Managing in a Web 2.0 world
I have mentioned on more that one occasion that I think one of the key differences of Web 2.0 tools in business settings is the fact that neither IT nor management need to decide to adopt the tools – the employees can do it without anyone’s permission. I remember only 10 – 15 years ago or so having a discussion with a CEO friend of mine about whether he should provide Internet and email access for his employees. He ran a technology company, no less. Today, many can’t imagine doing business without constant, mobile Internet access. Nevertheless, that decision made 10 – 15 years ago means that employees can adopt Web 2.0 tools without managerial permission or knowledge.
One company I recently consulted for was surprised that 2500 of their employees were on a dedicated Facebook network for their workplace. Work teams can decide on their own to set up wiki for project tasks outside the company firewall. Any employee can start a blog within minutes.
Unlike previous technologies, the decision regarding the use of Web 2.0 tools in organizations is not whether to adopt the tools, but how should we manage the inevitable adoption. As managers wrestle with managing in a Web 2.0 world, several tips may be helpful:
1) Establish Web 2.0 policies, even if you don’t formally adopt the tools. “Just don’t do it” will not likely be an effective policy. Managers can make it clear what type of information should and should not be shared using these tools. Also, are certain tools “off limits” from company computers? These tools can be valuable for helping people perform their work, but common-sense guidelines can and should be set.
2) Make the tools available, even if you don’t mandate their usage. If employees want to blog, use wikis, or join social networks, it may be a good idea to make sure that you provide the tools they are going to use. A manager would much rather a work group use a secure, enterprise-grade wiki like Socialtext, than a free and unsecure wiki environment like WetPaint. If they are going to use the tools, you may want to give them the opportunities to do it right.
3) If you do decide to adopt Web 2.0 more aggressively for your business, make sure you teach the people how to use the tools correctly (and learn how to do so yourself). Since Web 2.0 tools are so flexible and adaptable, they are more dependent on effective interpersonal processes than previous generations of technology. Since you can do almost anything with Web 2.0, be sure you are adopting the tools in a way that will meet the business goals you have for them.
So, what have I missed? What other things should managers know about managing in a Web 2.0 world?
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I hope more companies start running and allowing proprietary in-house web 2.0 tools to improve collaboration.
My thought is that while large cap companies may have the funding for this, they have red tape everywhere and therefore will not develop. Therefore the “work-a-rounds” will be semi-openly allowed to get things done in a timely and quality manner.
Micro-caps probably don’t have a budget or resource center for potential web 2.0 costs and therefore can’t have time and money going into it.
Therefore the sweet spot of having in-house proprietary web 2.0 tools will probably be in the small- to mid-cap range.
It was about a year ago where we would implementing enterprise level web 2.0 collaborative tools. I was put through a week long training to implement and customize/develop what we needed.
A year later I am still waiting for the green light. People have asked for dashboards or customized homepages. People have asked for wikis. Many thought it would be helpful to post how to do things in the office, a great resource for new employees. The web 2.0 tools is simply not a priority at this point for us. There are other pressing tasks at hand that need to be addressed and fires that need be extinguished. In addition, an organization may need a lot of training. We had a hard time as it is getting people to learn how to use a document management system which is a collaborative tool while keeping all data in one central location.