It is an interesting point you make about the recession halting E20 initiatives:
"Viral, grass roots adoption of low cost 2.0 collaboration was briefly all the rage before the world economy collapsed, typically flying under the radar before being cruelly stamped out by those whose management careers felt threatened by apparent self organization."
Do you have any evidence of this? In all the projects across various sectors that we are involved in, I have not heard this from any of our clients.
The basic points you make about the need for business focus, objectives and oversight are of course correct, but then anybody doing *anything* without these pre-requisites is likely to fail. I have never seen a successful E20 project with them.
I am also confused by your point...
"...supposedly altruistic behavior ?adoption? is rife with psychological realities and hierarchy challenges which can actually make companies more inefficient"
The need to target selfish motivations is a fundamental tenet of E20, as opposed to KM (for example) that did indeed make the mistake of trying to push sharing for its own sake. The theoretical framework of 'networked individualism' covers this pretty well. Are you perhaps in danger of setting up a straw man here? To the point about challenging hierarchies making companies less efficient, again, I think some evidence is needed here.
My thinking about the recession is almost the opposite to the case you are making. I believe many companies are finding that they can no longer afford the huge (and hugely inefficient) transaction costs and coordination costs implied by an obsession with process and a downplaying of employee intelligence and initiative - or 'getting things done'. JP Rangaswami makes a compelling case for this, based on his leadership experience in BT and other companies.
Is there, or should there be, a better way of doing business in a connected world? I believe so, whereas you seem to think anything beyond business as usual is just a fashionable affectation. I don't believe this reflects the thinking of senior business leaders. I am all in favour of rigour, scepticism and a balanced view of E20, but I don't think we should throw out the baby with the bath water
Nice to see you in Boston! Hope Paris is good.
