By Christine McLeod, CHRP

Media and technology have transformed both HOW I work, as well as the kind of work I do. In the past 18 months, four tools in particular have made me more productive and connected.  My hope is that you will leave this post inspired to try one of them or reply below with YOUR favourite new tools.

Skype:
I now use Skype more than my cell phone.  I don’t use the video calling much, but daily I Skype-chat with people to move projects or initiatives forward, sharing files, links and adding people to the conversation threads. These conversations are tracked and filed for up to 6 months.

Uses within an organization: real time conversation when you need a quick answer; free 1:1 conference call or small team meetings; easy to file share and add people to the conversation while in a real time meeting.

Facebook Groups:
The new Facebook Groups provide a collaboration space, a resource go-to and a support group all in one. The 10-12 groups I am part of are 110 per cent relevant to the way I work and what I work on, save me time and give me valuable knowledge.

Uses within an organization: as groups can be open or closed (approved access required), good for project/departmental/company project team work; upload shared documents and collaborate in real time; set up chat for the group; group messaging; valuable role relevant grouping possible.

Hootsuite:
Twitter can be a bit overwhelming if you don’t sort your conversations and data – with Hootsuite, if I can stay on top of my various lists and keywords AND I can also post to different social media channels very easily all from one place.

Uses in organization: If there are several Twitter accounts within the organization, Hootsuite allows you to track the chatter all from one place. Easy for team members to schedule posts to Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and more. Use hashtags (# ___) to track conversations WITHIN the organization; good listening tool for mentions about your brand or hashtag.

37 Signals:
I work with clients and my team virtually and I am finding email increasingly cumbersome. I use Basecamp from 37signals for real time collaboration- I can invite clients  and sub contractors and other people I work with. We all access the same tools, conversation threads and that visibility helps us move faster, in a more informed way, with greater buy in, with fewer mistakes, more creatively. This summer one part of my team was in Sweden, one in Toronto, one in Pakistan and one in Squamish. Between Skype and 37signals, we worked seamlessly with very little email clutter.

Uses in organizations: For about $49 a month, you can have a tremendous amount of storage and dozens of projects on the go. Emails, files, to-do lists, calendar, important milestones all kept in one central place. Add or revoke admin privileges at the click of a keystroke; great for virtual teams, but equally good when working in the same office.

I could go on with another half dozen tools that each day I get exposed to like Jing and Dropbox and Google Docs and Twylah and Paper.li and Xobni not to mention the social media platforms I use, but I will stop here for today because truly the four I mentioned are the ones that have transformed how I work and have allowed me to transcend time, space and traditional “hierarchy” to be more relevant, informed, creative, and collaborative.

My invitation to you is to tweak your curious muscle, and dive into a new tool today – and if you don’t know which one to take for a test drive, ask your network…. in person or virtual.

Christine McLeod, CHRP has been in executive HR roles for over a decade. Two years ago she left the corporate HR world and founded Impact People Practices, a boutique consulting firm helping to transform Canadian workplaces, one engaged department at a time. This fall, Christine is holding Canada’s first Social Media & HR conferences Oct 6^th in Squamish BC and November 7^th in Toronto. With only 99 spots for senior HR leaders and C-Suite leaders, find out more at http://www.impact99.ca.