What Would Happen If We Replaced Every Employee With A Social Software Using Gen Yer?
I recently sat down for an interesting interview with Cath Everett at Computer Weekly on the topic of Enterprise 2.0 software. As the conversation wound its way around all the high-points of Enterprise 2.0 we eventually came to the inevitable question of adoption. Cath played a fantastic straightwoman and asked/stated something along the lines of: “Well, its all about user age, right? Adoption won’t really pick up until the employees turn over, and its all Gen Yers.” I hear this question a lot. The belief that older workers can’t be bothered to learn new tricks, and that new employees are chomping at the bit to get social is deeply and broadly held. I’ve heard this question consistently over the past two to three years and have developed a compact pithy answer. To my amazement that is not what came out of my mouth. Instead I calmly replied “Cath, if we replaced every employee tomorrow with a Gen Yer the average enterprise still would not be able to use Enterprise 2.0 to its full effect.”
Well crap. Now my mind was racing; what did I just say? Do I believe that? How could that be true?
Thankfully the more I think about it the more convinced I am that this is the case. First, let’s think about enterprise management. How many managers are truly equipped to manage to social, collaborative workers? We’re not particularly good at managing to team goals today. How would the average enterprise incent and compensate workers in a truly social enterprise? You clearly can’t pay by the Tweet. While I’m sure Andrew McAfee’s MBA students will be well equipped to manage to a new social enterprise, the infrastructure to do so is clearly not yet there.
Second, let’s think about the thousands of business processes already in place within the average enterprise. How many have any room whatsoever to incorporate social content, context, or feedback? Nearly all enterprise business processes will get a long look over the next three to five years as they are retrofitted to take advantage of a truly social workforce, but that work is forthcoming. Without social processes even the most game employees will struggle taking full advantage of Enterprise 2.0, and retrofitting will take some time.
Third, let’s think about the customers of the enterprise. When taken to its logical conclusion a truly social enterprise will incorporate the value and input of not only employees but also of partners, suppliers, and customers. While there are very encouraging signs that customers and experts are interested in taking an active role in enterprise value creation — the Netflix Prize comes to top of mind here — many firms are either not prepared to make use of those insights or do not have a ready supply of external folks ready or willing to help. This will change over time as firms become more adept at soliciting and using external value, but as of today its rarely possible.
So what do you think? Did I shoot myself in the foot? Would a complete transfusion of new blood into the enterprise – assuming you can magically transfer experience and skill – result in a truly “2.0” enterprise?
