Shakin’ and Quakin’ - Enterprise 2.0
Here is today’s version of the war between the Establishment (anyone over 30) and the Hippies back in the late 60’s… (except gas is 10x more expensive)
Establishment = corporate control Hippies = Enterprise 2.o
Scott from Attensa and I were just talking the other day about the forces that Enterprise 2.0 (or Web 2.0) adoption brings upon organizations.
So when this post from Dion Hinchcliffe at ZDNet came into my inbox via my Attensa RSS reader, I was intrigued by the title:
Enterprise 2.0 as a Corporate Culture Catalyst
On one hand, shaking, you have the management team - likely to be in their 40’s and 50’s - generally wary (Establishment = ‘fraid ee cats) of the loss of control they’re facing. Dion said it very succinctly:
“And the very openness of Web 2.0 platforms, the control and power that must be handed to every day workers for meaningful results to occur, and questions about accuracy, reliability, and security of such open repositories of information often gives business thinkers pause. Never mind that if you’re an average worker over forty years old or so (meaning most of the high-level management in most organizations), the chance that you’ve blogged or used a wiki isn’t very good. And you might view such unfamiliar tools with a fair amount of skepticism and lack of understanding.”
(And lest any reader think I’m casting aspersions to another group - I’m a 50 year old woman who’s been in management for 20 years saying these things about my peers. Gotta love ‘em.)
On the other hand, quaking, you’ve got the people who’ve embraced Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 tools (the Hippies in the 20’s) and want to live the collaborative, creative and connected lives that these tools promise.
Since I’ve been out on my own - apres Marqui - I have enjoyed helping companies like Chockstone, Intel’s Software Network, OpenMake, and others implement more “Enterprise 2.0″ communications strategies to:
- Engage users and prospects in the public domain - building buzz and word of mouth
- Improve collaboration in and around a company
- Understand and expose their knowledgebase to themselves and others
- Develop thought leadership
- Improve awareness and ‘find-ability’ online (and offline too)
And I will tell anyone who asks that the move to Enterprise 2.0 is going to happen in their organizations. I just hope my generation will embrace the enthusiasm of the omnivores and connectors in their organizations and implement the tools to facilitate the work they’re itching to do.
Call me an aging hippie. Peace out.
[…] Cultural changes come and go, whether driven by technology or the guru du jour, and are often resisted by incumbent management. Janet Lee Johnson, cites Dion Hinchcliffe’s post at ZDNet, and comments on the resistance she’s personally seen to incorporating Web 2.0 and it’s impact on corporate culture—both see it as a generational problem (management is over 40). […]