Comments on: Enterprise 2.0 Conference Notes: Reality Check with Andrew McAfee http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/06/11/enterprise-20-conference-notes-reality-check-with-andrew-mcafee/ Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:04:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Bill Ives http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/06/11/enterprise-20-conference-notes-reality-check-with-andrew-mcafee/comment-page-1/#comment-160937 Bill Ives Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:48:47 +0000 http://www.fastforwardblog.com/?p=942#comment-160937 Jon - Agree completely. Last year at this same conference I was on a panel called 90% people and 10% technology - because many people says well it is actually "90% people and 10% technology" but the spend in the other portions or worse. I think part of it is the American focus on measurement on everything from wine to work. Here is a post I did in 2004 - Talking About Wine (& Complexity) – The New Yorker - http://billives.typepad.com/portals_and_km/2004/09/talking_about_w.html. In many things, including my local basketball team, it is not always what shows up on the stat sheets that matters. It is the intangibles but we do not tend to appreciate complexity - I think you guys north of the border are a bit better on this but we all could improve. Bill Jon - Agree completely. Last year at this same conference I was on a panel called 90% people and 10% technology - because many people says well it is actually “90% people and 10% technology” but the spend in the other portions or worse. I think part of it is the American focus on measurement on everything from wine to work. Here is a post I did in 2004 - Talking About Wine (& Complexity) – The New Yorker - http://billives.typepad.com/portals_and_km/2004/09/talking_about_w.html. In many things, including my local basketball team, it is not always what shows up on the stat sheets that matters. It is the intangibles but we do not tend to appreciate complexity - I think you guys north of the border are a bit better on this but we all could improve. Bill

]]> By: Jon Husband http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/06/11/enterprise-20-conference-notes-reality-check-with-andrew-mcafee/comment-page-1/#comment-160907 Jon Husband Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:07:07 +0000 http://www.fastforwardblog.com/?p=942#comment-160907 <i>Senior executives want truth so they pay millions to consultants to get it since they cannot get it from employees</i> <i>how to do enterprise 2.0 safely – not “do not do it” – they see value in transparency. (BTW - I also have heard senor executives say that they paid millions of dollars to consultants to do the work that they could not get their own employees to do. Perhaps enterprise 2.0 tools could help here also</i> Like you, too many past posts to refer to with respect to these issues, but wanted to note that I have often suggested that opening up to blogs and wikis and not being overly concerned about controlling the activity that takes place on them could easily save lots of consulting fees paid re: attitude and climate surveys and culture change initiatives. Executives and middle managers could learn to LISTEN more, and take time to digest, reflect, etc. .. and if they say they don't have the time to read, for example, aggregated comments, etc. they could be reminded of all the time they'll save not being at meeting with communications and survey analysts and consultants. It's an attitude and culture thing, as has been mentioned ad infinitum over the past several years by people writing about E2.0 and related issues. It's essentially the same points that OD consultants have been raising for the past 20 years or so .. why does it seem to take so much effort to understand ? Is it because everybody believes so deeply in "the hard stuff" .. measurement, six sigma, action at all costs, etc. ? Senior executives want truth so they pay millions to consultants to get it since they cannot get it from employees

how to do enterprise 2.0 safely – not “do not do it” – they see value in transparency. (BTW - I also have heard senor executives say that they paid millions of dollars to consultants to do the work that they could not get their own employees to do. Perhaps enterprise 2.0 tools could help here also

Like you, too many past posts to refer to with respect to these issues, but wanted to note that I have often suggested that opening up to blogs and wikis and not being overly concerned about controlling the activity that takes place on them could easily save lots of consulting fees paid re: attitude and climate surveys and culture change initiatives. Executives and middle managers could learn to LISTEN more, and take time to digest, reflect, etc. .. and if they say they don’t have the time to read, for example, aggregated comments, etc. they could be reminded of all the time they’ll save not being at meeting with communications and survey analysts and consultants.

It’s an attitude and culture thing, as has been mentioned ad infinitum over the past several years by people writing about E2.0 and related issues. It’s essentially the same points that OD consultants have been raising for the past 20 years or so .. why does it seem to take so much effort to understand ? Is it because everybody believes so deeply in “the hard stuff” .. measurement, six sigma, action at all costs, etc. ?

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