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Aum gam ganapataye namya.

Leading in the age of
Transparency: Impact
of Web 2.0 and beyond

Anita Dhir, PMP
Medhira Enterprises

Contents
1.1 Abstract: 3
1.2 Keywords: 3
1.3 Summary: 3
1.4 Introduction: 3
1.5 Project Manager to Project Manager 2.0 5
1.6 Create social media policy for the project and enforce it: 5
1.7 Communication Management 2.0: 6
1.8 Going Agile: 7
1.9 Key challenges: 7
1.10 Quantified benefits to business: 7
1.11 Conclusion: 8
1.12 References: 8
1.13 Author(s) Profile: 8

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1.1 Abstract:
“The rise of instant communication technologies made possible through use of the
internet, such as email, texting, and IM and new media used through websites like
YouTube and social networking sites like Facebook, and MySpace may explain the
Millennials' reputation for being somewhat peer-oriented due to easier facilitation of
communication through technology. This trend of communication is continuing into
Generation Z”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y)

The coming of age of Generation Y and the Net generation and their entry into the
workforce poses interesting challenges for organizations, which must now become
savvy and learn how to manage the use of these tools to attain project success.

The introduction of twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social websites has added a
new suite of tools that may be used to manage project communications. Further, the
availability of these tools via portable devices and spruced up cell phones has also
introduced new communication channels and technologies that challenge project
managers to reconsider their traditional communication and information management
approaches.

Are you using wikis, twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social websites to manage
your project communications? Are you interested in learning how to incorporate Web
2.0 and beyond (Web 3.0) into your communication and information management
systems? This presentation explores the uses and challenges that these tools provide
to project managers and project personnel.

1.2 Keywords:
Social Media, Project Management 2.0, Web 2.0, Social Project Manager, Project
Communications

1.3 Summary:
This presentation explores the impact of “online all the time” on project
communications.

1.4 Introduction:
In 2005, Tim O’Reilly, CEO and founder of O’Reilly Media Inc., brainstormed the
concept of Web 2.0 (See Figure 1) at a conference. The Web 2.0 concepts that
continue to be of interest to project managers are syndication, participation, blogging,
search engine optimization, wikis, and tagging (“folksonomy”). [4]

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Figure 1 shows a "meme map" of Web 2.0 that was developed at a brainstorming
session during FOO Camp, a conference at O'Reilly Media. It's very much a work in
progress, but shows the many ideas that radiate out from the Web 2.0 core. [4]

Over the years, Web 2.0, also referred to as social media, has evolved from social
marketing, social commerce, into “social business”. Some consider that the year 2010
will be best described as “the year social media went corporate” due to the
widespread adoption of social media for marketing, advertising, and customer
engagement. [1]

In an increasingly connected world, as project managers, we must not just speculate
but also decide whether social media is still living up to its positive traits as defined in
2005 or if it has become a productivity killer in the workplace and a gateway to
litigation. To address this conundrum, project managers, responsible for a number of
tactical operations in a company and for managing the productivity of their projects
and teams, must decide whether to be reactive or proactive in incorporating social
media into their communication strategies and practices.

Further according to Wikipedia, Project Management 2.0 (social project management)
is the natural evolution of project management practices brought by Web 2.0
technologies. This second-generation Web environment has imposed itself by virtue
of new Web services and applications, which quickly replace traditional project
management software. Such applications include: blogs, wikis, collaborative software,
etc. With broadband as the new utility, virtual teams now can work together much
more efficiently by utilizing the new-generation, Web-based project management tools.
These tools challenge the original definition of project management. Project
Management 2.0 represents a dramatic shift toward having collaboration as the heart
of project management. The transformation appears in the role of the project
manager and in the interaction with clients. [8]

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1.5 Project Manager to Project Manager 2.0
Traditional project management is concerned with setting and maintaining boundaries.
Currently, many project managers are still practicing traditional project management.
Furthermore, on many projects, the project manager continues to be the “primary”
communicator of the project. This results in restrictions on the level and flow of project
communication. In the face of stakeholders who are lively bloggers, tweeters, and
Facebookers, “open leadership” for project managers translates to having the
confidence and humility to give up the need to be in control while inspiring
commitment from stakeholders to accomplish project goals.[3]

Project managers may use social media networks to communicate ideas, network,
propagate concepts/issues, conduct business and global trade, and leverage the use
of the social media platforms to gauge the customer mood/sentiments, and to gain
insights about specific groups. Project managers can use the social media to evaluate
project and product performance, build an engaged professional clientele, network
with users that they have had no access to in the past, and find people who can
potentially become team members, as well as vendors. Social media can facilitate the
stakeholder identification and analysis. It can also be used to manage stakeholder
concerns and allow for faster and more open rather than restricted and heavily
formulated interactions. Social media also allows for up-to-the-minute updates on
project and product-related information, such as information on upcoming releases,
new projects, and product reactions/user experiences.

