Would 007's Spy Tools Include A Wiki?

Photo: Thiru Murugan

Via the On Social Marketing and Social Change Blog summarizing an article in the NYTimes

This caught my eye.  It's talking about the adoption of social media tools in spying organizations, but a lot of points are apply to nonprofit adoption

The need to focus on the challenges posed by your organizational culture even more than the technologies to make them work for you.  He was also up against something deeper in the DNA of the intelligence services. “We’ve had this ‘need to know’ culture for years,” Meyerrose said. “Well, we need to move to a ‘need to share’ philosophy.”

Designing the innovations of using wikis and blogs to be quickly and broadly adopted by a critical mass of workers (early adopters and early majority) and not just a few fashion-setters or geeks. For the intelligence agencies to benefit from “social software,” he said, they need to persuade thousands of employees to begin blogging and creating wikis all at once. And that requires a cultural sea change: persuading analysts, who for years have survived by holding their cards tightly to their chests, to begin openly showing their hands online.

Acknowledging and working with the 'traditionalists' or 'laggards' in your organization who, for better of worse, are often in critical positions to influence whether innovations are introduced in the first place. The resistance comes from the “iron majors” — career officers who occupy the enormous middle bureaucracy of the spy agencies. They might find the idea of an empowered grass roots to be foolhardy; they might also worry that it threatens their turf.

As you think about introducing social media into your organization, or are just beginning to do so, the examples from the intelligence community may help persuade some of your colleagues of their untapped potential. But also remember that it is a diffusion of innovations process in an organizational setting. Follow what we know about diffusion theory and you are likely to be much more successful and avoid a number of headaches along the way.

Also points to a post with some great reflection questions related to adoption of wikis and this piece of research from New Communications Review, "Thinking About Wikis"

Comments

[Thirumurugan]

Wow, Thanks for using my photo. I am proud!
Cheers,