Totally agree you can't train people to be social...and I wonder if the "social workplace" where employees work in a transparent and collaborative manner is achievable or a pipe dream. Beyond the well-intentioned few, a majority of employees don't want to be social, don't want to collaborate, and don't want any part of managing knowledge.

Today's overloaded worker wants fast access to information and expertise when needed so they can get their job done. They'll collaborate and engage socially when necessary to meet this need but its not a natural act. This is a constant that is not likely to change despite the best efforts of consultants and software developers.

The best social and collaborative systems will be those that are highly agile and virtually invisible to workers. They'll quietly digest information as a by-product of how people work - and be agile enough to allow for the fact that everyone works differently. Employing powerful analytics they'll separate the "wheat from the chaff" and build a store of relevant and context-aware knowledge. And then deliver that knowledge via apps with which users are already familiar and comfortable.

David Wachter
CMO @Hivemine