No More Naysayers: A Rebuttal to Why I Don't Jive

Kaitlin Connor

...title caught your attention?

 

Introducing social collaboration to a business isn't always an easy undertaking. We are asking people within all levels of an organization, including executives and senior leaders, to change the way they work. As with any change management process we are bound to hear negative feedback from tentative users. As community managers engage employees in the change process it is important to address any hesitation and uncertainty.

 

Here is a list of the most common reasons why people don't use Jive, equipped with rebuttals as to why they should.

 

  • I don't have time. Social collaboration tools aren't just fancy workplace substitutes for Facebook and Twitter. In any corporate environment employees have experienced the endless meeting cycle. People are late. People can't show up. Work that was supposed to be reviewed before the meeting wasn't. The meeting ends with a follow-up meeting being scheduled. Sound familiar? Jive can break the meeting cycle so you have MORE time in your day. Posting meeting agenda items in Jive will reduce meetings, allowing key contributors to append and finalize rather than sitting through an entire meeting. This can will maximize your work day.

 

  • Because it's easier to send an email. While it takes less critical thinking to send an email (instant gratification for me), documenting a correspondence in a transparent forum, retains that knowledge for the benefit of others (which is sharing with the team). Not only is this courteous, but it also captures value by making institutional knowledge more discoverable in a way that reduces future time spent looking for an answer or the person with an answer. This helps to avoid redundant efforts, which drives productivity and saves employees time (and the Firm money).

 

  • Jive is a social network; I've got work to do. Jive is a social business platform that enables employees to leverage intuitive social networking functionality to get work done smarter and faster ?think of it as a productivity tool. Social is indeed an added bonus in that it encourages connections with people outside your team, which can lead to new opportunities. Networking is good for your career!

 

  • Jive is too noisy. Jive is designed to bring employees together to consume and collaborate on content in use case specific communities. Similar to social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, Jive encourages users to consume information through an Activity Stream (otherwise known as a News Feed). The Jive Activity stream is an aggregated stream of updates or posts from people, communities, and content that you choose to follow. You can set up custom streams for your direct team, executive leaders, key projects, etc.

 

  • There are too many systems! I don't know when to use Jive. There are many powerful tools for collaboration and knowledge sharing. Jive helps engage next generation workforce, who expect to be able to leverage social technologies to do their job effectively and it is in the company's best interest to achieve a unified workflow. Jive makes this easy by integrating with applications employees already use on a daily basis, including Office, Outlook, and IE/Chrome.

 

So are you ready to dive into Jive? Let us know in the comments below!

 

*Piece was authored by Kaitlin Connor, Nikka Rosenstein, and Renee Schmidt