It’s certainly no secret that things generally … business, government, education, politics … are all in turmoil these days, and it seems clear that the turmoil won’t end any time soon.
A great deal of the resistance to and / or slow uptake of social computing by the larger institutions and organizations in our society are related to fears of losing some perceived control or a determination to maintain control. There has also been a great deal of conversation over the last several years about the need for more open, flexible, changed cultures with respect to most organizations.
At the same time, there are loud and frequent (and growing louder and more frequent) calls for "doing things differently", for new organisational and business DNA. Right ?
Well, enterprise social computing is a perfect type of initiative for these times. Most initiatives need not cost much (this may be different if the organization is a full-blown Sharepoint or IBM Lotus shop), can be up and running quickly, and tend to lead to the kinds of organisational change customers and employees appreciate and applaud.
It can be used to motivate more engagement with employees, they can be asked for suggestions as to how to do things differently, they can be exhorted to give their customers all they’ve got, innovation can be fostered through the breaking down and bypassing of traditional silos of information and ways of doing things, and so on.
An enterprise or organization that starts down the path of widespread social computing (Cisco, Intel, IBM …) will attract better and brighter talent. I am willing to bet my future on that. The use of social computing will be the foundation for information-and-knowledge based work within 5 to 10 years, and clearly customers and markets are expecting, if not hungering, for more transparency and less bullshit.
We live in interesting times. What are you waiting for ?
UPDATE: This may be an example of lateral thinking on my part ? Stuart Henshall just published a post titled "What’s The Mobile Future?". Embedded in it is this quote that I think relates nicely to the window of opportunity I described above …
"Anyone can cut/shrink a business into history. It’s even more difficult to retain the curiosity about the future in such time. In a world with the challenges we have the most valuable employees may be the most curious. These questions can come from unexpected quarters.
The question is do you have a way to start the flow? Do you have a way to enable it once started."
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Always interesting to see one’s quotes used. You think… did I write that, and then I know I did.
Thought a follow-up in this regard is necessary. I’m not sure we can talk to organizations about “social computing”, there’s not time for training, or skills building. It looks like money when we know it is not. So perhaps we have to target the first points of contact….
However, when you have to take 25% or 40% out of your communications and PR budget then the tools you are supporting start to come to the fore.
Similarly, cutting response times and building community among your customers. A simple question of the sales force may just be… What do you know about your “customers” lives? What could you learn and where would you look?
I think social tools will get introduced for expediency when the old tools simply can’t adapt. They will increasingly fall out of the current silos. Right now that in itself is a huge problem for large companies to overcome or any middle manager to take the “risk” to push through. It will help if the “consultant” use these tools themselves… simply with no surprises and that’s still a hard thing to do.
I can’t disagree with anything you say.
Similarly, cutting response times and building community among your customers. A simple question of the sales force may just be… What do you know about your “customers” lives? What could you learn and where would you look?
And I think we know a fair number of smart people who know how to or are learning how to do this, living much of their professional lives on line with customers and colleagues. But there’s a lot left to understand.