*Noah Sparks

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Leadership in a Networked Enterprise:
Igniting Cultural Change with Technology Enhanced Communities of Practice

Noah Sparks | Pepperdine University

Details of my year-long adventure beginning in July 2010 to cultivate communities of practice using enterprise social network technologies. The action research pursued here is situated in the LDS Church and is a part of my Masters of Learning Technologies at Pepperdine.

Fire is a powerful force for good when channeled properly. Carefully kindled, a flame can illuminate a dark path, warm a chilled community and rally people to a cause. Fire can crescendo in a stunning explosion of energy and simmer to the inviting companionship of cinders. Just as fire is fueled and sustained by gathering, a community of practice, rich in social capital and enhanced by technology, is ignited and set ablaze by proximity. The force of fire has been harnessed in internal combustion engines and has propelled us forward for the last century. Today’s organization is poised to channel the wildfire spread of enterprise social networks to generate social capital in the engines communities of practice and launch their performance to new heights. New approaches to leadership in a networked world will require torchbearers to tend carefully to the radiant and seemingly elusive power of communities. Are we ready to fan the flame?

In large hierarchical organizations there is risk of redundancy, lack of engagement, and inefficient use of resources. Often these organizations are segmented by department, team and/or job level boundaries. Relationships though which work is actually accomplished are not always neatly packaged within these boundaries. These divides make connecting, conversing and sharing highly contextualized and complex knowledge a cumbersome activity. Today’s organization must be agile and innovative to efficiently accomplish their mission. Without a network of relationships spanning boundaries, little, if any, innovation and agility is available to the organization. Paramount to a solution is a focus on the relationship and conversation in community rather than the knowledge itself. So many business challenges boil down to the softer people side of an organization. Culture, trust, environment, authority, and identity are among the concepts that need the most attention when attempting to appropriately manage risk and maximize return of an organization’s actions. With technology’s ability to amplify intentions and capacity, should it be given a more prominent role in organizational change efforts?

The goal of my action research is to more profoundly understand the impact that adoption and use of enterprise social networking tools have on leaders’ intentions to unite people in communities of practice, cultivate cultural change, and generate social capital.

My Workplace and Field of Action
My field of action is a multi-national, non-profit, religious organization. The organization is composed of a mixed workforce (volunteers and paid employees) and is tens of thousands strong. My role is that of a digital media producer specifically focused on creating elearning products for the Human Resources department and the sister institutions of learning. My observations in this role center around a general lack of sharing, the absence of a pro-social environment, limited collaboration between departments, teams, and job levels.

The focus of my efforts in this action research project is on the organization as a whole. The Human Resources initiative to develop leadership internally was a prime opportunity in which to act and investigate the results. For decades, my organization has relied upon leadership and management consultants to accomplish the task of developing leaders and leadership throughout the organization. Significant business challenges, including underperformance, tight economic conditions, limited leadership succession, and an increasingly complex, global political environment have shifted the approach of the organization from external to internal. The desire is to place the onus squarely on the individual for their leadership development and provide an extremely supportive, collaborative and uniquely customized environment in which experiences, rich with relationships, conversations and content can be created and shared. Nine key business principles and practices have been identified as high priority needs for current conditions. Three of the nine principles are aimed at developing deeper spiritual sensitivity in relation to their work as a leader. These principles and associated practices are packaged together as the Leadership Pattern. This pattern is admittedly not comprehensive. It includes only those elements of leadership, which, if improved upon at this time, are believed to best remedy the current business climate.

My assignment on this initiative was to design and produce a solution, in tandem with the HR product manager and a fellow digital media producer, manage technical and creative resources (four individuals), and cultivate a leadership-focused community. I saw this as an ideal opportunity to help relieve many of the business stresses the Leadership Pattern was trying to address by introducing enterprise social networking and a community of practice for improving leadership. A enterprise social networking platform has not been available to any initiative in the past. Communities of practice have cropped up in IT and other arenas. Some SharePoint destinations have attempted to support communities of practice but have minimal use.

For further insights into the opportunities ahead of me, I sought out others in similar situations to inform the actions I would undertake. A review of the literature around technology innovations as catalysts for the generation of social capital is included below.

Research Question
The question guiding my action research endeavors is:

If I advocate the adoption and use of enterprise social networking, will it cultivate communities of practice?

Research Method
The method selected to investigate this question was Action Research. The intent of Action Research is to improve one’s practice and thereby improve one’s field of action. It is driven by the values the researcher holds as a living theory. The process is iterative, participative and reflective. The ultimate goal of Action Research is to more closely align one’s actions and accompanying outcomes to their values.

The process inherent in the method of Action Research involves identifying a problem or misalignment among action and values, inquiring into what has been attempted in the past to inform a decision upon what action to take, acting as an engaged participant in the research process, collecting and analyzing data related to the outcomes of the action, and reflecting on the results of the action. The reflection on results initiates the process again by clarifying where misalignment in action and values exists. Action Research encourages a researcher to dance with the forces which pervade a situated context in order to better predict outcomes (Riel, 2007).

Entries were made regularly to a blog which captured observations, reflections, further questions to investigate and research notes of behaviors exhibited by others.

Three specific cycles were initiated and completed as a part of this project:

• Cycle One—the evaluation, selection and introduction of an enterprise social networking platform to create and support the development of communities of practice across the organization.
• Cycle Two—the arranging of unstructured, informal face-to-face time to promote trust and sharing among enterprise social network participants.
• Cycle Three—the inclusion of enterprise social networking as a significant component of the leadership development initiative.

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