Dive Brief:
- An article at Bloomberg discusses how group chatting platforms like the much-hyped Slack are being praised as a fun way to boost productivity at work. These are the same chat room-type apps that flousished in the 90s, back in the early days of the "World Wide Web."
- Group chat has turned the workplace into an ever-present water cooler, the article explains, a sanctioned place to goof around with co-workers that may also have the potential to improve performance and productivity.
- However, not everyone is cheering this latest trend in trying to innovate inside the workplace.
Dive Insight:
"Seventy percent of the chats are people doing standup comedy with each other," an anonymous media professional told Bloomberg. "Just as I find staff meetings to be a colossal waste of time and not productive, I think having the whole staff in a chat room all day is, too."
Harvard Business School research found that group chat can both help generate ideas and also delay problem solving and execution. Even so, not everyone dislikes it.
Chat rooms in the workplace can engage people, Lindred Greer, a researcher at Stanford Graduate School of Business, told Bloomberg. "In the chat room, you can't see things like hierarchy or dominance. If you have someone who is assertive or aggressive, it equalizes participation," she says. Also, without visual clues and facial expressions, quiet types can be more aggressive and introverts can flourish as much as extroverts, which is great for creative brainstorming, Greer says.
