"What are you doing?" asks the slogan of Twitter. It seems a great tool to connect people by microblogging inside and outside the companies but it is also a way of controlling employees productivity hour by hour. As a digital time sheet, as a corporate kind of George Orwell´s Big Brother - isn´t it?
So, what do we do in our office? Talking to a client, making a business plan, attending a conference call or a business meeting...or having a cup of coffee, talking with friends, going to the bathroom. Imagine a company where Twitter is used to guard employees on a daily basis. If someone goes to the bathroom too much, for example, the boss will know it. Isn´t possible to happen in some companies? Private or state ones?
On that account, it is not the tool, it is the way the company operates that would make difference in using this amazing channel in a positive way. Not for controlling, watching or guard over but for productive dialogue, colaborative work and instant search for solutions. Therefore the company´s culture is the one responsible for the best or the worst management of Twitter as an internal communication tool.
That´s why by the end of the day the main question in human relationships and employee communications, using Twitter or not, is trust. If you have to watch people´s behaviour it is because you don´t trust them. And that will result in problems: burocracy will blossom, employees won´t feel confortable in working together, productivity will be affected and the team motivation will suffer serious damage. Thus if an organization´s culture is based on command, control and prohibition it is better to work with robots than with human beings.
What I am trying to explain is that trust always makes the difference and people need to talk, to dialogue and to communicate in every possible, clear and transparent way.
So, what do we do in our office? Talking to a client, making a business plan, attending a conference call or a business meeting...or having a cup of coffee, talking with friends, going to the bathroom. Imagine a company where Twitter is used to guard employees on a daily basis. If someone goes to the bathroom too much, for example, the boss will know it. Isn´t possible to happen in some companies? Private or state ones?
On that account, it is not the tool, it is the way the company operates that would make difference in using this amazing channel in a positive way. Not for controlling, watching or guard over but for productive dialogue, colaborative work and instant search for solutions. Therefore the company´s culture is the one responsible for the best or the worst management of Twitter as an internal communication tool.
That´s why by the end of the day the main question in human relationships and employee communications, using Twitter or not, is trust. If you have to watch people´s behaviour it is because you don´t trust them. And that will result in problems: burocracy will blossom, employees won´t feel confortable in working together, productivity will be affected and the team motivation will suffer serious damage. Thus if an organization´s culture is based on command, control and prohibition it is better to work with robots than with human beings.
What I am trying to explain is that trust always makes the difference and people need to talk, to dialogue and to communicate in every possible, clear and transparent way.
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