Tools such as Facebook with its discussion boards (walls) can be used for
professional/personal/conceptual networking, communicating with stakeholders, and
for project evaluations. Twitter provides instantaneous and up-to-the-second
communication that may be used to track project/product interest (more followers
equals positive feedback) and LinkedIn provides client following and professional
networking/endorsements. Other tools such as Blogs encourage an interactive
environment, allowing visitors to leave comments, and even message each other via
widgets on the blogs. This enables sharing of lessons learned, prompt responses to
stakeholder feedback/concerns, and aids public relations.

Project managers who are eager to jump into the “2.0” bandwagon must keep in mind
that their company may have restrictions on visiting such sites at work or from their
Blackberrys or cell phones. Because of this, there should not only be guidelines
around visiting such websites, but exceptions that allow project teams access to these
sites for accomplishing communication or marketing goals.

Planned or under the table use of social media can have positive and negative
consequences not just to the project, but also to the companies themselves. This
concern makes it become the project manager’s responsibility to address and manage
the logged-on all the time, tweet-happy, bloggers who post information about their
team members, clients, projects, without thinking about the consequences of their
social media interactions.

1.6 Create social media policy for the project and
enforce it:
In order to be proactive, a good project manager comes up with a project policy on the
use of social media, such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and blogs, for
their projects. This social media policy should mimic the company’s existing social

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media policy (if such a thing exists) or be tailored to meet the project’s needs. For
example, a company may have banned the usage of any social media websites but
the company’s marketing team may have created a product launch/campaign oriented
towards the use of social media. In this case, the marketing project manager would
need to request permission to tailor the company policy to meet project goals. Further,
given the nature of instant propagation of information, team members must be
sufficiently warned and prepared for the use of social media. A prudent project
manager may even appoint themselves as the approver of social media messages,
which may, of course, result in communication bottleneck as well as deprive the
project of the organic exchange of information among stakeholders.

Typically, this social media policy must be such that it enhances the positive impact of
social media and minimizes threats that can result from the usage of social media
tools. A good policy on social media is focused towards creating the appropriate
openness in sharing project information and a collaborative environment, facilitating
the work using virtual teams, managing the interaction with a diverse group of users
and clients across the world while minimizing the loss of productivity, litigation, bad
publicity, and destructive communications. This policy then drills down to appropriate
practices and procedures that will guide the project in the use of social media. These
procedures may also entail incorporating these practices while planning the
communications for a project as well as actively updating and monitoring social media
websites for project/product-related postings (often across multiple sites). Given the
scope of the updates necessary to achieve product or brand awareness, a project
manager may need dedicated “social media” resources for this purpose.

A good social media policy distinguishes between project and personal use of social
media and creates an open, transparent culture using best practices which recognizes
and rewards team members who contribute and share their knowledge and best
practices in a respectful and responsible manner. Before Twittering become a trend,
some project managers considered publishing blogging guidelines for team members.
Currently, since a wrong tweet or a Facebook status can be a threat as well, project
managers need good guidelines, rules of engagement, and training to prepare their
team members who may be leveraging social technologies for work as well as deal
with those who post inappropriate or sensitive information that can adversely affect
project results.

1.7 Communication Management 2.0:
Project Manager 2.0 may have sites such as Twitter, blogs, Wikipedia, LinkedIn,
Facebook, and MySpace mentioned as the communication tools for specific
communications. At one time, these tools were simply a medium for people to
network within. Now, they have evolved from simply “social networking sites” to
powerful business tools available for marketing communications and internal
information sharing that allow for 24x7x365 access and can involve all stakeholders,
such as clients, users, and the public at large.

In the planning stage, the communication management plan 2.0 accommodates social
media considerations and incorporates the use of social media tools as
communication mechanisms. The plan may also identify comprehensive integrated
collaboration platforms that can add means to track and execute projects "the social
way".

