Getting Real About Enterprise 2.0

This is a graphically excellent presentation by Oscar Berg, yet I am not sure if I follow through on all points. Now, I may come across as overall pessimistic in my very own field, yet after another intensive workshop in corporate-reality-land (yesterday, and I won't tell where it was, it was great, yes, thanks) this kind of fluffy feel-good presentation doesn't impress me anymore. And no, it won't impress corporate type of guys either.

Let's see, just to point at one thing- the costs of organizing have all but collapsed (he's pushing this on slides 19 ff. but I think he fails when telling us why) ... I would even say that while the costs of communication have decreased really significantly, the costs of coordination have only shuffled (replacing top-down control by freeform self-organization doesn't mean this is more efficient from the start) and the investment for getting collaboration off the ground (guiding, motivation, explaining etc.) needs to be substantial.

But hey, you ask what should we do when we want to get real? I think we best start with explaining what "enhancing collaborative performance" entails, including sound economic reasoning, real-company use cases and success stories. And we should leave the revolutionary zest aside, I can tell you it won't help in any corporate meeting room.

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6 comments

Sep 24, 2009
Let's call it social media and advertising driven approach to Enterprise 2.0. Alternative views?
Sep 25, 2009
Kate Carruthers said...
enterprise 2.0 = meh

still don't think it passes the 'so what' test

Sep 26, 2009
Martin Koser said...
Kate, I am not sure if meh is the right word, Enterprise 2.0 sure is in peril of "fadism" but as much as I can tell some benefits are real.

Hence it's about digging deeper and explaining and prooving them, people who push a "so what" test are prone to do this with much about everything ... so, what exactly is making you say "meh"?

Sep 27, 2009
oscarberg said...
As I think you might suspect, there is lots of details behind this preso. I hope to be able to share a video of me and Henrik presenting it to share this with you. As we presented it at an event where there were a lot of corporate guys (not IT guys, but people from internal comms, KM etc), we know from their feedback that it works pretty well for that kind of audience. One reason is probably because we do not dissect technologies like most other presentations about Enterprise 2.0. What we do is to talk about real-world business problems, talk about why they exist and how to solve them. We even show them a real-world example on how to use the social web to solve a few of them.
Sep 28, 2009
Martin Koser said...
Oscar, I am looking forward to the accompanying audio part of your presentation (and the case study), as a reader of your blog I know that you've got depth and sure know what you're talking about.

Now, I must probably explain myself a bit, and my critique as well. I wasn't looking for a discussion of the technology side of things, I was hoping for a get-real guide for corporate change agents, internal E2.0 people champions and hopefully some lifehacks for external advisors like me. All of us are in dire need of executive support and budgets, a compelling case and story to tell and ultimately well-laid out plans and action items (may also include a line of reasoning about ROIs, metrics and stage-gates).

Let's say that we need more "!"-s and less "?"-s, right?

Sep 28, 2009
oscarberg said...
I guess we are all looking out for a get-real guide...I am currently working with a customer on this, with an task-oriented approach with a proven methodology to measure and evaluate performance. In parallel we are doing internal evangelising to get executive support and find candidates for internal E2.0 champions and pilot projects / processes / teams in the business.

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