On
Thursday November 19, I will be joining a KMWorld 2009 conference
panel to share thoughts on "Envisioning
the Enterprise of the Future." My goal will be to identify the driving
forces shaping the knowledge-based organization of the future. Three of these
forces are in play today:
- Multiple Generations@ Work
- Social Computing & Networking
- Decline of Attention Span
All
three reflect a chasm between what used to define "productive" and what may
define it in the future. One thing we
know for sure: Every generation is more productive than the last one, despite
the dire predictions. Managers complain
about "social not-working" and the lost time on the job while people update
their friends on Facebook. Maybe they are right...or maybe not. How could social
networking actually make us more productive?
I
will be thinking about that and related profundities between now and November
19. If you have any ephiphanies, let me know.
More information on the panel, including the other participants, is available here. Slides will be up on the KM world site for registrations in a few days.
Carla,
It seems to me that one of the key drivers of productivity in the enterprise of the future will be coming from a new set of tools (visualisation, pattern recognition, etc) that will help us make sense of the increasing information overload and will somehow compensate for attention deficit disorder. As I wrote elsewhere trying to anticipate trends in the non-profit sector of the future (http://bit.ly/2v3qem), this will require nurturing a new set of skills that will ultimately allow organisations to differentiate themselves based on how effectively they process vast amount of data (the world's "information shadow", as O'Reilly put it in his Web Squared paper - a must read, in my opinion). As Euan Semple noted recently (http://www.euansemple.com/theobvious/2009/11/5/we-want-more-control-not-less.html), this will also require a new type of discipline.
My 2 cents worth..
Giulio
I think there may be a widening gap between management and leadership. Although they have been different concepts for a long time in the academic world, most people in the average organization today typically consider 'manager' and 'leader' to be synonymous. I think this is largely because until recently the limitations of communication technologies meant that the higher up you were in the hierarchy, the wider and more easily your ideas could be spread.
But now as social media become increasingly pervasive inside organizations as they struggle to grasp Enterprise 2.0 concepts, what happens when (extreme example) the janitor starts posting blog or discussion posts about suggestions or directions the company should take that make more sense to employees than those of the CEO?
In some respects the web leveled the playing field *among* companies trying to be heard by potential customers. I think E2.0 tools will have a similar effect *within* companies, leveling the playing field to allow any employee to get his or her ideas heard, and allowing those with the best ideas to develop strong reputations as leaders among their peers.
If (when) the notion of "leadership" shifts from being a reflection of hierarchical position to a recognition of good ideas (and I think it will), it will be interesting to see how well organizations can deal with the emergence of highly regarded leaders, especially when those leaders are not in the management chain and double-especially when their ideas are counter to current management thinking.
I believe the knowledge based organization of the future is that in which expertise and knowledge are truly leveraged on a day to day basis. One of the keys for this to happen is for the people that comprise this organization to be able to work together and understand each other's experience and strengths. It is then that we can leverage true knowledge and create new knowledge - Innovation.
This simply cannot happen if we don't know the people we work with. This is were the social component comes in. I am not saying that Facebook is good for the corporate environment, but it is very good for people to get to know each other. What we need is the 'coporate version' of Facebook. This is where people can actually learn of their existence within the organization, identify their common neads and share knowledge with each other. It works as the most effective people/expert directory inside the organization.