The problem for the CIO is that collaboration produces new ideas -- ideas which they do not have the budgetary authority to implement. They realize they are being set up for failure. Later, when the remainder of the C-Suite is questioned at the stockholders meeting or investor calls about why collaboration wasn't used or why it failed, the CIO will predictably play the role of the scapegoat. Collaboration without budgetary prcoess alignment and financial transparency is a non-starter.

As noted in previous forums, the problem is one of both definition and appropriate management. Social networking and collaboration are terms that are being loosely applied to many very different activities ranging from collaborating on scientific research to online chatting about topics of personal interest.

Technology changes and shapes behavior. When a new information technology becomes available in an environment, it's important to develop ways to use that technology appropriately. Most organizations have policies, training and communications to inform employees about appropriate "on the job" behaviors and activities. These should include guidelines and training about the appropriate use of any new information technology.

How to use collaborative tools (that are rapidly become a part of every-day behavior) within a specific organization will depend upon that organization's culture and policies, the results of pilot projects, and the bottom-line benefits that the new technology can offer. Organizations may need to experiment with many social networking and collaboration options, including workgroup collaboration, online conferencing, communities of interest, online meetings, and do this both within and across various stakeholder groups. Doing this will obviously require a high degree of planning and cooperation involving key stakeholders throughout an organization. It's another (and perhaps a less obvious) way that new collaborative technologies are breaking down organizational "silos."

Collaboration isn't just about managing new types of IT. True collaboration involves a radical restructuring of group behavior. It may be helpful to think about collaboration tools as having the same potential for enhancing the ability to take action and increasing the availability of useful information within and between organizations that the Internet has started offering to individuals worldwide.

For collaboration tools to really work in the enterprise it will need the backing of management starting from the top level. The CIO will have to make it clear to management that technical resources need to allocate time to developing content and materials. Being an outside consultant, I often see many different corporate cultures, and with each company, sharing knowledge is different. Some organizations prefer not to collaborate and let internal politics take departments down the path of competing projects that accomplish the same goal. Within some departments there are technical resources adverse to sharing technical knowledge. Their fears are often that if they share the knowledge over a blog or wiki that their job will be outsourced to India or China. For many companies, the culture for social knowledge sharing isn't quite there yet. The top-level management will need to begin building a sharing environment before the subject matter experts begin to share.