I really enjoyed an article by Josh Bernoff on his Groundswell blog last Friday. He's talking about the difficulties those of us who are pushing social networking and other new technology often find inside our corporate cultures. Here's a brief excerpt:

Companies are like organisms with immune systems. If you’re a change agent, you’re the antigen. Your company wants to reject you, and it’s got lots of systems to block that -- accounting systems, legal systems, management hierarchies, policies and procedures.

Social applications and their champions run afoul of this all the time. Why? Because the people in your social applications – your customers and prospects – are out of control. Who knows what they might say or do? And you want to make that a part of how your company runs? That’s what stimulates the allergic reaction.

Josh has some good advice on how to get around the naysayers within your organization. Take a look at his complete post, and great tips, here.