Hack:
Twitter Isn’t the Only Way to Flatten the Organization: Project Sharing Intranet Portal

By Sharon Siegel - Thinker at http://sharon.cc - as social good career coaching site

January 20, 2011 at 1:57pm

knowledge sharing

flat organization

maximizing resources

collaboration

intranet

project management

Twitter

Moonshots

Transcend traditional management trade-offs

Summary

Many companies have little budget for organizational development due to economic climate, and employee disengagement is at an all time high. The opportunity for employees, mail room through C-level, to collaborate by sharing individual projects which allow for experience, employee development and human capital maximization would be beneficial for all.

Problem

Organizational Development, Collaboration & Resource Maximization generally cost companies a lot of time and money they are not interested in inveesting in during a recession - although this would be just as beneficial during economic peaks.

The need to disperse heavy workloads of busier departments & managers – especially those traditionally weak at delegating, would be given an easy source of manpower and assistance - if workers volunteer.

Project owner would post specific projects quickly to a portal where employees with bandwidth & willingness to assist with projects would know to go to.

With so much hype about companies where entry level workers talk to the CEO on twitter, why not let the new accountant assist the CEO by helping them set up the company twitter account in their downtime?

Solution

Project Scope:

Use intranet to post projects as needed (can be short or long term), specifying:

Department Estimated time/number or people needed (2 hrs, 2 days, 2 months)
Project location (at employee location, in assigning office etc.)
Brief outline of project: goal, what skills/programs are needed
Level of project:
1. Manual work – typing, copying, distribution, basic phone/email
2. Microsoft office support – Document, spreadsheet, chart formatting, powerpoint creating or editing
3. Analysis work – advanced spreadsheets, Access, SPSS, reporting, reviewing
4. Technical – programming, troubleshooting, IT department, web QA
5. Communications/writing – material development, detailed document editing
6. Feedback on assistance received (satisfactory, unsatisfactory, exceeded goals) and comments
7. Survey delegating/project sharing – Was this faster or slower than working alone and comments

Practical Impact

Benefits:

Allows individuals to learn more about other areas of organization & contribute their unique skills during slower work times
Allows organization to maximize resources of reduced headcount – would allow people to cover functions of positions cut
Allows individuals to gain experience that is helpful for themselves (job skills)
Allows organization to see skill sets that may not be employed in current role – valuable for talent management & succession planning
Will improve project quality & goal reaching if more support is available – both in timeliness and in accuracy
May help improve employee morale during layoffs/consolidations by allowing individuals to use their talents in areas they choose
May slow negative attrition – those who feel connected to goals of the organization are less likely to leave

First Steps

1. Use existing intranet if exists, otherwise even a free company 'private' blog or project management software can be used to start.

2. Communicate innovative new idea to employees at all levels, especially demonstrating how program would be beneficial to all levels uniquely.

3. Begin. Ideal way to start would be asking for volunteers who get the mission to help set it up.

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