The CX Blog

Yesterday I posted some links on the number of companies that are adopting blogs and wikis into their workspace–it’s an impressive name and number list and the interesting thing is: it’s out of date.  So you know more than a mere 40% of Fortune 500 companies are using web 2.0 technologies.

That said, I came across a post today by Ron at KM Consulting wherein the question is raised: how to integrate these technologies in organizations that are deeply silo’d and fragmented.

I have long thought (and written about in my other blog ) that the major hurdle for successful launch of web 2.0 technologies in large organizations is the culture piece of the puzzle. You can sell them on linking abilities, on just-in-time publishing, on attachments and even the ability to harvest information for more formal KM…but when push comes to shove, they will have the most trouble understanding or accepting that wikis or blogs can be managed successfully through communities of users–can and are being successfully managed!

The trust issue is curious: there’s projection…as in, “there are so many tips and tricks that I know the training department doesn’t want me to talk about so what’s to keep others from talking about them if we open the discussion up?” Nothing.  Nothing will keep them from talking about those tips, tricks and…dare I say it?…hacks if they are useful for the job at hand.

There’s the hierarchical requirement for old school measurement.  If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.  And in this case, I’d say, thank heavens for that.  The last thing you want to do with communities of practice or social networks is Manage Them. But the groups you’re trying to convince re wikis and blogs are based on “managing them,” it’s their job.

So you have to move the discussion to role changes.  Perhaps with wiki 2.0 technologies, roles change–the manage-by-metric manager becomes a facilitator and a collaborator.  The more that individual can visualize their new role, the better chance you have of getting the new project out onto the floor.

I actually welcome these opportunities as much as I dread them–culture change is very dicey and difficult, but it’s also invigorating!  You are at the nexus of technology and human nature, and I find that very very interesting indeed.