Henry Ford did something interesting way back when. He overpaid the employee; 2-3 times the average wage for the time (Five Dollars a Day). Not only that, there were thousands of people lined up to take that one job opening if one did open up. In return for this high wage, the employee worked in a crappy job, screwing a nut on a bolt for 12 hours a day, and gave his loyalty. Loyalty may not be the right word, but the employee traded autonomy, freedom, and innovation for money and security. Don’t get too high and mighty; we in the Information Technology could easily be described in the same way. No, you’re not sitting in a 100 degree factory putting in a radiator for the 50th time. Instead, you’re sitting in an 8x8 cube working some process for the 1,000th time. Overpaid? There are a million people sitting in India and Russia willing to do your job for a tenth of the price. Other than making you depressed, what’s the point? The point is that Collaborative and Social Software alters the equation dramatically. You now have the opportunity to break out of this situation. Collaboration shifts the balance of power to the individual and allows you to define your value in a world of sameness. It’s about disruption and self-organization which can, will, and should alter the essence of value creation in the enterprise. Hang on! The ride will not be smooth, not without headaches and the road will have plenty of doomsday distracters.