Few people, if any, like being wrong.  It’s human nature to want to be right, sometimes even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  How many times have you seen someone continue to defend a seemingly indefensible position, driven to do so by pure stubbornness?  (I’ve been a guilty party in this type of exercise).  Some people handle it better than others and I’m willing to admit that I’m probably not one of them. 

Why am I writing about this?  Well, with the advent and explosion of so many great and innovative technologies over the last decade, both individuals and organizations have been quick to adopt the newest, coolest, shiniest thing.  Many times, they were promised and assumed that the thing they embraced would have broad and deep impacts.  Unfortunately for them, while many of these things had substantial impacts, they were not nearly as broad and/or deep as initially anticipated. 

Take some enterprise social software offerings, for example.  Let me be clear: I think that they do some great things, such as supporting a sense of culture and community and providing for the ability to announce things to small and large groups alike in relative real-time.  In fact, we use and get value out of one such technology here at Triple Creek. 

However, other results that were promised or assumed by some providers have gone largely unrealized in most cases.  Such misunderstandings include the thought that enterprise social software will promote and facilitate intentional learning relationships and knowledge transfer (I propose that we call this mentoring).  Don’t get me wrong, some learning happens, but it is largely incidental or accidental, not intentional, and definitely not measurable.

So, here’s the rub: because someone internal at some point in the process sold the organization on the Swiss Army knife-style concept that this type of technology can be everything to everyone, some organizations made heavy investments (monetary and/or time and effort) in certain technologies.  Now, despite contradictory evidence, some organizations are continuing to keep all of their eggs in one basket instead of thinking about how they need to complement their investment in enterprise social software with other solutions that can help with more specific organizational issues, such as the need for mentoring. 

Why are organizations doing this?   Because people don’t like being wrong.  It doesn’t make it right; it’s just who we are.