A couple years ago I attended the E2 Conference on technology and innovation. As is the nature of most business-tech conferences, there was plenty of Kool-aid for the drinking. Industry experts and leading technology vendors were selling visions of how "Facebook-like capabilities" would transform business from a strict "command and conquer" authoritarian style of giving or following orders to a more "dynamic, collaboration-centric" way of working. They talked about how everything was changing. Everything. In their future, people won't just be able to work from home, the entire concept of work and the economy will shift from providing products to "providing value."

Yep, they really talk like that.

Though there were many reasons to be skeptical of these latest industry bandwagons, middle-managers for the Fortune 500 companies and tech analysts were buying it all. Literally.

Some of us had our doubts about the buzzwords, but were uncomfortable ...