I liked Euan’s neat summary of how to do Enterprise 2.0 and Jon Husband’s elaboration of it. Jon points to Jim McGee‘s metaphor:
If my hypothesis has any merit, it does suggest that some of the objections to these technologies will be rooted in emotional fears and insecurities that will be unexpressed and potentially inexpressible. To someone who can’t swim, “come on in, the water’s fine” isn’t very helpful encouragement.
Great point. Actually, I think that the swimmers are doing fine until they issue that challenge. The “encouragement” may only serve to increase the anxiety, sense of isolation and therefore resistance of the landlubber.
So maybe the best thing is not to try too hard to champion new ways, not to overdo the “not getting it” taboo, and put the energy into doing the stuff and trust that, in the end, people’s natural desire to join in will take over.