Social Business Adoption – The Laggards, The Critics and The Skeptics

14 thoughts on “Social Business Adoption – The Laggards, The Critics and The Skeptics”

  1. Yes, great to see your level-up to “adaptation”! To me, things have *already* regrouped/reshaped/shifted outside the enterprise and the question now boils down to how the organization and the individual can/will react to this (in order to survive long-term).

    1. Hi Joachim, yes, sir! It’s been a few months now since I switched over to Adaptation, more than anything else, because it is much more enticing and inspiring to help facilitate adaptation to new behaviours and mindset than to drive adoption. Sounds much more energising altogether in terms of getting people on board, specially, this particular crowd I am referencing about above.

      I think you are spot on with you thoughts about how orgs. and knowledge workers can adapt to a completely new reality out there in the Social Web and I still see how those “behind-the-firewall” interactions would help both orgs. and employees get comfortable enough to make the jump. Kind of like what Euan Semple has been writing about lately in terms of the oxymoron of having companies behaving 2.0 out there, outside the firewall, when they are still 1.5, or 0.5 behind the firewall.

      Fascinating journey altogether, indeed! Specially, the long term one!

  2. Buen articulo tocayo ! And good to read before starting a new day, optimism is what we must never loose
    I would say, it’s not about what firms adopt, it’s about why and how they change. Helping in there is a never ending bliss

    1. ¡Hola tocayo! ¡Muchas gracias! Appreciated the kind comments and surely spot on with your commentary about always being an optimist in this regard. Carmen Medina actually calls those folks the outrageous, optimist heretics, the rebels at work, and I do strongly believe she is just dead on in terms of how change happens nowadays right around the edges, versus the centre!

      And tackling the big beasts of the WHY and the HOW is where all of the good fun is at the moment!

      Bring it on!

  3. Luis

    Like / +1:
    Open business > Social.
    Adaptation > Adoption.
    Thanks for the stim. These are ideas I can take to work, sleeves rolled up.
    Also, that we need a good challenge to motivate us. When resistors come at me, I know things are moving forward; and I “slough it off like a snake’s skin.”

    1. Hi Jonathan! You are most welcome! Greatly appreciated that kind feedback! Actually, I am starting to think as well that whenever people resist your ideas and are a bit reluctant of change is because you are reaching somewhere: their uncomfort zone(s), which means they are already questioning how they get work done and everything, making you aware that’s the perfect occasion to keep the conversations going so that you can entice that change sooner than they think… Funny enough, this whole week has been like that for me with a bunch of folks who still feel the world of today is the world of the 80s and 90s … My goodness, the work reality that awaits them in as far as a year or two! Going to be lots of good fun watching and experiencing their change(s) 😀

  4. Loving your reflections, Luis.

    You say that people need “Something they can relate to, something they can touch, feel and experience themselves.” Yes!

    You were kind enough to say that I am one of your favourite thinkers *blush*. In fact, all I do is listen to others and try to make sense of what they say in the context of my own experience and perceptions.

    Someone who is heavily influencing me just now is Nick Shackleton-Jones, Director Online and Informal Learning at BP. Some months ago I came across a blog post Nick had written about the Affective Context Model of Learning. My very simple interpretation is that in affective learning, people will learn when they really want to. When they are emotionally invested. When the personal benefits outweigh their fears or takes them out of their comfort zone.

    We can all relate so much to this, I think. For myself, I learned to drive last year when in my mid-50s because I was moving to live in a rural area. Passed my test first time. I am also putting significant effort into learning French. It is a struggle but the idea of being fluent gives me such a buzz.

    Anyway, I see links between what Nick is saying and what you are doing. Here’s the blog post – you may already have seen it:

    http://www.aconventional.com/2010/05/towards-working-theory-of-learning.html

    As you know, learning in the workplace is my thang. Onwards into sunny uplands 🙂

    1. Hi Anne-Marie, thanks ever so much for those wonderful comments and additional feedback input! Loved this quote: all I do is listen to others and try to make sense of what they say in the context of my own experience and perceptions. Yes, indeed, and you are extremely good at that and we thank you for that, because it comes up amplified like you wouldn’t believe it, which is why these conversations and the ones we usually have F2F are delightful!

      On the topic of Learning, absolutely spot on! I wasn’t aware of Nick’s blog post, nor his blog, and I have already subscribed to it! Fascinating to see how fear keeps coming up back and forth all over the place when facing change and everything and this is just quite timely because the other day I was having a phone conversation with one of our executives and he described it quite nicely how, if we would all want to, we could overcome fear in whatever the circumstance, context or scenario: a strong sense of purpose in terms of achieving the goals that we have set our mind to do just that.

      Your examples are wonderfully descriptive in terms of having achieved your goals, despite the fears by having a rather strong sense of purpose, wanting to succeed. I think that’s why vast majority of those laggards, critics and skeptics are in the process of embracing: a bigger, stronger purpose than whatever they were doing in the past in their little silos / corners where no-one is looking. Now, everyone *is* looking 😀

  5. Great post, Luis. The bit that really struck me:

    “That’s essentially the role of the social / open business evangelist, that is, to make ourselves redundant and make our job roles obsolete, so that by the time that happens we would be ready to make the move into the next thing, whatever that may well be, while businesses become truly socially integrated enterprises.”

    When most of the people I work with are saying, “I’m glad that’s finished,” I am usually thinking something like, “OK, that’s done; what’s next?”

    Oh, and a belated congratulations on your new job. Sounds like you found the perfect position (and they found the perfect person!)

    1. Hi Brett, thanks a lot for the kind wishes on the new job and for dropping by sharing this wonderful feedback! Yes, indeed, that’s what I keep telling folks about: always be ready to be on the move for the next thing, because you never know when it is going to hit next! And also why I keep telling folks that social networking is going to stay with us for a long while, but it doesn’t necessarily mean we cannot explore other options, like, in my case, I am doing now with Open Business, which I actually find a whole lot more rewarding altogether! 🙂

      Lots of GREAT fun ahead, for sure!

  6. Great post. Working on this weeks thedigitalattitude,com blog on the “Delivery Professional’s Social Dilemma” because, just as you say here, the adaption issues are hard. Getting delivery people to move off the traditional communications paths and leap into Social Project Management is a challenge that I think is not being taken up enough. For Social PM to work we need seamless online collaboration within a project team, while still maintaining rigorous PM techniques to deliver. Perservance for sure.

    1. Hi Lorian! Many thanks for dropping by and for sharing along that rather thought-provoking thought! Fantastic! And I don’t think it would be just related to Social PM, to be frank. I think anything that requires plenty of structuring in terms of delivering team work is going to demand plenty of innovation and creativity in terms of how to apply social principles into getting the work done, while collaborating more effectively.

      I bet that one of the key challenges is going to be PMs where they feel they would want to retain their power AND control, by not relinquishing information across to their employees, so that these would be able to make better decisions and therefore perhaps send the message across those managers are no longer as needed as they thought they were!

      Yes, perseverance ADN resilience, for real! (But lots of good fun, too, to break the mold and help folks understand how work is changing into becoming more open, collaborative and transparent while still keeping that focus on delivery)

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