Facebook Time in the Office
Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook, wikis, and blogs are making their way into organizations, in many cases brought in by employees rather than as part of an enterprise strategy. Some organizations, however, are proactively exploring how new collaborative tools can change the way people work for the better.
Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business at the MIT Sloan School of Management, sizes up this trend in the book Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for your Organization’s Toughest Challenges. In this interview with McKinsey Quarterly, he discusses some of his findings.
At the 9:08 mark (note: the video clock counts down), McAfee talks about the top-down versus the bottom-up approach to adopting new technology. In the end, he believes culture change is more likely to result when it is led by senior managers.
At 6:26, McAfee talks about the forces that can undermine Web 2.0′s enterprise-wide adoption.
And at 3:54, he talks about what Web 2.0 means for middle managers. If you see yourself as a gatekeeper of information, McAfee says, you’re in for a rough ride. “If you have another view of yourself, which is that you’re someone who’s responsible for output, you’re someone who’s responsible for making good things happen in your team, then these tools should be your best friend.”