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On Office Pools, Social Networking and Productivity

Since we’re heading into the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games this weekend, I figured it’s not too late to look at how the office tournament pool, mixed in with a little social media, can be a tool to help improve inter- and intra-office communications.

Earlier this week at The OPEN Forum Blog, there was a blog entry, “A Little March Madness Can Be Good for the Workplace,” [link via Fark] that was a refreshing change from the standard, pre-written annual “the NCAA tournament costs employers $_ billion in lost productivity” story ($4 billion, according to the linked MSNBC article, followed by the just-as-predictable counter-articles)

Not to make too big a thing of it, but I think there’s a valid point here about why office pools are good. But it’s not the point about the sketchy numbers, the value of distractions from hard times, or even the soft “good for morale” argument.

The value of things like office pools, happy hours, softball leagues, language learning lunches, and other social activities, is that they help encourage social networking among employees (that’s social networking in the traditional sense, not just online). They provide venues for social interactions among groups that might not normally mix (especially in bigger companies), where interpersonal, horizontal connections can form (no, not those kinds of interpersonal, horizontal connections), which can later help build shortcuts, get around artificial institutional barriers, and flatten hierarchies, to help people form true interdisciplinary teams.

Basically, that was a bunch of organizational jargon that means you can meet people who might be able to help you get stuff done, or who can point you to people who can answer a question, or who might be more willing to take the extra step for you because they know you.

And because these activities are at least somewhat removed from official office stuff (even if they’re sanctioned), they let people engage on a different level than they would on, say, an official “team-building exercise,” or a cringeworthy skit during an all-hands meeting.

I’m just going by my own anecdotal experiences, but I’ve found that establishing and maintaining social connections with people in unrelated groups has paid off for me many times.

Of course, office networking has been around ever since there were offices. So how’s social media fit into this?

I think that social status sharing and “ambient intimacy” tools like Twitter and IM away messages help make it easier to maintain connections that you’ve made during social activities. They’re relatively unintrusive, and even if they only give you the illusion of really “knowing” a person, they can give you context to better prepare you for professional interactions.

(Then again, if you’re a jerk, maybe you don’t want people to get to know you better. But even then, knowing that you’re a jerk can be valuable to other people, so they can either route around you, or figure out a more effective strategy of dealing with you.)

In many ways, corporate implementations of social media tools are just ways to unlock, codify, and make accessible all the personal networking information we’ve got stored in our melons. Which is why I’m interested to see how organizations adopt social media tools that go beyond just pure knowledge management and communication.

Anyway, the office tournament pool is a particularly good example of these kinds of activities — the barrier to entry is low; the skill factor is balanced by luck; the potential financial stake keeps people interested; and there’s plenty of stuff to talk about while it’s happening (and it even has a built-in expiration date).

Is this just an elaborate apologia for the office pool? Or do you think it can be a launch point for better office communication? Leave a comment below. (Heck, you can also tell us how your bracket is doing. Mine is kind of middlin’.)

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