BOOK SUMMARY 16 The Collaborative Organization
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Summary written by: Dianne Coppola
"Technology is supposed to support us and do what we
tell it to do. Instead we have the opposite: Technology tells us what to do and
when to use it."
- The Collaborative Organization, page 18
Ah…the
double-edged sword of technology. Originally designed to save us time only to
have become for many a 24/7, all-consuming addiction! Emails, texts, BBMs,
tweets, pings and pokes. When exactly did the tail start wagging the dog? And
why would companies want to further immerse their employees in a virtual world
by using web-based collaboration tools?
Author
Jacob Morgan notes he has grown up using technology tools and “doesn’t remember
what it was like to conduct business when these platforms did not exist.”
Funny, I remember all too well the pain of writing my undergraduate thesis on a
portable electric typewriter and having to later make corrections on pages 3,
12, 28 and 70, which necessitated retyping the entire manuscript! The phrase
‘cut and paste’ had an entirely different meaning back then! But I digress.
The
Collaborative Organization is a primer on how to
harness the benefits of emergent collaborative software (aka Enterprise 2.0
tools and platforms) to solve business problems and foster innovation. Morgan
covers off topics such as the business drivers for using web-based tools, risk
assessment, developing a deployment strategy, overcoming employee resistance,
measuring success and sustaining adoption. He builds a case for why such tools
should become “the door to the organization where almost all work can get done”
rather than an add-on tool that employees need to manage.
The Golden Egg
We Beats Me
"The
more employees can share, communicate, collaborate, and engage with one
another, the greater the flow of ideas is."- The Collaborative Organization, page 11
In
another fascinating flashback to pre-internet days, research done by T.J. Allen
in 1977 found that when people worked more than 30 meters apart, they were less
likely to collaborate and communicate with each other. Having worked in both
large and small organizations, I have experienced this myself; you tend to talk
things over with people you see regularly than you do with co-workers that
reside in other areas of the building, never mind in another country. And yet,
when you make the effort to connect with those outside your regular work or
social space, you often have conversations that lead you to new insights and
ideas.
So why
is email still the go-to tool used by many to ‘collaborate and communicate’
even though it was not really designed for that purpose? We use it simply
because everyone has it. Emergent collaboration tools can engage a broader
range of people for problem-solving and innovation. Given many in today’s
workforce (and future workforce) are mini-Morgans, people who have grown up
using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Skype, and other social
networking tools, and recognizing business is becoming increasingly global in
nature, it makes sense to leverage collaborative applications for business
purposes.
Gem #1
Sometimes Weak Beats Strong
"Emergent
collaboration solutions allow the creation of strong ties, but more important,
they allow for the creation of weak ties, or bridges, within organizations.
These bridges allow employees to get access to information and people within a
larger network instead of simply relying on the people they know."- The Collaborative Organization, page 13
So,
let’s get clear on what is meant by strong and weak links or ties. A strong tie
represents a well-established connection you have with someone, like an
immediate family member, friend or long-time co-worker. These relationships
typically require consistent and ongoing effort to maintain. Weak ties are
acquaintances, extended family, friends-of-friends, or colleagues with whom you
have only occasional contact or no contact at all. These ties require minimal
effort to maintain which is why you generally have more weak ties than strong
ones.
In our
personal lives, blogs and social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and
Twitter are examples of consumer-oriented applications that help people
establish and leverage weak ties. In a work context, customized collaboration
platforms offer similar benefits. Employees are able to create information-rich
profiles which can then be searched when there is a need to find someone with a
different knowledge base or skill set in order to solve a challenge. They can
post status updates on projects, seek input on draft documents, float ideas or
simply ask and answer questions in an open forum. On-line tools help us to tap
into the wisdom of people we haven’t met, not simply the people we cross paths
with every day.
We all
have benefited at one time or another from a weak tie, either personally or at
work. A consultant who ran a workplace leadership program I attended several
years ago later connected me with someone in her network. This new contact
invited me to collaborate on a proposal that eventually generated business for
both of us. I once attended a youth career fair where professionals like me
were asked to connect students interested in a particular career with someone
in their network who could answer their questions. I linked a student with my
sister-in-law who works for an airline.
If you
are stymied with a problem or aren’t sure where to find the information you
need, try reaching out to your weak ties to see if they have any potential
solutions or can connect you with someone in their network who might be able to
help.
Gem #2
#Sharing-Knowledge-Freely
"There
are two types of knowledge that need to be shared and transferred at
organizations: new knowledge and old knowledge."- The Collaborative Organization, page 17
Too
often organizations focus a disproportionate amount of their resources and
attention on disseminating immediately relevant information to employees, to
the neglect of capturing the wealth of historical knowledge and expertise
housed within the craniums of those employees. This short-term focus has
long-range implications that are easily overlooked until a veteran employee
announces their resignation or retirement. Only then do leaders take notice and
scramble to siphon as much gray matter as they can from the soon-to-be-gone
employee.
Morgan
believes this can be overcome when employees use emergent technologies to
store, share and retrieve information. Granted, companies still need to create
a common architecture for organizing and tagging this information, however
search engines like Google have certainly demonstrated the power of keyword
searches for instant information retrieval. And the emergence of user-generated
tags and hashtags on sites like Facebook and Twitter make virtual labeling
systems accessible and easy for everyone. This certainly has advantages over
traditional paper-based filing systems and cumbersome 1.0 intranets.
I
confess that I didn’t learn what I expected to learn given the book’s title,
however I didn’t come away empty-handed either! The book reminded me that
technology has, is and will continue to shape how we connect with and interact
with others. Social and collaboration tools can simplify how we share and
access knowledge which is critical in this increasingly global world we live
in. However, we need to use this technology consciously and judiciously
because, at the end of the day, it is our interactions with people that will
help us overcome our challenges and generate the breakthrough results we seek.
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