Published by:
MIT Sloan School of Management
Length: 6 pages
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https://casecent.re/p/6228
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Abstract
Lack of communication among colleagues in the workplace is a widespread problem. Many companies struggle with the ''silo syndrome'' - employees from different departments tend to keep to themselves, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities, particularly those that would arise from chance encounters among people who don''t, but should, know each other. The author asserts that two parallel paradigm shifts are helping to change that. The first is a movement from desktop to mobile computing. The second is the move from individual to ''social'' software, here defined as programs that enable a group of people to accomplish common goals. Together, they say, the two trends have the potential to dramatically transform the ways in which companies conduct business. Toward that end, the author and his colleagues have developed a new technology that could help facilitate greater workplace collaboration. In this article, the author explains how serendipity works and discusses a number of the potential business applications that could arise from its ability to study, track and, perhaps most importantly, predict the dynamics of a social network. He also discusses some of the privacy issues and necessary safeguards - such as opt-in methodologies that would have to be associated with such applications.
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Abstract
Lack of communication among colleagues in the workplace is a widespread problem. Many companies struggle with the ''silo syndrome'' - employees from different departments tend to keep to themselves, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities, particularly those that would arise from chance encounters among people who don''t, but should, know each other. The author asserts that two parallel paradigm shifts are helping to change that. The first is a movement from desktop to mobile computing. The second is the move from individual to ''social'' software, here defined as programs that enable a group of people to accomplish common goals. Together, they say, the two trends have the potential to dramatically transform the ways in which companies conduct business. Toward that end, the author and his colleagues have developed a new technology that could help facilitate greater workplace collaboration. In this article, the author explains how serendipity works and discusses a number of the potential business applications that could arise from its ability to study, track and, perhaps most importantly, predict the dynamics of a social network. He also discusses some of the privacy issues and necessary safeguards - such as opt-in methodologies that would have to be associated with such applications.