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Emanuele Quintarelli's Library tagged "best practices" →  View Popular

28 Aug 09

14 Reasons Why Enterprise 2.0 Projects Fail

It’s a classic adage that we usually learn more from our failures than from our successes. I’ve find this line of reasoning with Enterprise 2.0 failures to be fascinating because of how very different it’s often turning out to be from traditional IT projects.

For one, IT doesn’t seem to be in the driver’s seat nearly as much with Enterprise 2.0. In fact, the initiative is frequently coming from the business side. Two, as the latest case studies emerge and are analyzed, it is grassroots efforts that often end up being the most successful, bubbling up and then across the organization, only then to be formally adopted later. And three, many so-called Enterprise 2.0 projects are local, unblessed, informal uses of social computing software which — by their very nature — are less compliant with enterprise technology standards, legal/HR guidelines, and corporate policy.

The point here is that many Enterprise 2.0 tools are often used widely in organizations without tacit approval.

* It starts strong in a single department and then never makes it out.
* Selecting the tools first
* Selecting the wrong tools and sticking with them
* There are no resources allocated to adoption and training
* It’s purely an IT initiative
* The effort excludes IT
* Engaging with HR, legal, branding, compliance, etc. too soon
* Pushing Enterprise 2.0 as a generic toolbox instead of the solution to specific problems
* Lack of effective executive champions
* Lack of effective participants: Empty blogs, wikis, or silent social networks
* No long term plan or budget for governance, community management, upgrades, or maintenance
* Failure to draw in key influencers as adoption broadens
* Building it all as a self-contained, top-down effort
* Not waiting long enough to let critical mass build

Enterprise 2.0 is unique, however, in the respect that there is virtually no technology risk but there is much higher risk when it comes to people and organizational issues. Social computing in the enterprise is most successful when there is a healthy commu

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enterprise 2.0 dion hinchcliffe failure best practices lessons learned zdnet.com

18 Aug 09

Yakabod Offers Enterprise 2.0 Adoption Best Practices

The culture assessment looks at such issues as the structure of the organization, the nature of the hierarchy, the empowerment of employees, the presence of a mentoring system, physical and virtual work environment, and the promotion and reward system.

One of the issues they address is the collaboration dynamics in the organization. Are there opportunities for unstructured exchanges during business processes or is everything planned and structured? What is the speed of collaboration? How fast can people connect and what are the obstacles? Are there tools in place to support this collaboration? What are the information silos in the organization?

Another issue is the power of inertia. How fast can the organization change? Are they always re-organizing so employees feel that can ignore change? Are there frequent changes in leadership so employees feel they can wait out efforts? Are the employees savvy in social technology?

They also look at the implementation profile for the particular effort. Is the organization ready for this initiative? Is there executive support? Is there a sense of urgency? What are the consequences of not doing anything? What is the leadership strength of the sponsor? What is the financial commitment? How good is the fit of the solution with the need? Do the targeted business processes allow for knowledge sharing? How relevant is the process to the mission of the organization? Do the targeted processes go across the organization (the broader the better)?

Another key area is what they call “winning the middle.” They realize that you need middle management support for the initiative to be successful. This is especially important with enterprise 2.0 efforts as they often allow information to more easily go directly from workers to senior management, bypassing the filter of middle management. They look at the role of middle management in deciding on the effort, as well as their support. How does success of the effort fit into middle managers’ accountability areas? How does it affect their adva

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