I recently wrote an entry on the fundamental changes coming from Social Media. One of these was how we can collaborate like never before. Those entrepreneurs, senior managers and others who don’t realize the inherent meaning behind this ability to collaborate will find their career progress nosediving within 5-10 years. If you’re just a couple years away from retirement, you might miss the impending changes.
So that’s a bold statement. Why? Because as humans it’s our ability to collaborate that has lead us to where we are today. We had to collaborate to build the first villages and put walls around them to protect the entire village from predators and enemies. We had to collaborate to build Stonehenge. Today, the Web is what it is as a whole because of collaboration.
The Web evolved through collaboration to where it is today. One prime example is the Wiki. The concept of a Wiki is an “argumentative” collaboration system. But the wiki is influencing changing workplace habits.
The Wiki is a prime representation of a Social Media tool that is making a difference in the organization. It allows people to collaborate on ideas and knowledge that turn into best practices, products, services and processes. Direct, measurable and understandable. Behaviour changing.
Most importantly to recognize though is it’s not the technology of the Wiki. What’s more deeply impressive is that we’re learning better collaboration skills than ever before. This changes the workplace, management structure and governments. Think on that a moment. Interesting isn’t it? In the entire history of the human family, we have never been able to collaborate like we can today. What do you think this will change?
(Image courtesy MindQuarry.com – sadly a failed Web 2.0 service)
