社交媒体与项目管理“联姻”是“天作之合”？

Jiwat Ram

社交媒體的流行为项目管理提供了诸多便利，使项目相关方之间的沟通更加便捷顺畅。但是，在项目管理中使用社交媒体并不是万无一失。本文作者认为，项目管理中使用社交媒体要警惕下列问题的出现：信息泛滥导致无所适从、信息缺乏监管导致项目风险增加、信息误传导致恐慌、保密信息泄露、正式文件变得随意。作者建议，项目管理中在决定启用社交媒体时，要从技术、意识、领导、知识四个方面进行考量。

Social Media is undoubtedly a disruptive innovation driving new means of wealth creation， creativity in business and ease of organizing an individuals social life. However， all is not hunky dory （没问题） .

One could be tempted to think that bringing together social media and project management would be like "a match made in heaven". Social media can help project management achieve efficiencies in many areas. Examples are： fuller support for communication between project team members and stakeholders； management of issues that arise as a project proceeds； widening project knowledge to include more tacit knowledge； efficient dissemination of updates made to the project plan； effective dissemination of lessons learned when things dont happen as predicted.

But it appears that， despite the unprecedented project management activities across different business sectors and economies， any formal use of social media for project management is still quite limited and， in many environments， non-existent. What might be the reasons for such a situation？ In the present article， we attempt to look into possible causes of such a scenario and highlight some of the potential drawbacks of using social media for project management.

Information overload

The ease of access and ease of sharing functionalities of social media apps could lead to a mindset of sending out a lot more information to project workers and stakeholders. Some of this information could be useful but other parts may be just superfluous （多余的）.

This situation could result in information overload， which could cause individuals to get diverted from the real project work. It might also encourage a tendency for project staff to become unable to differentiate between urgent or important， and non-urgent or unimportant information. This could in turn diminish the utility of information. People involved in a project may start to unsystematically ignore information arriving through social media or at best show lack of attention because there is just too much information flying around.

Potential lack of control on rightful access， receipt， and sharing of information

Social media tends to allow everyone to be an owner and a creator of information. This could have unintended consequences for project work if it continues unchecked. Social media based communication could potentially result in a lack of control over rightful access， receipt and sharing of information. It might result in panic， triggering of new issues， or transformation of identified risks into serious issues. This could result in disruption to work and an unhealthy environment.

If not managed properly， the use of social media channels could lead to difficulties in enforcing level of information access according to entitlement and"need to know". In traditional project management， the norm is to stipulate who should send what information， in what format and who should receive it. It would be difficult for this to co-exist with an"everyone can send， everyone can receive"mode as might apply with the use of social media.

Deliberate communication of contaminated information

Given the open nature of social media， it is potentially prone to purposeful contamination of genuine information. Spreading of biased， inaccurate or misleading information could be highly detrimental to a time-bound project environment.

Sending messages with such misinformation （e.g. changes to schedule， specifications of deliverables， procurement status etc.） could cause uncertainties or even panic about deliverables. It could result in issues with quality assurance and could increase project risks as project staff may take inappropriate action thinking that the information sent to them is accurate and from reliable sources.

Unless there are measures and apparatus in place for ensuring the credentials of information being sent， social media use could degenerate into mayhem and undercut any benefits.

Confidential project information crossing project organization boundaries

One of the potential drawbacks of using social media for project management is concerns that the project related information may cross project boundaries and reach those who may or may not have any justifiable concern with the project. This could lead to misunderstandings about the project and， in the end， possible project failure.

It is not easy to filter every piece of information exchange that happens over social media channels used by project management staff. This means that project information potentially crossing the boundaries of a project is a real issue. Managerial oversight and technological advancements would be needed to deal with such potential harmful consequences.

Formal information being sent in an informal manner

Much project information is typically quite formal. It needs to present a definitive and clear view of the state of plans， designs， schedules， costs， changes and the completion and verification of deliverables. Information that needs to be formal that is sent over social media channels might be dismissed as "casual chat". If not treated as important， that information could potentially lead to errors in understanding and implementation of tasks.

Further， as social media based information is typically communicated via hand-held mobile portable devices， deducing an unequivocal meaning from the messages could be a challenge. Otherwise， misunderstandings and errors will be inevitable. There is a need for technologies to evolve to help distill intended meanings from unstructured text， and to highlight potential misunderstandings.

Until such bridging software is available， project staff using social media as their main interface to project management need to be trained to create project information in a way that is easy to read， understand and feed into a more formal project management system.

In some situations， social media and project management may have a good fit and in others the opposite may be the case. To better understand these situations， we suggest you create a "Helpful vs Harmful" matrix. The matrix could serve as decision-making tool.

To decide whether it should use social media for project management or not， an organization should consider the four capabilities below：

T： Technology availability （Whether the organization has the right social media technology platform available to use social media for project management）.

A： Awareness （Whether there exists an awareness of the benefits and drawbacks of using social media for project management within the organization）.

L： Leadership competence （Whether organizational leadership has the competence and commitment to use social media to the fullest to optimize work efficiencies and deal with any potential problems that may emerge from use of social media for project management）.

K： Knowledge （Whether the organization seeks knowledge and interacts with world outside its boundaries to gain and integrate new knowledge within organization system and constantly try to enhance its knowledge bandwidth）.（From IPMA website）