Knowledge Matters™

Social computing and interactive tools are changing workplace practices – some for the better and some for the worse. For example I think the capacity to invite comments from inside and outside the workplace, and from all around the world is very powerful. Of course this also has a dark side when spammers attack the site. As an aside I often wonder why these individuals don’t turn their talents to something more positive, but I digress. My concern with social computing and interactive tools are the Pavlovian work practices they inspire. What do I mean by Pavlovian work practices?

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian doctor, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1904. Pavlov was most famous for his work on conditional reflex, sometimes called conditioning. In the absence of food Pavlov induced salivation in a dog by blowing a whistle or ringing a bell. Salivation would only occur if the dog had previously associated the sound with food. I think a lot of social computing and interactive tools, like email, result in Pavlovian work practices. By this I mean one stops doing what they are doing and responds to the stimuli immediately and often uncritically.

I see many Pavlovian work practices around me. Email is the most obvious where people stop what they are doing and read an email, even if they don’t respond, as soon as it arrives. Microsoft Outlook even provides a fading image and sound to reinforce the response. This is a problem because concentration is broken. At worst it results in ill-considered immediate responses without the full context. I see people answer a telephone regardless of what they are doing, and sometimes regardless of whom is calling. SMS is even worse. People seem to be unable to leave an SMS unanswered. I am not a user of Twitter and like tools – I simply don’t feel the need to broadcast what I am doing in near real time to everyone I know and don’t know. Further I don’t think those people I know really care!

Connectivity has its place, but we need to be careful of Pavlovian work practices. There are few situations where constant near-real time connectivity and responses matter.

Regards, Graham