by Rob Paterson
December 30, 2007 at 1:59 pm
· Filed under Adoption, Enterprise 2.0, Immigration, Social Media, Web 2.0
Why do so many people really not get it? Why are so many institutional efforts to become expert about Web 2.0 such failures?
While working on a project for a client, I had a personal aha about this that I would like to try out on you.
I think that Web 2.0 is not just a set of tools but is more a label for a real “New World” that shares many of the characteristics of America in its more innocent years – post the Civil War. If it was just tools, any one could pick them up. No I think that Web 2.0 is a place. A world in fact that offers the same kind of opportunity and barriers that America did in 1890. Between 1870 and 1914 50 million people left everything of their old way of life to come to America. Why?
Because Europe was a place where you had to fit into your place – where the hierarchy ruled – where land was scarce – where no matter how talented you were, the system kept you in your place. You were also deeply embedded in your local society – often your entire world was bounded by your village or neighborhood. America was going to be hard work and had many risks BUT there you could be your own person, hard work could take you up in the social order, there was space and land, there were new relationships available throughout the country. There was social and absolute mobility.
So what then was the immigrant experience? If you were the grandparents – it was very hard. You might be able to learn the language and you were hard wired for the old ways. You came because your children came and they were your lifeline. For the young couple it was still a major struggle but all the incentive was present to put in the effort. If the young adults had children however – everything became easier.
A central theme of the immigrant story was the kids. They picked up the new language, culture and ethos very quickly. There were the advisors to their parents and grandparents.
So I am wondering might be the process for adopting the new Web. Of course there are exceptions – I am nearly 60 and am very comfortable in this new world – I bet there are some young who hate it. But generally, the kids, like the immigrant kids from Eastern Europe in New York in 1890, have no problems and can be a huge resource.
Many at the top of large institutions are like Grandparents. Some junior executives are like the core immigrant. So long as there are no kids involved, the Grandparents are going to make the call. I think the key is to give the kids a lot of power – in institutions that means access to key people and to key processes.
This summer at KETC, the interns, whose historic role has been to make and serve coffee, came into their own. I saw them showing the “old farts “how easy this tool or that one was to use. Or as to why we had to use You Tube or Facebook – because “everybody” was using them. The “Old farts” rather enjoyed being taught by the young – they were much less threatened and could be awkward and vulnerable. The power system had not been turned upside down, but the kids had access to the power people and to the power meetings where they had a say.
It was such fun to attend a meeting of the senior folks and watch them all ears as a 22 year old journalism student took the floor and held them spell bound as she used her own experience and knowledge to shift the group to take the decision.
It was just as it must have been in the immigrant tenements, where the kids became Americans first and helped their families cope and become Americans themselves.
My bet is that the secret ingredient for any organization that is serious about moving from the Old World to the New, will stack the deck with the young and give them a key role to play.
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Rob …
It may be in our still-small circles of people who have taken to the Web and use it, and see the inexorable adoption and progress in spite of much resistance, but I think that the Digital Native – Digital Immigrant divide and metaphor has been much written about already. Perhaps not so much in fora such as this blog.
I’ll be glad to point you to any number of essays, papers and blog posts.
And .. as JP Rangaswami outlined recently at LeWeb 3 the new generations are coming to the workplace already fully trained up in the new knowledge work tools, and seem to take to collaboration quite naturally.
Gary Hamel’s new book The Future of Management also makes many of the pertinent points, and points out time and again that there has been relatively little adaptation of yesteryear’s management methodologies and processes.
Much change yet to come, I think.
Yes Jon – a sea change ahead but I fear a lot of shit to happen to force it to the surface – For instance at home on PEI, our farmers will largely be gone in 2008. Every piece of research tells us that we have the least prepared, fattest, least healthy kids in Canada.
At some point I hope in 2008 – we may acknowledge that we have to have another perspective
I am encouraged by General Petraeus. In 2004 he saw that what we were doing in Iraq could not work and with General Matthis pulled a very small team together to re write the manual – look at the result!
So I think that it is a leadership issue too – when 2 of the top soldiers call for a new way, the institution can change – but I fear that no amount of groundswell will do it without some – a few only – at the top of the existing system supporting the new
I love this thought. I need to ruminate it on a bit more. To have raised this connection, you are truly a synthesizer (e.g. Design Thinker).
IMHO, the immigrants had it easier than the enterprises of today – the physical change in location provided a setting which signalled the necessity for a change in behavior/thinking.
In my interactions with clients, I a finding a willingness to adopt the tools and technology of 2.0 without imbibing the ethos of it.
The challenge we face
Enterprise 2.0 = Tools 2.0
OR
Enterprise 2.0 = Paradigm 2.0
At its fullest “2.0″ is a disruptive innovation – and hence it needs to be adopted as such… hence it needs to be approached as such… hence it needs to be “sold” as such…
This is a state much like ERP – many of the “old farts” bought into the idea of deploying ERP, but approached it as a tool => disaster => bad publicity…
The ERP “industry” learned from these mistakes and started providing consulting services on how to avoid the mistakes of the failures – how to implement ERP as a change in thought process => success…
We need to take these learn from our past, create the collateral required to guide our clients on how to implement these innovative technologies.
I love those photos, Rob. I second Rob Patterson’s thoughts about leadership as I do Chirag’s comment about how pressing physical reality continues to be, as depicted in your photos of the couple who look like they’re having a lover’s spat. Until you work, play and socialize in the virtual world Enterprise 2.0 is a complicated overlay to more work, less play.
I challenge marketing, even Apple’s marketing, to find the sweet spot for a magnificent rather than mundane Enterprise disruption. My favorite iphone feature, is the excellent camera and photo email. Talk about a boon to ilove and igotcha. I see many tools that could help tip mass implementation. Middle-schoolers craved Sidekicks, which made IM’ing take off, even second graders use Nintendo DS to write notes to ANYONE who’ll write back. None of these were ever marketed to me or the “old farts” either – you don’t have to be young to be a market. We need the Twitter Box with the easy key pad, or the Wikibot that leaps over passwords and userIDs. Make it fun and they, at any age, will come.
Thank you Maura – you are so observant – the 2nd pic is a still from Once Upon a Time in America and the two kids in the foreground are indeed having a fight.
I think you have added some thing to the conversation in pointing out that you have to live your “whole life” in this world. It’s not just about play or work but all of it. Then you become a citizen.
I have a feeling that Xbox, a gaming console, may also become a key new channel for TV – from Gaming to Mainstream?
I’m observant, cool! Well if HP can go from printers to gaming, why can’t Xbox go from gaming to TV? It’s a proverbial brand, market, and product mashup in here at the digital space.
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