I read an article over the Holidays that stated that 70% of the people surveyed indicated that they only use 15-20% of their skills in the current role. I believe there is more truth in this result than many people, especially in leadership positions, would admit. First, think of the employee of today. Most Information Technology professionals that I know have an MBA, business experience or actually operate a side business. Therefore, they have a foundational understanding of accounting, marketing, finance, and product development. Yet, these skills are usually left at the outside when entering the enterprise. On the other side of the coin, most job descriptions are so narrowly defined that you can only apply 20% of your skills to the function to begin with. Since the old school of management believes that they know what’s best fro the employee and everyone must follow the same play book; that 80% will remain locked outside.

Enterprise 2.0 does change this slightly but any step in the right direction is positive. While I might not be an expert in product innovation, I have enough experience and read enough publications to discuss issues and generate ideas. Ten years ago that would mean sitting down with my IT buddies over lunch. Today, that means getting on the IP weblog and posting the ideas which can be read and reused by anyone. I can jump on the wiki and change the idea or provide insight into the service levels needed by the technology community. These new tools allow me to go outside and bring that 80% in house and begin to generate value from those skills. Imagine if the entire employee base did that.