Even though there is a growing amount of information on the web on enterprise social computing a concise guide for executives is needed to outline the benefits and challenges of deploying it to your business.

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I’m sure you all know one. That person that’s always trying to poke holes in your work, the one that never seems to be satisfied, the one that you get frustrated with because it seems like things are never good enough to escape their critique. Well, believe it or not, this person is a very important role inside of your company and more importantly inside your social networks to avoid a phenomenon called “Groupthink”.  Groupthink is a mode that a group of people gets into when they desire harmony in decision making without a realistic appraisal of alternatives and where there is a desire to minimize conflict.

Sure, we all want harmony in decision making, that makes our...

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Originally posted on the Yammer Blog, I wanted to share here for people that might not follow that blog.

In traditional enterprise change initiatives, you tend to start with a defined set business requirements to address a given problem or opportunity. Socially-driven enterprise change, however, is different because parts of the organization are already changing prior to full articulation of a problem or solution. Companies find their employees using social technologies without any formal support within the organization. People are finding value, but may not be focused on quantifying that value into a business case that can be used to support the effort.

Once a company finds itself in the midst of …   Read the article

It’s the time of year once again to reflect and predict. It’s sort of like being the weatherman; you don’t get a lot of credit for getting it right, nor do you get a lot of disdain if you get it wrong. So, have fun with my predictions and make sure to bring your umbrella, just in case.

1. We still won’t agree what to call it

This debate really started in 2010, but has continued to a point where people have stopped debating it and just call it different things. Enterprise 2.0, Social Business, Enterprise Social, Social Media for...

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One of the questions I get asked a lot is, “Are you worried about Google+ as a competitor in the Enterprise Social Networking Space?”. At first, I thought the answer was simple, but I wanted to really get my thoughts together on this and share them with everyone.

My previous post about Why Google+ is a -1 for me covers part of my reasoning. It seems that in order to have any enterprise penetration that Identity and Access Management is a key component that is missing today. You have to assume at some point Google will figure out how to integrate Google+ into it’s Google Apps suite. This will no doubt make Google+ available to many small companies who figure it’s “good enough”. But, there’s a more fundamental issue that really makes Google+ a bad fit for companies.

As many have argued, Google+ seems to have its sights on Facebook. We are already seeing the battle of the titans in... 

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At the last Enteprise 2.0 conference there was a lot of discussion around culture and organization. One workshopy talked aboutOrganization: Next led by Mike Gotta, Daniel Rasmus and Sarah Roberts where we discussed the challenges of today’s organization (mostly HR and Change Management) This really got me thinking about fundamental problems in today’s organization. Then, I started to ask myself, Is it time to blow up a company’s organization structure and start over? The reality is, probably yes, the practicality of it would say no, finally I started to look at what IS possible and came to the conclusion. Let’s re-brand the Marketing Department.

I started to fundamentally look at what marketing is and feel that the word alone usually makes the hair on the back of people’s neck stand up.

According to Wikipedia: Marketing is the process by which companies determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development.^[1] It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments.^[1] It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves

Many people feel that Marketing is more interested in talking to us instead of engaging in conversation with us.

After talking to a few people about this in Boston, there are...

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I’ve been around Enterprise 2.0 (or Social Business) for more than 3 yrs now. Since going to my first Enterprise 2.0 conference in 2008, I have been fortunate to be part of one of the most successful deployments of social technology in a large company (Computer World) to date. The approach was not filled with business cases and justification, but instead was largely fed by need and opportunity.

As I work with more organizations, I realize that a common trend is emerging. There is a group of people in the company that are generally not convinced that the social enterprise is the next best thing;Middle Management. While many other parts of the organization have … Read the article

I recently have been listing to On Second Thought: Outsmarting your minds Hard-wired habits by Wray Herbertwhere he talks a lot about why we tend to do things out of habit (and perhaps how to change those habits). I highly recommend the book as it has given me great insight into why people do what they do. I wanted to perhaps apply some of that to social media, social business and Enterprise 2.0. As I mentioned in my earlier postInformation Overload is an excuse, it’s not really about the information, it’s about ... Read the article