Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

Like strengthening your body or training for a race, your readiness for Enterprise 2.0 applications and strategies is often a case of proper alignment.

Alignment - where the philosophical rubber meets the practical road in the following areas:

• Tools
• Methods
• Management framework
• Philosophy

Enterprise 2.0 applications cause concern because of the alignment required to successfully implement them. Leaders must ask difficult questions that have cross-departmental ramifications:

• Tools: how do Enterprise 2.0 applications align with our existing tools? e.g. Would a wiki replace, supplant, or coexist with other team tools?
• Methods: are we open to the implications of using social networking tools? i.e. Are our employees ready for collaboration (often with people they’ve never met) throughout the organization? Do they have the communication skills necessary to get their ideas across to others who may not speak their native languages?
• Management framework: do we (as managers) have the confidence to empower our employees with such tools and methodology? e.g. Are we able to craft a message and immediately let our employees create content around it - without the traditional command and control structure? How much are we willing to let go?
• Philosophy: does our business support the convergence of ideas and actions driven by a new way of communicating? e.g. What if someone in accounting comes up with a new product feature? Will they gain access and support of the product management team to consider implementation? Will they gain the support of their own organization to spend time working with product management?

These are not easy questions to answer. But they are some of the most important questions leaders can ask themselves as they attempt to get ready for a new way of doing business.