The Three BearsIt’s not the technology

Excerpts from It’s Not About the Technology by Jay Cross

What’s in it for us?• Speed up the flow of information through the organization• Improve customer service• Streamline workflow and slash bureaucracy• Unleash the power of collective intelligence• Create a nerve center for corporate news and market intelligence• Make all corporate know-how accessible 24/7• Recruit the best candidates for new positions and make them productive quickly• Replace training classes with informal, hands-on learning• Open the process of innovation to all employees• Help workers build strong, supportive relationships• Enable managers to assess the status and direction of projects• Empower all employees to contribute ideas and feel part of the team• Develop more productive relationships with customers, prospects, recruits, partners,

supply chain, and other employees

Baby Bear Mama Bear Papa Bear

Motivation Curiosity, immediate need

Opportunistic application

Leverage enterprise assets

Focus Prototyping Applying Exploiting

Level Individual, team Group, department Enterprise

Benefits realized Capture organization-wide knowledge and keep it alive, save time, self-service information, non-controversial projects

Increase innovation, cut bureaucracy, don’t reinvent the wheel, simplify project management

Nimble, quick-response organization, improve service

Sample project Coordinate supplier information across co.

Google searching inside the firewall

Knowledge management that works

It’s not about the technology.

Bottom-up, local

Enthusiast Prototype

Collaborative

Not controversial

Sound business case

Baby Bear

Is the organization ready?Not obsessively controllingWilling to share ideasWant to enable many voicesWorkers are onlineCan live with messiness

Social PactRespect the teamBe activeShare ideas & suggestionsRespect one anotherAny tool that worksTrust one another

Hints on what works with social software•Keep it simple•Keep it flexible•Do it yourself (blog/wiki) or you won’t understand it•Be innovative, ever alert to productivity improvements•Be open to new ways of doing things•Release early and release often. Just do it•Promotion is important. Remind people where to look•Focus on the function rather than on the tools•Provide step-by-step how-to guides•Provide the opportunity to celebrate small successes •Give people time to practice using the software

Mama Bear

Seeks key business issues

Hungry for change

Fearless

Pragmatic Maintain momentum

(See list oftargets on next slide)

Mama Bear’s Shopping List:Inefficiency & bureaucracyUnenthusiastic, sluggish staffUnderdeveloped organizationNot learning enough to keep upSuboptimal executionInsufficient revenueDeficient service

Poppa Bear

Exploit social relationship software

to the max

Collaborationframework

Customers,suppliers,

the marketEnterprise

infrastructure