Sorry, I got there about 30 minutes late, and so I have only partial notes for this session.
Andrew McAfee
What Corporate America Thinks about Enterprise 2.0
#corpamericathink
- How to talk to your bosses about technology
- Use before and after comparisons instead of demos
- example: search using MIT’s internal search, versus Google search
- when i want to find the MIT search site, I use Google
- “strength weak ties”
- “granovetter weak ties”
- 49 search results from MIT research, but not one was the right one
- use Google Scholar
- granovetter weak ties
- first result: the right paper, can download the full text, the list of citations, etc.
- google scholar put together in someone’s spare time over a few months
- Present theories and frameworks, not jargon
- grounded in bullet-proof previous work
- example: a knowledge worker’s view of the enterprise
- concentric circles
- none -> potential -> weak -> strong ties
- then explain how facebook helps build, strengthen, manage the weak ties
- Present data, case studies, narratives
- Not about Google, Amazon, etc.
- “I make dog food for a living, literally, my company is 60 years old, not 10, college students aren’t running to work here, I’m not Google”
- Examples:
- Internal Uses Case Study
- Access to Knowledge (68% report 30% improvement)
- “We can’t do it because we have security concerns” –> Really, because the CIA is doing it, and they have some serious security
- “If only HP knew what HP knows, we would be three times more productive” – Lew Platt, Former Hewlett-Packard CEO
- Activate Peer effects
- Anticipate and allay concerns
- don’t wait for the questions, and don’t appear to be some dewy-eyed technologist.
- Show that you understand their problems is very important
- Don’t treat business colleagues like geeks, or dopes
- Very few are geeks
- None like to be talked down to
- Don’t talk to them like they are part of the problem
- 2.0 Adoption Council – http://www.20adoptioncouncil.com
- Helps people get 2.0 stuff adopted inside corporate organizations
- Questions
- How does Enterprise 2.0 related to new leadership inside organizations?
- The job of a leader is to find the spark of genius inside an organization — Nelson Mandela
- So many times I have found people inside an organization saying “Yes, I have that data you’re looking for, no one here is interested in”.
- The technology toolkit to find these sparks of genius has gone from zero to 60 in just a few years
- Age demographics of workers
- The default mode of working has switched from working in private to working in public — at a certain age group
- It’s a really important shift, and many older knowledge workers have a had time adapting to that.
- “The world can benefit from some of our point-to-point interactions if they are done in public.” — some undergrads explained to McAfee
- “Why would I wait until my work is done to share it? Then it is too late to get any help.”
- Forward thinking executives now understand customer service has shifted, the expectations have shifted. The corporation is no longer driving the customer message.
- it takes time
- a technology revolution does not immediately create an organizational revolution
- the organization needs to get the message from the top. if they think it is just another flavor of the month, then they’ll wait it
- what about organizations in the public sector: governments, academia, etc. seem slow to adopt.
- there are more similarities than differences, but one key thing is that business is in competition, and if they don’t keep up, they will fail. government doesn’t have that pressure.
- what about the cluetrain manifesto
- it is very focused on the marketing communication…how to deal with current and prospective customers
- the marketshare of old things versus new things is shifting, but not as apocalyptic as they described
- tried to implement yammer in organization, and it failed miserably. now i am afraid to try anything else.
- if you are a believer, try to address a different part of the organization or a different need.
Expanding on my comments at the end of the session:
“Forward thinking executives now understand customer service has shifted, the expectations have shifted. The corporation is no longer driving the customer message….”
The challenge that corporations are facing isn’t risk, it’s change. Change is expensive and culture change is very expensive.
Leaders are looking for implementation expertise and guidance on managing the culture change that 2.0 represents.
Leaders also need to understand their role in this change. They need to focus on the internal structure and what that structure looks like as their culture incorporates 2.0 in to their environment.
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