I said in the first post of this series that I’ll start to share more about my productivity lessons-learned. But first, let’s get one thing out of the way — I believe that online collaboration tools really don’t matter. In contrast, how you apply them for purposeful engagement matters a lot, regarding the anticipated productivity gains.
Moreover, the most substantial gains in online productivity will likely come from fully understanding all the people, process and technology issues that define the environment you’re working within. So, situational context is important.
Besides, if you currently work within a large organization and you believe that a “culture of collaboration” seems more like an aspirational goal, but not the everyday reality — you’re not alone. Truly, your experience is similar to the vast majority.
Collaboration: the Whole Truth…
According to the findings from a recent study by the Corporate Executive Board, “Most companies struggle to achieve cross-company collaboration, even within single locations. In fact, only 1 in 10 senior HR executives and only 39 percent of all employees believe their organizations effectively encourage collaboration.”
Furthermore, they also said “The best companies have found that building a globally distributed innovation capability requires that 1) employees have a deep mutual trust to increase the willingness to share and to be receptive to new ideas and 2) staff have strong connections to facilitate the identification, extraction, and application of lessons across markets.”
Therefore, think of the upside opportunity and imagine the strategic benefits of being ranked a top-tier collaborator. There, hold that image. That’s your incentive to continue down this path.
People, Process and Technology Assessment
In a perfect world, perhaps all that a chief executive need do to make an organization inclined to work together more effectively is to instruct the CIO to deploy a collaboration platform. After all, if we believe that our “people are our greatest asset” then every member of the staff is a potential collaborator — at least, in theory.
If business productivity improvement were merely an academic exercise, then being armed with the best theories and operational processes would be enough to ensure success. In practice, however, old assumptions often need to be tested, and tough decisions about human resource assignments must be made.
One of the key metrics used to measure the results of online collaboration is the level of employee engagement. But if purposeful off-line engagement at work is used as a benchmark, then you should proceed with caution. Assume nothing.
Case in point; findings from a market research study demonstrate that it’s unwise to believe that everyone is actively engaged. Still not convinced that technology selection isn’t the most common roadblock to success? Just consider the results from Gallup’s ongoing survey of employed people in American corporations. Enough said.
Prepare for Mainstream Enterprise Collaboration
Here are some basic tips to consider — regarding how to proceed. Do reach out to your organization’s most engaged and productive stakeholders, and ask them to actively participate in your enterprise collaboration planning process. But don’t fall into the trap of having unreal expectations for collaboration tool ROI.
Encourage the early-adopter use of free or freemium video chat communications tools — such as Sykpe or Google Talk. Increased user adoption of these consumer-oriented tools will help to pre-position your organization for the eventual application of enterprise TelePresence.
In summary, an overly simplistic review of the benefits derived from collaboration tools could easily lead to a misguided deployment effort. Some platform vendors can offer professional services to help assess your readiness — to fully leverage cloud-based collaboration apps and prescribe a progressive plan of action.
The next post on this series will also conclude with a few practical recommendations, as I describe the other aspects of “My Connected Life in the Cloud.”
By David Deans
