Support the digital transformation of an enterprise requires expertise, but also the means to deploy. If many projects fail, it is not by chance. Often one of these two conditions is generally not fulfilled.
When you read all the publication about social business, digital transformation, enterprise 2.0, digital workplace, enterprise social network… necessarily all agencies and consultancies starts on row, without knowing much to this type of project (even if more and more they are able to mimic by using the same speech). This is why some small firms are able to take their game, because about governance, strategy deployment of a pilot, their knowledge is often higher. Unfortunately when it comes to scale, these small firms can not follow, they don’t have the resources to monitor a large scale deployment, even more when it is internationally because there are some intercultural management issues. By being specialized in « collaboration », they will also eventually be devoid when they will have to address issues about HR processes or business (far from their expertise) they don’t know.
Legs to run after what ?
Legs, large firms have. But we find again the change management old recipes applied in the 90s by IT firms, and unfortunately for companies that choose these large firms, they are not optimal for this type of projects because it’s not about tool training, but cultural change. Without a minimum of expertise, we will have an army of consultants that will apply principles disconnected from the reality of this type of project (but yes they are cheap most of the time…). Yes if a strong field presence is required to support a large-scale collaborative project, most of the time remote monitoring is not enough. Must still apply the « good recipes » and update them wihtout forgetting the issue of scaling, because what is possible on a small scale, can not be easily applied to a larger one. Relays must be able to adapt to these new constraints, which are far from the precepts deployment management of an IT project.
Brain, legs, and time
And speaking of legs, we are talking here of a marathon, not sprint, because cultural evolution to transform organization takes time and requires support to meet the challenges. And again, we are far from the finish line (not sure all the enterprise will finish the race). So in the end your social business project is to find a trusted advisor with brain and legs to guide you, and let it some time to do it.