August 3, 2007

New Business Model: Enterprise 2.0

With apologies to David Coverdale, “Here I go again”. The problem with organizations today is that they are built upon vertical, top down hierarchal structures. This may make it easier to merge large organizations but can create havoc in building long term business value in the 21st century. Yes, top down direction is still important but we also must consider “enabling and motivating self-directed, thinking-intensive, professionals and managers” to work with each other horizontally and diagonally. Leveraging the hierarchal structures is important but equally important is the ability to leverage large-scale collaboration across the enterprise.

Perhaps this perception is more of a result of PowerPoint since it’s a lot easier to label us as self-contained functions that fit nicely in an organizational chart. What leadership can’t seem to understand is that the components of that small square interact and create value outside of this symbolic containment. Unfortunately, many companies have allowed those walls to become silos that don’t talk to each other. The only solution to the never ending increase in complexity is the collaborative capabilities of the workforce. The tools we have deployed (Social Software and Collaborative Tools) are just that tools. You can have all the hammers in the world but without great carpenters, design, standards, and the will to build something new, nothing will emerge.

Lowell Bryan and Claudia Joyce put it this way:

“The fate of thinking, creative people, stuck in traditional hierarchy, is quite similar to that of Charlie Chaplin caught in the wheel of the industrial machine. Only their agony isn't found between the wheels but rather in email overload, meaningless meetings, and the realization that a matrix is just a fancy word for a prison that they can't escape.”

Posted by Todd at August 3, 2007 6:15 AM

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