A quote from Clay Shirky’s last book “Here Comes Everybody”, which appeals to me because I am both in the nuclear business and in charge of collaboration and innovation systems there:

To put it metaphorically, society’s control over nuclear power is like driving a car, with gas, brakes, and a reverse gear. We have a good deal of control over both the route and speed with which nuclear power progresses, including the option to pull over (as several countries have done by banning the building of new plants). The dramatic improvement in our social tools, by contrast, means that our control over those tools is much more like steering a kayak. We are being pushed rapidly down a route largely determined by the technological environment. We have a small degree over control over the spread of these tools, but that control does not extend to being able to reverse, or even radically alter, the direction we are moving in.

I believe this very much explains why change is so difficult to implement in large organizations, and in the nuclear business in particular where control and safety are paramount. Nevertheless, we are also in a business whose future depends so much on public opinion that we absolutely need to adopt social tools and move down that path too. To paraphrase Clay, we are car drivers who really need to learn how to steer a kayak. It’s not either or, but both, and that’s tricky, because our managers sitting at their desk don’t always know if they are driving a car or steering a kayak. When they are planning for future development, they are more like steering a supertanker, because they know it’s going to take twenty year to implement. But when they are facing governments or the public opinion, they are in white waters. We have both excellent car drivers and outstanding kayakers at AREVA, but I am not sure that we have enough top managers with both capabilities, with the possible exception of our CEO. So my job is more to induce a new culture where the car drivers will acknowledge that they need the kayakers, and vice-versa. Call it humility.