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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 impor...

Zappos is a bit far away from a Dutchman. We don't have it here, yet. But of course you hear a lot about them. Zappos is praised for its culture, very engaged workforce, use of social media in business, great profit, etc. Recently I wrote a post about 'Organizing on Passion'. Frederik Vieten , a student doing research at Océ, pointed me to Tony Hsieh's new book, Delivering Happiness . I hadn't heard of it yet, so that was a great pointer. I'm going to order and read it. But I also browsed the site and found a recent talk by Hsieh at Google . Man, I watched it this talk this evening. And it's absolutely great. If you have an hour, just sit down, watch it and be inspired. What a great company and what a great leader Tony is. Here's the video: I really liked the way the importance of company culture is stressed and how it can be crafted. I also love the way they select new employees based on questions linked to their core values . One of the most ...

It's been a while ago since I read the great Shift Index 2009 report . I've been wanting to blog about it, but haven't had time yet. It's loaded with interesting insights. One big question I had is: This report is focused on the USA; how does this compare to Europe or Asia? One thing from the report that stuck with me, was the importance of 'creative talent' and getting them to engage in 'creative problem solving, often by connecting with peers inside and outside the firm' (p. 11). On page 70 the report goes on to talk about 'worker passion'. The findings are pretty saddening. Lots of workers are not passionate about their work and self-employed workers are much more passionate than the firm-employed. The larger the size of the firm the less passionate workers get... I went back to the Shift Index after reading a couple of things: Steve Denning's post about the H in HR , which also points to the Shift Index and the importance of eng...

Just recently HBR IdeaCast had a cool interview with Don Tapscott . He's one of the authors of Wikinomics . How mass collaboration changes everything . I just ordered the book. Tapscott has some interesting remarks. I'll give you a few snippets: "You have four big factors coming together at this unique time in economics and in human history: 1. the new web, ... the old web was a publishing platform ... The new web is based on XML and it's creating a giant global computer that everyone programs whenever they use it. So this is creating a platform for self-organisation. 2. Second factor, there's a demographic revolution. The children of the baby boom are the first generation grown up bathed in bits. These kids are different, they process information differently, they think and behave differently. And they are now the biggest generation in the workforce and in the marketplace, they're coming into the workforce and the marketplace. Put those two together and you...