Bridges To Knowledge: A Blog by Barry Camson

The Emerging Practice Of Design

The practice of organization design like our sense of organizations is at a turning point.

Design as it existed in the last decades of the twentieth century is "dying out" and the global world is searching for a replacement just as we are experimenting with new forms of organization - virtual, networked, temporary. Even the global value chain that was the trend at the end of the twentieth century is breaking down as the carbon footprint from moving partially completed goods from one country to another is perceived to result in higher costs.

Six Important Conversations To Have To Bridge The Enterprise 2.0 Cultural Gap

There appears to be a growing recognition that successfully dealing with cultural issues is a critical success factor in the deployment and adoption of Enterprise 2.0 tools and the changes in ways of working related to these tools. Many of the presenters at the recent Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston spoke of the importance of culture in Enterprise 2.0 deployment in organizations. A common comment was, "it's not about the tools, it's about the culture."

The change management challenge is to move the organization deploying Enterprise 2.0 tools from what may be a traditional, hierarchical, command and control culture to one that is less hierarchical, and more collaborative, agile, open and transparent - characteristics which are more congruent with Enterprise 2.0 tools.

Here are six conversations that I recommend occur in your organization that will help your organization bridge the cultural gap between the status quo and the organization as an effective user of Enterprise 2.0 tools. This builds on a previous post where I stated that "to optimize the technology and achieve improvements in organizational effectiveness...a focus on the overall organization is important."

"Back To The Future" - Collaboration In The 21st Century

I have been reading up on Cisco Systems and its CEO, John Chambers lately. This was prompted by references to Cisco's leadership in utilizing Web 2.0 tools at Cisco. What I have been learning about in addition is how Chambers is transforming the Cisco organization in the direction of what some have called Management 2.0 with very positive results.

5 Helpful Tips: To Avoid Searching For Knowledge In The Same Old Places

How can you ensure that the knowledge you are getting is enabling you to successfully respond to the challenges of today and tomorrow?

A dilemma that I imagine many of us deal with is how to avoid coming up with yesterday's solutions to deal with today's challenges. There is certainly a tendency to build our solution to today's challenges on knowledge and approaches developed to deal with past situations. How can we position ourselves to take a forward-looking view of challenges and seek out contemporary knowledge?