1. Anything people publish will have their name on it.
2. Is there anything an employee could write on their blog or a wiki that would create a problem for your organisation but does not breech existing policies around communication, confidentiality, etc?
   
   If so, is that a problem with blogs or a problem with your existing policies?
   
   
3. If an employee breaches communication policy, is it more likely to occur in email or on a public forum?
   
   Which would you prefer, one you can see and act on or one that is hidden and may surface in the future?
   
   

After finishing my MBA at MGSM back in 2005 I'm finally ready to talk about it...

I did 16 subjects, 16 exams, 16 groups, ~48 assignments, thousands of pages of reading. I recall almost none of it.

But, as a result of my MBA, I am self-aware of my style in groups, confident in my breadth of knowledge and able to see business from different view points. I can make hard decisions more easily and am comfortable finding a balance between performance, friendship and opinions.

Oh, and having the piece of paper doesn't hurt either.

Agree on a model

User interface design is filled with opinion and belief - something that many IT teams struggle to resolve (but enjoy discussing at length). A/B Testing adds science to the field, but is relatively late in the process of application development.

We need a better place to start when choosing an approach to application design. After all, our initial designs will set the style and standard of our application in users minds.

For our team, these three questions usually put us on the right path:

1. What is the end user trying to achieve and what is the simplest possible process to enable that?
2. What models or patterns can we copy from respected or inspirational sites to achieve that process / interface?
3. How can we make the experience consistent with our existing sites / applications? (If the new idea is better, how do we update them to match? If they are better, why are we doing something different now?)

The design hypothesis

All our applications go through a design review process during the Implementation phase of the Clarify, Simplify, Implement process.

First we discuss, challenge and agree on these UI models to be used. This is only be effective if the application designers have already been through these questions, asking them honestly and challenging their own design. (Don't just look around for post-build justification.)

After agreement on these core principles and appropriate changes, the design review moves into a second phase of optimisation of the current design. This is where each field needs to be defended, pixel alignment becomes important and we do everything we can to reduce complexity and increase the aesthetic appeal of the application.

Optimisation with metrics

Now we have created our hypothesis of the best possible design for our application, we need to validate and improve it through A/B Testing, customer feedback and metrics.

Enterprises are rich in both context and control, while new social media sites start completely flat and without either. By embracing and extending our strengths, enterprises can take a shorter journey to successful and mature social media than the consumer models that inspire us.

Context and control

Most enterprise applications are built around two things:

• Context - Who are you? What is your job? What are you trying to do?
• Control - What are you allowed to do? What do we want you to focus on?

Public social applications start with neither, but work hard to build both over time:

• Context - Who are you? Who do you know? What do you like to do?
• Control - We prefer our members to participate and communicate in this manner.

Revolution and Enterprise 2.0

Practicioners attracted to Enterprise 2.0 typically start through a desire for revolution. We want to break out of the context and control forced on us by existing applications and cultural norms. We want new models to emerge, new opportunities to connect with others, new methods of working.

The best examples of these models are available in the consumer space, so our natural tendency is to recreate those tools inside the firewall. This also sits well with our desire for new models and new power. But, it is in direct conflict with the existing norms, powerbase and way of working.

We need to heed lessons on change from Machiavelli:

And let it be noted that there is no more delicate matter to take in hand, nor more dangerous to conduct, nor more doubtful in its success, than to set up as a leader in the introduction of changes. For he who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only the lukewarm supporters in those who might be better off under the new. This lukewarm temper arises partly from the fear of adversaries who have the laws on their side and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who will never admit the merit of anything new, until they have seen it proved by the event.

We need to embrace and extend.

Embrace and extend

Revolution towards a consumer equivalent involves the complete destruction or ignorance of existing context and control the organisation has created. This is a huge leap of faith and not one taken easily by any established organisation.

It's also pointless. Mature social media requires high levels of context (more than enterprises have already) and at least some level of control / agreed behaviour.

A better approach is to embrace the existing context in your organisation. Seed your tools with information that we know to be relevant and expected. For example, when building an internal Twitter, automatically have everyone following their bosses, peers and/or direct reports. When implementing a wiki, setup areas for each existing part of the business. Don't waste people's time and energy requiring the recreation of structures that we already know, use and respect.

Don't give up all aspects of control either. Some groups should have closed membership. Some areas should be locked for editing. That's OK, the world isn't flat.

But, extend both of the models above. Allow new context to develop without intervention. Remove controls that stop the development of context. Expect new controls and conventions to form within this community.

Conclusion

The context and control inside organisations is closer to the norms of mature social media applications than it is to new tools. By embracing the strengths of enterprise structures and extending by allowing users to create new context in emergent areas practicioners can drastically reduce the barriers to approval and adoption.

Successful Enterprise 2.0 uses context to seed flat tools, not to control them. Successful Enterprise 2.0 accepts controls on existing areas, but frees the organisation to create new areas, context and information. Successful Enterprise 2.0 knows that the world isn't flat.

Here are the slides I presented at the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum today.

Interested readers, may also like to see my detailed posts on these topics:

• Our Intranet, the Wiki: Case Study of a Wiki changing an Enterprise.
• Jitter: Experimenting with Microblogging in the Enterprise.
• Building Enterprise 2.0 on Culture 1.0.
• Clarify. Simplify. Implement.

