Used, Overused and abused: My top 10 buzzwords of 2007

Writing by Leila Summa on Wednesday, 2 of January , 2008 at 12:15 pm

Reading his predictions for 2008 and this inspired me also to think about my expectation of 2008 –especially regarding to my my favourite topic: how to tap the full advantage of web 2.0 in the enterprise and how to “model” the employee 2.0. I didn’t dare to write my web predictions for 2008 (because the first of my predictions then would be, that I will need to adapt my predictions in march or April at the latest..). Therefore I decided to collect my personal over- & ab-used buzzwords of 2007.

I think the problem with all this terms is: a lot of people – once heard one of these buzzwords - use it in different contexts and different meanings. By simplifying their world they don’t look at the deeper sense of it, and this superficial understanding of the world (term) can viraly build a collective misunderstanding of really important things. And this misunderstanding provokes sometimes a lot of prejudice, which are very difficult to correct afterwards (I could mention here some examples of – how people reacted on the launch of our bliki (blog/wiki) based IntraWeb 2.0…). Another problem seems to be, that only talking about e.g. “dialogue” doesn’t mean, that you already have implemented successfully the strategy behind:).

Overused and abused buzzwords of 2007 (from an internal relation perspective):

2.0-itis
Needs no explanation, right?

Dialogue
There are also people who don’t share the same ideas – but don’t be afraid - transparency and criticism will help you improve the world – if you listen to them and react.

Simplicity
Don’t forget the complexity behind and don’t over-simplify …”as simple as possible, as complex as needed”…

Competitive advantage
Yes, survival of the fittest… but how does is really work? How can you influence the competitive advantage of your company? Yes, the whole is more than the sum of its parts…

Participation & Collaboration
Participation and better collaboration, that’s what we really want: consider it as a long- and not short-term strategy and as one of the main goals of how the employee 2.0 will have to work: intrinsically motivated ;)….

Proactive
When do we stop talking about and start to live it?

Swarm intelligence
Using the intelligence of the mass is one of the most difficult thing to identify: because once it happens – people do not obviously see it as a result of the “swarm”. Kind of “intelligence of the mass” effects happens all the time and are hidden, but very important part of our lives - even we don’t realize it. Often - unfortunately - we see ideas more as a result of the persons who delivers and presents it. And “to enrich one’s own by giving and receiving parts to and from others”, do you remember the new approaches for sharing in the 2.0-age?

Emergent systems & self organization
To be concise: When does a system start to be “emergent” or “self organized”? How could we identify the point when the system changes, when can we start to name it an “emergent system”? And to be honest: how much self organization do we really want or do we “allow”?

Digital natives – immigrants (or millennials or generation c or y)
Once again: Being a digital natives, millennial or whatever is not a question of age, but of openness and digital literacy. I Therefore I prefer to use – even if it sounds very technical and supports the 2.0-itis - the term “employee 2.0”

Change Management
Wikipedia: “is a structured approach to change in individuals, teams, organizations and societies that enables the transition from a current state to a desired future state.“. Sounds nice: my problem is: How can we manage change and follow a structured approach if we often don’t know how the desired future state will be?

Category: Social Media, Enterprise 2.0, Internal Relations

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