How Social Media Reveals Invisible Work

Social Media helps us get work done. And, Social Media has a unique ability to show us something about how we get work done that we often overlook. It allows us to see both conventional work and “invisible work”.

What is invisible work?

Invisible work includes all kinds of energy and tasks that contribute to achieving organizational goals but that happen offstage, are done by people who we don’t pay attention to, or aren’t recognized as ‘work’.

When work is invisible, we don’t see how it contributes to results, how much effort it takes to perform, or how much skill it takes to do this invisible work well. We fail to appreciate what this invisible work contributes, and we fail to value it. And yet, without this invisible work, the effort behind it, and the people who perform it, we’d be hard-pressed to achieve much at all.

Social Media Reveals Relational Work

One of the most common forms of invisible work is ‘relational work‘ — all that effort we put into creating, sustaining and transforming relationships. This social, psychological, interpersonal, and emotional work is critical to our ability to contribute to the bottom line in an organization.

[Consider how, when it comes to performance reviews, we’re rarely able to provide examples of this kind of work. We have examples of “concrete” task-y work that we’ve got done–wire frames, spreadsheets, sales calls–but we are less able to show a track record of the invisible work that made this other work possible.]

Now that social media — tools like Twitter, Yammer, SocialCast, Hashable— lets us see and track interactions between people, we can also see what’s going on in these relationships. These tools show us when a person is reaching out to someone, making introductions, recognizing others, affirming them, and more.

Social Media shows us not only who is connecting with whom, but also what they’re sending across that connection. We can see if people are sharing links, offering suggestions, making introductions, or offering positive words.

Beyond basic relationship-building actions, we can see people engaging in the absolute best and most difficult kinds of relational work. We can see them creating work relationships that foster the growth of the individuals in the relationship, the growth of the relational network, and the flourishing of the organization itself.

Relational Work Takes Effort and Skill

Growth-oriented relationships require real skill to build and to maintain. With social media, we can watch as people demonstrate skills like listening closely, acknowledging vulnerability, experiencing and expressing emotion, participating in the development of another, and managing mutual expectations.

Social Media brings into the light the invisible work that goes into nurturing, supporting, encouraging and facilitating the behavior of others.

Once we see this relational work, we can begin

• To see the value of this work,
• To see those who do so this work, and
• To value those who do this work.

Even better, we can learn from the people who contribute relational work to make our own work relationships stronger, more productive and more generative.

Social media itself doesn’t build relationships; we do. However, social media builds our ability to appreciate relationships and the skill the require.

Social Media helps us see the amount, the qualities, and the source of strong relationships, helping us value the work and the people who do it.

See also:

• Be Your Own Hashtag
• How Social Media Create Organizational Meaning
• Is your organization flourishing or withering?

Images: Invisible from Daniel*1977, Je suis toujours invisible from Perfesser

References:
Daniels, A. K. (1987) Invisible Work, Social Problems, 34 (5).
Fletcher, J. (1999) Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power, and Relational Practice at Work. The MIT Press.

Tagged as: authenticity, building relationships, getting work done, Hashable, networking, networks, org 2.0, relational work, relationship building, social media, SocialCast, Twitter, Yammer