Nice post, and so very true We create an edifice of punish-and-reward belief systems over time, mental models about anything and anyone, and only because we keep (re)programming ourselves with words, events, thoughts and feelings If you've tried something in 3 different ways yet came up with the same result? There's a trap lying underneath that goes very, very deep and dis-tracts all your efforts Alan's comment reminded me of a poem I was once wrote, with a close-up picture of vinyl grooves: a broken record http://www.martijnlinssen.com/2010/02/broken-record.html

Interesting post Rachel. I got somewhat triggered (...) at "deep lasting love is mostly about recognizing another's vulnerability and (partnering with them to) fill in their gaps" but that makes sense when you continue to read the post When there's two people, one is always perceived better than the other. Even if an outsider doesn't judge them, they'll do that themselves Philisophically speaking I'd say that love is about unconditional love where there are only win-win situations in between people, and that the kind of love where people want to "make the other better" is indeed and alas the more common, also to be found in enterprises At my former employer they played the word game, and used "way of improvement" over "fixing / better" in order to cover this up, but that only made it smell worse once you finally unwrapped that extra layer I like what happened at your current one, usually that doesn't happen because the enterprise horizon is very short(-sighted). The horizon is that short, because the calendar usually runs from March till October. Before and after that is spent on personal gain and year start / end boredom, and in the middle there's the Summer holiday. With effectively 6 months to spend, and uncertainties about what next year will bring now, incentives don't span more than a year either And incentives drive results. Short-term incentives, short-term results, high burn-rate, unhappy employees and unhappy customers - this is never about intimacy, relationships, and certainly not LOVE ;-) So I'm unsure whether the cause is hierarchy but there is certain correlation. My old adage is proximity equals intimacy, and distance equals anonymity. Once a company grows beyond a certain size, both hierarchy and anonymity happen at the same time, and Love is out the window Yes it's a harsh world out there with fierce competition but that's only so because we all believe that to be true. And after all this world is ours so we can just change it if we want I'll gladly toast to more love, but to not scare the big old enterprises: how about incentives that cover 3 years? It will help us to go from short one-nighters to long-lasting relationship. Maybe not marriage, but steady dating at least - and love will originate from that by itself I think, with a little help maybe

Nice one Bill I've been saying the same for years, then again Integration has been my passionate expertise for over a decade... You might be interested in my post on Laurie's one: http://www.martijnlinssen.com/2011/08/social-silos-adding-to-enterprise-silos.html The big question will be for the coming decades: adopt or adapt? Needless to say, it will be adapt

Adam, thanks for the post - but I must disagree. Looking at Apple figures up until 2010, here's the low-down: ----------------2010----2009----2008----2007----2006----2005 Net revenue-----61,000--36,537--32,479--24,006--19,315--13,931 Net income------13,100---5,704---4,834---3,496---1,989---1,328 ----------------21%-----16%-----15%-----15%-----10%-----10% (copy and paste in notepad for best results, sorry for that) As you can see, tremendous growth has been shown all over. Apple's revenue is 5 times what is was 5 years ago, and its profit 10 times. With a net margin of 21%, the question arises: can this be sustained? I say it can't. Yes, Apple is selling a magic combination of hardware, software and image / innovation, but it's mainly hardware, absolutely locked-in software, and an image that gets typically copied and even perfected by others 21% operating margin for a hardware company? Hubris, the ancient Greek would say

Point taken. Then again, revolution is part of evolution and usually short-lived. TG for that, a perpetual revolution would be somewhat exhausting (oh wait, Life itself is a perpetual revolution!) We have Open Source Software, maybe it's time for Open Source Blogs to keep ourselves from continuously being incorporated. Our Tweets end up at the Library of Congress, we work in (corporate) institutions, the list is endless Bad news: opensourceblog.com is already taken (by DomainsByProxy.com). Ah well, just keep it up David! ;-) I know you will

I know of another institution who likes to make people think they're somehow indebted - I haven't read Gartner's article but I'm confident it states we can pay our debt by paying Gartner for "advice"? Challenging Piece Vinnie, we don't need systems or applications, we need federations: collaborating stand-alone services each representing a single business process, so we know what we need to do IT-wise if a process needs to change

Magnificent Steve. We all gave in and commoditised ourselves and people in general with the start of the Industrial Revolution. Now, over half a century after the Second World War ended, we can look back and make up the balance - and an ugly one it is from a human standpoint Still, in Asia that history continues, and Africa can't even afford to neglect it Outsourcing is what I call an out-of-sight-out-of-heart solution: in stead of outsourcing the labout-intensive, repetitive boring work, we outsource the mistaken gems: customer and employee service. Both customer as employee of course form the very fundamentals we build a business on, yet our management is so focused on itself and its surroundings that is has taken enough distance to do so You're introducing the concept of finite versus infinite, a very powerfull one. Have you read John Hagel and John Seely Brown's Push / Pull books? If not, I'm positive that you'll enjoy them Thanks. Change will occur and is occurring already, and it will take time - but I love the horizon I'm seeing

Well done Vinnie! Don't take anything personally - the other is always right; as are you too as well... Hagiography btw is a perfectly normal put-down for describing stories that are non-critical, and lack research and objectivity - all that in the eye of the beholder of course I really like the book, pick it up whenever I have time. So many "comfy co's" out there that can learn valuable lessons from it...

