I am not an IT specialist. My research interest is how organisational systems influence behaviour, and my practical experience is helping businesses to put in place new structures, business processes and working practices.

This is why I have been fascinated by enterprise social networking technologies for a long while. They are listed among Gartner’s ten strategic technologies for 2009, as having high potential for disruption to the business and risk if late to adoption. Enterprise social networking technologies allow networks of people to connect, tag, talk, socialise, support, cooperate, collaborate, create and share content, and share information and knowledge. Despite the challenges of getting these technologies embedded within the enterprise, a tale candidly told here by Chuck Hollis of EMC in his now sadly closed blog, social networking technologies are beginning to make inroads behind enterprise firewalls.

What the EMC white paper makes clear is that a strategic, company-wide effort to embed these technologies is about much more than the technologies. They are a catalyst for, and an enabler of, fundamental reform of organisational cultures, structures, business processes and working practices. I would not do justice to this great paper if I summarised it, and I urge you to read it for yourself.

So Will Technology Transform Work?

As I said a moment ago, technologies can be a catalyst to introducing business process reform. They are a means to an end. Having said that, from years monitoring research on high-performance working, doing research on workplace innovation  (MOSAIC and UKWON), and working with senior executives as they strategically re-position their businesses, I can say beyond any shadow of doubt that it is normally external factors in the business environment, and associated internal operating challenges, that provides the stimulus for transforming work.

Rebooting Attitudes And Mindsets

Some people in London are getting ready for Reboot on 6th July.  What needs re-booting are attitudes and mindsets. This is what really transforms work, enabled by support from strategic HR, technology and physical workplace design. Forces of inertia, fear, and complacency are strong. Even with all this environmental turbulence, there will be businesses that try to use emerging technologies to strengthen existing controlling management practices. Whether or not they get away with it depends on the outcome of shifting and opposing balances of power.