Tan-Dem by Alan Smythee

I’ve spent the last several weeks thinking a lot about the enterprise collaboration and enterprise 2.0 space given increasing interest by our clients.  One of my colleagues sent along a link to a related post about Enterprise 2.0 adoption.  The summary is much appreciated.  What I don’t appreciate as much is the use of generic truisms by experts when asked for specific advice in thinking about a concept, approach, technology or vendor.

There are 4 truisms that we hear over and over and over.  These are not unique to any individual or conference but echo in the halls of companies and conferences everywhere.  Apply these bits of advice to ANYTHING in your professional or personal lives – acquiring a company, planning a project, building a house, running a political campaign, or evaluating outsourcing:

1. Gain Executive Support
2. Provide Strong Leadership
3. Involve Key Stakeholders
4. Communicate Early and Often

Yes, these are all vitally important but they are also no-brainers and as generic as white rice.  Haven’t we heard these enough to know the basics for setting up and managing a successful initiative?  I know there are still some out there who think hiring a bunch of PMP-certified managers is enough, but they should be a small minority these days.

What I expect from subject area experts are specific bits of advice unique to to their fields.  In this case, I particularly like this kind of advice from the conference summary:

• For Blackberry users, transition them to reading blogs via RSS feeds on the device
• Create (or replace existing) an on-line suggestion box with comments and voting [see Kindling and Spigit as examples]
• Integrate social bookmarking into standard browser install to replace local bookmarking

So, I’m asking you as leaders to first make sure you are all over the 4 truisms and can move beyond the seemingly constant focus on them.  These are table stakes for any business initiative and should be second nature.  I’m also asking you to demand more from leaders and experts you rely on (present company included).  Push them to expand your thinking with deep insights specific to their experience.

Oh yea, and don’t forget to say Please and Thank You.

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