Elearning! Magazine: Building Smarter Companies via Learning & Workplace Technologies.
Issue link: https://gelmezine.epubxp.com/i/48384
CollaborativeThinking Are You Collaborative? Really! M 4 12 Annual 2010 TAKE THIS FIVE-MINUTE ASSESSMENT TO SEE IF YOUR ORGANIZATION HAS THE RIGHT FOCUS. BY DAVID COLEMAN y definition for collaboration is "two or more people working together (mostly via computer) on an ongoing basis for a specific purpose or goal." I believe you have to look at collaboration holistically to be successful, with a simultaneous focus on people, process and technology. After working with many clients who were having trouble with collaboration and doing some of my own research, I was able to find some common dysfunctional patterns. It took a few years, but I did come up with an assessment tool that helped in several ways. It could give me an initial idea of what the corporate situation was like in four areas. It let me get at the underlying attitudes people had about collaboration, even if they were not aware of them. It allowed me to focus in on the client's crit- ical problems and to apply my knowledge and experience where it would have the most value. After having done (literally) thousands of these quick assessments, I was able to generalize spe- cific problems endemic to different score categories. Here are some of the basic factors and exam- ples of why they are important. Technology is usually the first thing everyone thinks of for computer-based interper- sonal interactions. Since I get briefed by hundreds of collaboration tool vendors each year, and have been doing this for 20 years, I have formed some strong opinions: 1 Technology is an enabler of the interaction, and is usually about 20 percent of a successful solution, yet because it is the most tangible part of the process it gets 80 percent of the attention. It is also a convenient scapegoat to just say the technology did not work. 2 Culture – You instinctively know that this is a critical aspect to any kind of interactions because it provides the context for the interac- tion. As a matter of fact I like to look at "local context," which is com- posed of your company culture, your country culture, and your personal situation and style of interaction. For teams to be effective, the team members have to understand and respect the local context for everyone on the team to help minimize problems. 3 Economics – I work mostly with commercial clients (medium- sized businesses), and they are always worried about the bottom line, so situational economics always has a role to play. Even if your technology is great and you have a collaborative culture, if there is not a compelling economic reason, the interactions will not hap- pen or happen poorly. I also found that sometimes economics are not that critical but completing a goal or project is one of the ways success is measured. I usually found this in government organizations. Politics – This is probably the most critical factor. I found more teams failed on their goals because of politics. If you have two people interacting, you have politics. I also define manage- ment's behavior (not what they say, but what they do) as part of the politics for any organization. The assessment at the Website www.collaborate.com/assessment is only a few multiple-choice questions. It should take you five minutes or less. It is great for diagnosing where you are on this collaborative scale. But more importantly, it looks at your organizational goals and alignment and notes problems in effective process cycle times, cor- porate agility/responsiveness, and the ability to compete. Elearning!