Dan Keldsen of Information Architected has an ongoing podcast series (IAM Talking) where he interviews people, generally in the area of Enterprise 2.0 and knowledge management. I really liked the most recent entry, an interview with a technology company president who describes when he "got it" for his own organization. Why Enterprise 2.0, Now? with Ethan Yarbrough, President of Allyis
In the first five minutes or so of the interview, Ethan Yarbrough gives an excellent description of his "Ah hah!" moment of understanding the value of blogging in his organization. The short form (paraphrased)
I was at a conference and preparing notes (on paper) to write up and send to some selected people when I got home. What I discovered was people posting their notes live via their blogs and Twitter and getting immediate responses from their self-selected readers, rather than those specific people I think might be interested in the topic.
For Yarbrough, it is no longer a question of "is this a good idea," it's a question of how best to do this and make it happen well. I really liked how he spoke about this and how it sounds like they are going about making it happen. Allyis already had a fairly open culture, it was just a question of how best to help that culture grow to the 200+ employees they have. This has me thinking about my colleagues in a company of fewer than 10 - plus our many clients and their own collaboration environments.
Here is Dan's description of the interview. Go have a listen.
A brief 20 minute video interview on the journey that a mid-sized company, Allyis, has taken in moving from a 1.0 to mindset, and where the journey will be CONTINUING to go from here on out. For them, 2008 was the watershed year when many previous efforts clicked into place and sent their 2.0 efforts into high gear.
[Photo: "99/365 Realization" by Marcus McBride.]