Business as usual?
by Euan Semple
I have to confess to worrying about Enterprise 2.0.
A lot of the writing about it sounds very like Enterprise 1.0 or even 0.0 and feels at times like an attempt to dissipate the effects of a disruptive technology and assimilate it into “business as usual”. Trouble is I don’t think this is possible, the genie is well and truly out of the bottle and I believe we are on path analagous to the one enabled by the printing press. That led to The Reformation and The Enlightement and shaped the world view that so many of us now take for granted. What will our equivalent of The Enlightenment be like fifty or a hundred years from now?
I am not about to make predictions, nor am I big fan of techno evangelism, but I do believe it is important that in blogs like this, and in the upcoming conference, to be challenging and prepared to be challenged - to feel uncomfortable and be made to question some of our assumptions. There is a high degree of collusion in the fiction that is the grown-up world of business with all of its cultural norms and assumptions. It takes guts for people to break ranks with that and frustrating for those who are not allowed to be part of it - but the fact is that tools like forums, and blogs and wikis flatten playing fields. They give voice to those currently unheard and can expose embarrassing silences.
These conversations will happen whether inside the firewall or outside it and in my view it is better to be part of them than not. We began latterly amongst my team to talk of our work at the BBC as democratisation of the workplace. If this makes some people uncomfortable maybe they should consider that democracies are considered by many to be the pinnacle of man’s ability to organise himself - to the extent of taking up arms to defend them - why shouldn’t they work for business?
Would your organisation qualify for Most Democratic Workplace 2007?
