The Enterprise 2.0 generational myth

When I was at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference [1] in Boston last week, there was a persistent idea that bringing these tools into the enterprise was at least partly about attracting younger workers and making them more comfortable. The theory goes that young people--weaned on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube--will not be able to function without similar tools at work. The other side of this is that those of us who are over 40 will have a tough time adjusting to these new-fangled tools, but we'll just have to go along with them in order to get along. I'm here to say, I don't buy either of these views.

The truth about cats and dogs

Stereotypes almost always collapse under closer examination and this one is no different. First of all, according to the Facebook Statistics page [2], the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is over 35. Inside Facebook reported [3] in February that the fastest growing demographic was women over 55. What's more, Media Life reports [4] a new Nielsen Study that shows the media habits of teens are not that different from those of adults, and if anything, adults spend more time on the Internet than teens. It seems that older people are embracing Web 2.0 tools after all and this should help when you introduce Enterprise 2.0 tools in your company.

You can teach an old dog new tricks

There are going to be a variety of generational demographics inside any large organization starting with the fresh-faced new crop of college recruits all the way to the crusty old veterans approaching retirement, but that shouldn't be the driving factor behind an Enterprise 2.0 initiative. In fact, at one of the panel discussions at the conference, Andrew McAfee [5], the Harvard professor who coined the term Enteprise 2.0, interviewed Shawn Dahlen and Chris Keohane about their experience implementing Enterprise 2.0 at Lockheed Martin.

First of all, Lockheed Martin is about as staid an organization as you can ever hope to find. According to their About Us page [6] on their website, they are a "global security company." 58 percent of their business is with the US Department of Defense. They tend to be secretive and closed. "Sharing" and "collaborating" are not watch words at this type of buttoned-up corporation, or at least you wouldn't think they would be. Surprisingly, Dahlen and Keohane, who are in their 20s, reported the company has taken to their Enterprise 2.0 initiative [7] and gone from an organization where everything was locked down to one where they were sharing and building systems around problem solving.

This would seem to be particularly challenging in an organization with a culture built around secrecy and a graying worker population. But Keohane reported that the older population had no problem adjusting to these new tools. They even wanted the ability to customize and create mash-ups. This wasn't possible with early iterations of the Enterprise 2.0 program, and actually left some groups frustrated and became a barrier to early adoption. The barrier was not the fact they had to use these tools, but that they couldn't make them their own, a watch word of the Enterprise 2.0 ethos.

What's more, they reported that the younger engineers in their own group had a tougher time adjusting to the tools during early testing, than the older workers who would eventually use these tools. Interestingly they reported only two issues since implementing their Enterprise 2.0 initiative: Someone using the forums for personal discussion (cars) and to gripe about the employee review program, both of which were considered inappropriate by the community. And in these cases the community stepped in to police the situation without requiring help from HR or management.

The bone of contention

In the end, the idea that there is a generational divide around Enterprise 2.0 technology is just another myth. Statistics show that older people are embracing Web 2.0 tools and as such should be able to adjust just fine when you bring Enterprise 2.0 tools in house. Enterprise 2.0 has the potential to transform a culture as it did at Lockheed Martin. Don't let stereotypes shape your thinking or hold you back. - Ron [8]