I think (and hope) that the Enterprise 2.0 discussion is evolving from a technology discussion to a behavioral one. I am seeing leaders like Sam Lawrence from Jive Software talking more and more about this. In his post, "On Social Networks, nobody thinks you're a dog", Sam says
The most important underpinnings of a social network is trust and behavior.
And in his most recent post, "Enterprise Data Portability needs a Reputation Standard", he talks about reinforcing the right behavior.
The implied connotation here is "Good" behavior. I agree with Sam, but we now need to take this conversation further.
First we have to address the fact that "behavior" is not just a monolithic good or bad thing. Behavior means all of the ways we act. Different behaviors include:
- being aggressive
- being passive
- being nice
- being mean
- being curious
- being frivolous
- being assertive
- being trusting
- being rude
- ...
Of course the list goes on. So the question becomes, "Which behaviors are necessary for an organization to have a successful Enterprise 2.0 implementation?" Or maybe the better way of asking is, "Which behaviors are necessary for an organization to become a Connected Enterprise, where social connectivity drives enterprise productivity?"
My sense is that most Enterprise 2.0 vendors see them selves as a pure technology play, selling primarily to the CIO. I think this is the wrong approach and will only slowly, if ever, lead to a robust market. The key that vendors need to focus on is understanding what organizational behaviors are necesssary for their product to be successfully deployed, and find customers that are already exhibiting those behaviors or are interested in changing their corporate culture to accomodate those behaviors.
Behaviors are the key to success not technology.