There’s a bit of pleasant irony as I wrote this blog while at 36,000 feet and in the clouds on my way to Enterprise 2.0 to continue to examine and evolve my thinking about how companies best incorporate technology, such as cloud computing, and social and collaborative tools, to drive efficiency, productivity, engagement and innovation in their businesses.  Cloud computing has lots of meanings these days and the applications, tools and technologies that support it will continue to significantly change the dynamics of how innovation, relationships and knowledge thrive in today’s organizations.

In my work with companies working feverishly to get their minds and arms around the best approach to use and drive social and collaborative tools, one element I often see is a lack of social courage, particularly in using social tools inside the organization.  While tools available outside of work such as social tools, wiki’s, search, etc. have exploded with regard to users and adoption, organizations are not giving their employees the same access, education and capabilities to take full advantage of the potential.  My observation is that this is often because these decisions are being made by the senior leadership team, who’s members are reluctant if not fearful, of the number, types and pace of evolution of these tools.  Just think about the last time your leaders used Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, submitted an update to a wiki article or had to search through your intranet or online community to find someone or a key document.

It’s ok…the pace of change is so fast in this space that it’s dizzying for us all.   But fear has too tight of a hold on leaders in this realm.  While enterprises are moving towards 2.0 and beyond, leadership and management are still often stuck in 1.0.  We’ve seen some great techniques to disarm the fear and inject doses of social courage into organizations.  One of my favorite techniques isn’t building yet another meticulous business case – it’s to run your leaders through a digital immersion or workshop and let them explore the possibilities, fun and energy of all these great tools.  They begin to quickly make the connections on how this can drive their strategies and accelerate the effectiveness of the organization.

But I know there’s lots of other great ways to get this started and I’m looking forward to sharing my ideas and learning more over the next few days.

-tyler