BRM and Social Media

Friday, June 20 at 11:00am EST

 

This coming month, join us for a webinar with Glenn Remoreras, an experienced BRM and Process Manager with over 15 years of IT Management and Leadership Experience. Glenn will discuss:

• What Social Media is and how do we integrate social tools in our enterprise work stream?
  1. Social Media integration points
  2. Collaborative Decision Management Applications that provide features like wikis, blogs, project management, community building, idea creation, etc.
  3. Use of mainstream Social Media tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
  4. Challenges to Social Media adoption
  5. Social Media success stories
• Use of Social Media in BRM Institute
• How BRMs can harness Social Media

 Click the title to register or learn more.  

Courtesy of Virtual Group

 

Many companies today are burdened by silos--separate departments optimized for a specific function or set of functions, but pretty much impervious to anything going on around them that does not relate specifically to their functions.  We see this across business units, where manufacturing, sales, marketing, distribution and R&D, for example, each operate in their own cocoons.  We see it inside support functions such as Information Technology (IT) and Human Resources.  In IT, for example, it is not uncommon to have silos around strategy, architecture, operations and solutions delivery.  Complicating things are additional layers of silos around specific platforms or technologies, and which form a kind of informal matrix with the functional silos. Cross silo units such as Program Management Offices and Centers of Competence around disciplines such as 6 Sigma or Agile have a hard time getting traction with the organizational silos they were established to help.

 

The early days of Business Process Re-engineering were often trumpeted for their ability to bust silos-and they sometimes did, as groups were forced to work together in the design of end-to-end business processes such as order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, hire-to-retire, and so on.  However, over time, as companies adapted from purely hierarchical organizations to more horizontal process-based organizations, it was common to see process silos-as deeply entrenched and hardened as functional silos!

 

Business Relationship Managers (BRMs), by definition, are masters of working across and breaking down boundaries. They often have to deal with at least two types of organizational silos-the business silos they represent, and the silos in the provider organization with whom they interface. By teaming with other BRMs and looking across business silos, BRMs are often able to recognize cross business unit opportunities or redundant efforts.  This ability can be of significant value to the enterprise, and can actually help soften silos and increase cooperation and collaboration among business units.

Dealing with provider organizational silos can be a greater challenge-akin to herding cats-consuming time and energy that should be put to better use. 

To see "The Promise of Organizational Transformation" and to see the rest of the article, read more.

Every month, we highlight a question about BRM and from BRMs. May's featured question is from the "Ask an Expert" section of our members-only wiki. This space and others like it (such as BRM Collaboration) were created to encourage our members to ask questions, discuss and collaborate with their peers and experts in the field of Business Relationship Management. As a member, you can check out these spaces (log-in required). Not yet a member? Learn more about our memberships.

I hear you, managing interaction of a virtual team whose function is not task-oriented (like BRM) is a challenge. Like in your case, where BRMs are physically dispersed across geographic boundaries--the real challenge is the team's social stability which impacts teamwork and collaboration.

 

I don't think there is a sure formula that works, but I don't think structuring meetings like you suggested will work, unless their team members will directly correlate it to achieving real value to work aspects they are accountable for. And that's always a challenge, especially if you have recurring meetings, how do you ensure that every meeting has real workable agendas and real outcomes. 

 

To boost peer collaboration in teams, you need to implement the appropriate mechanisms for boosting both socio-emotional and task-related processes. For task-related processes, that you can manage or control through periodic staff meetings or perhaps even a wiki-enabled collaborative environment. 

 

To me, Socio-emotional always has to be face-to-face, even if it is just one every year or two. Everyone has to come together, in person, an annual review and planning session, a team building activity, or a trip to the pub (as Duncan suggested). These encounters, in turn, will support task collaboration, conflict resolution, cross business-departmental initiatives throughout the year. The time and expense necessary to provide such opportunities for face-to-face interactions then become an investment that can lead to large returns if the virtual team is able to take full advantage of its diverse expertise and heterogeneity. 

 

Another way is to pair or cluster competence. Pair two or more who are experts or interested in one domain. They can work together in cross business projects, in benchmarking, demand shaping and later on with hopes that others, when they need help about that specific expertise, will know the who to turn to. 

 

----

Business Relationship Management Institute | (888) 848-3012 | info@brminstitute.org |

Business Relationship Management Institute | 888-848-3012 | info@brminstitute.org | http://brminstitute.org/
211 East 43rd Street, Suite 1606
New York, NY 10017