I strongly do believe that enterprise 2.0 is a very important tool to manage/execute a transformation or Change program through out the organization. Research by McKinsey and PROSCI the success rate of transformation has been below 40%. To increase this percentage and make the transformation or change program a success and involve employees Enterprise 2.0 plays a key Role.

To know more about the research http://element8software.com/insights/transforming

Far too often, middle management is relegated to the role of ineffective communications intermediary between the troops and the brass. They spend their time interpreting and translating. It is almost as if someone destined them to a life of managing an inbox and filling out TPS reports.

The best middle managers don’t want to work this way. They want to act more like a GM and coach for a sports team. In sports – the goal is clear – championships. The coach and GM don’t spend their days explaining the different benefits of winning, they spend their days figuring out how to take the resources available to them to blend and build the team in a way that will deliver the maximum result. Their results are clearly reported on SportsCenter every night, and standings are pretty darn easy to interpret. Without the overhead of managing the message around the team’s goals and results, the coach and GM are free to concentrate on maximizing the contributions of who they have.

We lack that clarity, simplicity, and transparency of goals in business. In “2.0″ environments where the most senior leadership is completely transparent about goals and strategy, the middle manager has a chance to pick themselves up out of that inbox and those TPS reports and really focus on helping his or her “players” improve. He or she can put the team in the best position to win. They can look at hiring as bringing someone in to a community and will work to ensure everyone is reaching their potential within that community.

If collaborative technologies are used to “flatten” the information distribution within an organization, that’s a good thing. However, some of the hierarchy is valuable because decisions still need accountability, and that’s much harder to “flatten.” The good news is, that if we take the communications and information distribution overhead from the middle managers, we’ll quickly separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to those best at adding value and helping their teams win.