Euan Semple has set Enterprise 2.0 enthusiasts abuzz with his post "The 100% guaranteed easiest way to do Enterprise 2.0?"
Oh that implementing any technology in an organization could be this simple so I was encouraged to see Ross Dawson with the benefit of half a world away from the epicenter of Enterprise 2.0 hype write:
"But I think your post was dangerous in that some people will take it very literally, and then be disappointed and frustrated when the results don't turn out (or seem) to be very useful."
and the ZDNet blogger Dan Farber adding a dose of reality describing IT's likely reaction to the "get out of the way" suggestion and focusing attention on Dan Tapscott's observations based on his research that:
"the 80 million Net generation young adults coming into the workplace will want to be part of an engage and collaborate model rather than command and control. This will require a paradigm shift that “involves dislocation, conflict, confusion and uncertainty,"
Last September I was a privileged participant when Euan Semple spoke at the University of Warwick's Knowledge & Innovation Networks Social Media Workshop. It was clear from the discussion following his presentation that the grassroots participatory media innovation Euan lead at the BBC wouldn't be quite that simple to accomplish in other participant organizations.
It's my observation of the BBC over the years starting with meeting Colin McIntyre, the BBC's Editor of Ceefax (supporting the Australian Caption Center implementing Teletext subtitling in 1985), or Lizzie Jackson at the 2001 Vircomm (virtual communities) Conference who recently chronicled the BBC's innovative web initiatives on this blog and more recently Euan Semple that the BBC is not a traditional organization. How many organizations have the deep experience to publish this list of Web Design Principles ?
So while we can be inspired by Euan Semple's:
"Do nothing"
"Get out of the way"
"Keep the energy levels up"and
"Provide free social media tools for play"
in my experience essential (and not so easy) ingredients for ensuring an organization creates value from adopting any new technology include:
Changing individual mindsets
Rethinking business models
Adopting analytics to measure value creation
Promoting new skill sets
Changing reward systems to incent both participation and collaboration.
For those focused on "tin tacks" like Ross Dawson some sources showing state of adoption and directions courtesy of Victoria Axelrod and Gary Colet:
- Business Week slide shows on companies using wikis and living and working online. (The latter includes usage of social networking sites and participatory media tools at work.)
- CIO blogger Liana Varon encouraging CIO's to do better at setting goals and measuring performance
- Web 2.5 and issues around technology adoption in enterprises
- Yochai Benkler's Wealth of Networks, an omission from my earlier post on this topic.
And if your interest is in what else the future of enterprise technology might hold the list of forthcoming TTI Vanguard Conferences.
~ Jenny Ambrozek
