My name is Jevon MacDonald. I write about the impact of Social Business Design.
In 1999 there was Third Voice, possibly one of the best examples in history of an invention ahead of its time. Today it seems that Google is going in the same direction.
Updates from September, 2009
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Jevon
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Jevon
Stowe Boyd is getting behind Social Business as a way of looking at more than just IT and cool technologies to solve business problems.
Enterprise 2.0, on the other hand, does not have the same coherence. Perhaps this is because so many of the principles of Web 2.0 are blunted by the command-and-control needs of the enterprise. You cannot state that Enterprise 2.0 is Web 2.0 for the enterprise because much of what defines Web 2.0 does not easily translate to the enterprise context.
In particular, Web 2.0 as a phenomenon is strongly tied to social tools — social networking, social media, and so on — in which the individual is primary, and asymmetric networks of relationships with other individuals form the principal mechanism for connection and information flow. However, this does not gibe with the enterprise obsession with groups: where the rights and responsibilities of individuals are derived from group membership, and these rights are granted by the enterprise.
an my friend Euan is also putting his shoulder behind it
Why do I believe this? Because I believe there is a fundamental change in how we do business heading our way. Driven by the networked communication tools flourishing on the web, tools like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, not only how we communicate with those who benefit from our services but also how we organise ourselves to produce them will be changed forever.
What I believe is happening, as more of our society becomes more connected and computing power and bandwidth become pervasive, is the equivalent of the advent of the printing press.
What is exciting here is that we are seeing a resurgence of optimism and idealism about the future, but it is coupled with a practical framework for achieving change.
Enterprise 2.0 is still a powerful concept, and it is a discipline that will grow and mature. Much like Social Media Marketing, Enterprise 2.0 is a much needed point solution in a larger problem. When applied properly and at the right time, it can play a significant role in organizational transformation.
Back in April I wrote a post that attempted to bring some clarity to the role of Enterprise 2.0 in a Social Business world, and I think that post is more relevant now than ever.
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The Attention Question in Social Business
Jevon
The story goes like this: In 1865 Coal was a big deal. A lot of R&D work was being done on how to make better use of coal. Make it burn hotter, make steam faster, make it burn more quickly, etc.
This guy, James Watt, had a big breakthrough. He created a steam engine that was far more efficient than the old models. It was more powerful, smaller and used less coal. This was great news and it got a lot of attention, and the orders for his engines came flowing in. Before long Watt’s engine was being used all over the place. In fact, because it was so efficient coal was now being used in more places and for more things than ever before.And so this guy named William Jevons started to study the use of Coal. Think of him as the fringe peak-oil alarmist of his time (who was, well, right…). He wrote a book called “The Coal Question” and in it he surmized that there is a paradoxical effect when you increase the efficiency with which a resource is used:
increases the efficiency with which a resource is used, tends to increase (rather than decrease) the rate of consumption of that resource.
This was extremely counter-intuitive to people at the time, and I believe it remains so today. In fact, just yesterday Paul Kedrosky noticed it in terms of electricity consumption and the increasing energy efficiency of batteries. We strive for increased fuel efficiency, but it is possible that we would simply accelerate the consumption of Oil if we were to do so. It is likely in fact that driving is bound, by some degree, to economic affordability and that more people would drive further if it were more cost effective.
Attention as resource
I was proudly recounting Jevons’ Paradox to my colleague Pete the other day. I was actually surmising that if Kate had a more powerful computer, she would simply run more programs all at once and it would eat up any gain in processing power that she would get through buying a faster computer. I was feeling good about the genius of the whole thing and mentioned that I was curious how this paradox could be applied to Enterprise 2.0 when Pete quipped “well, attention is the resource.”
A lot of thinking has gone on around the idea of Attention as a resource that should not be abused or depleted and it is certainly a productive way to think about it, but on the other hand we are constantly looking for more and more efficient ways to utilize that attention. Twitter is a more efficient use of attention through its smaller and faster messages, instant messaging increases the efficiency of many interactions, wikis make more efficient use of the attention paid to long form content, etc.
We may be falling for the fallacy that enables Jevons’ Paradox, and by doing so we may be pushing people to the limit of their capability, even though we intend the opposite.
The implications for Social Business
Enterprise 2.0 (and Web 2.0 in general) is a great example of technology increasing the efficiency of the consumption of a resource. By being social we are creating more efficient and useful filters and information sharing capabilities. Whether it is expertise location on an internal social network or the ease with which we can share family photos, we have more efficient ways than ever to interact with large groups of people.
And so there is a challenge for one of the fundamental assumptions of Enterprise 2.0: that increasing the efficiency with which people connect and collaborate will allow for emergent or unexpected outcomes.
Helping create emergent outcomes is core to what we do at Dachis Group, so we have been thinking about it a lot.
The challenge is this: by simply increasing the efficiency through which people connect and collaborate, we may paradoxically consume even more of their attention because it is now easier for them to connect with people. This can lead to a depletion of their ability to do useful things with their new connections because they will be too busy monitoring, maintaining and developing their networks.
Design with intent
To me this is a question of design and intent, and to some degree it brings up the question of whether much of what has been going on in Enterprise 2.0 is in fact a crock.
