Intelligence Among Us

I leave the detailed description of this pyramid concept to the Wikipedia entry.

I believe though, that other than the lowest level of the pyramid – Physiological, which could be thought of as “Do it or your fired”, that these needs can be thought of in the context of finding creative ways of selling social networking in the Enterprise.

Safety – I suppose in the IT context this could be considered a security issue.  To me this might mean not worrying about hacking, about knowing the responsiblity and ability to manage your information is yours and yours alone.

Love/Belonging – this is one of the reasons that the social networking phenomenon has exploded.  It’s a new, simple and effective way of forming communities with like-minded people and creating a shared experience with those with whom you may never had a chance.  I’ll leave the sexual intimacy aspect out of it from a corporate perspective but it’s easy to see where this can fit.  In a global company like mine, allowing people to be parts of communities or to easily search out people that have common skills, functions, interests will increase their sense of being part of something bigger.  I find with a large organization, especially one as decentralized as mine, dispersed globally people can easily lose this perspective.

Esteem – this is a no brainer.  I believe that the power of social networking to identify subject matter experts, top contributors etc. is empowering to say the least.  It gives people more opportunity to get feedback on their content and to refine their thinking to take themselves to the next level (see Self-actualization).  Surfacing the highest rated users, most heavily trafficked blog authors, subject matter experts will not only motivate those people but motivate others to contribute. 

Self-actualization – social networking provides a medium for people that want to realize their creativity.  The idea of that one can spontaneously generate content that can be consumed globally and solve problems that might be outside their traditional scope of responsibilities is an incredible step forward.  A finance person using their unique perspective to solve a marketing issue or an engineer assisting with a cost reduction strategy on another continent can only add both value and agility to an organization.

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