The Orange Chair

I really appreciate the time and insights David Singer shares with me. Today’s conversation brought up lots of interesting things I want to think about more.

We talked about the recent resource actions at IBM and other companies, and how people were reaching out to their networks to find other opportunities. JF Arsenault (one of my role models) tweeted his availability and blogged about the situation. Others are reaching out to non-Web-2.0 networks, calling and e-mailing people. In tough times, we need all the help we can get.

David observed that being part of a resource action–being laid off, in less euphemistic terms–used to carry more of a stigma. But in an economic climate where even top performers are part of resource actions, it’s not about individuals. If it’s not shameful to be looking for an opportunity and you’re the kind of person for whom sharing things online, it makes sense to reach out to the widest networks you have. You may even have an advantage: you’ve cultivated a wide network, established your credibility both inside and outside the company, and can find out about opportunities you might not otherwise have come across.

One of the interesting consequences of this recession and reshuffling, then, is that the shake-out may give us more insights on what works in the marketplace. Does it make sense to hoard your knowledge so that you are valued more? Does it make sense to share your knowledge so that you gain more leverage on it, create and share more value, and grow your network?

From personal experiences such as regularly getting calls from headhunters because they’ve read my blog (which I always reply to with a variation of “I’m really happy at IBM because I’m doing all sorts of awesome stuff with awesome people, but thanks for connecting!”), I suspect that sharing knowledge opens up far more opportunities than it closes.

It’s difficult for people to switch paradigms. Through evangelism and coaching, I help people who are interested in sharing learn how to share more effectively. Through examples, I hope to inspire people to reexamine their assumptions about knowledge and power, and to try sharing what they know and what they’re learning. If people are afraid of losing their job, they’ll probably find it even more difficult to invest extra time in sharing what they know. Sharing seems slow. But if those who have invested the time to share their knowledge start seeing clear benefits during these uncertain times, then maybe more people will consider sharing.

We’ll see what it’s like when the dust settles. I think, however, that investing in Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 – whether at the organizational or personal level – makes even more sense now than it did it easier times. If you’d like to learn more about getting started, leave a comment. I may not be able to spend as much time doing one-on-one coaching as I’d like, but maybe I can share some lessons learned that’ll help you and lots of other people. You can also pick not only my brain but also my teammates’ brains by engaging us for consulting or application development for your organization. I think we can get through these challenging times, and I think it’s a great opportunity to find out what works.

(Also, check out Joe McKendrick’s blog post on investing in Web 2.0)

A good article here on how the pharmaceutical company is capitalizing on the benefits of cloud computing:

Eli Lilly On What’s Next In Cloud Computing – Plug Into The Cloud – InformationWeek

Using Amazon Web Services, they’ve accelerated deployment time of computing for their users, in this case, scientists. 

Eli Lilly is well on the way in using this technology. It’s worth reading the article in case you were thinking that cloud computing is not for you or your organization. Like virtualization, sooner or later, I believe all organizations will use the Cloud as a matter of course.

Burger King has come up with an innovative way to attract people to their Facebook app. Now, it remains to be seen how this is going to play out, but there is not doubt it is going to attract alot of attention (because kottke.org gets alot of traffic).

For more on this, see: WHOPPER® SACRIFICE – Sacrifice 10 friends from Facebook for a free WHOPPER®

In fact, it’s both. The Times, via the Times Developer Network, is providing software developers APIs to access a variety of information, from movies to politics. It’s pretty smart.

The movie reviews api, for example, provides output in JSON, XML and serialized PHP formats. And they have examples of how to invoke them.

I hope we see more and more companies providing this type of service soon. As it does, mashups will really take off.

I finished reading Generation Blend (Rob Salkowitz, 2008) during the holidays. The book covered generational issues and implications for management and technology, and is definitely worth a read if you’re interested in the demographic changes sweeping our society or Web 2.0 adoption (and the difficulties thereof).

The book crystallized some nagging doubts I’d had for a while. Many companies – mine included – often optimistically count on a generation of digital natives–Generation Y–to power the organizational changes that required to fully take advantage of the collaborative technologies lumped together under Enterprise 2.0. After all, we grew up connecting, collaborating, and sharing on the Internet. We demand intranet technologies at par with the powerful and easy-to-use consumer tools we can’t imagine living without. We ignore organizational and geographic boundaries. We’ve been helping people figure out VCRs and laptops since we were kids. We’re going to help your company get the hang of blogs and wikis, too. Right? Right?

