Blogs are one of the more interesting of the Web 2.0 tools to emerge at NRCan.  Blogs were one of the first collaborative technologies, along with the wiki, to be made widely available to employees.  Any employee who wanted a blog could get one.  There was a significant uptake on new blogs in the beginning.  Then they began to languish; outside of our brave band of librarians and their library blog, no one was posting to the blogs they had requested and no one was responding to them.  Interestingly enough, they were hardly being used for almost a year, until they started springing up again only recently. 

Why did this re-emergence of blogging appear?  The answer is that the NRCan use of blogs reflected more about the cultural change in communicating than about their effectiveness.  As there was no blog culture at NRCan, many of those employees who requested blogs, posted once, and when they didn’t get scads of responses, they never posted again.  However, I also think the early ones died because no one had a business use identified for them, or at the very least, people didn’t see really good examples of how to use them in a government department.   

This trend changed around eight months ago with “The Daily Reed”, an energy-related information sharing blog.  It was shortly followed by many more blogs. What was interesting and so promising about these blogs was that they became key channels for communications and information sharing for the workgroups.  They weren’t “text book” blogs laying out an individual’s point of view. They were used to share news and links to new studies or new projects, and the occasional staff member retirement party.  In a lot of ways these early blogs began replacing email as a primary daily information sharing tool.  Other blog types are beginning to emerge, including blogs for project reporting, blogs that express personal points of view on any number of topics, and blogs furthering the growth of communities of practice.

Blogs are becoming a viable tool because there is a community of users that has taken them up.  We have learned how to incorporate and use them in our work - in other words, there is an emergent blogging culture at NRCan. 

So how do we make this happen?  We didn’t, and that is the key.  While it is true that we made the tool available it’s what we didn’t do that I think made all the difference.   We didn’t impose restrictions on who could have a blog or how blogs were to be used.  There was no allocation of blogs by organizational unit or span of responsibility.   There was no editorial or moderator control imposed, no third party vetting of contents.  We didn’t even restrict what bloggers could talk about (outside of saying in our blogging policy that bloggers should follow acceptable use guardrails).

Other lessons have been learned from our more successful bloggers.  Blogging takes an ongoing commitment, and they need to be updated regularly in order to build and maintain a following.  Bloggers don’t blog in isolation.  They often are responding to other bloggers and they refer to their blogs frequently.  Bloggers also should classify their posts using tags and categories in order to improve their profile and searchability.   Bloggers blog in the language of choice, although in some cases they translate or provide synopses where the blog is part of a consultation or official communications channel.      

Finally, one of the reasons that NRCan blogs are now successful is that we didn’t shut down the blog tool because it looked like blogs were a lost cause.  Ultimately we trusted that if the employees of NRCan were given the freedom to experiment with the technology, they would find a use for blogs on their own and develop innovative and unanticipated uses for the tool.   I have to say it’s nice when things work out the way you expected, even when you didn’t expect, or anticipate, the ways they are evolving.  

At NRCan we are in the second year of our Web 2.0 implementation. Depending on who you speak with in the department, Web 2.0 is the best thing since sliced bread, and is enabling employees to work more collaboratively than ever before - or, you might be met with indifference and a dismissive wave of the hand informing you that Web 2.0 technology has no place government and is just a passing fad.

Given that over half of all NRCan employees are actively using internal tools like the Wiki, blogs, discussion forums, polling software, social networking tools and, many are using FaceBook, YouTube and Twitter externally to share knowledge and mobilize communities, I would say with confidence that Web 2.0 is much more than a passing fad at NRCan.  By their nature alone, Web 2.0 tools are designed to be shared, used interactively and simultaneously.  They are about bringing people together, enabling interaction and building upon interests and expertise.  They are also immediate and easy to use. 

Why then, after almost two years do we not have 100% of NRCan employees fully exploiting our suite of Web 2.0 tools?

It’s all about change. 

As the “chief engagement officer” of Web 2.0 at NRCan (self titled to satisfy my long-standing desire to be CEO), I am always looking for interesting, new ways to engage employees.  My goal is to get them as excited as I am about changing the way government works.  I want to get them thinking about information differently - to get them experimenting with the tools and discovering for themselves the power they have to really make a difference in the department…in government. 

When we launched our Wiki with a departmental Hawaiian Luau and delivered an innovative podcast message from our Deputy Minister, we ensured that every single NRCan employee knew about the Wiki.  We have continued our quirky award recognitions, extensive Wiki training sessions and barn raisings, Web 2.0 orientations and we never miss an opportunity to promote the Wiki and other tools.  We celebrate many successes. 

Early adopters have embraced Web 2.0 and have become evangelical about using the tools to change the way they work.  Their enthusiasm is infectious.  The challenge now is finding ways to support and encourage those employees that aren’t quite so sure about Web 2.0.

My research tells me not to worry.  Not to get hung up on achieving a 100% take up rate.  The risk in putting too much emphasis on engaging those who are truly unwilling or afraid to change the way they work is in losing the support and trust of lead users. 

