Andrew McAfee has been singing the praises of “lightweight workflow.” But is he really talking about reducing churn or just trying to better leverage interruptions?

In a commentary in Forbes, McAfee refers to new software applications like Chatter. These are tools designed to encourage to take advantage of the “social” nature of modern computing. McAfee writes:

Both of them are big steps toward the goal of using technology to more effectively support how knowledge workers actually work, and work together.

The first of these innovations is clever bridging between the realms of structured and unstructured data. A review of Chatter in Infoworld states that “Chatter offers a Twitter-style ‘following’ mode, but with a twist: Instead of just following people, you can also follow data sets like price lists and client lists. When a data set you are following gets updated, you are immediately notified of the change. If, for example, you’re about to make a presentation to a client and your company’s pricing data has been changed, you’ll be in the loop instead of unintentionally giving the client outdated information.”

This feature certainly sounds intriguing. Wouldn’t it be great if you could “friend” important information and receive “Status Updates” just like you do from long lost pals on Facebook?

However, it should also be obvious to even the casual user of social media technologies that such a workflow could become overwhelming. If you have even a few dozen active friends on Facebook, you can’t begin to keep up with all of their activity. That’s acceptable for social connections, where we are expected to occasionally drop out of the loop. At the office, however, too much information is already a problem. Will lightweight, social workflows make the situation worse?

There are no easy answers. It certainly is convenient to be able to “follow” a book at your local library and receive an automated email when your it’s your turn to borrow a copy. On the other hand, we’ve all deleted marketing messages from companies that we do care about because of timing or lack of interest. A lightweight, unintentional, structureless workflow is like being surrounded by feathers. The soft texture may be comforting, but there’s nothing to really grab onto. In the end, you can still get buried.

At Slaughter Development, we’re constantly reviewing the latest approaches to workflow to help our clients. New technologies can increase productivity and satisfaction, but only if they match the culture and personality of the organization and its stakeholders. Learn more by reaching out to us today!

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