narrating your work: a microblogging-based approach to supporting knowledge sharing in distributed...
DESCRIPTION
A presentation I gave at 2013 Online Educa Berlin Conference.TRANSCRIPT
Narrating Your Work ExperimentDr Anoush Margaryan
Senior Lecturer, Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
Twitter: @anoushWWW: http://www.gcu.ac.uk/academy/people/anoush-margaryan/
Context• Shell International BV• Distributed team: 17 members
on 3 continents• Yammer enterprise
microblogging service
Experiment• Regular status updates• Issues, resources, events, ideas• Using agreed hashtag #nyw• Options: daily flow, daily recap,
weekly recap• Public or private
Methodology• Mixed-method: quan->qual->
analysis of NYW updates• Criteria: practicality and value–practicality=time, ease of use–value=increased insight,
connectedness, awareness; tangible; avoids duplication of work
Data collection & analysis
• Survey (n=17, 100% response)
• Interview (n=11, 65% response)
• NYW updates (n=642)
Frequency
Once a day or more
Couple of times per week
Once a week Less than once a week
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
7
2
5
3
8
6
2
1
Posting frequencyReading frequency
Time investment•Writing NYW updates:21 min/week on average
• Reading others’ updates: 25 min/week on average
Public vs private (1)
12/17
3/17
2/17
PrivatePublicBoth
Public vs private (2)“…Sometimes the postings are about the pulse of the team, things that need to be discussed within the group only. There are other things that we have done that are beneficial to all of Shell, way beyond our team, that we have the option of posting outside the group for others to read and to respond. We all agreed to use this question to decide when we are posting something if it is beneficial to more than our learning group then let’s post it globally and if it is something where the rest of Shell might not be interested in, then we keep it within our team” (P1).
Yammer was easy to use
Strongly agree
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
5
7
2
3
0
My understanding of Yammer was a limiting factor in how often I
posted
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
0
3
1
7
6
NYW has given me better insight into my peers’ work
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
3
11
3
0 0
NYW made me feel more connected to my team
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
2
9
4
2
0
NYW prevented duplication of work
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
7
8
2
0
Content of NYW updates is useful
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
2
11
3
10
Self-reflection“Within a corporate world where everybody is running all the time and we never stop and reflect, NYW was a good moment of reflection” (P2).
Awareness of expertise in team“There is an expert on a subject matter on a particular software across the pond and they are working actively with their vendors and I needed to create an interface for that project. So I utilised that person when I found out that the Business Analysts across the pond, they helped me get into contact with vendors to get the work done. There are synergies that could be made, the connections are not being made and should be made because people do not understand exactly what people are working on. With NYW you could actually say hey, that person is working on that and that is applicable to my job, maybe I should connect with that person” (P3).
Connecting with other teams
“I started going out of my work team and started joining some of the other teams and it helped me to learn some things that were going on in the company. There is a group out there for the Business Analysts, for all the BAs in Shell. I really stay connected with them because it learns [sic] me a lot of techniques and things I could prevent from happening on my own projects” (P1).
Enablers
•Champion•Early adopters
Barriers
•Lack of interactivity•Lack of cohesiveness