Engagement is a key enabler for culture change.   It increases awareness and builds community, confidence and trust.  By continuing to profile the innovation, creativity and bold approaches of champion users, we can demonstrate the value of Web 2.0 in government - the power it has to simplify administrative processes, to improve collaboration and to enable the integration of knowledge.   It is through consistent, innovative, fun, bold, risky, thoughtful and ongoing engagement that true culture change will begin to take root.

As we delve further into Web 2.0, in government and industry alike, we are seeing the power of the community, the eagerness to collaborate and the excitement brought on by new ways of working.  We see employees eager to share their knowledge, expertise, and energy on work that falls outside of their typical boundaries.  In turn, we should be able to leverage the power of communities coming together to produce results faster and better than ever before.  Sounds perfect!  But, there is a challenge…..

We find that our organizational structures and management policies are not always conducive to supporting these new ways of working.  We are faced with managers worrying about employees ‘wasting time’ on new technology or doing work that falls outside of their defined roles and responsibilities.  Our compensation systems reward people, well defined teams and concrete deliverables.  Management hierarchies have leadership positions defined and accountable for results.  These structures and policies were put in place to create well-managed and high-performing organizations.  But, how does this formal, hierarchical structure leverage and compensate the power of communities?  What needs to change?  This is the management challenge we face….. 

 Gary Hamel, ranked as one of the world’s most influential business thinkers, and according to Fortune magazine “the world’s leading expert on business strategy”, writes about this dichotomy in his book The Future of Management.  Two quotes from the book resonate with me as I watch Web 2.0 take hold at Natural Resources Canada.   

“The web has evolved faster than anything human beings have ever created—largely, because it is not a hierarchy. The web is all periphery and no center. In that sense, it is a direct affront to the organizational model that has predominated since the beginnings of human history. No wonder managers feel a little queasy when they venture into the far reaches of cyberspace, like space travelers who’ve arrived on a planet where up is down and down is up.”

“How do you discover radically better ways of leading, organizing and managing? The short answer: You look far beyond the boundaries of today’s “best practice.” You look someplace weird, someplace unexpected. To glimpse the future of management, you must search out the “positive deviants,” organizations and social systems that defy the norms of conventional practice.”

The current approach creates conflict….and in order to resolve it we will need to be flexible, creative and open minded to accepting new ways of managing work, and also to rewarding and compensating employees in new ways.  This could range from compensation and classification through to delegation of work.   Perhaps the best model would be to create a community of managers and employees equally contributing to challenging the status quo.

Feeling queasy yet?  Don’t worry.  The feeling will pass once we all start to embrace change and all the opportunities it brings with it.   

Is Web 2.0 changing the way government organizations are working together internally, as organizations?  Is Web 2.0 causing us to think more about the contribution we, as employees, can make to our organizations?  Is Web 2.0 breaking down some traditional silos and stimulating us to work outside of typical work structures?  In my opinion, the answers are obvious:  Yes!  Yes!  And yes!

Web 2.0 has started a revolution….an evolution and a new way of working together, sharing information, contributing knowledge and respecting the active participation of a wide range of users.  This is the genesis of Government 2.0. 

At Natural Resources Canada, we are in the midst of such a revolution.   We began with some simple exploration into a few ‘collaborative tools’.  But, we quickly discovered the power of collaboration and Web 2.0 technology.  From then on we were hooked and we were excited.  As we shared our stories with others, we discovered that the excitement was contagious…not because we simply talked about it or gave demos, but because this technology is immediate and accessible. 

When we started our journey into Gov 2.0, we knew we wanted to try out a lot of ‘really cool stuff’.  We also knew we needed to demonstrate value to NRCan employees.  Our focus was on two major deliverables:  a departmental Wiki and a Business Case for implementing Collaborative Technology.  Our Wiki 101 pilot, (101 users in 101 days) was established to assess how a wiki could enable the creation of rich, integrated content amongst government employees (after all, a Wiki is only as good as the content it holds).  We also wanted to build some support and identify lead users.  The pilot exceeded our expectations.  Employees were asking to take part, they wanted to help each other out, and communities of employees with common interests were emerging.

In October, 2007 we launched our Wiki to all the employees of NRCan and three months later, the Business Case was approved.  Since then, our wiki continues to evolve and grow and, we continue to introduce additional tools. 

Has the transition to Gov 2.0 at NRCan been easy?  No.  It has been hard work.  Has it been worthwhile?  Absolutely!  Our bold approach has enabled renewal in the department.   It is supporting new ways of working and increasing the level of collaborating amongst employees.  It is changing the culture of work at NRCan. 

We were thrilled to be invited as contributors to this blog to stimulate dialogue on topics such as culture change, social technologies, innovative approaches, GC collaboration, rules of engagement and many others.  Through this dialogue we will exchange ideas, thoughts and opinions; share best practices; and talk about the challenges, risks and our changing role.  Most importantly, we will learn from each other in an open and collaborative environment.  In the spirit of Government 2.0, let’s start collaborating…….