Introduction

In February 2008, Janssen-Cilag Australia & New Zealand launched an internal microblogging platform called Jitter. Combined with our intranet's people search capabilities, this formed an interesting enterprise hybrid of Facebook & Twitter style capabilities. This People Search with Jitter solution received Highly Commended in the 2008 Intranet Innovation Awards.

While our intranet wiki JCintra continues to be highly successful, we wanted to keep building our culture of collaboration by capturing and highlighting the flow of ideas. We also wanted to make it easier for our field force to participate and collaborate.

This post is an overview of our approach and outlines some of the lessons learned for others to consider as part of their journey.

People Search with Jitter

This is the home page of the People Search component. Note the simple search box, followed by a list of recent/common searches and then a random face from the organisation.

On the right hand side you can see Jitter posts integrated with the main site news feed. The last 3 posts are shown as a group, and are injected into the news feed based on the latest post timestamp of the news / Jitters.

Searching for a name (e.g. Nathan) shows results from first or last name matches. This quick view allows immediate use of the telephone numbers etc, and incorporates information from our local company system (Juice) and other operating companies through integration with the Outlook Corporate Directory they populate.

Search results are immediate (no Enter click required) and use an AJAX component to prevent the need for full intranet page refresh.

Users may choose to search for a team name (e.g. Information), which returns a picture wall of faces from matching teams.

Note that team and individual results may be mixed together depending on the search term and matches.

Simple page displaying all information for Nathan Wallace. The latest Jitter post is integrated as a status message.

The organisational hierarchy is displayed, including peers, direct reports and his manager. Clicking on those faces navigates the hierarchy. Green arrows show if a team is present under that person.

SMS sending is integrated into the People Search. Messages can be addressed to individuals or entire teams.

If the sender has a mobile, the message appears to have come from their number. If not, there is no reply number, but instead a short text based name is shown on the recipients phone as the sender.

SMS costs are billed to the senders cost centre through the Juice system.

Users can post to Jitter by clicking "Update status" in the Jitter section of the news feed, clicking "update" in the Jitter section of their People Search profile or by sending a text message to the designated mobile phone number.

Posting is done inline, fast to complete and published immediately. Note that SMS following is also available in the system for real time notification of new posts.

An archive of previous Jitter posts is available for browsing.

Adoption and business impact

So far, 59 different people have contributed a total of 306 posts to Jitter. We’re excited that about 17% of people have tried posting, but disappointed that posting remains so infrequent and experimental. Here are some examples:

• State of our public hospitals June 2008 report now available at: http://www.health.gov.au/ahca
• Neuro Specialist Team your cycle meeting accreditation guide can be found on the Topamax specialist team private space. Please review prior to cycle!!
• Suffering from glute meltdown...
• Whoo-hoo! This weekend Trudi became the new Australian Swing Dance Balboa champion.
• XYZ still appears to be down - I have requested ETA on when this may be back and will notify the business when I have an answer.
• Please come and get some friday snacks from my fundraising box in downstairs kitchen. These are to buy new toys and equipment for my baby's daycare.
• Dear colleagues, I need a lift to Gordon or Pymble for the next 3 days. Anyone live that way ?
• Jitter, Jotter, Blotter, Blatter, Matter! Does it?

Jitter has settled into a pattern as our informal news channel. It’s used for public congratulations, for sharing links and for short news flashes. This is a communication need that is infrequent, but not served by email (too intrusive) or JCintra news (too formal).

As a comparison, our SMS message sending tool has seen 104 users send 1852 messages to 5162 recipients. It is commonly used for announcements to the field force and individual messages from office based assistants to travelling executives. Usage has continued to grow each quarter since it was launched.

Lessons Learned

The flow of news on JCintra has been hugely successful and filled a natural need for the organisation. But Jitter wasn’t responding to a need, it tried to create demand. Open collaboration and idea sharing are common organisational goals, but that doesn’t mean there is latent demand among the people of the business for the tools that enable it. With any new organisational capability, always stay focused on end users and helping them to solve a problem.

While Jitter is a highly flexible tool that people are already using for a wide range of purposes, we didn’t do enough to position this new communication medium or to demonstrate the business value. People didn’t know how to use this new tool. Some feedback was negative, but overwhelmingly people asked “What do I post to it?”, “What’s the business value?”. Without clear answers, people just waited to see what others would do.

People have no idea what Twitter is. People have no idea what microblogging is. Most people don’t know what wiki’s, blogs or social networks are either. When explaining Jitter, one user was even worried that this meant that all the SMS text messages they sent to anyone would now be published on the Intranet. These technologies are natural and well known to people like us, but for the vast majority of people in the world they are new, confusing and weird. Remember to design your solutions and train people as though your mum is the key user!

Microblogging is particularly difficult to position as a business tool since it’s so hard to say anything worthwhile in so few characters. For an organisation starting the journey of sharing ideas and thoughts, blogging may be an easier starting point. Posts can be more serious and business like. Blogs are better known, and at worst look more like normal web pages. Authors can craft and position their entries to meet the political challenges and communication realities of the enterprise. Even if your organisation is ready for fast thoughts and short posts, authors can evolve towards really short blog entries.

Conclusion

In a recent post on microblogging in the enterprise Ross Dawson said "It's a learning process. We must discover what a whole array of new communication technologies allow us to do as organizations. We don't know yet. But we do know that they might make a massive difference to how effective we can be. So those who are the first to work it out will be ahead. No doubt about it.".

At Janssen-Cilag, we’re a step or two closer to working it out.