As people of all ages embrace social media as a part of their daily lives, they have come to expect to use similar tools within the workplace.

If social media has altered the way people communicate in their personal lives, why aren’t organizations experiencing the same level of impact with this emerging technology? How do businesses materialize the enigmatic potential of Enterprise 2.0 –  the strategic integration of Web 2.0 technologies into the enterprises intranet, extranet and business processes? In our meetings with CIOs, Agile sees many of them grappling with how to harvest the raw potential of social collaboration tools to create measurable business value.

What is the real opportunity for organizations to leverage social media to increase productivity, enhance effectiveness, and move the needle for some real business KPIs? In this blog series, Agile explores this opportunity.

To begin, we need to define what social collaboration is not.  It is not:

• A portal of one way communication
• Content controlled by a few
• A fixed structure on how information is controlled
• Impersonal

Agile Solutions sees more and more CIOs and IT staff employing the typical “push” models of sharing information. And although there is every good intention of harnessing the benefits of Enterprise 2.0 technologies, most fall flat because these portals end up controlled, impersonal, and non-collaborative (see above).

If social collaboration ISN’T a one-way street, what is it and how is it properly executed in the workplace? First and foremost, Enterprise 2.0 technologies will only have sizeable impact if the organization has a truly collaborative culture. Key cultural characteristics that will ensure a successful enterprise 2.0 strategy include:

• Promoting a healthy level of consensus-driven thinking
• Fostering knowledge-sharing and mentoring
• Rewarding risk and “putting yourself out there”
• Having a fluid and informal structure

If your organization is the polar opposite in culture, chances are social collaboration tools don’t stand a chance in the near term.  A quick lesson on change management from a previous blog will help you understand how an enterprise can go about adopting change – whether that change is in culture or the use of technology.

Assuming your culture is fertile for social collaboration, what’s the next step to enterprise 2.0 tools?  First, recognize how your business is changing from structure-based processes and activities to knowledge-based empowerment of the workforce. And what can employees contribute to the organization’s collective intelligence? What information, knowledge, and experience can they share with others? What relevant information can they consume from other individuals and areas of the business that can broaden or deepen their understanding of their function and contribution to the value chain?

We’ll get further into examples and a maturity model around collaboration in a future blog.

For now, please share your thoughts and experiences. How is your organization leveraging social collaboration? What collective intelligence are you creating? What results have you seen?

“I’m supposed to design and deliver the IT solution, not get people to use it.”  Sound familiar?  Unfortunately, IT gravitates toward the process and technology aspects of a solution, neglecting the third major aspect – people!

It’s an undeniable truth that “a successful project doesn’t equal a successful change.”  CIO’s must be mindful that a project delivered on time and on budget is just two-thirds the equation. If organizational behaviors don’t shift to absorb the IT solution, what’s the point of the project?  In other words, if you neglect the people side of the project, you’ll only deliver a partial solution.

An often overlooked aspect of an IT project is solution adoption.  No one within the enterprise seems to want this daunting responsibility, yet we all tout ROI and project success.  We tend to resist the people aspects of projects.  Awareness?  Socialization?  Institutionalization?  Not things IT spends a lot of time thinking about.  However, to deliver a successful, sustainable solution, IT must consider and plan how the technology  will be accepted, integrated and utilized by organization.

Instead of forcing the change technology creates, affect the resistance.  Here are six key strategic moves every CIO and project team needs to drive organizational change.  Your project success depends on it.

1. Solidify top management support, both from IT and business segments.  They must buy into the short and long term vision, and they must support short term pain for long term gain.  It is management who must raise the cost of status quo and make value visible, clearly communicating why change is necessary and why change must take place now.
2. Meet one-on-one with each key stakeholder from the business to socialize the change.  What are their concerns?  How could this initiative help them?  The idea is to get each person talking about any potential resistance and to build genuine trust.  This step may take some time, but it is vital.
3. Create a committee consisting of key stakeholders.  The committee needs to be closely involved with the change and have a voice through the process.  Engagement helps ensure short and long-term buy in (not just initial, superficial support).  Key stakeholders need to be allies or moderate supporters, at the very least.
4. Make the change incremental to demonstrate wins.  Which areas are most supportive and change-ready?  Start with a focused scope and iron out any issues with the process, technology, learning curve, etc.  Success stories help other areas of the business get on board, recognizing benefits over pains of the process.  Have a story to tell and have others to tell the story for you.  Evolution is easier than revolution.
5. Leverage awareness campaigns to socialize the change.  Let people know what’s on the way, how it affects them, when it’s coming their way, benefits they can expect, and what you ask of them.  Stay ahead of rumors by providing enough information early and often.
6. Identify and use change agents to act as your “feet on the street” and the eyes and ears of the project.  Change agents are close to the people affected by the change.  They leverage formal and informal communication channels (hallway, break room, over the cube) to dispel myths, address concerns, propagate a unified change message, and communicate back any issues or concerns.

Projects are about impact.  IT must stretch beyond the design and delivery role to inspire the organization: align, engage, mobilize, anchor, and sustain the change.

About Agile Solutions: Agile’s CIO Advisory services can help you consider all the complexities of a project or initiative – the big picture and the tactical execution.  Agile Solutions serves as a trusted advisor to the CIO, allowing them to support the business goals, reduce costs, introduce smarter processes, juggle conflicting interests, and navigate human capital.