Sure, I’ve seen a bit of that in practice. My Gen Y Guide to Web 2.0 at Work has been viewed more than 25,000 times. I’ve set up numerous wikis for groups who were curious about the technology but who needed a little extra help getting started. I’ve coached many Baby Boomers and Generation Xers on how to start a blog and use it for professional success. I’ve facilitated workshops helping our clients figure out Web 2.0, Generation Y as consumers and as employees, and how they can evolve their business strategies to take these new realities into account. I hear plenty of stories–both inside and outside IBM–of how younger employees are trying to help their teams or organizations learn about and adopt the tools.

But it’s not easy.

Generation Blend has excellent analyses of how adoption of a new tool and its corresponding process can stall due to technology anxiety. When unfamiliar technologies are coupled with generational gaps and authority issues, the politics can outweigh the benefits. If you’re an experienced Baby Boomer struggling with the needs of the changing business environment on top of your heavy workload, you don’t need a young upstart with little experience telling you to try out this unfamiliar tool.

Enterprise 2.0 transformation might even be more difficult if it seems to be associated with youth. Generation Blend points out that advertising campaigns typically link technology with youth, which contributes to the anxiety older generations feel about technology. And in most cases, young employees have neither the credibility nor the authority to lead change. (According to True Change (Janice Klein, 2004), experienced hires are much more likely to influence change.)

So don’t count on us to change your culture. Baby Boomers and Gen Xers need to do most of the heavy lifting.

I’ve known this for a while. I do a lot of internal technology evangelism at IBM, and I’m often asked to speak to groups because my enthusiasm is infectious. I can handle people’s concerns while encouraging them to explore the possibilities. But whenever I can, I try to refer the organizers of the talk to evangelists or budding evangelists who share many things in common with the target audience. Instead of evangelizing directly, I focus on providing evangelists with tools and resources. Yes, people will appreciate my enthusiasm, but true change happens when they take those ideas into their everyday lives. As Crossing the Chasm (Geoffrey Moore) and other books about innovation diffusion have noted, modeling someone whose day-to-day work is similar to theirs will be much more effective, in the long run. By organizing and documenting our collective knowledge, exploring new opportunities, and inspiring people through what I share and what I do, I make full use of my strengths as a Gen Yer who’s learned so much about Enterprise 2.0 in the last three years that I’ve been researching or using it.

So if Generation Y can’t be your primary evangelists for Enterprise 2.0, how can we help your organization transform? Here’s what we can be good at:

• Bringing in new ideas – We’re exposed to a lot of different ideas, and we haven’t (usually) settled on the One Way To Do Things. Tap us for creative thinking in combination with people who bring more depth and experience to the table. My team members ask me to help during our clients’ strategic planning workshops because they know I’ll come up with tons of ideas.
• Challenging assumptions – We do things differently, and that gives everyone opportunities to re-examine what people take for granted. Many people have told me that the way I share what I’m learning has caused them to reevaluate their assumption that knowledge is power and that you should keep it secret. I show that knowledge shared is power, too. One of the most valuable ways I contribute to IBM and to our clients is to show what’s possible, simply by acting as if the Enterprise 2.0 organization already existed.
• Learning – Everything’s new to us, and we’re learning so much. We also recognize the need to build our reputation and our network, and sharing knowledge is the best way we know – but it should be associated with us, not just archived in a knowledge repository. If you can capture some of that energy with wikis, blogs, or a peer-to-peer learning solution, you’ll probably get far more growth and knowledge-sharing than you would if you bombarded your subject-matter experts with directives to share what they know through wikis and blogs.

If you want to help people in your organization connect and collaborate more effectively using Enterprise 2.0 tools, don’t leave it to Gen Y. Involve us, engage us, and support us. Connect us with opportunities to make a difference. But don’t make Enterprise 2.0 a generational issue, because the contributions of the Baby Boomers and the Gen Xers in your organization are probably going to make a much bigger difference and you won’t be able to engage them if you draw those generational lines. If you’d like to learn more about this topic, leave a comment or e-mail me your questions, or check out these other interesting resources:

Interesting reading:

• Generation Blend, book and blog
• Crossing the Chasm, book
• True Change, book
• Grown Up Digital, book
• Can Millennials Really Change the Work Place, blog entry, Tom Davenport
• The millennial organisation, blog entry, Mark Gould
• Net Gen Nonsense, blog