Running a company in today’s ever-changing environment requires a more fluid approach to problems and the ability to test solutions through trail and error methods. A company that exists within a fixed vertical structure prevents profiting from the true value of it’s human capital. “There is never an ideal process or system and there will always be exceptions,” says Experience Design Strategist Paula Thornton. The true essence of Enterprise 2.0 is in focusing on optimizing systems around the way people work, not molding people around systems.
One key element of Enterprise 2.0 is simplifying business processes. Rather than creating complex linear paths, the idea is to empower employees with versatile tools that can adjust to changing conditions. Looking towards IT to cultivate these tools, companies tend to rely heavily on code developers when there needs to be an increased emphasis on interface designers. There should be “a 1-to1 ratio of developers and designers. They’re two totally different kinds of mindsets — and while there are unique individuals who can do both, it’s rare,” says Thornton.
Enterprise 2.0 banks on social computing principles which foster sharing knowledge and ideas with transparency, persistence, and accessibility.
While brown-nose Sandy in accounting is Tweeting about how much she loathes her supervisor and Steve from procurement is boasting to his friends on Facebook about the new position he was offered at P&G, Edward in IT is scanning MySpace to make sure no drunken photos of himself at last weekend’s company picnic made their way to employee profiles. While this specific scenario is fictional (co-workers abandoned MySpace six months ago) similar situations are occurring daily across corporate America. Encouraging employees to experiment with social networking to expose them to new technologies can potentially lead to damage control situations for company reputations.
Some companies see developing policies to manage employee social networking habits as the right approach. IBM discourages employees from being ”frivolous” or “uninteresting,” says Gina Poole, Vice President of Social Software. “If you’re just saying [Tweeting], ‘I had pancakes for breakfast,’ it doesn’t really add value.” At Intel, automated software scours the wild Web for any signs of rogue information, undoubtedly scanning all content relevant to employees.
While horror stories ensue, companies still realize they need to find a happy place within this social era, the value of communication prospects will outweigh the pitfalls of transparency. Enterprise social networks are the latest buzz and companies have high hopes of enriching internal communications with these collaboration tools.
