McAfee on the "Pursuit of Busyness"

Andrew McAfee posits that the next generation of knowledge workers is a different breed, no longer beholden to the tried and true concept of "seeming busy." As usual, he captures the essence of the status quo and the benefits of evolving beyond it.

Companies that are full of knowledge workers and that have built cultures that value busyness face a potentially sharp dilemma when it comes to E2.0. These companies stand to benefit a great deal if they can build emergent platforms for collaboration, information sharing, and knowledge creation. But they may be in a particularly bad position to build such platforms not because potential contributors are too busy, but because they don't want to be seen as not busy enough.

And even if the leaders in such companies sincerely want to exploit the new tools and harness the collective intelligence of their people, they might have a tough time convincing the workforce that busyness is no longer the ne plus ultra. Corporate cultures move slowly and with difficulty, and it will take a lot more than a few memos, speeches, and company retreats to convince people that it's a smart career idea, rather than a poor one, to contribute regularly and earnestly to E2.0 platforms.

It's missives like this which make Andrew, a fellow Enterprise Irregular, a must read for anyone looking to better understand and/or support the emergence of social software within the enterprise. I'm looking forward to participating with Andrew in the Enterprise 2.0 Rave next month; something you'll be hearing more of in the next few weeks.