In the Journal, he talks about Internet 2.0 and small councils that can act fast using video and collaboration. In either Fast Company or Wired he talked at greater length about how these things work. In the NY Times on Sunday in the Corner Office which is, incidentally, pretty consistently worth reading, he says"

"I'm a command-and-control person. I like being able to say turn right, and we truly have 67,000 people turn right. But that's the style of the past. That was great when you were a single product, when the market was moving slower and one executive or an executive team could run the whole company.

"Today's world requires a different leadership style - moving more into a collaboration and teamwork, including learning how to use Web 2.0 technologies. If you had told me I'd be video blogging and blogging, I would have said, no way. And yet our 20-somethings in the company really pushed me to use that more."

Cisco is simultaneously pursuing the technology and the management style it believes will be the new era.  If Chambers and his collaborators are right, they will leave competitors far behind.

As he concludes his analysis of what has changed:

"Big time, the importance of collaboration. Big time, people who have teamwork skills, and their use of technology. If they're not collaborative, if they aren't naturally inclined toward collaboration and teamwork, if they are uncomfortable with using technology to make that happen both within Cisco and in their own life, they're probably not going to fit in here."