… in many discussions around the tools and methods of Enterprise 2.0, Social Software in the Enterprise or whatever you name it.
Especially intranet discussions are too often charaterized by a portal focus – or may I say obsession. When technology is our starting point, it’s no wonder that we care more for corporate memory, information management and systems, than actual users.
The people factor deserves more consideration, unless Enterprise 2.0 (or … you get the point) will fail again, much like technology focused KM efforts of old have.
Shifting mindsets from technology to people is hard, yet it’s essential, because it’s the creativity and motivation of people that drive innovation and knowledge usage – and they deserve to be supported.
Enterprise social software supports and builds upon connectivity and adaptivity (and lays out the groundwork for emergence), and thus leverages the complex systems nature of organizations to their advantage.
I partially agree. But a large part also is related to the enterprise software companies (the SAP’s of this world).
They need to be able and capable to scale down the number of features in their enterprise 2.0 (web) version. You almost need to “iPod-tize” your current (off line) system.
We are doing such an exercise. It’s hard, but if you involve the people (to a certain degree, because you do not want to give them to many options) early on, we are convinced it will work.
Cheers,
Bart
Bart, thank you for your comment.
This sounds interesting, good luck with your implementation efforts.
And your point of reducing the complexity for the people is a good one – offering too many choices is not going to help.
[…] but of disposition, i.e. willingness to participate, to share and to commit ourselves, it’s a people issue from the start, it’s a big task, yet the goal is worthwhile: Clear goals, structure, […]