You’re ready, but are they?
Why web 2.0?
Why do people want web 2.0?
11.2m use the internet
8.5 m visit Web 2.0 websites at least monthly
Web 2.0 used more than email
Adoption increasing 3x faster than internet growth

MIT (2008) research:
40% of productivity is directly explained by the amount of communication team members have with others to discover, gather, and internalise information. 
Employees with the most extensive digital networks are 7% more productive than their colleagues

Telindus (2008) survey:
1,000+ European office workers
Employees have begun to demand Web 2.0 / Intranet 2.0 tools
39% of 18 to 24 yr – consider leaving if not allowed to access sites like Facebook and YouTube
21% indicated that they would feel ‘annoyed’ if banned 
25 to 65 year-olds – 16% would consider leaving, 13% would be annoyed
The research!
Case Study
Large, new organisation
Gen-Ys in junior management roles 
Looking to incorporate web 2.0 tools in the enterprise, starting with the intranet
Focus on strategic IA – encourage enterprise collaboration and help remove organisational silos
Delivery scoping study to assess staff feelings, opinions, experience on use of social media

Outcomes required?
Outline how Web 2.0 technologies could be utilised to:
Mitigate against churn in Gen-Ys and Xs
Encourage responsive two-communication
Improve collaboration
Provide platform for staff feedback
Assist with change management
... all in two weeks!
A survey?
Take to long to setup & analyse properly
Need good sample size
Need good sampling methods
Interviews?
Too subjective
Only hear what they want to tell me or what they think I want to hear
Are  views representative of the whole?
Workshops?
Drowns out the minority views
Physicality & group think tend to rule
Open forum?
Elicits pain points & little else
Majority rule
Remembered induction activity:
Two teams discussed feature preferences for a car
Limited resources to ‘buy’ car features – sun roof, spoilers, air bags, SIPS, etc
Differing perceptions/ideas between the groups
Tried to agree on final requirements
Solution!
Use something similar & adapt IA tools!
Use modified card sorting activity
Category/functionality preferences to reflect their web 2.0 tool preferences
The Science!
Primacy/recency effects reflect relative importance and frequency of use
L/R English-language dominance effects on sort order
Results more objective than subjective
IA tools for measuring cultural readiness for Web 2.0
Anatomy of the cards
Three teams – senior execs, project leaders, project implementation staff
Context – project communications
Determine preferences from 30 cards of communications tools, including web 2.0 functionality, from a fixed budget
Get as many ‘points’ as possible
Gain agreement within each team 
Negotiate as a whole group
The exercise
The beginning:
Sorted all the ‘cheap’ tools into one pile
Almost immediately excluded Word
The middle:
Lots of negotiation on preferred cards
Intra-group discussion & knowledge transfer
Inter-group card functionality definition & knowledge transfer


Toward the end:
Word came back in!
Mix of some web 2.0 tools, some face-to-face tools, some traditional communications tools
Three groups negotiated their final set:
Immediately reverted to traditional hierarchical organisational structural dynamic
Deferred lead-negotiator role to senior staff
Quiet, reserved and diplomatic negotiation on final set

Points total
Questions
Why throw away Microsoft Word only to eventually put it back in?
Group forming & norming behaviour
Group cultural and behavioural norms influenced individual preferences
Move from individual to group expectations of choice as workshop progressed
It's all about social psychology!
the results
Some individuals already using some web 2.0 tools
Other individuals were likely ready to start thinking about using web 2.0 themselves or had already been exploring their use on a personal level
Preference for traditional tools
Reinforcement of behavioural norms – “that’s the way we’ve always done it, so why change?”

Individuals?
the organisation
what card sorting showed
Individuals:
May start to ask about use of web 2.0 tools, either externally or internally based on their increased use outside the organisation
Behaviour reflective of national trends in the use of web 2.0 in preference to email
Unlikely to be successful without policies to empower them to explore and play
Group norms:
Will ensure the status quo remains
May impact on individual choice for adoption
Unlikely to change in hierarchical organisations without senior executive (baby boomers) support

IA tools demonstrate not only individual’s preferences but also group’s cultural and social norms
Observing interaction & selection behaviour can reveal issues about individual & organisational attitudes
IA tools ideal for use in assessing readiness for change!
Know the science and you’ll know how to best adapt the tools you love!
Conclusions
@magia3e
magi3e.wordpress.com
magia3e@gmail.com
FIN.
web 2.0 is good for organisations!