Organization is Collaboration

◦ Business is predominantly carried out by organizations, and an organization is essentially an arrangement of people working together for a common goal.

◦ In other words, collaboration is the essence of any organization, and organizations exist to better organize collaboration.

Organizations have been slow to improve and support this very collaboration as something that could be of importance to the overall success of the firm.

to hire the best people and build teams and departments with the necessary skills;

to motivate people with bonuses and benefits…

But when it comes to actually looking at the interaction between people, and how an organization can best support it, practices are thin.

An important aspect that also defines an organization is that it is active within an environment from which it is separated by some boundary: there is an “inside” and an “outside” of the organization.

Where this boundary is, how large the organization within this boundary is, and how the organization is interacting across this boundary has all changed due to the power of the internet and other market forces.

In times of economic turmoil, there is a tendency to focus on defensive measures by trying to reduce costs and optimize efficiency. Looking at productivity will surely help in that respect.

Other companies will use these times for exploring innovation: trying to find a new and future market and developing a commodity that will do well in that market.

Trying to find new solutions, innovations and opportunities that can be achieved by the people who work for you.

Help people make better and quicker decisions, create better deliverables or do better knowledge management.

Even people that are not part of the organization can be engaged to work with you, and for you.

Thanks to the Web 2.0 tools that are widely available, companies can “tap into the collective intelligence.”

And when you succeed in engaging these people, they will be your future most loyal customers.

To optimize existing processes and to create new opportunities by starting an ongoing dialogue with your customers.

Before moving on, it will be interesting to look at your own understanding of this concept:

What is your definition of “collaboration”? Which other terms do you associate with it? In what context have you used the term in your

job recently?

Interaction between multiple parties (two or more);

All parties are doing work; and

With a shared purpose or goal, all parties will get something in return for their efforts;

It can be across boundaries.

Regardless of the medium we’re using or the tools we have to help us, we can talk about the capabilities we need to collaborate effectively. We have the need to:◦ Have a place to store and add information, to create

deliverables and buildknowledge. Write it down on paper, record it on tape or store it “in the cloud.”◦ Interact, communicate: exchange information between

people, the main difference from doing something alone.◦ Know and share “status”: is someone available? Can I

approach you with a question?

◦ Know more about with whom we are communicating: know the identity, role and position of someone we are working with. Know the social networks.◦ Discover information: search and find. Have a way to

structure information.◦ Be notified: we don’t only want to search, we also want to

be notified of important events and information.◦ Integrate: we want all these elements to be seamlessly

connected and integrated.

Every kind of collaboration needs specific tools. What kinds of collaborations are there?

Collaboration is essential to business and many tools are available to support the various capabilities that make up collaboration. But just installing the tools, or using a tool from the cloud, does not make you an “Enterprise 2.0” overnight. The “build it and they will come” adage does not apply.

Creating new modes of collaboration supported by technology can only be done by addressing the human aspect. More specifically, we need to address some of the worries and obstacles people encounter when collaborating using technology. The three most important concerns are:◦ Trust◦ Collaborative culture and◦ Reward

Trust Trust is a condition for social interaction. People

will only work with people, companies, tools and information they know they can trust. Before we can expect collaboration to take off online, there must be a way for people to get this “trust.”

Collaborative culture If one individual is the greatest collaborator in the

world, he or she is probably not getting anywhere. Only when all people involved are part of the same collaborative culture will new levels of creativity and productivity be reached. A collaborative culture consists of many things, including: Collaborative leadership; Shared goals; Shared model of the truth; and Rules or norms.

Reward Changing the way people work takes effort, so it

must be clear for the parties involved what they will gain, at a personal level, from collaborating in a new way. Surprisingly, a “reward” for successful collaboration is most often of a non-financial nature.

There are a number of different types of collaboration that can occur in Web 2.0 systems:◦ Content-based - This is where groups gather and

collaborate around a piece of news or content, typically in a blog or a spaces-type environment.◦ Group-based - In group collaboration people gather

around an idea or interest such as a hobby and discuss it in discussion forums.◦ Project-based - In project-based collaboration groups

work together on a common task or project such as a development project, a book, or even something as large as an encyclopedia using wikis.

All three types of collaboration can be used in Web 2.0 systems, and in many cases more than one can be used.

1. Ask the right questions

◦ The more specific the question, the better targeted and more relevant the responses will be. Open-ended, “What do you think of x?” questions only lead to unmanageable and irrelevant feedback.

2. Ask the right people

◦ Creating opportunities for self-selection allows expertise to find the problem. Self-selection can be combined with baseline participation requirements.

3. Design for groups, not individuals

◦ “Chunk” the work into smaller problems, which can easily be distributed to members of a team. Working in groups makes it easier to participate in short bursts of time and is demonstrated to produce more effective results.

4. Use the screen to show the group back to itself

◦ If people perceive themselves to be part of a minimovement, they will work more effectively together across a distance.

5. Design the process for the desired end

◦ The choice of methodology and tools will depend on the results. But the process should be designed to achieve a goal. That goal should be communicated up front.

6. Divide work into roles and tasks

◦ Collaboration requires parceling out assignments into smaller tasks. Visualizations can make it possible for people to perceive the available roles and choose their own.◦ Ex.: Wikipedia works because people know what to do.

7. Harness the power of reputation

◦ Organizations are increasingly using bubbling-up techniques to solicit information in response to specific questions and allowing people to rate the submissions.

8. Make policies, not websites

◦ Improved practices cannot be created through technology alone. Instead, look at the problem as a whole, focusing on how to redesign internal processes in response to opportunities for collaboration.

9. Pilot new ideas

◦ Use pilot programs, competitions, and prizes to generate innovation.

10. Focus on outcomes, not inputs

◦ Design practices to achieve performance goals and metrics. Measure success.

Helio Teixeira is founder of novoDialogo{. He is an analyst, digital communication expert,

public speaker and editor of the Chapa Branca Blog.

@helioteixeira+55 82 9901 5090

heliolteixeira@gmail.comhelioteixeira@novodialogo.com.br

http://comunicacaochapabranca.com.brhttp://novodialogo.com.br