As Michel SERRES already mentioned in 2007, it is impossible and totally useless to compile all the information that reaches us because of the large flow of information. We are entering an era of major change, where the challenge is not so much to know but to be able to quickly find the right information we need to remain competitive.
Enterprise 2.0 allows us to meet this challenge. However, it can only emerge by bringing about profound changes and implies a paradigm shift. The Taylorian vision where everyone is paid to execute is still too present. Thinking, being creative, participating in the future of the company is still too often considered by some departments as a waste of time.
If in an industrial and commercial society, it seems simple, logical, to divide and fragment in order to produce and sell better, tomorrow's performance can only be obtained if the company manages to innovate in order to differentiate itself. But innovation is nourished by exchanges, sharing, reflection and confrontation of ideas. It therefore seems impossible to continue to divide up the problems, with everyone working in their own corner. Encouraging the circulation of ideas, stimulating interactions, networking, and making individual intelligences cooperate are indispensable factors in a knowledge-based economy.
"Human intelligence depends on neural connections. Organizational intelligence, on the other hand, depends on interpersonal connections. This sentence by Richard McDermott explains well the challenge that the Enterprise must take up if it wants to ensure its sustainability. The company must therefore mobilize and implement Collective Intelligence. This is a complex and time-consuming operation; sharing knowledge and helping others to succeed cannot be imposed or decreed. Managers have an essential role to play in creating support by moving from a "controlling" posture to that of "facilitator of cooperation". Only then will the Intelligent Enterprise emerge.
