Lee Bryant, Headshift: (excerpts) The current beauty of the enterprise social computing market lies in the fact that there is no product. It is a consulting, not a software market: the value is to build processes from basic tools. Tools are "basic" in the sense that they do not conform the one problem one solution rule that prevails in IT. These tools are aliens: they have been built for individual web-users, not organisational processed work. These tools consequently require translation because they are unfinished products for the organisation. They offer room for intelligence and exploration as they need to be contextualised, mixed and tweaked to be organisationally relevant and compliant. It is this very nature of unfinished product that opens doors to thinking more profoundly processes and therefore, potentially, the whole organisation. These tools adapt to the organisation, not the way round (as classical software do). The level of flexibility and granularity they offer in terms of functionality open doors to building tailored processes, which is a source of efficiency.
A lot of decision makers do not offer their colleagues and organisation the chance to seize the opportunity offered by social computing. When working on an enterprise social computing project, we have the possibility to revamp / enrich quite a lot of fundamental processes. We have the opportunity to rejuvenate the organisation, create new sources of efficiency, competitiveness and wealth.
We often don't because the client is rarely educated for that. There is a whole literature on the blogosphere related to this reality so I won't detail. We have to trace this back to the education of managers. This would call to open the Pandora box of complexity and enter the field of thinking both the process and the organisation at the same time.
Enterprise 2.0 is not only the mere implementation of social computing behind the firewall (what and how) but more fundamentally the introduction of employee participation on managing the organisation (why). We have witnessed how web 2.0, i.e. people participation on the web, dramatically transformed the web. Enterprise 2.0 is there to have the same impact on organisations. Lee and Livio anticipated this in 2002 when they created Headshift.
Social networks are very powerful in mapping weak ties, those ties that prove in reality very strong. Mapping social relations (aka social network analysis) beyond the organisation chart offers a more realistic view over the organisation, the real organisation. It displays what connections are in place to have things work; what arrangements are in place to bypass official processes that are either too old or too narrow to really work. Getting to know these human connections is a dramatic advantage when it comes to managing or changing an organisation. It helps "change managers" change the organisation with less blood and tears. Enterprise social computing therefore helps organisations recover their real identity and evolve more easily.
What social computing offers are tools for idea generation, conversations and collaboration; to potentially all individuals. Not only it renews and enriches the whole process of managing knowledge from a blunt idea to a validated product (product, service, process, report, ...), but it opens doors for having employees voice to participate in improving the whole organisation. Enterprise social computing therefore fuels the dynamics for learning organisations.
But what is at risk with the growth of software instead of consulting is the disappearance of this opportunity window to profoundly modernize organisations and change our lives. One problem - one solution software can only favour status quo.
The risk is to close the Zoo and re-open the Museum.
A lot of decision makers do not offer their colleagues and organisation the chance to seize the opportunity offered by social computing. When working on an enterprise social computing project, we have the possibility to revamp / enrich quite a lot of fundamental processes. We have the opportunity to rejuvenate the organisation, create new sources of efficiency, competitiveness and wealth.
We often don't because the client is rarely educated for that. There is a whole literature on the blogosphere related to this reality so I won't detail. We have to trace this back to the education of managers. This would call to open the Pandora box of complexity and enter the field of thinking both the process and the organisation at the same time.
Enterprise 2.0 is not only the mere implementation of social computing behind the firewall (what and how) but more fundamentally the introduction of employee participation on managing the organisation (why). We have witnessed how web 2.0, i.e. people participation on the web, dramatically transformed the web. Enterprise 2.0 is there to have the same impact on organisations. Lee and Livio anticipated this in 2002 when they created Headshift.
Social networks are very powerful in mapping weak ties, those ties that prove in reality very strong. Mapping social relations (aka social network analysis) beyond the organisation chart offers a more realistic view over the organisation, the real organisation. It displays what connections are in place to have things work; what arrangements are in place to bypass official processes that are either too old or too narrow to really work. Getting to know these human connections is a dramatic advantage when it comes to managing or changing an organisation. It helps "change managers" change the organisation with less blood and tears. Enterprise social computing therefore helps organisations recover their real identity and evolve more easily.
What social computing offers are tools for idea generation, conversations and collaboration; to potentially all individuals. Not only it renews and enriches the whole process of managing knowledge from a blunt idea to a validated product (product, service, process, report, ...), but it opens doors for having employees voice to participate in improving the whole organisation. Enterprise social computing therefore fuels the dynamics for learning organisations.
But what is at risk with the growth of software instead of consulting is the disappearance of this opportunity window to profoundly modernize organisations and change our lives. One problem - one solution software can only favour status quo.
The risk is to close the Zoo and re-open the Museum.
1 comment:
I love the notion of Enterprise 2.0, and I agree that it an important shift in how we think about managing change. In 2000, I wrote about the need to address "why" before "how." (Building Capacity for Change Sourcebook.) The "why" is overlooked time and time again. I hope that Enterprise 2.0 can help people recognize that oversight. BTW, "close the zoo and open the museum" is an inspired line!
Rick Maurer
www.changemanagementnews.com (blog)
www.beyondresistance.com
Post a Comment