Twenty years in the knowledge management industry and I can see a pattern: Productivity is stifled by outdated workflows that have failed to keep up with technology.
But what can be done about it? The catch cry from management is “cultural change”. But I believe it is technology that will drive culture: provide “good” technological solutions that people want to use and culture will change.
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Technological Determinism (source http://www.movementresearch.org/blog/?p=420)
This of course is not a new idea, technological determinism, a theory that argues that “a society’s technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values” has been around since the early part of last century. But it is only since the Internet revolution the that speed of the interplay between culture and technology has become fast enough to witness significant cultural changes within one or two years.
For example, crowd sourcing and the death of the area of the Encyclopædia Britannica wasn’t caused by a change in cultural values of users, it was caused by technology: specifically, the Internet, Google and Wikipedia.
The revolution in the music industry wasn’t caused by a change in culture, it was a direct result of mp3 (music encoding), the iPod (personal music decoders/player) and Napster (and the other file sharing services that later evolved).
The iTunes store has had a greater impact on digital piracy then any other “cultural” or legal initiative such as advertisements or legal challenges.
The video store as we know it will see it’s day when the NBN (National Broadband Network) is completed.
But how does all of this relate to the challenges faced by the large corporation? Speaking generally, if we can provide the technical innovation, culture (and productivity) will fall in line. But here is the catch, the solution has to be good. Good enough for people to want to use it. Good enough for people to tell their friends to use it.
It’s not the mp3 player that caused the revolution in the music industry, it’s the iPod (see for example “Can IRiver Become an IPod Killer?” – we all know the answer to this question now!).
And, as Kodak, Nokia and RIM (the makers of the Blackberry mobile phone) have found out, even when you’re on the right track, you will still get run over if you just stand there”.
