Reducing Yammer clammer

I recently got everyone on my team to join Yammer. In an effort to test it’s viability for our group and see how we might consider piloting it sometime later to improve communication/collaboration.

Naturally everyone joined then … silence. So, I used it to share some thoughts and happenings in my world, enticing others to chime in still… silence…

Then on a crisp April morning (I live in New York state, its still quite crisp) I presented some on-the-fly revision ideas to a colleague prior to his presentation of a F2F communication curriculum and thought EUREKA! I’ll sit in and “posts some yams” during his presentation and I can show him how valuable the tool can be.

So, there I sat in the back, listening, texting, nodding, texting, smiling, texting, laughing, texting …

At one moment my presenter colleague asked me a question… How dare he -I was mid-text!… I began to answer with my eyes still on the Blackberry – “Ooops -how rude! I thought” and quickly glanced up, lowered my Blackberry, and answered.

No doubt all the participants (15) saw me texting during the presentation. Did they think I was playing a game? Did they think I was texting a snarky comment to a non-peer/non-employee pal?

Since my 20 or so “yams” were now posted I knew I could easily dispel any perceived rudeness to my colleague but the audience would still never know.

Later as my colleague and I spoke he said he noticed me but did not question it since he knew me …

Interesting. I was both relieved and concerned by his comment. Relieved that we build a good enough relationship that he knew I was not being a slacker but concerned of how he might perceive someone else doing what I did.

Olivia Mitchell does a great job of talking about how to embrace the micro-blog practice by designing for it!

The question though remains ... if I can’t get my peers to use these tools, can I still get them to prepare for learners that do!?

Image abuse!

My printer continues to act up. this time a "Carriage error" took place (note alert above). Now, I don't consider myself an idiot but honestly I don't really know what the carriage is...sorry. Sure would be nice to see a picture (immediately) of the problem area on the printer ... but instead I see a picture of a woman gazing at me.

What''s the purpose of this??

1. Maybe she is there to apply subtle encouragement to get the problem resolved. She looks like she is thinking "come on, you can do it!"

2. Maybe she is trying to look angelic? With a peaceful appearance she reduces my stress and thus I am less likely to toss the printer out the window.

3. Maybe she isn't looking at me at all. Maybe this is an advanced help feature where, if I follow her eyes, she is actually looking at the solution ... this subtle technology is 'face saving" where I THINK I figured it out myself, feeling good I sing the praises of this great (yet temperamental) printer!

Actually now that I think about it ...the developer of this help feature was afraid of white space and simply slapped a bland image in it.

Couldn't they at least find a picture of an angelic woman pointing at the Carriage?

Moral to the story: Don't image for imaging sake!

Get them to see... "social media really is so-me."

Social media and the collaborative environments it enables is still new to many in T&D and being foreign I find its often met with skepticism. How then can you convince the few that the many really have something of value to share?



If no internal blog exists, send an email to the team or why not just muscle up to the water cooler?



Then take a page from Twitter ...from Facebook, from Yammer ...etc. heck, they all got their "what are you ..." inquiry, so why not place a T&D twist on it and ask ...



"What new skills have you learned this week?"



Add to that the equally important - "...oh, and HOW did you learn it?" and Viola!



People will share the most impactful job related experiences and guess what ... they will most likely be Just-in-Time, On-The-Job, social, and brief. Surprise! an aha moment - the few really are like the many, they just didn't realize it.


So, how are you enlightening?