Twitter, office noise and the water cooler

The post of Luis Alberola,    « My connected life changed with Twitter https://www.boostzone.fr/my-connected-life-changed-with-twitter/ » was interesting to me for an other reason than its very content. My personal work habits made me miss an important point. I work best on complex stuff when the office is empty… i.e. when there is no noise, no possible distraction, nobody at the watercooler. I love offices over the week end or at night when I am the only one there. I love my home office at night when the whole house is asleep. I was never able to work in an open space office. My productivity is  multiplied when I am alone. For most individuals this is not the case, they love to hear the office noise from the next cubicles, the short chats at the coffee machine or the water cooler or the photocopier, they need to hear the conversations in the corridors just to feel they are part of a wide beehive.
The importance of twitter, or at least one of its important usage, is then to recreate for dispersed teams or nomad workers, some of the noise of the office, making them feel they are not alone to sweat over a complex issue. This is not only perfectly legitimate but probably a must for many organizations and individuals.
The organization implication is quite straightforward, when we construct teams around projects, that are supposed to work together but are not at the same place, it probably makes sense to create a mini twitter group just for the team to exchange noises and emotions and even shared issues. If nobody uses it, no problem; if everybody uses it, it may create a distraction for some (but they can always shut down the reception, as I often do) but more importantly it may create a real team feeling that can actually boost the productivity and creativity of the group.

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5 Comments

  1. Miguel Membrado 6 février 2009
  2. Jon Husband 18 avril 2009
  3. Miguel Membrado 19 avril 2009
  4. Jon Husband 26 avril 2009
  5. dominique turcq 14 mai 2009

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