Connecting Organizational Silos: Taking Knowledge Flow Management to the Next Level with Social Media

FEAR OF LOSING CONTROL

Since I wrote my book on knowledge flow management (KFM) in 2010, I have found that looking at a KFM initiative from the perspective of the barriers turns out to present a good angle for making progress. It is based on the flow analogy and, as humans decide very often whether or not they want to share, working on barriers that hinder a natural flow seems to be a good way of getting started. I found in my courses and presentations that people can relate much easier to the barriers, and almost anyone can add something to the discussion. Looking at how to reduce those barriers with easy pragmatic approaches gives people a way to get started quickly, no matter where they are located in the organization. I’ve found that there is usually some barrier that every person can influence, so, in this chapter, I take that same approach and look at some common barriers that might be in the way of creating a successful enterprise social network (ESN) and making it work over time.

One of the big fears in connection to social media in organizations—sometimes openly expressed and sometimes present only as a hidden agenda point—is that of losing control. To a certain point, it is clear that allowing and enabling those in your organization to communicate completely freely with each other across some of the established organizational boundaries, without the consent and involvement of management, presents a new control structure. The question is to what extent did such control ...