Outstanding interview by Kevin Werbach with John Seely Brown and John Hagel in Knowledge@Wharton in advance of Supernova. They specifically discuss the role of social software in dynamic strategy. Go read the whole thing, but for now, I'll just excerpt the ending:
Werbach: So what kind of systems would allow the exception handling to feed back into learning? You may have systems that may be effective at resolving the exception, but they may be designed to do just that and then go off as though nothing had happened.
Hagel: One of the big issues we see is that to date most of the social software tools we are talking about have tended to be one-off kinds of tools. You have instant messaging, Wikis, a whole array of collaboration workspaces that have been developed, but there isn't an operating environment where all these social software tools can come together in a seamless environment. Part of the opportunity here is that as you create these environments that are open ended so you can plug in social software tools as they develop and evolve, you can also create a record-keeping facility. By doing that, not only are you helping people to resolve the exceptions, but you are also creating a record of who came together over what kinds of issues, what was the context of the issue, and what was the resolution of the issue. That creates the basis for doing pattern recognition and dissemination of the learning to a broader part of the organization.
Brown: We keep talking about coupling this tool set of social software with the tool set of service-oriented architectures because the latter is already a more fluid tool. So unlike standard ERP (enterprise resource planning)-type systems, you can do incremental changes of the rules. It is much easier to constantly evolve the processes and practices of the organization with the kind of inherent agility that service-oriented architectures in principle provide you. But this also puts a new spin on how you want to design your service-oriented architecture. This looks like how do you capture the context of a breakdown between enterprises. The focus is on architecture that works between enterprises rather than architecture that works within an enterprise.
Werbach: So in addition to service-oriented architecture we need social-oriented architecture.
Hagel: Yes, exactly. One of the limitations we have seen of service-oriented architectures is that most of the investment and thinking around this has been very enterprise-centric. But if you look at where most of the exceptions emerge, they are in the business processes that span multiple enterprises -- in supply-chain activities or customer relationship management, or the coordination of distribution channels or channel partners. That requires a very different lens for viewing IT architectures. It has to start from the outside and moves back into the enterprise. This contrasts with the traditional IT architecture, which typically moves from the glass house out to the edge of the enterprise and ultimately, if you're lucky, beyond the enterprise.
Brown: This reflects an evolution of our thinking over the past few years about service grids. This is a different take on what a service grid could be -- it's a service grid for a process network.
Werbach: You talk about how IT architecture traditionally has been about process automation. Even with web services, people think of it as further automation because you are commoditizing everything. You seem to be jumping off in a different direction and focusing on things that can't really be automated but could be used productively instead of destructively.
Brown: In a way, the shift has to do with giving up the obsession with efficiency to focus on the acceleration of capability building.
Hagel: And paradoxically, in contrast with the perspective that some observers have been articulating, rather than IT diminishing the opportunity for strategic advantage, we see these new generations of IT as dramatically expanding the opportunity for strategic advantage. This is precisely because of the ability to help people build capabilities more rapidly through more productive handling of these exception-generating conditions.
Werbach: If you invest in the right kind of architecture and tools.
Hagel: Exactly. But a new generation of architectures and tools will be required to harness this opportunity.
Werbach: Do these changes that you are talking about change the relationship of the individual to the firm? Or do they primarily change the relationships of firms to each other?
Hagel: Ultimately what we see is the re-conceiving of the role of the firm. Traditionally the role of the firm has been to increase the efficiency of transaction costs, whereas we see more and more that the firm has to provide opportunities for capability building of the people within the firm. If the firm cannot do that, people will leave and seek out environments that can help them accelerate capability building better. It's a very different way of thinking about what the firm needs to provide to its employees, and the role of the employees within the firm.
