Just a quick post about an excellent article: “Social Business Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does, Neither Does Enterprise 2.0” by  Deb Lavoy arguing that these are not technological trends, but rather cultural trends.

This article does a good job of explaining the big shift that is occurring.  She describes the old style of management as “Command and Control” which will be replaced by “Network Management.”

…the rigid mechanistic structures are simply failing. It has actually become harder to be productive in a big organization — economies of scale are reversing themselves in command and control environments.

Showing that the new mode of interaction is networked people, this leads to the statement that businesses need (intelligent) people, and people need respect.  A business that wants to attract knowledge workers will need to set up an environment that values knowledge workers, and supports them.

Social Business is one that recognizes that their mission is engaging hearts and minds to achieve excellence. Social Business is about respecting people.

This is part of a large shift from Rationalism to something she calls “Enlightenment 2.0” which mirrors the theme I have been talking about here summed up in the post “It’s all Newton’s Fault”  Enlightenment 2.0 is the driving force behind Enterprise 2.0, not the other way around.  I completely agree, but they go hand in hand: it is the enhanced rich communication afforded by technology, that is allowing for effective networked organizations to work and to allow these new forms of organization to exist.

An excellent article.  Thanks Deb Lavoy!