"You now have a generation in the workplace who expect transparency in how decisions are made and are used to being collaborative." -Deborah Asbrand
While this may be true, we are at least, if we're optimistic, 10 more years from truly seamless collaboration and transparency. The bridges for collaboration are being built around us. Tools like Blogs, Google Docs, Wikis are available. Open source initiatives are widespread. But transparency and collaboration is a cultural problem not a tool problem. It takes 3-4 generations for new paradigms to stick, if it sticks. The first bulk wave of believers in collaboration and transparency are still in their 20s and 30s. This group speaks the language and uses the collaboration tools everyday, but the group, except for a select few, is still working their way up the ranks of business, government and society.
While the information age has enabled a brand new breed of young information entrepreneurs, the bulk of society still lives in a tops-down, mainly computer-less world. And the 20s and 30s will find themselves constantly bumping against a generation gap as they shift the paradigm from tops-down to webbed interactions.
