At a recent CW 500 Club session my old friend Prof. Clive Holtham from the Cass Business School was speaking about Second Life, looking at its possible application in mainstream business - currently not a lot - though you'd be advised to monitor the progress of Second Life as it could be the application that comes out of left field to surprise us. Chatting afterwards we discussed European management attitudes to collaboration. We agreed how difficult it has been to embed effective team working in the UK, particularly in public sector companies. This is partly due to the prevalence of a two tier approach that I call Mount Olympus Management.
This is where the Gods (top management) expect the rest of us living below the virtual cloud line to obey rules they choose to ignore.
Does your top management do as they say you should do?
If the answer to the question is no, then limit your collaborative efforts to discrete teams that don’t rely on senior management support as they'll betray you in the end.
Comments (3)
There is an underlying bitterness here which is a bit sad, has it not always be thus ' Do as I say, not do as I do?' when it comes to senior management.
Our job is to make it easier to both do and say best practise is it not?
Posted by Ian White | December 10, 2007 11:50 AM
Posted on December 10, 2007 11:50
I am a former IT outsourcing exec for a Fortune 200 company and witnessed efforts to collaborate within a global workplace first hand. I recently started a virtual worlds consultancy, VRWorkplace, to advise companies on how to use virtual worlds, such as Second Life, to improve interpersonal connectedness despite the challenges of distance. This is a very promising technology and one that I believe will transform how we collaborate and socialize within enterprises, from companies to associations to social networks.
Posted by Dave Elchoness | December 10, 2007 3:01 PM
Posted on December 10, 2007 15:01
What people overlook with environments like Second Life is the obvious: you can pick who you are.
Extending this, you can pick what you look like, and to a very large degree what your environment is actually like. Architects and the like are very excited about Second Life, as it offers an arena fairly free from the constraints - whether they be physical or social - that encumber real life.
The result is an interesting gestalt of wish fulfillment and directed imaginative design.
We are now able to construct social nets which are closer to "ideal", and to have currencies, languages, and interactions which are constructed from scratch - rather than bastard compromises crafted from already established structures. The advantage is, of course, that in virtual worlds we have the opportunity to interact in a way we specify and design - we decide the rules - rather than having pre-existing cultural or social constructs define how we behave.
Herald of the death of diplomacy?
Posted by shuggie murphy | December 10, 2007 5:03 PM
Posted on December 10, 2007 17:03