I have grave reservations about management changing to meet the requirements of new social driven work world. For example, how many of you work for a company where leaders have outsourced the content development of their company blog to outsiders? So, here are leaders who cant (or wont) articulate the companys vision in a blog post? These are the leaders that are too busy to communicate with the workforce or customers? These are the leaders that cant write or put together cogent thoughts? Outsourcing the leadership component of modern business social systems is a prescription for ilure.

Today, Id say the social business has a real, fighting chance. But the biggest challenge now wont be technical, it will be people. Business leaders must change and the social business champions will need to understand people better than ever to get the adoption and value from these game changers.

As before, there is a huge change management, training and motivation issue that can stop many a well-intentioned social or knowledge project dead in its tracks. Change is the biggest challenge here and it must be front and center in any discussion of new social initiatives.

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But theres one other big point that needs to be made. The social business cant be a collection of tools sold by an integrator or software vendor. It has to be a solution thats desired/demanded by top executives. Sadly, some businesses will opt to be the social wallflowers hanging out in the shadows while the social butterflies will be everywhere. Which firm will your firm be? Are you sure your leaders want this, too?

What will drive greater adoption though is that the psychology of content creation has blossomed. Pinterest, Flickr, LinkedIn and Facebook (to name but a precious few) rely on the st, Social Networking easy and frequent additions to their social content that contributors make every minute. Theyve cracked the code that gets people to contribute, a lot and often, to their social networks. Businesses must learn the best practices from these firms so that adoption, permanent adoption, of the social systems is rapid, transformative and game-changing.

Related to change is the network effect. Business leaders have to grasp what their role will be in these new social systems a success. Several times at this conference I heard customers describe how employees valued the closeness that social systems brought between them and the leaders of their firm. The problem is that hierarchical, command and control firms dont like upward communication. Management in those firms likes communications that go one way: down. They have people to communicate with subordinates. Social systems expose this and unless addressed appropriately, it will doom some new social business experiments.

I found myself pondering this question a lot these two days at Lotusphere/Connect.

First off, the tools are better, richer and enabled with more goodies than ever before. If anything, this alone should prove a positive for the social business push. For today, the new social tools include st cloud analytic capabilities; servers that are massively more powerful; accessibility to vast data stores of traditional and new information is mind-boggling; and, richer and more different types of data are solving heretofore unknown business problems. No doubt about it, the technology has clearly improved, adapted, expanded and evolved.

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Will the social business succeed now?

The IBM Connect 2013 show stirred up all kinds of thoughts because of their push for the Social Business. Interestingly, pioneers in the knowledge management space tried to make some of this fly decades ago. In ct, IBMs big tool, Lotus Notes, was a big part of those early systems. Now, the tools are bigger, badder and use all sorts of new information but will social business fly now? What will be the challenges for adoption today? (2-part piece)

Brian is currently CEO of TechVentive, a strategy consultancy serving technology providers and other firms. He is also a research analyst with Vital Analysis.

People may not have changed that much though. Yes, most of us have smart phones today. We have different shopping habits. We showroom. We brag about ourselves on Facebook. But, physically and psychologically, Id argue that were mostly unchanged. If a person wasnt motivated to create and contribute content to an internal or external social network 20 years ago, are they going to now? Nah

But, you say, isnt that a bit harsh, Brian? Nope. Just think how you feel when you write a letter to the CEO of a company and you get back form letter 326 from some flunky working there. You know the letter, We appreciate input from our customers here at Company XYZ. Your feedback is important to us. I hate it when a business is dismissive to me. As an employee, I find a leaders dismissive attitude to workers a major morale problem and a reason for wanting to leave the company. In ct, the number one reason people have for changing employers is to get a better boss. But, if a boss wont join the social network, will the network succeed? Its doubtful. If the boss fobs off all of their network interaction to underlings, will the network succeed? Again, its doubtful.

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Also read this piece I did early last year on the social business.

Disclosure: Years ago I was with Accenture (an 18 year veteran) and still own a few shares in the firm. In ct, they absolutely got the knowledge management concept 20 odd years ago. IBM covered my hotel expense for this show.

So whats the bottom line now?

Related to the psychology point above is that it is often easier for people to contribute non-textual content to these networks. Pictures, video, music, drawings and more are now acceptable and possible contributions to the shared data store. Take heed of the age old expression that a picture is worth a thousand words. If someone doesnt like to write (or write well), cant they at least post pictures of the Social Business Dj Vu all over again Page 2 ZDNet? Social Networkingcool graphics people were drawing on the white board? Images can be some of the most powerful communication and collaboration tools there are. Now, we are surrounded by a rich abundance of tools to capture and share all of this non-traditional data.

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