Is Twitter Like Stopping at the Water Cooler? Is this Productive?

Arie Goldshlager recently posted about the two views of the productivity of water cooler conversations. First there are the dire warnings about workplace productivity lost to water cooler chats. Arie said that in 2008, Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimated productivity lost to NCAA March Madness in the U.S. would cost the economy as much as US$1.7-billion. Idle chatter, it seems, is an expensive waste of workplace time. That may be if it is idle.

In contrast, he links to a study by Alex (Sandy) Pentland of MIT and Benjamin Waber, a doctoral candidate at the MIT Media Lab, who found that workplace chatter, even the idle kind, increases productivity. I would have to agree with these MIT guys. For years I used to quote a study that showed that the vast majority of employees said that the vast majority of their learning occurred in the water cooler rather than in formal classes. I wish I could remember the source. It may have been IBM.

We used these results to design learning activities that were more like water cooler discussion than formal classes. Now Twitter can serve that purpose, especially for people like me who work out of their home. I find much of what I write about on the various blogs I contribute to through the “water cooler” of Twitter. Rather than a waste of time, it is a useful supplement to more formal news sources. And it is interactive. In fact I learned about this study through Twitter as Arie posted it in response to my tweet on how office cubicles can reduce collaboration. These studies are not contradictory. In fact they point out the need to leave the cube and go to a common social space to increase collaboration. So among other things, Twitter is the virtual water cooler.

Then Gil Yehuda, in response to the water cooler issue, brought the question for tomorrow’s post, what about smoker networks. Tune in tomorrow to see my answer to Stewart Mader’s tweet back to us, “is Twitter modern equivalent of going out for a smoke?”

Comments

[twitter.com/Jpdenison]

We have been discussing the merit or otherwise of Yammer in our brand. I believe it adds value. We are a geographically dispersed organisation and many people homework. I think you have hit on a good point that Twitter/ Yammer can replace the water cooler conversations.

I know of people who couldn't work from home because they missed these types of conversations, I doubt the technology will change that, but I definately believe there is value to be had from water cooler conversations. I am sure it was a book by "Cotter" - What Leaders Do, that talked about the real value to organisations of informal communications.

[bill Ives]

Jonathan

Thanks for the comment. Are you still interested in sharing your learnings in more depth. I now have Skype so it will be easier to talk if you have it also. Let me know. You can send an email - [email protected]

Bill

[David Eddy]

Bill -

I remember some case studies Xerox did.

Someone figured the repair men sitting around in the coffee room was a waste, so they put all the copier repair documentation on CD disks & took away the coffee room.

Productivity fell like a rock.

I'm sure there were many factors, but the one I remember is that someone figured out that the kind of person who does well with fixing copiers really isn't much of a reader... they tinker, but avoid reading. So shooting the breeze in the coffee room was a key way of figuring out how to fix the latest machine.

- David

[bill Ives]

David

I found the same thing at a major UK repair division. The plumbers would get their assignments at the local depot and share tips over tea. Then they closed the depots as a cost cutting measure and had the the plumbers work out of their homes. It destroyed the knowledge sharing except for some diehards who took time off during the day to meet. Bill