CIOs Must Lead the Adoption of Enterprise 2.0/Web 2.0 (And They Can!)

I’ve spent a lot of time working with CIOs and senior IT teams from large, multinational companies and one thing is clear:  most IT execs don’t understand Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 or the new Social Business Models.  They know it exists, and they are seeing pockets of activity.  CIOs and senior IT leaders are not dumb.  They are not even opposed to new ideas.  They just lack a framework for talking about the bigger picture, and they lack the stories to make it real.  CIOs and senior IT leaders need help understanding and articulating the opportunity for their organizations.  I can help.

Recently, I was fortunate to be asked to present a management briefing to an IT executive team.  We began with a show of hands of how many of the 20+ attendees were on LinkedIn (most of them).  Twitter (most of them).  Facebook (less, but still a good number).  How many read blogs (all of them).  Had written a blog (just a couple).  Knew what a wiki was (all of them).  Had ever contributed to a wiki (just a couple).  See….they know about some of the most popular web 2.0 tools.  They’ve even used them.

We are not in Kansas Anymore

We spent the next couple of hours talking about the language of this new place.  We looked at how enterprise 2.0 supports strategic goals of the business.  We discussed business value through cases like how social networks change how we know our CEOs (like Michael Dell being on Facebook),  how social media changes intimacy with customers (like @ComcastCares),  how web2.0 changes the way we build businesses (like Zappos), how blogs change the way we share information (like Beth Israel Deconess Hospital’s CEO blog), we looked at how innovation was done with crowdsourcing, and how social networks change what we know about our colleagues (like Wachovia’s Pulse and BoozAllenHamilton’s Hello networks).

We looked at the risks associated with not being aware and not having a plan.  United Hates Guitars provided a great case for discussion.  We then turned the spotlight on their organization.  We looked at the conversations about their company taking place on the web.  Were they aware of this?  Some they knew about, others were a surprise.

Follow The Yellow Brick Road

We concluded with a discussion of how to build a plan and then a strategy for their organization.  The first thing to do was to start listening.  Listen to the conversations going on.  Listen to their internal experts (who may or may not be in the IT organization).  Listen to their customers and identify the places these conversations were taking place.  Once they know what is going on,  they will have the information they need to move ahead.

We discussed the different objectives…those they may want to use to engage employees, others to engage customers, others to understand changes in the industry and still others to capture innovation.  Groundswell, by Forrester researchers offers some great models for building strategy.

Just Click Your Heals Together and Repeat “There’s No Place Like Home”

They got the message.  The feedback from the short time we spent together was terrific.  They felt empowered to begin the conversations with their business peers.  They understood the risks of not taking action now.  They saw the path for IT to take a leadership role in steering the corporation through the still unclear waters of enterprise 2.0.  They now have a plan for moving forward.

Is your IT organization taking a leadership role in bringing enterprise 2.0 capabilities and advantages into the corporation?  Shouldn’t they be?  Need someone who can talk with your executive team?  Call me, I can help.