Gen-Y will change the world. Right?

I mean, after all, we’re different. We’re the internet babies, we’re uber-connected and we’re ready to reinvent the system of business with blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Staction, and Yammer.

That is of course, if our ideas aren’t first crushed under the weight of 100 years of process-based enterprise thinking. Back in 2008, ZDNet asked if millennials would really reinvent IT. Larry Dignan’s answer:

If there’s any touchy feeling collision course between Millennials and business, the latter will win. Why? Ultimately these people have to get jobs–and often these jobs are at places like Johnson & Johnson and General Electric. Sorry folks you won’t be bringing your own management practices–and latest greatest Web 2.0 apps–to those places.

Although we’re seeing a greater move toward the use of social tools (“Web 2.0″) in business today, I think the point is still worth considering. It’s tough to change the way an organization thinks from the bottom up.

I may be reading into this a bit, I also sense a subtle undertone in Dignan’s answer: You can’t change anything, so don’t try.

Because after all, what reason does upper management have to listen to a whiny kid who wears a banner of entitlement pinned to his or her inflated sense of self importance?

The Real Problem

Here’s the rub: enterprise used the foothold of carefully defined processes and quality systems to get where it is today. As social business models become more clearly defined, it is evident that the rise of networks in business will spell the end of process.

Which means that as you dream of Basecamp while you plunk away on project management software that’s best viewed in Internet Explorer 6, you have a bigger issue than justifying a the benefits over the costs.

You have to sell the idea of network beyond process.

When many organizations are still asking whether or not to let their employees use social networks, the real problem is that approaching problems from an industrial standpoint is far different than approaching problems from a social standpoint.

What are you supposed to do then?

First, make sure you have good ideas. Gather support by outlining a clear plan of action. Do a cost/benefit analysis. Gather relevant articles and blog posts that support your idea. Build a prototype of what you’re proposing. In other words, work your butt off to sell it.

But also acknowledge that you are doing far more than suggesting that a few screws need to be tightened and a few cogs changed in the machine of enterprise process. You’re suggesting that we value the machine less and value networks more. For some, this is a scary shift.

So make sure that you sell the idea of network, of human interaction and connection. Troll the websites of people like Doc Searls, Project VRM, and Stowe Boyd for a more theoretical approach to social business. After all, you’re not just selling a business practice, you’re selling an idea (this is why knowing the theory is tremendously helpful).

And if it still doesn’t work out?

Then take stock of where you’re at. If your ideas aren’t implemented, then you can either stay and deal or leave and find a place that will listen to you.

But the way I feel (not advice): if you are consistently denied access to the basic tools you need to do business in the 21st Century, then I would think seriously about leaving. If you don’t have a shovel, how can you dig a hole?

What would you add? How do you go about getting your ideas implemented?

-Andrew

Image credit: Joey Gannon (brunkfordbraun on Flickr); original here (some rights reserved under Creative Commons)

---

Related Posts

No related posts were found, so here's a consolation prize: Simple: A Case Study.

If you liked this post, subscribe to get updates via RSS or email