Instant Comm goes to Oxford -- picture future Trends

You must have read my earlier post death of email. In that post, I mentioned how instant communication is slowly making emails obsolete. Now, here’s an even bigger change. Instant communication language is making inroads to Oxford English Dictionary!! Words like OMG, LOL, FYI and others find its place in the most prestigious English language dictionary. Could you have imagined that a couple of years back? 

I see this developments ushering in trends which will likely change our personal as well as professional life. The trends that I see for the future are: 

• Instant Communication is fast gaining prominence and will soon become the most important means of communication.
• Instant Communication will quickly move from personal domain to professional domain, and will impact our work culture.
• Organizations will soon provide their employees with instant communication tools to communicate as well as do business.
• Organizations will no longer look at instant communication words/language with disdain, and will likely encourage as it will be the language of the new generation of workers. 

• Organizations will look for employees who are adept with the ways and means of instant communication and social media.

• Employees will prefer organizations that allow them to access social media and hence enable instant communication (gone are the days of preventing access to internet in general, and social media sites in particular).

Here’s a word of advice for all.

Employees

Better brush up your social media skills to be in sync with the instant communication culture or you will become obsolete in the fast changing workplace.

Organizations

You should imbibe the social media culture and enable instant communication at workplace if you want to retain your employees.