We need to stop designing tools and platforms which are simply meant to allow people to connect, share and collaborate more. In doing this we are being incredibly irresponsible with the resource we value most. Instead we need to design for business intent and utilize our efficiencies as tools to help solve real business problems.
It is only by creating more efficient ways for workers to do the job they are expected to do that we can create the space and time they need in order to create emergent outcomes. This applies not only to software, but strategy as well. As people become more efficient through the use of Social Business tools, the surplus attention that they create needs to be protected through policy.
It is only through the application of both technological and strategic efforts that you can do both, and that we can avoid falling victim to Jevons’ Paradox.
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Jevon
Talk about a day of ups and downs. Jeffery Walker has passed away. I first got to know Jeffery through the Enterprise Irregulars, which we are both members of, and had the honor of sharing a few dinners with him over the years.
His public struggle with Cancer taught me a lot about life and how I should live it. I won’t forget those lessons.
Watercolor, August 2004, of Bing Gardens at Stanford Hospital, by Jeffery Walker. -
We are growing: Dachis Group expands with Headshift
Jevon
Today we are announcing the acquisition of Headshift as part of our shift towards becoming the first global Social Business Design company.
A lot of you are probably familiar with Headshift. If you are involved in the world of Enterprise 2.0 or Social Business Design, you have probably run in to their work at some point. One of Headshift’s founders, Lee Bryant, has been a good friend of mine for many years, and we have always looked for a way to collaborate more closely, and I couldn’t be more happy that this is how it will happen. If you look at the list of people working at Headshift, you will believe me when I say that they are the premier team in the Social Business Design space.
It has been 6 months since I joined this company, and working alongside Kate, Peter, David, Jeff and Ellen has been inspiring and also one of the more rewarding times of my life.
In that time, we’ve immersed ourselves along in fine tuning the vision we’ve developed which we call social business design—a holistic approach to transforming organizations from traditional infrastructure toward a more open, socially calibrated ecosystem. We believe that this is the only way businesses will be able to scale and integrate what’s now commonly known as “social media” on one side and “enterprise 2.0” on the other.
We believe that organizations across the globe will begin to view “social media” as social business and when this happens, integration, scale and adoption will become complex issues which will only be solved through a purposeful act of coordinated activities built upon a solid strategic foundation. Enter social business design as a systematic comprehensive approach that orchestrates social business across three core areas: business partner optimization, workforce collaboration and customer participation.These three areas of business possess ripe opportunities for the emergence of improved outcomes ranging from cost savings to new product/service innovations and increased revenue streams. These are outcomes which happen when organizations connect and expand their ecosystems, evolve toward a more open culture and empower employees, business partners and customers to actively participate in their business. The acquisition of Headshift will allow us to service the increasing demand for global organizations to tap into these benefits. It will also allow us to attract the best talent at an international level while creating our own culture focused on collaborating and doing the absolute best work in this space. Headshift’s client relationships include extensive work in: Professional and Legal Services, Consumer Products, Media and Publishing, Health Care, and Government verticals as well as global companies including AXA, British Petroleum, and the BBC. The official press release for this news can be found here. For more on the Dachis Group and our services, visit our current site.We believe that organizations across the globe will begin to view “social media” as social business and when this happens, integration, scale and adoption will become complex issues which will only be solved through a purposeful act of coordinated activities built upon a solid strategic foundation. Enter social business design as a systematic comprehensive approach that orchestrates social business across three core areas: business partner optimization, workforce collaboration and customer participation.
These three areas of business possess ripe opportunities for the emergence of improved outcomes ranging from cost savings to new product/service innovations and increased revenue streams. These are outcomes which happen when organizations connect and expand their ecosystems, evolve toward a more open culture and empower employees, business partners and customers to actively participate in their business. The acquisition of Headshift will allow us to service the increasing demand for global organizations to tap into these benefits. It will also allow us to attract the best talent at an international level while creating our own culture focused on collaborating and doing the absolute best work in this space.
Headshift’s client relationships include extensive work in: Professional and Legal Services, Consumer Products, Media and Publishing, Health Care, and Government verticals as well as global companies including AXA, British Petroleum, and the BBC. The official press release for this news can be found here.
For more on the Dachis Group and our services, visit our site.
This is the most exciting day in my professional life so far, and I think it is an important day for anyone who is involved in the use of Social Software inside of organizations.
For more thoughts on this announcement:
Reactions from others:
- Euan Semple: Thinking about Headshift and the future
- ReadWriteWeb Enterprise: Dachis Group Acquires Headshift: Say Hello to a Social Business Consulting Powerhouse
- Neville Hobson: Is ‘social business’ the new black?
- Sierralog: Dachis group acquires Headshift
- Drew B’s take on tech PR: The role of social and digital media in business consulting
- Austin American-Statesman: Austin Ventures makes a move in the corporate social networking arena
- Drew B: The role of social and digital media in business consulting: Dachis acquires Headshift
- Luis Suarez: Executing Enterprise 2.0: Dachis Group Acquires Headshift
- Jon Husband: Congratulations to FASTForward Colleague Jevon MacDonald
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Jevon
Just updated WordPress and am now using the P2 theme.
