Enterprise 2.0 Adoption: What Your People Don't Know Will Hurt You
Posted by Ethan Yarbrough on Mon, Jun 22, 2009 @ 09:22 AM
Return on Investment on Enterprise 2.0 tools. Everybody wants it, the debate still rages on how to measure it. I want to focus on some high level ideas for how to improve the chances that your organization will achieve a good ROI. These are ideas that came out of Dion Hinchcliffe's presentation this morning at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston.
When an organization's implementation of Enterprise 2.0 fails, it tends to be because of what the company doesn't know. Here are three key examples:
1. The company doesn't know what it's trying to achieve with Enterprise 2.0 -- It's not uncommon for companies to get caught up in the buzz about specific technologies of Enterprise 2.0 or the hype about the benefits that will accrue to their org. if they start using Enterprise 2.0 tools. Problem is that the benefits of Enterprise 2.0 won't materialize if your goal for the tools is too abstract. "We want to improve knowledge discoverability and creation in the company" is just too broad a focus. Better to remember the mantra of Enterprise 2.0 "Think Big. Start Small. Act Fast." Find a specific problem in the organization that Enterprise 2.0 tools can help solve, start there. Solve it. If your target is specific, people are more likely to feel the impact of the new tools in a positive way. When that happens, their interest level rises and adoption numbers do too. So: Have A Specific Problem to Solve
2. People don't know how to get the most out of the tools you give them -- You can't just throw a bunch of tools out into the company and expect people to know how to use them, when to use them, why to use them. If people are uncertain, they'll stick with existing tools and processes no matter how inefficient rather than take a risk and try the new thing. Hinchcliffe recommended that companies employ a human being to mentor, facilitate and guide employees in the use of Enterprise 2.0 tools. He calls that role the Community Manager and it's key, he thinks, to achieving Enterprise 2.0 adoption. His studies have shown that employees have bought into the concept that Enterprise 2.0 tools deliver answers to their problems faster. But if they come and pose a question to the community through the Enterprise 2.0 tools and don't get an answer within 24 hours, they're likely not to come back and there goes your adoption. The Community Manager can monitor activity in the Enterprise 2.0 tools and guide users to the information they need, find the experts they're looking for, answer blocking issues for them. Not acting as a controlling authority, but as a guide until the users get comfortable doing it on their own. When they get comfortable, the network activity rises to a level that useful information flows without the boost of the Community Manager, but until then, a little help is good.
Incidentally, this post is a result of the activity of a Community Manager. @rlaw68 Tweeted this question from Seattle to those of us in Boston: "Q for those at E2.0 conf: all focus on macro stuff...what are 2-3 small things than can spur interest/adoption in a reluctant org? #e2conf". The e2conf community manager retweeted that post and that's how I and others saw it and that gave us a chance to answer it and rlaw68 a more immediate response to his question.
Final benefit of a Community Manager is that it again helps with "Think Big. Start Small. Act Fast." It's a mistake to try to roll out Enterprise 2.0 company wide (see point number on: have a specific problem to solve), but eventually it's worth having the tools present across the organization. The Community Manager can help drive adoption of specifc solutions while maintaining a strategic vision on eventually implementing the tools across the enterprise. So, Employ a Community Manager.
3. People don't know enough other people to make good use of the Enterprise 2.0 tools. Enterprise 2.0 tools benefit an organization by facilitating connections between people for the exchange of knowledge. Problems occur when people get trapped inside silos of similar experience with each other - when that happens you see a diminishing return on their effectiveness. That is, when they talk to the same people everyday, the new ideas are going to dry up eventually. You have to give them access to people outside their close, strongly connected group of colleagues to achieve the kind of serendipitous moments that really move innovation forward. It's about creating the kinds of loose network connections across the organization that they enjoy in their consumer social networking life -- Twitter, for example. Enterprise 2.0 tools become more useful when they give people a view into what everyone is working on, what they're thinking, what they're talking about, even when those people they can monitor are not a part of their immediate work group So, Cultivate Loose Ties to bring new ideas into the the once-closed systems of workgroups and increase the opportunity for discovery.
This is live blog, written between sessions, top of mind stuff.