessary for the
meaningful, ongoing interaction of an expanding network of contacts.
And
even though statisticsclearly indicate that venues suchas Twitter can
experience a 60%drop off in terms of new user activity, the retention
rate is still considerable. Therefore, it is an important facilitating
platform that continues to engage people who otherwise would not have
even ventured at this stage into the world of social media. How many
websites can say that? And, at the end of the day, it is the frequency
of interaction with ever-widening perspectives that ultimately
stimulates both the level of knowledge being shared and its sustaining
veracity.
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