One of the many things I’ve been working on lately is perspectives.  Both mine and others (I hope).  When you’re working on introducing ideas and concepts into an an environment that hasn’t had a lot of change, you get a lot of resistance.

That’s nothing groundbreaking, but I think it goes without saying that there are many perspectives and perceptions that people view their world and the things that make up their work.  Introducing new ideas is a challenge not because people are resistant to learning, but because the change that it brings is disruptive.

Social media is disruptive, of course, that way.  It’s not necessarily that there’s something new, but that it requires attention, time that many folks and businesses don’t feel they have.  Running the day to day of businesses, putting out “fires”, planning for the future, launching new product, finishing a tight-deadline project, these are the things that people are dealing with in businesses of all sizes.

So, it’s kind of hard to expect management and staff stuck in the middle layers of an organization to jump up and down and get all excited about having to deal with something new.  Yet, this layer of any organization needs to be included in change, they are the ones who can make the most of change. They’re the ones who understand their area of the business.  Consider them hundreds or thousands of SMEs that understand how that part of the business works and what it needs.

Understanding their perspectives on the organization, change, and the job at hand is another part of the puzzle needed to implement social media behind the firewall.

Behind The Firewall is an ongoing series of blog posts, Twitter chats and more. Created and lead by Arik Hanson and Rick Mahn, these discussions explore the world of the social web inside companies & organizations, “Behind The Firewall” if you will.