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1.8 Going Agile:
The current trend of using agile, which itself is based on collaborative, participative,
virtual, and open environments, along with constantly evolving and emergent
boundaries, begs the use of social media to make its techniques and processes a
success. Tools such as Project Insight, 5PM, AceFlex, CoMindWork, Basecamp are
examples of PROJECT 2.0 tools, which can facilitate the agile, collaborative approach
to project management. [7]

1.9 Key challenges:
The use of social media can result in distraction, fragmented interests, and low
attention spans among stakeholders although a research has found that workers who
engage in "Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing" are more productive than those who
don't. In other words, access to social media improves productivity. [5]

As project managers, we must consider the impact of “social media breaks” using the
office internet and/or mobile devices on the team productivity and the team member’s
level of engagement vs. the bans that 70% of the organizations have currently
imposed on social networking. Nielsen also issued a report in October, 2009 which
shows that in the year to June 2009, the amount of time spent on social media sites
came close to doubling, up from around 800,000 hours per month in August 2008 to
1.6 million hours per month in June 2009. The growth of social media put the
category at second highest for time spent online, only marginally trailing entertainment,
which had just over 1.6 million hours per month. Facebook surpassed the 8 million
mark in August 2009 and Twitter was up 979% to 1.5 million in the same month. [1]
These numbers are a reflective of the trends across the world. Among others, these
visitors include our team members and other stakeholders.

According to the June 2009 study of 220 decision makers at US companies with more
than 1000 employees, Proofpoint found that 18 percent of the companies had
investigated a data loss event via a blog or message board in the past 12 months.
Seventeen percent disciplined an employee for violating blog or message board
policies, while nearly nine percent reported terminating an employee for such a
violation (both increases from 2008, 11 percent and six percent, respectively). [2][6]

Other financial concerns include negative posts, tweets, etc that can create a negative
public relations scenario/nightmare and cost a project or a client its reputation which
can be measured in financial returns. On the other hand, a well-executed social
marketing campaign and company reputation can create better relations with clients,
increase stakeholder value, and encourage active (positive) feedback from customers.

1.10 Quantified benefits to business:
Projects using the social network channels provide transparency and more real-time
information than those using web and e-mail applications. Although, currently tying
the use of social media to realized revenue or savings is a challenge, project
managers will need to measure the ROI related to the use of social media by using a
focused approach and data collection.

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1.11 Conclusion:
Companies as well as projects need to adopt more progressive policies and
processes that will work for the “social media” age and not continue to operate as they
did in the industrial age. Project Manager 2.0, the savvy project manager who uses
the social media to be "open" while maintaining control to ensure that their project is
social-media leveraged and protected, can help bring about this transformation.
Project managers have the potential to benefit from embracing customers and other
stakeholders in new ways with Web 2.0 technology, but will have to manage it
intelligently and with purpose.

1.12 References:
1. Armano, David, Six Social Media Trends for 2010, , November 2, 2009,
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2009/11/six_social_media_trends.html
2. Armano, David, Five Challenges Social Media Will Bring to Business, August 14,
2009,
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2009/08/a_recent_survey_conducted_by.html?loomia_ow
=t0:s0:a38:g26:r25:c0.002000:b27841326:z6
3. Li, Charlene, Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way
You Lead, Jossey-Bass, 1 edition, May 24, 2010
4. O'Reilly, Tim, Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of
Software, 09/30/2005, http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html
5. Meister, Jeanne C, and Willyerd, Karie, The Über-Connected Organization: A
Mandate for 2010, November 11, 2009,
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2009/11/the_uberconnected_organization.html
6. http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Proofpoint-Survey-Says-State-
Economy-Leads-Increased-Data-Loss-Risk-Large-Companies-1027877.htm
7. The Best of Web 2.0 PROJECT MANAGEMENT,
http://www.allthingsweb2.com/mtree/PROJECT_2.0/
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management_2.0

1.13 Author(s) Profile:

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Anita Dhir, PMP®, President/CEO, Medhira Enterprises, www.medhira.com, a
lead consultant and trainer providing project management & operational best
practice solutions, has conducted over 500 plus workshops across the globe
and shared her expertise with over 4,000 students. She is an Adjunct Assistant
Professor at NYU & has recently authored PMP® readiness materials.

E-mail: adhir@medhira.com

.

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