Example of Value System

Business is still, and always will be, done on a peer-to-peer basis organization to organization, person to person. But you cannot stop progress. There are forces at work that will change the way companies buy and sell products and services. The collaborative enterprise will improve communication and interaction among employees, customers and extended enterprise partners.

It reveals a potential for a new kind of business, one that relies on collaboration, one where a person's skills, wit, and communication capability can be the leveraging factor in success. But it is not something that will come from technology implementation alone. Culture change will be the single greatest problem to overcome for such a model to succee

Managing Culture Adaptation

Our experience has shown the difficulty in moving any group through all of the steps and stages described. The problem is not one of technology but of culture and leadership. We believe part of the solution is a new form of Help Desk we call Community of Support6

The Community of Support must be fully aligned with the leadership and purpose of the organization. It must facilitate technology implementation, operational methods and the behavioral dynamics necessary to manage the transformation process.

Pre-Forming

We have seen distinct phases of transformation emerge. (See Figure 5 following page). The first phase occurs when Leadership defines the Economic Relationships and Economic Events that make-up the potential value of a Community of Practice. We call this a Portal Development Session (PDS) in which all stakeholders agree on the purpose, roles and commitments as well as the platform and scope of the transformation project. It will help define a Statement of Direction (SOD) to begin the transformation of the organizational culture.

Forming/Storming/Norming

The next phases will challenge leadership and participants to truly define organizational purpose and objectives. It will reveal the level of commitment as well as the capabilities of each participant.

It follows classic organizational development models, but is unique in providing a documented narrative of the transformation process.

Our model is to create small pilot CoP groups who structure of the Economic Events Networks that form the purpose of the enterprise

Performing - Progressing

It is the interactive clustering of emerging CoP groups we suggest will transform the organization into an agile, virtual and resilient 21st century enterprise. Moving people through the stages of transformation will be the role of the Community of Support. The end goal is Clusters of CoP’s interacting through progressive stages of innovation and value creation. Our model is built upon the vision described by the US Council on Competitiveness, but expanding it to include CoP’s and Economic Events Networks dispersed around the globe.