Euan Semple nous rappelle que l'adoption des outils web collaboratifs (blogs, wikis, etc.) est un processus lent (mais qui pourrait s'accélerer) et qu'il faut être patient et opiniâtre.

A retenir :

  • n'espérez pas faire changer les gens (et leurs habitudes) du jour au lendemain. Les gens ont mis des années à maîtriser les outils (ai-je dit Word© et Excel©...?) et vous voudriez qu'ils apprenent à écrire en syntaxe Wiki (gros frein à mon avis) ?
  • ...mais les nouvelles générations qui débarquent sont habitués à communiquer plus vite et mieux, avec des outils simples (voir ce billet de Marc). Ce sont ces gens nés après 1980 qui sont en train d'entrer dans les organisations avec une approche de l'utilisation de l'informatique beaucoup moins rigide.

© Tina Rencelj -

People rarely change over night and certainly systems and processes don't. There is so much of the world of work that is very deeply rooted in assumptions about command and control that just isn't going to go away over night. There will for some time to come be an element of risk in working in the new ways that are now possible and even longer before organisations reach a tipping point and it becomes the norm.

One of the main things I learned watching what happened when we did this at the BBC was that as individuals and collectively you have to be very, very patient. Even though at 18,500 out of a total of around 23,000 staff having used the forums our progress was in some ways impressive we were nowhere near tipping point in terms of a more open sharing culture and even further from shifting the power base of the organisation. Forums have been around for years and years, blogs have been around for six and it took us four years to get where we did. This is a frustrating message for clients to hear especially those with the short reporting cycles forced on them by the city.

However this doesn't mean it is not going to happen. I believe that there is such a shift in the expectations of people coming into the workforce that it is inevitable. Youngsters who have been doing their homework collectively online, instant messaging with their mates and playing Second Life all at the same time all the way through school won't accept anything else. I know that I for one wouldn't consider working for anyone who tried to stop me working the way I now do accessing networks and friends all over the world all of the time. What we can do is to engage with this new world as it emerges in business and help it to happen a little quicker and a lot less painfully.

Source : Euan Semple - You can force a horse to water