Red Herrings and Long Hauls: What Is, and Isn't, Difficult About Adopting Emergent Web Tools into Your Organization's DNA

By: Andrew Mcafee

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Synopsis: When considering an Enterprise 2.0 effort, many business decision makers have some typical concerns: How do we get employees to use the new capabilities? Will people just use social networking software to plan happy hour, rather than to get work done? If the information on these platforms really is valuable, won't it be harvested by spies and sold to the highest bidder? In the end, many companies conclude that whatever the benefits of Enterprise 2.0, it's not worth running the array of risks indicated by these and other questions. According to author Andrew McAfee, they are making a big mistake-these concerns, he maintains, are mostly red herrings. This chapter looks realistically at the principal challenges of Enterprise 2.0, the main obstacles to an organization's successful deployment of emergent social software platforms (ESSPs). McAfee begins by boldly laying out many of the feared negative implications, and then addresses point by point how the very attributes of ESSPs actually militate against their abuse. He also deflates unrealistic expectations, addressing the actual problems organizations are likely to encounter as they move to an Enterprise 2.0 model, and offers solid advice on how these, too, can be overcome. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 6 of "Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges."