So I’m at the end of a series of posts that started with my core beliefs about E2.0 and is working through each of them in turn to explore their implications for E2.0 strategy and practice.
In this post we’ll look at my seventh and final core belief: E2.0 holds enormous potential for transforming not only how individual organizations operate but also how we create and manage organizations generally.
Talking out of both sides of my mouth
This may seem like it’s coming out of left field to those of you who’ve been following this series over the last month or so, because I’ve been so busy downplaying the radical, future-is-now aspects of E2.0 in favor of a more organic perspective, one that approaches E2.0 as a natural extension of E1.0.
But no matter how much I’ve stressed the importance of tempering our unbridled enthusiasm for E2.0 and argued for its close ties to E1.0, what I definitely haven’t done is downplay the tremendous promise it holds for organizations.
However, in talking about E2.0’s promise, I’ll admit that I’ve focused mainly on the tangible, hard benefits of E2.0. But this is only half (or even less than half) of the story. True, it’s the half that more often than not will get the check for E2.0 written; but in the grand scheme of things, these other benefits may end up having more (and more lasting) impact on the organization. And they all, in one way or another, impact the bottom line…but not all of them in ways we can easily observe, measure, and track.
For the rest of this post, then, I want to take some time to talk through what I see as the most significant intangible benefit of E2.0: it enables a significantly wider range of collaboration for an organization.
A short history of collaboration
If you take a step back and think about it, there are only two basic modes of collaboration: synchronous (i.e., real-time) and asynchronous (i.e., offline). An example of the former is having a meeting over the phone; an example of the latter is having two people pass a document back and forth via interoffice mail to get it completed over the course of a few days.
Before the advent of the telegraph, organizations had one option for each of these modes: face-to-face meetings for synchronous and written correspondence for asynchronous.
After the advent of the telegraph, another option was added: synchronous distance collaboration. And with the rise of the telephone, synchronous distance collaboration became even more practical and effective.
After the advent of computers, organizations had an additional option for asynchronous collaboration: electronic messages. And with the evolution of electronic message types through the 1990s (voice mail, email), the option grew in importance.
The future of collaboration
E2.0 takes this evolution to another level entirely by enabling easy, plug-and-play collaboration between the applications and information that employees need to be productive alone and in teams. Think about how easily you can fully integrate all the information you need on a new smart phone: multiple email accounts, social websites, calendars, RSS feeds, and apps all come together with barely any effort to provide the user with a coordinated, up-to-date stream of information.
Now, to be sure, the business world has a lot of catching up to do if it’s going to provide its workers with this level of integration and ease of use—but many organizations are already on the path. And the very fact that there’s so much enthusiasm around E2.0 is an indication that we’ve reached the point of no return. E2.0 isn’t a flash in the pan or some fad. It’s a fundamental evolution of the way we’re able to collaborate, and therefore of the ways we’re able do business.
A difference of degree
The results of the kind of collaboration E2.0 enables are no different in kind than their E1.0 counterparts: improved expertise and knowledge management, better ability to leverage a mobile/virtual workforce, process efficiency, increased capacity and throughput.
What is different about E2.0 is the degree of results: whether it’s due to something intrinsic to E2.0 technologies or the rapid pace of their evolution (or both), it feels as though the way we collaborate real-time and offline is changing (and for the better) almost daily.
And it’s not only the speed with which E2.0 collaboration technologies go to market, it’s also the increasing number of markets they go to. Hardly an area of our lives is left untouched by these new technologies, and this enables more people to collaborate in more ways than seemed possible just a few months prior.
The final word
That brings us to the end of this exploration of my core E2.0 beliefs. I’ve found it helpful and challenging to push myself to articulate these beliefs in greater detail; I hope you all have found the exercise valuable to you in your day-to-day work as well.
As I turn now to new topics, I’d love to hear from folks out there about what would be interesting and valuable—I’ll do my best to address them as the weeks progress.
#e2.0