No, this isn’t a post about medical malpractice. But it is about corporate malpractice when organisations choose to deny 20somethings internet access to their peers.
Back when I was a youth the internet didn’t exist, nor did it exist for many of the senior managers running today’s larger organisations.
If I were them and didn’t have the experience I now have I would probably think the same as they do—that today’s youth are only interesting in using the internet for pleasure, not gain.
But my experience at LineOne (online publishing house for Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers) in London back in the late 90s turned my thinking around. There I saw evidence that the uber-smart 20somethings I was lucky enough to call my colleagues heavily relied on their internet access.
At that stage the ‘tool of choice’ was the instant messaging (IM) client ICQ. I still have my account, and a suitably low and geek-credible account number it is, too {grin}. I don’t bother using it because none of my peers are on it, nor likely to move to it, what with Skype being the ubiquitous VOIP and IM client that it is.
My colleagues relied on ICQ to rapidly find answers to the technical challenges they faced.
Fast-forward to today and the ‘tools of choice’ are no longer ICQ, but other tools such as AIM, Facebook and Twitter.
Denying them access to these tools is incredibly short-sighted and potentially grounds for corporate malpractice.
Here’s why:
Today’s employee, no matter what level within the organisation they sit, is required to solve problems, be innovative, creative and proactive.
Today’s 20s and 30somethings rely on their networks of friends and peers to help solve problems; for them their networks are their ‘oxygen’, providing them with the fuel to help their creativity and innovative thinking.
If you deny them access to the tools they have habitually used outside of the organisation, perhaps before joining their current employer, you risk stifling the very creativity and innovation you are demanding of them. How fair is that?
Sometimes the puerile reason put forward for denying them access to their tools is ‘security’.
Of course this is a very rational argument, for we ALL know that photocopiers are safe, email is safe, that drinks with colleagues down at ‘The Queen’s Bum & Icepack’ after work are safe, aren’t they?!
After all, industrial espionage only started in 1994 with the dawning of the world wide web, didn’t it?
The organisation that denies its staff access to Twitter, Facebook, Skype, ICQ, AIM and other web tools leaves itself open to both ridicule and potential litigation due to the worker being denied access to the tools to do the job.
Don’t say you haven’t been warned.
—–
Currently listening to: The Angels – 40 Years of Australian Rock & Roll (80′s) – Comin’ Down
Pingback: Reports from the Asylum » Lee Hopkins’ Report 10-29-07
Pingback: Better Communication Results » HR & Social Networking: can they co-exist?