No I'm not suggesting that you run out and buy a six pack (although if you want to go crack one open while you read this, feel free). It strikes me that on top of the behavioral changes and new habits of interaction that the social web has created there is another more fundamental change in behavior...we're simply just not as tolerant as we used to be when it comes to technology. Maybe a big part of this is the effect of the empowerment that comes to the individual through the social web. As we have become more focused on the people and less on the technology (people as the platform) the tools have grown more user friendly and powerful in their simplicity. We're used to this in all of our non-work online experiences and even carry it over to our devices (iPhones, MacBooks, etc.).
There are so many useful tools available online for free or almost free these days and they are all built with this new simple user experience paradigm in mind. Somewhere along the way employees started their own silent revolt at work. Instead of obeying the IT corporate rules they started going around IT to solve their business problems in the most expeditious and effective way when the corporate standard wasn't up to their expectations and needs. Need to collaborate on a doc, spreadsheet or presentation, there's Google Doc's, Zoho, etc. Need a private team room that is accessible from any internet connected device (read no VPN, firewall, etc.) to share files and have discussions, there's Google Groups, LinkedIn Groups, etc. Want to form an open community around a topic, again Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, LinkedIn Groups...lot's of choices. Don't like the corporate issues Blackberry, buy your own iPhone (of course no guarantee you'll be able to get corp email on it, some companies allow, some don't...which is sadly why I'm still carrying 2 devices). I see this happening in other ways as well, I don't like the laptop the company provides, I use my own; I don't like Powerpoint I use Keynote or Prezi...the list is endless. The issue is probably more obvious in social tools, the enterprise doesn't provide a way to network and communicate in other-than-email ways (or corporate IM) so the employees connect on Facebook, use Twitter, IM on Facebook or gchat, post videos on YouTube and pictures on Flickr...you get the point.
It would be interesting to see just how much corporate IP that the companies think are securely tucked away behind the firewall are actually in Google Docs (not to pick on google). I often refer to the three types of social models I see in businesses today: 1. the social denyer,2. the accidental socialite and 3. the socially aware. According to a recent IDC survey 57% of the respondents use social media for business purposes at least once a week, 37% use both corporate and consumer tools for business and 15% reported (read that as admitted) using a consumer social tool instead of the corporate sponsored tool because of ease of use (simple user interface), familiarity from personal use, and low cost. The accidental socialite group of businesses are growing based on everything I'm seeing and is being fueled by this "BYO" culture. And interestingly enough this is not a generation movement. I hear this a lot," oh it's just the kids that get and use social media"...that's simply not true. In fact in our social business survey referenced above IT/Ops and Executives were by far the most likely to use social tools (both consumer and corporate sponsored). In other
data I reviewed, the largest age group across all social sites was the 35-44 year olds (25%) with the next closest group the 45-54 (19%). We have to come up with new corporate policies, new social policies and even new ways to interact with traditional enterprise systems if we are going to bring the BYO culture back into the fold...if that's even what we want to do. IT wants control but the more control that is exercised the more likely the BYO workforce will work around the controls. The happy medium in social business, I think, will come as we see more enterprise grade social tools that can meet corporate objectives (although we probably need to think about these objectives in light of what we have learned about the social web) and at the same time enable the experience that the employees are getting from the social tools they use in their personal lives.
