People Analytics: How Social Sensing Technology Will Transform Business and What It Tells Us about the Future of Work

People Analytics: How Social Sensing Technology Will Transform Business and What It Tells Us about the Future of Work

by Ben Waber
Released April 2013
Publisher(s): Pearson
ISBN: 9780133158342

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Book description

Discover powerful hidden social "levers" and networks within your company… then, use that knowledge to make slight "tweaks" that dramatically improve both business performance and employee fulfillment! In People Analytics, MIT Media Lab innovator Ben Waber shows how sensors and analytics can give you an unprecedented understanding of how your people work and collaborate, and actionable insights for building a more effective, productive, and positive organization. Through cutting-edge case studies, Waber shows how:

  • Changing the way call center employees spent their breaks increased performance by 25% while significantly reducing stress

  • Quantifying the failure of marketing and customer service to communicate led to a more cohesive and profitable organization

  • Tweaking the balance of in-person and electronic communication can enhance the value of both

  • Sensor data can help you discover who your internal experts really are

  • Identifying employees involved in "creative" behaviors can help you promote innovation throughout your business

  • Sensors and simulations can help you optimize your sick-day policies

  • Measuring informal interactions can improve the chances that a merger, acquisition, or "mega-project" will succeed

    • Drawing on his cutting-edge work at MIT and Harvard, Waber addresses crucial issues ranging from technology to privacy, revealing what will be possible in a few years, and what you can achieve right now. In bringing the power of analytics to organizational development, he offers immense new opportunities to everyone with responsibility for workplace performance.

    Table of contents

    1. Title Page
    2. Copyright Page
    3. Praise for People Analytics
    4. Dedication Page
    5. Contents at a Glance
    6. Contents
    7. Acknowledgments
    8. About the Author
    9. Preface
    10. 1. Sensible Organizations: Sensors, Big Data, and Quantifying the Unquantifiable
      1. Telescopes, Microscopes, and “Socioscopes”
      2. Unbiased?
      3. Digital Breadcrumbs
      4. “Socioscope”
      5. Enter the Badge
      6. Big Data = Big Brother?
      7. Trust and Transparency
    11. 2. Evolution, History, and Social Behavior: Our Wandering Road to the Modern Corporation
      1. Back to the Future
      2. In the Shadow of Man
      3. You Say “Groups,” I Say “Organizations”
      4. Individual < Tribe < City-State
      5. Do as the Romans Do
      6. Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution
      7. New Information, New Communication
      8. The Organization of Today
      9. (In)formal Processes
      10. Informally Important
      11. The Social Network
      12. Organizing the Path Ahead
    12. 3. The Water Cooler Effect: Why a Friendly Chat Is the Most Important Part of the Work Day
      1. Talk Your Ear Off
      2. Cohesion versus Diversity
      3. Blue-Collar versus White-Collar Water Coolers
      4. Banking on Change
      5. Peanut Butter Jelly Time
      6. Break Value
    13. 4. The Death of Distance?: Measuring the Power of Proximity
      1. So, Should I Stay at Home and Work in My Pajamas?
      2. Co-Located Offices: The Gold Standard?
      3. More Than a Tape Measure
      4. Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder?
      5. Long Table, Short Table
      6. So, Where Should I Sit?
    14. 5. I’m the Expert: Why Connections Are More Important Than Test Scores
      1. The (Electric) General
      2. The IT Firm Study
      3. IT Firm Study Results
      4. Expert Puzzle
      5. Being an Expert Expert
    15. 6. You Look Like the Creative Type: Da Vinci versus the Hackathon
      1. Cartoon Wars
      2. Lessons from South Park: The Roots of Creativity
    16. 7. Tough It Out versus Stay at Home: Modeling Disease Spread Through Face-to-Face Conversations
      1. Corporate Epidemiology
    17. 8. Why We Waste $1,200,000,000,000 a Year: Mergers and Acquisitions, Corporate Culture, and Communication
      1. I’ll Call, and Raise
      2. Fixing the Problem
    18. 9. Attach Bolt “A” to Plank “Q”: Matching Formal Dependencies with Informal Networks
      1. Big Projects, Big Problems
      2. Congruence, Distance, and Software
      3. Don’t Fall into the Gap
      4. Keeping in Contact
    19. 10. The Future of Organizations: How People Analytics Will Transform Work
      1. Badges, Badges Everywhere?
      2. Moving Toward the People Analytics System
      3. Augmented Social Reality
      4. All Around the World
      5. The Next Big Thing
    20. 11. Where We Go from Here: Of Face-to-Face Interaction, New Collaboration Tools, and Going Back to the Future
      1. Back to the Future 2
    21. Endnotes
      1. Chapter 1
      2. Chapter 2
      3. Chapter 3
      4. Chapter 4
      5. Chapter 5
      6. Chapter 6
      7. Chapter 7
      8. Chapter 8
      9. Chapter 9
      10. Chapter 10
    22. Index

    Product information

    • Title: People Analytics: How Social Sensing Technology Will Transform Business and What It Tells Us about the Future of Work
    • Author(s): Ben Waber
    • Release date: April 2013
    • Publisher(s): Pearson
    • ISBN: 9780133158342