No freedom, please

Ho scritto qui di freedom management, una esigenza per le organizzazioni che competono sul piano dell’innovazione e non solo su quello della presenza: l’esigenza di inventare pratiche di stimolo, orchestrazione e ottimizzazione delle libertà creative della persona entro una condivisione progettuale.

Mi sono imbattuto in un dialogo sull’Enterprise 2.0 risalente al 2006, di cui riporto qui una porzione lunga ma estremamente interessante:

ubwete
08/21/2006 07:17 AM
Enterprises are shrinking…..

and the employees in them have become more versatile, thanks to ICT-based systems available to them. Their ability to “multi-task” (that is, perform both work-related and personal activities at the same time) translates to their capacity to maintain multiple relationships, usually from within the (virtual) enterprise. Summarily, the employer-employee relations are tending towards being partnerships. This trend is unstoppable. Enterprise 2.0 should be, amongst other things, more about restrategizing the administration to attend to this reality.

MV_z
08/21/2006 08:10 AM
What my boss told me… “no freedom, please”

I used to work at a company as internal tech consultant. When asked several years ago about how to build the intranet (specifically, how to publish content written by the staff) I prepared a document explaining the trend from a central-managed CMS to a more network-like everybody-writable repository (aka, a Wiki). After explaining my boss the options, he dismissed too easily the wiki option. I felt that I was not transmitting effectively my information, because I really felt a wiki was the way to go. So, I insisted. And I was refused again. So I asked if I was really explaining well the thing or why a wiki was not a good idea.
His answer: “because we cannot manage that much freedom“. “How will we control what is published“. “How will we restrict the content”.
Well, I think I was really not transmitting the message quite right. My idea was precisely to reduce the management burden and to empower the staff. It took me a couple of minutes to understand that I prepared a technological report without taking care of the point of view of the management people. Traditional management is about control, they don’t know how to handle freedom; obviously they don’t know how to use it to make money either.
So, six years later, they still have a centrally-managed CMS, with little staff-produced content. All the knowledge of the people who have worked there is gone when they leave. I didn’t try again to bring the wiki idea again, because the environment was becoming “less open” than before. Eventually I left the company. I tried to document all my ideas for the company. But they are sitting there, somewhere in a forgotten disk in a forgotten server. I couldn’t publish them in the intranet because we didn’t have a wiki. What a waste. What lack of vision.

Interessante perchè era il 2006, e questi altri 5 sono stati anni luce per social technologies e practices, e poi perchè… cosa è cambiato da allora? Non molto in Italia, dove tanti manager reagiscono a proposte di social business strategy proprio come diceva MV_z: “non sappiamo gestire tutta quella libertà, né possiamo farci soldi”.

Cosa può fare un consulente? Può dire al management che quella libertà già esiste in azienda in ogni caso, tanto vale provare a metterla a frutto. Oppure può, in maniera più umile, come MV_z chiedersi perchè non riesce a trasmettere efficacemente i casi di successo, le vaste potenzialità, il ritorno. E’ cruciale, nel raccontare il valore business del social, “taking care of the point of view of the management people”. Capire assieme quali aree organizzative possono per prime sperimentare condivisione e collaborazione.

E’ naturale in contesti competitivi che il punto di vista manageriale non contempli (o contempli come corollario d’atmosfera) la libertà creativa quale fattore di crescita business. Il lavoro del consulente è dimostrarlo. Dimostrare che un freedom management non è utopia, ma supporto concreto alle pratiche di condivisione della conoscenza.

E in questo senso ha più efficacia parlare di un dipendente periferico che – usando un sistema online di raccolta di idee innovative – propone a Walmart di spegnere le luci delle vending machine la notte quando inattive, innescando risparmi milionari*, piuttosto che parlare di un manager visionario che fa della sua azienda una happy wiki-land.

Perché la libertà in azienda va attivata come una piccola luce; sa poi farsi da sè, con un po’ di supporto, e illuminare il futuro. Freedom management. Please ;).

* (thanks to Andrea Pesoli per la storia)