Why We’ve Started Talking about Social Productivity
Recently we made a few changes in the way we talk about our platform, our company and our environment. That's not uncommon for us. As a young company we're still starting out, and that means we basically live off trial and error; getting a little step closer to getting it right each time.
Describing what you do is a difficult thing. Describing what you want to do for a company is even more difficult. That takes convincing. Believing in yourself is one thing, but having the person at the other side of the table believe in your story is a whole other. And how do you make that happen when that person is stuck in an old frame of reference and therefore doesn't really understand what you want to do for them in the first place?
We're still figuring out the best way to go about that.
But one important step we took involves the language and concepts we now use. We've abandoned much of our old jargon and instead started using words and definitions which currently have less meaning and connections in the world of business. In fact, we're actively producing that meaning and those connections.
Social Productivity: finding the best combination of human and tech in pursuit of value.
Using the power of people and tech to their respective strengths. We ask from people to be social and from tech to be productive. That means people share when they want to work, meet and communicate, while the tech part makes sure that process is done efficiently and effective.
How did we get there?
At Floown we are bold in our ambitions and forward looking in our perspective. At the same time we’re not afraid to look back. Social Productivity came about when we looked critically at ourselves, at global economic trends and took the motto of the Enlightenment to heart:
Sapere Aude: Dare to Know
We figured a lot of misunderstandings with our clients came from the rejection of new knowledge (we didn't challenge their old frameworks well enough). This is not a recent phenomenon. These clients stand in a long line of organizations rejecting and resisting new technologies. Every generation has conservatives waiting to cut down anything that optimists and entrepeneurs come up with. In the blog post on our website we wrote:
Organizations still mainly working with permanent contracts proved to be somewhat reluctant. They seem to think that the current way of working will remain the standard in five or ten years from now.
Obviously we disagree. We think change will happen, and the sooner we accept it, the better. In fact, with Floown we're helping companies to transition into the new situation now, so they can become Antifragile when it's really necessary.
That larger vision cannot be captured by using standard phrasings like: planning system, scheduling platform, staff organizer, rostering app.
When we're talking about a Social Productivity platform we feel we do capture the entire scene. We feel we're opening up an avenue to talk about a shift in the relation between an organization and an individual. We feel we can talk easier about how people will experience work in a future further away than 3 weeks. We feel we're able to challenge companies to critically think about their role in that shift. We challenge them to learn. Sapere Aude.
A Journey Inward
It's also an internal conversation. By talking about Social Productivity, a concept that still needs to find its footing, we're also challenging our team to upgrade their thinking. To learn more about how the economy will take shape, how employers will utilize their workers, how skilled professionals will regard their clients, how our platform can play a role in all this. How we should work with each other as colleagues.
We dare ourselves to know. Like we dare our (potential) clients to know.
We've started the journey by thinking critically about the language we employ. Because language is living and breathing. Because describing the same thing with completely different words is refreshing. But we don't want to stop at just using a new vocabulaire. We're ready to launch Floown and really contribute to the change we're seeing. Working with our customers to grab the future by the balls.
Futher Reading: Social Productivity
