Is Enterprise 2.0 such a hard thing to "get"

I just got home from an all hands meeting discussing various things, including group communication. During a discussion about how we would arange weekly meetings I suggested that we used a team blog - restricted to members of our team only (we already have a globally available blog) where we can post and dicuss on team related issues. I suggested that we could use this blog to filter topics that we would want to expand to a full group discussion at a weekly meeting. This idea didn't recieve much support, and shortly afterwards someone suggested that we could "write topics on a white board, and then people can put dots by topics that they are most interested in.....". I was a bit taken a back by this....I am sure that people in the team get what web2.0 and how it could be useful - yet I definitely feel resistance to actually using these technologies . The problm is that we are a technological group that have a role in knowledge management - if we aren't prepared to embrace these technologies, how can we expect others to? Is Enterprise 2.0 ahead of its time?

Don't mention the 'S' word

Today I facilitated a telecom with a group of Enterprise 2.0 affectionadoes in our organisation. We do these global meetings about once a month - but recently our meetings have always ended up going the same way........Someone mentions Sharepoint, and the rest of the meeting ends up being a discussion about what Sharepoint can and can't do etc....

So this time around I decided to ban the 'S' word - as I really wanted us to concentrate on the concepts of Web 2.0 and and how they might be applied to the Enterprise and not get stuck on what technologies we are going (to be able) to use to achieve it.

I think we did pretty well - we lasted bout 45mins before this rule seemed to go out the window and Sharepoint grabbed some meeting time! I know that this is just because we are at the stage now where we are seriously planning implementation of  these technologies. However  it just annoys me that Sharepoint - a technology that in my eyes has yet to prove its value, always seems to hog the limelight away from established technology like Drupal and MediaWiki that have gained so much popularity on the WWW.

Living the Enterprise 2.0 dream

Scott, Simon, myself and a whole bunch of others are part of a group called the DIGWWW (Discussion Group about the World Wide Web) within our organisation. Scott and Simon have  done some of their cool patented presentations describing the uprising of this group on Slideshare which can be seen here and here.

However something really interesting has started to happen.....A hardcore group of us has formed , comprising of people from various different areas of the business - and formed a sort of "unofficial business unit". As well as discussing cool stuff on the web  - we are now leading the Enterprise 2.0 charge by piloting Web2.0 technologies within the organisation, building up case studies of how Enterprise 2.0 can really work.

As Simon posted on his blog a while back,  people actually starting to take notice - and we were recently invited to present to some senior leaders on our ideas, which went down extreemly well, with lots of enthusiastic feedback. What is really great about this group is that we are really living the Enterprise 2.0 dream, and it highlighted something new about E2.0 that I hadn't thought about ... Yes its about collaboration - but more than that it is about channeling and surfacing peoples passions. It is showing me, and I hope others that if you are passionate about something at work - you can achieve amazing things!!!

If you ask Charlie what is important about Enterprise 2.0 - he would reply :  "Its not about the technology its about the PEOPLE!".

Mainstreaming E2.0 Step 5

"The innovation has a poor image/branding."

Enterprise 2.0 example:

Coming from the core business area of my company into an IT role - I came with bad tidings - "most of the software that we are mandated to use is rubbish and we blame you!" . Therefore when the IT department starts raving about this cool new technology that will help you work more efficiently - the obvious reaction is a eye rolling and head shaking.

Solution?

Enterprise 2.0 should be about running web2.0 technologies in a secure environment behind the firewall. Web2.0 technology has been built from the bottom up, and as a result actually appeals to users!! As long as IT doesn't bastardize the technology through productionisation , and keeps the emphasis on pleasing the user and not pleasing the architecture committee, then the branding problem is solved - after all thousands of people use del.icio.us in their spare time because it works and its fun - so getting paid to use is surely a bonus?!

