Part IX. The Diversity Dichotomy.

The typical modern enterprise consists of a great diversity of talent and individuals. The question that has to be answered by this modern enterprise is just how exactly do we bridge the gaps between the individuals to form effective collaboration and how do the demographics differ in their use, opinions and understanding of the Social Enterprise?

For simplification I will split the world into three major demographic groups. I am going to completely ignore the differences in sex for purely unscientific reasons.

Technology Age Demographics

The generalizations below reflect less the people and more the dominant technologies of the generations.

Baby Boomers
Old time software engineers. Have a rigid demand for principled practices. Grew up with process, lived throught re-engineering and predominantly live in a waterfall (shit flows downhill) view. Often the understanding of process is greater than the adherence too process. A premise of much work was the idea of trust.

Worked when teams were teams and workplaces were workplaces.

Generation X/Y
This generation is the “middle” generation and have experienced the full technology shift – and often contributed to it. Understand process, appreciate the need for process. Live with the need for Knowledge Management and contributors to the social workplace. Combine the use of Social Media and E2.0.

Worked when teams were teams and multi-located.

Millenials
The new young guns. Were BORN into the technology shift. See opportunities for change in everything. Growth through experimentation. View process as a hurdle.

Worked within a globalized group

The transition from 1 to 2 to 3 has occurred with great speed in the last decade.  The Boomers lived through local teams, the X/Yers created and made the transition, and the millenials have usually lost the essence of a team unit.

Making Connections

So what’s the best way to create the connections?  Face to Face.  It’s a phrase uttered more than any other when it comes to the enterprise modernizations.

The Boomers are often in TEAM FORTRESS mode.  This is the hoarding of knowledge, the resentment of a changing landscape where the design choices of years past become less relevant as the enterprise shifts mode.

The Millenials are often not process driven and are encouraged more by potential technology introductions than fulfilling required tasks.

The key demographic are the X/Y generation – they are truly the link of understanding between the old and the new and can help bridge the divide.

Ultimately, the question of Social Media, and Enterprise management comes down to one simple and forgotten secret key – requirements managed as part of a program managed as part of a set of well defined strategies.  Not a single strategy but a set – a technology strategy, a data strategy, a business strategy, and a resource strategy.

Social and Enterprise tools need to unify their entire set of demographic through strategy management.