Some notes from the breakout about the Future of the Enterprise 2.0 Manager Role #e20s

Breakout participants: Bart Schutte, Cordelia Krooss, Jean-Yves Huwart and myself.

I thought I'd share some of my notes about the breakout and continued discussion we had about the role of the Enterprise 2.0 Manager, now and in the future. The discussion started where we left off after Cordelia presented her vision on this role. One of the main discussion points was whether we will need a e2.0 manager in the future organization (organization 2.0, as Cordelia called it).

The notes and statements are not my own, but are a collection of what we shared in our breakout.

• When 2.0 principles are pervasive in the organization we don’t need the e2.0 champion. But doesn’t it depend on the type of organization? Does it change all organizations fundamentally? Does it apply to all businesses?
• Transparency and externalization are business trends. E2.0 tools give the company a means to relate to these trends.
• Organizational levels and structures will continue to exist, but there importance will change. 
• There will always be a tension between the human side and the capital market side of organizations (leading to hierarchy, control, shareholder importance).
• E2.0 brings us back to what organizations used to be: a collections of humans with a certain goal. So humans are important (again).
• A survey says employees leave the company because of their boss in 70% of the cases.
• Do people do what is good by themselves, can the organization always organize themselves?
• E.g. not all people blog or tweet about their work. Why not? Do we really all want to be an intrapeneur?
• We are coming to except a human as a human. Both is true: there are entrepeneurs/automonous thinking people and people that are not geared this way and are happy as it is.
• We lost some of the humanity of business (more and more pressure, also at school). But we’re learning the importance of humans for the company. There will be more and more focus on the human. Collaboration will become integral, but the focus on the human will need to be paid attention to.
• E2.0 leads to a people-centric organization (Org. 2.0). The e2.0 manager should lead to the Org. 2.0.
• When we talk about people-centric, as HR, we mean the company maintains the talent pool so we achieve goals as a company. So, getting the best out of people. 
• Give people passion back, is that the core of e2.0? 
• For the jump from the Introduction to the more Professional set up (refer to Cordelia's slides) we need a longer-term vision (BASF). Which is the chart leading to Org. 2.0. Other change in corporate culture is addressed.

In sum: 

1. There clearly is a movement towards a new type of organization: people focus. Social tools are one of the things contributing to it.
2. These tools allow the company to become more collaborative, contribute more. This will become more primary. 
3. The e2.0 manager facilitates this movement. The more collaborative an organization is the less need there is for champions. In any case the role will be a more consulting than management or champion role.