Interesting Bernd! And thanks a lot. On my quest for "the meaning and goal of VRM" I haven't yet met anyone who could explain it to me, let alone give argumented examples Handing in your personal data happens only once per product / service you buy. You decide if a service is worth (certain parts of) your private data by one-time-only submitting that But, due to Facebook, people have apparently put up with handing in private data that Facebook has made public without telling or asking What you describe is what I think of wrt Identity Management: among others an easy interface, method and security means to manage your data We don't need a semantic Web (well maybe we do), it would be nice if we had a semantic I-dentity: maybe it's not a bad idea to start something for that. But the biggest question is: how do we prevent others from abusing our then "legal" identity? Still, this is not what I have in mind when I hear Vendor Relationship Management - it just makes me think of Personal Data Management. Which is something we all do and have control over, except for Facebook of course, which keeps breaking agreements in order to try to make money?

Excellent post Steve! Indeed it is baffling to see talent and energy wasted at current scales just to uphold the status quo I'd love to see that 5-year prediction come true. On the other hand, I think traditional enterprises will see these movements and counterreact: because they "don't want to be caught in the middle" they'll enforce current strategies and tactics even more, wanting to move up and out of the "threat from below" The inside-out thinking will continue for very long I'm afraid. I just recently heard of an innovation where personnel files and were fully digitised: you could even scan the paper on the copier and send it to the electronic system! What a waste of time, money and energy if you look at the ROI of this. Work assignment on the other hand, something that happens a thousand times a day in stead of once a year, is still a "human process" involving lots of email back and forth I shared my own thoughts on the clash of E1.0 and E2.0: http://www.martijnlinssen.com/2010/08/social-achilles-and-troj-enterprise.html - maybe that's how it will go?

Fine post David! I see Social slowly moving away from the media and tools, and putting focus on the process of Socialisation itself I call it the difference between adopting "Social Stuff" versus adapting the enterprise to Socialisation I wrote a post about that last Monday which is still getting daily ReTweets, as well as fine comments. I just labelled Social a Trojan Horse an hour ago even in the excitement of commenting-on-comments http://www.martijnlinssen.com/2010/07/generations-social-and-enterprise-adopt.html I remember your post "Tweeting at the speed of scale" http://www.dachisgroup.com/2009/11/tweeting-at-the-speed-of-scale/ - I think we're now moving from People to Process

Awesome LOL, my gawd this could go viral - so many old enterprises there with babyboomers pulling the strings that want to hear and believe this Thumbs up!

Fine post Steve! I agree and disagree here, as I don't see Social as a technological thing. Sure it's made possible by technology blasting away all thresholds so we can all connect 24/7/52, but it's a human movement tying eachother together. The phone, radio, TV, internet: all that still was broadcasting or too incidental / individual I don't believe in Enterprise 2.0 adoption, it's either adaption or nothing I think. Yes you can be beyond Social even: http://www.martijnlinssen.com/2010/02/maybe-your-company-is-just-beyond.html I think Social will enable hive-minded organisation, inside or outside existing organisations, and will change business for good. But I must confess: I really really hope so that that happens a lot more...

Great fun Steve! although I do sympathise wholeheartedly "Hey Doc! I feel really bad, fix me up please. No, I don't care what I have, just gimme a shot" Always, always, always, do we all want a tech solution to a biz or org problem. We never need one, but we do want one [some exaggeration intended] Outsourcing, offshoring? We misused and abused that too, to get rid of our problems. In stead of outsourcing boring, dumb and dull work so as to leave the interesting and fun (complex) work to those we really care about (let's be honest here), we're now offshoring the problematic bleeders "cuz the competition is a pure Indian player". We once had a goal so we built (acquired) a system, now we have that system and use it for pretty much anything So, maybe, you shouldn't get in the way of the competition and see how they do it - maybe you can learn. Or laugh afterwards Systemic thinking helps though. I solved all (sic) IT problems I encountered in my career, by simply not ruling out anything - no matter how very, very silly and unlikely a cause might have seemed

Ah. Much easier place to comment ;-) It's easy to tell who is wrong and who is right, when it comes to judging religions: there simply is no wrong or right, so all those people that claim that you're being wrong because you're not doing the right thing, are, well, errrr, simply wrong LOL I make fun of it, and actually it is too hilarious for words, but we still abuse religion to fill in the void of our greater-than-life and innate insecurity What are the differences between world religions? Countless. Gazillions Waht are the similarities between world religions? Love. Forgiveness. Selfreflection. We are all One. Peace. The Kingdom of God is inside All of Us My favourite is the Gospel of Thomas - albeit rather cryptic at some points - for simple advice about life: http://www.martijnlinssen.com/p/gospel-of-thomas.html

