This is a repost of a blog entry I first published in May, 2007 on my former blog hosted by BEA. This was one of my most popular posts last year and received some nice comments like a nomination in the “Just do it Category” for the Enterprise 2.0 Oscars. (Thanks Niall!) A year later I think it is still a good post
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One of the topics I am asked about frequently and that is being discussed a lot with Enterprise 2.0/Web 2.0 in the industry is the cultural impacts and ability for creating positive change that benefits how people work. People who believe that “2.0″ is the real deal will state with conviction these new capabilities will enable people to change the way they work, and people trying to understand what is new or different or possible with “2.0″ capabilities want to know the how and why it could be used to create improved business efficiencies. It might be useful to look at this question by starting with looking at the concept of company culture. It is very likely that the current culture of a company is ultimately a (or the) major factor in whether a company will even consider using “2.0″ solutions at this stage of the adoption cycle. One example, today countless companies embrace blogging, but many restrict employee blogging or prohibit it all together.
There have been many recent studies on the adoption and usage patterns for these new products and technologies that provide sometimes conflicting data and views, but they are very interesting to read together. A few of these include Forrester, Pew Internet, McKinsey, Gartner, and IDC. (Most are free to read, and all have been blogged about or are referenced in articles)
In addition, Tom Davenport, just wrote about his doubts that Enterprise 2.0 will be a major change force, Why Enterprise 2.0 Won’t Transform Organizations, and Dion Hinchcliffe penned a well thought response, Enterprise 2.0 as a corporate culture catalyst. The two provide very good views of the topic from the two sides of the discussion, but to me the question is first about culture and second whether the technology really enables and empowers people. The reality is that some of the “2.0″ technologies and products will be better at empowerment and they will support transform in the enterprise, but others will fall short of expectations. I spoke on this topic earlier this week in Atlanta, Georgia. The session was video-taped, so once we have it available we will make sure to point out the link. Again, from my view the main issue at hand is not a technology issue — it is a people issue that requires understanding how people work.
In my presentation I explained it in a fairly simply way, which is that there are three main concepts of work style that make it helpful in understanding how people choose to adopt technologies in the work place.
- People know what they know: People are resourceful, and as they build expertise in their career and/or company many will build their own own store of information in order to fill in the gaps that exist between the various personal productivity tools, applications and other enterprise systems. One issue with these “stores of information” is that they exist outside of the corporate systems and network and they therefore are not usually available to the “social network” and therefore “the company” loses out on the “wisdom of crowd” opportunities that could exist. And of course when people leave the company or change positions the information and intellectual property can be lost.
- People know who they know: Many people will fill their own knowledge gaps by identifying experts in and outside of the company who they can leverage when needed. Of course this can be an imperfect system since it relies on word of mouth and the luck of meeting someone. The concern for every company should be the fragility of how these social networks are built around certain connectors who are the “social” people connecting groups inside and outside the company. The very popular book — The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell — has one of the best written explanations of social networks for people wanting an easy read to better understand the concepts.
- People know how to get work done: At the end of the day, people get work done. It is important to understand that people will only use technology when they perceive that it adds value to how they work. Study after study, and any real-life observation shows that people will avoid technology where they get no perceived value – countless people only go use an ERP or CRM system when they have no choice because they have finally reached the point of their task where they simply have to “update the system”.
The challenge at work for the average person is that the productivity tools they are given (email, groupware, spreadsheets, etc) generally are not directly able to leverage enterprise systems, and they do not actually make it easy to share information so other tools are used for team and group sharing. (file shares, blogs, wikis, portals, etc). The new “2.0″ products and concepts look to provide an opportunity to fill these gaps and provide the social concepts to support free form collaboration, but also as needed within the context of enterprise business processes and IT governance. In this scenario, each company will determine the right level of “free form” and “control” that meets with their culture. These are the core issues that I believe are important to best position companies for success by leveraging these emerging capabilities and methodologies in a way that combines the best principles of SOA, BPM and Social computing products and technologies.
