Elearning! Magazine: Building Smarter Companies via Learning & Workplace Technologies.
Issue link: https://gelmezine.epubxp.com/i/48384
Government Elearning! This assessment can also iden- tify critical processes in your organization that have "collabora- tive leverage." Collaboration is not only political, but it is often an organizational blind spot, because you are too close for an objective perspective on your problem(s). The problems are often not seen as collaboration problems but are framed in the context of that particular situa- tion or process. FOR EXAMPLE… A sales manager I interviewed was telling me about his problem in losing so many proposals that it was keeping him up at night. With a bit more probing, I found out that the problems were (1) the proposals were being deliv- ered to the client late, and (2) often they could not find the expertise needed to craft a win- ning proposal. The sales manager did not see this as a collaboration problem; I did. It was a problem of both coordination and expert- ise discovery. A few simple adjustments supported the increasing win rate on proposals in the next few months. The sales manager was a happy guy and sleeping well at night. So when you look at your organization, the collaboration issues may not be seen that way but will be voiced in the context of the situation or process in question. In many cases, a more in-depth assessment is needed to pinpoint your challenges. This helps in developing a plan or collaborative strategy that will cost less than what you are spending and make you much more effective in today's hyper-competitive environment. Organizations with low assessment scores are at very high risk in today's economy and constant evolution of technology. Even with an excellent score, you probably still have challenges in your com- petitive response to your market. A longer time to market means reduced market share; this can often be accompanied by limitations in scaling the company, poor corporate agility, and a reduction in your ability to develop or exploit new market opportunities. Although yesterday's strategies seemed to work well, state-of-the-art technology has advanced tremendously over the last two years, and requires that you ask the question again: "Are you collaborative … really?" —David Coleman is managing director of Collaborative Strategies (www.collaborate.com), a San Francisco-based industry analyst and advisory services firm. He is also the author of two recent books on collaboration ("Collaboration 2.0" and "41 Rules for Successful Collaboration"). He also contributes heavily to the Collaboration Blog (www.collaborate.com) and to www.Allcollaboration.com. Coleman is also a part- ner in HPSCM, working to help large and medium-sized organizations to save millions by applying the col- laborative shift to their processes. Reach him at davidc@collaborate.com or on Twitter @dcoleman100. Take the self-assessment at www.collaborate.com/assessment. Annual 2010 13