The main event
As a business journalist in the 1980s, I wrote about the convergence of computers and communications. Predictions were for a world of smaller, faster and more enabled hardware, and for communications systems and technology that interconnected these devices and the people using them.
Well, that has certainly happened in the last 25 years. But the rate of transformation, the scale of the change and the impact on business and personal paradigms have far exceeded the vision that was offered back then.
What once looked to be an engaging sideshow has become the main event. What appeared to be new tools have quickly evolved into the new game. The industrial society of things in many ways has had to make way for the information society of ideas. The meaning of place and time have changed dramatically, as have how much we know about one another and how we talk to and influence one another. Our networks have grown exponentially, as has the degree to which we can form, join and engage groups. The globe has become so much more in our reach while at the same time as we access it more freely we are discovering it to be so much more textured and layered.
We have emerged into a new world with new possibilities, new risks and new rules.
PLAYING CATCH-UP WITH NEW REALITY
Yet, in fundamental ways our thinking is still playing catch-up with the reality that we are in a new world. Three examples:
Historically, information and access to it have been at a premium. The learned were few, celebrated and attracted apprentices. In fact, knowledge was so scarce that it was easy for diminishment in learning and the learned to put the Western world in a centuries-long retreat to ignorance called "The Dark Ages." The Renaissance and a buildup of shared knowledge occurred only as societal attitudes transformed to the point where people begin to access old texts in monasteries and from the East and then were introduced to a growing flood of printed information made possible by the invention of the printing press by Guttenberg. But even so, until just recently information has had a significant price; we paid hard-earned cash to attend college, buy text books and encyclopedia sets, attend business seminars, and otherwise "learn from the learned." Today? Courses, books, information and advice from experts and expert sources, and amazing references are all available to us through easily accessed digital channels, at little or no cost. Of course, quality varies and in many cases needs to rise. But the paradigm is shifting from availability and access to discernment and curation. Yet, we most often still think of acquiring knowledge as a paid pursuit.
For the greatest part we still think of work as something to be done in a separate, dedicated physical location. Yet, while the majority of white-collar workers still spend considerable time and resources commuting to offices every day, most modern work can be done remotely from home or anywhere else using cloud tools, connected devices and Internet/cellular digital/video communications technology. Commuting is arguably becoming outmoded for a large segment of society.
Even more broadly, we still think of "doing" in a real-time, "now" mode. Yet, we all are able to "time shift" the media we consume to match our schedules, to capture broadcast and narrowcast communications and access them at any time, to partake in webinars after the fact, and to issue communications and have our digital agents scouring for content even while we are sleeping. Time and "doing" are less connected.
ORGANIZATIONS AT RISK
As a strategic thinker and strategist observing this transformed landscape that continues to morph, my concern is rising. I see our general under-appreciation of this emerging new world, which I label as the world of "social" (and surely diminish by so labeling it), putting our organizations at risk, on a trajectory to diminished importance and, potentially, failure.
This small-focus thinking views "social" as an add-on. It goes something like: "We need to be on Facebook." Check. "We need a community manager." Check. "Reputation management?" Check. "We need social media policies." Check. "The Cloud is cool, but what about the security risks?" So maybe later for core processes. "We can stop using executive search and turn to LinkedIn." Check.
Organizations are not viewing the world of "social" as much more than new tools, channels and new ways of access. And yet, the paradigm in which organizations must plan, execute and seek success is irreparably changed by "social," as surely as it changed when Guttenberg unleashed the printing press and fuelled the march to modernity. Opportunities and threats are changed. Assets and liabilities are changed. Strengths and weaknesses are changed.
SIX FACTORS FOR STRATEGY
As a planner, I see six immediate huge "social" factors that organizations need to put front and center in their strategic planning and implementation:
Access to information and people is unprecedented: wide, open, inexpensive if not free.
The "middle man" in terms of people and organizations is going by the wayside. We can access directly, using technology as our intermediary.
We can get it how we want it - tailored just for us, picked by us for us.
Everything is public.
Groups and connections are the secret to influence and leverage. They always have been, of course, but the scale is now vastly different.
Speed and time have new meanings.
As strategic thinkers and planners we need to explore the strategic opportunities and threats that these and other "social" factors pose for organizations. We need to understand how organizations can leverage "social" at the strategic level for greater success and a better future.
Let's take the journey into the new world!