Mainstreaming E2.0 Step 4

"The consumers have to culture new habits to adopt the innovation"

Enterprise 2.0 example:

Whilst I am researching for a project at work, I will always print off a paper to read it because I find it too difficult to read from my monitor - I soon have a pile of papers, which becomes unmanageable when I try to go back and re read something or get a reference. More often than not if I want to do this I will try and remember what search I did in Google and "re-find" the document. This works but it isn't ideal. However I discovered del.icio.us and that problem was solved for me. However I did need to make sure that whenever I wanted to come back to an article I had to get in the habit of tagging them.

I am involved in a trial trying to implement tagging at work, and it seems that getting people to take up this tagging habit is a step too far.

Solution?

The key thing here is that at heart we are all a bit selfish. You can advocate the exciting social possibilities of Enterprise 2.0 technologies until you are blue in the face. However unless you demonstrate to people that the technology DIRECTLY benefits them, and that the social benefits are a free bonus, people won't bother.

Tagging is a perfect example of this, as my colleague Simon keeps saying, when you tag a document you instantly get a "present" for your efforts - not only can you find the document again on your terms, but you are rewarded with other links that are relevant to your tag - ie. you get instant personal value for your contribution. Therefore I think that E2.0 technologies need to be marketed carefully - highlighting personal value before community value.

Mainstreaming E2.0 Step 3

"The innovation is deemed to be too risky"

Enterprise 2.0 example:

Everyone has heard the stories, where staff members have been sacked from their jobs, after posting derogatory comments about their companies on their personal blogs.  This will undoubtedly put people off "professional blogging". People will be concerned that their comments could be misconstrued, making them look stupid or indeed dissident. Furthermore people may be ultra conservative when drawing the line between what is publicly acceptable and what should be kept to a few people - I expect that we have all heard "urban legends" where people have accidentally hit "reply to all"  whilst being sarcastic about company communications.

Solution?

Don't set a blogging policy - this won't make employees feel happier because they know where the boundaries are, it will make them feel there is more risk because there is a clearly defined boundary that they could stray over. 

Lead by example - there is a very big cultural change that needs to happen before employees will feel completely free to write what they are thinking in a place where everyone can access it. Therefore it must be led by example at ALL levels of the organisation not just by senior managers posting high level word smithed posts.

Mainstreaming E2.0 Step 2

"The consumers do not understand the value of the innovation"

Enterprise 2.0 Example:

I come from a non IT, scientific background (the core business area of my organisation), and I know all too well that us scientists are busy people, as I imagine most people are.

We don't have time to mess around with the new technologies spilling out of our IT departments (especially considering some of the rubbish enterprise 2.0 solutions that we are forced to deal with!!). Furthermore I think we have all gotten pretty good at finding reasons so that we don't have to get involved in these projects.

So when I go to speak to my colleagues about RSS, I take the time to explain all the pros and cons of the technology, and I always get a "that's really interesting" response. Loosely translated I think they are telling me - "yup I get what you are talking about, but it sounds like a lot of effort for little gain" - which is why very few of these colleagues then go away and start using RSS. I definitely think that part of this is to do with them being busy - but I also I think that E2.0 technologies need to be seen to be believed.  For example some might think that a blog is a rather self indulgent waste of time until they find something that they connect with and they find interesting - once they see the value in blogging - often there is no stopping them (I include myself in this).

 

Solution?

I think that with Enterprise 2.0 technologies the chicken most definitely must come before the egg. I was speaking to a colleague of mine recently, and he said that he has just got into RSS - I was pleased- but also a bit surprised - I asked him how he got into it..and he replied that he had been into it for a while, but it had really taken off in his department because one of their senior managers had just started to write a blog and they all needed a way of keeping up with it. They were introduced to RSS, saw the instant benefit and that was all they needed to get hooked on it and start exploring and discovering the true value for themselves. Therefore I think that the solution to helping people understand the value of the innovation is to exemplify to the business why the innovation has value with an example tailored to the particular business area - remembering that one size doesn't fit all and that people will use these tools in ways that suit them and that can't be predicted ahead of time by people that don't know or understand their business area.

 

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