I remain bemused

Posted by The CEO on Mon, 29/06/2009 - 17:38 in Blogs 1034 1 comment | report

I remain surprised, nay bemused, by the change that a screen can make.

I was half tempted to give a running commentary on my whole day today (which I gather would make me something like a Twitterer) so beguiling is the new entry screen for this blog - sitting on the screen asking me to 'Create blog' whenever I look at it.

Is this the appeal of blogging, Twitter and all that other stuff (sorry - I'm not that informed as you can tell)?

But if it has that impact on me I still think it might be good here.

And apparently we can add a blog module onto our wiki very easily for internal use only. We can even do internal polls and all sorts of stuff that makes me feel really quite nervous.

But should it? If people seem to use this stuff (and I guess they do - although we have yet to do a poll to find out!) what sort of use has it got for us, bar that of supplying customers with data on their sites - which has been the main use of the wiki to date - on which each site has a page.

Could this be the way to transform management here that I have been looking for? I don't know - but I'm keeping my mind open.

And I'm also waiting to see if the enthusiasm will fade. And I'm also hoping someone will tell me more about how this stuff has really been integrated into business processes. Does anyone know?

Comments

Go for it.

alistair_king | Tue, 30/06/2009 - 04:04 | Permalink

This isn't just management transformation. This is culture shift.

Its a bit pretentious (and old) but you might want to take a look at http://www.cluetrain.com/ and scroll down to the 95 theses.

If you do implement your changes well, it will subvert hierarchies in the organisation by easing communication, uncovering talent, and increasing access to resources and innovative ideas outside of normal reporting lines.

This can lead to a dynamic, free thinking, highly creative workplace. You will be sure to encounter a few surprises and hopefully some thrills too. By the end, I expect you will find you have got rid of a lot of the more formal and controlled communication found in more traditional companies.

The kind of internal communication you will be creating can feel very uncomfortable as it starts to take on a life of its own. In the early stages of this transformation things you or other members of the management team might find it feels chaotic, unstructured, unpredictable and even scary.

It could become a lot noisier and self-critical workplace than in the past, so you might all need to grow thicker skins.

I will be watching your posts on this with interest!!

ps. I know it's not fashionable to think of culture in UK companies but I strongly recommend Corporate Culture by Jerome Want. It discusses how the kind changes you are contemplating can positively impact business performance. It will help to give you more idea of what to expect along the way. You may not be the world's biggest company, but it is very relevant to what you are proposing to do.

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