I love it - and very much dislike it at the same time. The focus on the customer is great, but who is the 'we' you are talking about all the time? It is your company. And your company consists of employees, all of them. Who are described as the 'workforce' that will be 'evolved' Not-so-social if you ask me, but I might still read this with the eyes of a consultant in a 100+K employees company - although I recently decided to become self-employed Turning objections into improvements though, I'll try to make a Social Organisation Manifesto out of this, if you don't mind - the combined Three might form the pillars for the future #evilplans

Good answers and great questions! Yes, media, yes, trust, yes paid opinions are less valued, and yes, peerception (sic!) (coining that term right here by the way thank you) is all that matters really as it's highly, highly, highly subjective. In my http://www.martijnlinssen.com/2009/11/on-acquisition-of-knowledge-12.html I explain how it's people that we listen to, not content. Interesting questions, and intrigueing ones too. I'll hatch a few answers over time...

Thanks Peter, complete post! And I wasn't aware... I agree with everything you say, just too bad Forrester hasn't said this in their blogs over the last days They certainly miss the (even relative) openness of social, and it sure shows Looks like Dachis will be consulted this year on formulating policies and PR on how to bring news like Forrester tried to bring ;-) Because, and we can all agree on that, PR-wise this could have been handled a *lot* better by Forrester And still, there are other ways to communicate besides blogs. Next thing we know, Forrester will be pulling their employees off of Facebook, Twitter and the like. One thing is for sure: they'll have to make a policy on and a decision about that, and communicate it. Waiting for that to happen, not holding my breath though Hey and Peter is Dachis is asked to do that we'll split the money okay? ;-)

A concise and superb post. It will be quoted often Nothing to add really, I only wonder about the word 'religion', as I usually associate that with 'strong guidance' from above, as opposed to belief, which can be sustained individually

Challenging again Stowe, thank you! I totally agree with you on what I call perpetuum evolution of perception: remember the first trains and people telling us that the human body couldn't endure speeds over 25 miles per hour. We poor humans keep having to readjust our definitions because our perceptions change - while at the same time the only thing that is changing, is the velocity at which things happen Regarding attention: we crave for it from the moment we leave the womb and become disconnected, with the unfortunate goal to return to something we have outgrown or wasn't meant to last anyway. But it is our main topic in life, and very dear to us David to me seems to be making the point that we still need the human factor to make sense of it all. Whether it's data, information or knowledge that we have at our hands: it all keeps changing along the way, and we change along with it. Not to keep up with it all, but to make it to the next level. Just like you say: richer and more complex And I think the "infrastructure" for such is already there: http://tinyurl.com/ye7939r

Interesting again Stowe! I agree on how being open will be the basis for our future connections You touch my little linguistic heart though, so I'm trying to make a case for 'opency' over 'publicy' It doesn't really sound great, 'publicy'. It doesn't look great either. I feel a c (sounding like a k) is somehow missing, as it doesn't follow private-cy, secret-cy and public-cy were the t's just got swallowed Other than that, I count the word 'open' 8 times in your post, where 'public' only makes it to 4 And, how about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openness?

Great Steve, bookmarking this one for the next days, looks promising! How about ESB, SOAP (nice choice of words in my opinion!), WS-* and WSDL? Still today's wonder words on an architectural level in a greenfield situation. Wonder as in "I really wonder why people dare to say these are standards in the context of B2B, and even A2A" I might write a blog about those, pointing here for these ;-)

Dave, you are you. And this comment is me, and all to see I praise your sketches, and their results. You're a visual god, and I'll hunt you down no matter which company you work for ;-) But, me speaking as me, hunting business cases: where is yours? I don't see it, although I can assume it: I know what travelling does to < teen daughters Be. Love. Have breakfast AND dinner with your loved ones. And be brilliant in between, or whatever. Enjoy this one life my friend, it's all that's guaranteed Martijn

Thanks Stowe, I became very enthusiastic in the beginning but then that diminished a bit - not sure it will end process I think the Rise of Networks will be An End To Kingdoms, we'll go tribal again. Not the company logo or revenue counts, but the (outstanding) people in it. People will be (a major part of) its brand It will radically change leaders and the notion of leadership, ye olde Roman nepotism is out the door (I do so very much hope). Haven't been thinking yet about radical changes to business... From what you're saying, looks like part of that big (to become smaller) process P is going to People. That would mean that business gets more standardised at the lower level, so we can just automate it and leave unattended Which would mean it would be (more) fun to work! And also, to "consume" (maybe we can reinvent that word while at it) Maybe it's about an End To Workflow? Martijn Linssen