The threat to the Enterprise 2.0 mindset.

The Enterprise 2.0 vision is not realized by simply installing new collaboration tools within an organization. Rather it is realized when the mindset of employees shift from either a hierarchical or ego-centric approach to one that is communal. Andy McAfee, the father of the Enterprise 2.0 meme, shared some thoughts on this in his blog post I Know It When I See It, where he explained how three collaborative behaviors — freeform, frictionless, and emergent – indicate reaching the 2.0 stage. Let me quote from my comment to Andy’s blog, explaining how I see the need to take his idea a step further.

The moniker “2.0″ implies a new stage, not just emergent, but transformative. If the use of the tool does not really change the workplace, I’d say it falls short. I’d say for something to earn a “2.0″ badge, it has to make a notable change (improvement). A blog that provides real insight, and when read – people consider new ideas. A wiki that helps bring transparency to projects. A social network that allows workers to discover people they should be working with. Social bookmarks that transform the act of “searching” into “finding”. etc. Whether from the large familiar vendors, or the smaller innovative ones, the goal is to demonstrate value to the business, otherwise they won’t spend the money. Another way that E2.0 differs from W2.0: Since someone else has to be convinced to spend the money to support the purchase of these new tools, by being convinced of the improvements to workplace efficiency.

The change in mindset is significant if it results in a change in behavior.  Let’s start with where most business are today. Traditional businesses grow into hierarchies of authority and responsibility. This provides many efficiencies in terms of administration and task management. The problems: 1. it degrades when you scale it out and 2. it does not reflect the reality of how most of us work. Eventually an organization develops a culture – a set of expected behaviors and acceptable reactions to circumstances. Some organizations reward risk-taking — that’s a reflection of culture. Some organizations push blame around, promote a sense of fear, or discourage dissension — that’s a reflection of culture.

I posted a comment on Sam Lawrence’s blog about the mindset shift. In that comment I suggested that enterprises are starting from their culture, not from a blank slate. Changing culture requires understanding their current position and direction.  Starting from that vector, change takes them to a new and better place.  In the new enterprise, employees view their information as an asset worth sharing.  Employees post questions, and others gladly help with a response.  If information can be shared, it is shared — perhaps on a wiki. Thought leaders share information on blogs, and welcome comments.  Employees share information about websites they are visiting, resources they find helpful, and they update their status publicly.  This communal sharing of information is beneficial to all, since no one employee knows everything, but together they can accomplish much more.  This sounds idealistic and almost hearkening back to socialism or the kibbutz movement.  But it’s not outlandish.  Collaboration builds reputation and relevancy.  Employees who share are looked upon as resourceful.  These are the people you go to when you need something.  And it is happening in many corporations around the world.  I know because I’ve spoken to many of them myself.

The very corporate unit is a legal entity, designed, at least in theory, to leverage the work of many toward shared goals.  We’re not talking about altruism here.  Workers are paid to do a job — and part of that job is to further to goals of their company.  They are not being asked to collaborate in order to be kind or recognized for their charitable spirit, rather they are paid to work, and collaboration is expected. 

Many assume that knowledge is the asset that gets you hired in the first place.  So if you share information, then you are no longer needed.  You gave up the very asset that made you valuable. Right?  Wrong!  That mindset assumes that knowledge is like a static object — one that you can keep or pass around, but one that does not change.  In reality knowledge changes at a faster rate than ever before.  Everything you know is becoming irrelevant.

Knowledge is being created at a faster rate than ever before, and this means that old knowledge is expiring at a faster rate than ever before.  The skill that people want is not “how much you know”, but “how much you can know”.  Your ability to pick up new information, to learn, or to leverage a knowledge network is far more valuable than the static contents of your brain today.  When you understand this — then sharing information and developing a knowledge network makes complete sense. 

All this sounds great — but these days I’m detecting a threat to this mindset — one that is aided by the recent down-economy.  I speak to many employees in workplaces, and to many people out of work, and I detect a regressive attitude about collaborative thinking.  Employees have lost all loyalty to their workplace and are preparing themselves for a potential layoff.  

What results is that employees are more likely to take information and store it in their private web spaces (e.g. Google docs) or in their personal email folders and thumb-drives — waiting for the pink slip.  In this way, they’ll have the information they need for the next job.  And therefore, they are less inclined to share it.

I’m seeing a growth in the trend, and it’s a threat to Enterprise 2.0.  Employees are keeping more information close to the vest, hoarding more, saving more, and sharing less.  Whereas the first challenge to Enterprise 2.0 was the Enterprise 1.0 — with all the hierarchy and silos, the new threat is Individual 2.0 — the empowered, independent employee who sees there is little value is showing loyalty to a company that has laid off many co-workers already.  

I’m interested in your thoughts about this.  Are you sharing more or less with your co-workers?

Tagged as: collaboration, economy, Enterprise 2.0, workplace