There are so many things floating around about Enterprise 2.0 lately that touch on the 50,000 ft view, but not many that dive into the details.  Before we see mass adoption in the Enterprise like we have seen with social media outside the Enterprise, some key psychological characteristics need to be properly converted. 

I recall the early days of social networking while I was an advisor and investor to ZeroDegrees (acquired by IAC) and my friends’ resistance to joining our network.  My sales buddies didn’t want to share their rolodex or network with other salespeople because they saw their rolodex as a competitive advantage.  They wanted to remain an individual silo – disconnected from everyone else.  We now know how flawed that early thinking was. 

Had the salesperson in my example above known what was in it for him or received some type of currency in exchange for giving up his information, he would have adopted the technology sooner.  

Fast forward to today where the discussion centers around Enterprise 2.0 adoption.  Similar resistance exist but it’s now emanating from the IT department and Corporate Executives that don’t understand the power of these new tools.   They feel their employees will waste time with the tools and become less productive.  I submit another scenario which I outline below. 

So let’s dive right in and examine the following example which I represent is on an Enterprise Collaborative Intranet 2.0 site:

Ok, it’s a simple representation of a few people that obviously have projects that they’re working on.   So what?  Well, let’s continue.    

Let’s add an assumption that my boss is looking for team members to participate in a very important, high profile project.   Now let’s look at the following version:

So now I’ve added a little more information about the potential team members.  I see that Aaron has a much higher level than the rest of the prospects which I claim is a type of reputation score based on experience, projects completed at a satisfactory level and how people have judged their past performance.  The decision for my boss is becoming easier but I still need more information.   

I’ll add some more information which may help my boss: 

I see that Rion and Robert are experts in “M” which in our simplified example means Manufacturing.  However, Rion is working on 10 projects already and Robert only has 5.  That may be due to Robert’s low Level score, but since the project only needs a junior analyst my boss may contact him to help.  Moreover, Robert does have 180 followers so he must be interesting.  

Now imagine if this mini-stat card followed you around wherever you were on the Corporate Intranet.   I contend that you would endeavor to keep the scores high and work harder to obtain greater expertise.  In effect, you’d build up your psychological currency to amass promotions, peer respect, recognition and higher quality work.   

But the goal isn’t to roam around on the Intranet picking up points and followers.  Instead, it’s about building a personal brand by growing one’s experiences and relationships so that the Enterprise can quickly find the best people for the task at hand.  In turn, your Return on Influence (ROI!) works to your personal advantage because you now get to influence the process.  A win – win relationship in my view.   

What do you think?

Read Part 2: Connecting Mind to Enterprise