I'm not usually one to make big predictions, but I am feeling opinionated today.
I recently had the
pleasure of working with a client that is effectively using social
collaboration on their projects. They happen to use Jive, although I
believe other tools could be just as effective at accomplishing the same
results. For those of you who have never seen Jive, it is a lot like
Facebook at its core. People post topics or documents and comment on
them. We used it throughout the project to provide updates, gather ideas
and gain feedback on deliverables. It also has various other features
like events, blogs, polls, etc.
Here's what I liked
about using this method of collaboration versus our typical ways of working:
1.
Better
results. During our assessment
interviews, we usually provide updates for our primary client via email or
office drop-ins, but the rest of the leadership team gets the findings and
hypothesis recommendations at the end of the assessment phase when we present
our report. With Jive, we posted at least daily updates on key
findings from interviews. This started some great conversations that
helped clarify points that were made and helped us form hypotheses together.
Additionally, some of the feedback was acted on by our clients
immediately.
2.
Increased
productivity. Usually, if I'm away
from work for a day or two, it is very challenging to follow all the
conversations that have happened over email. Actually, it is a challenge
to follow all the conversations that happen over email even if I'm sitting at
my email! With this collaboration software, I was very easily able to
come in after 48 hours and quickly digest all the comments made to previous conversations
as well as new conversations. Some of my colleagues who were involved
more on the fringes appreciated this even more because they could keep a pulse
on what was going on with a quick scan of the feed and then dive back in when
we needed them to re-engage.
3.
Less
wasted effort. Usually, we sync up with
our clients in meetings or phone calls. Ideally, we meet every few days
to review what we are working on so that we can adjust our project efforts as
external factors change. With the collaboration software, we were really
in sync with executive direction and had minimal duplicated or wasted efforts.
For example, one Sunday afternoon, I was getting ready to spend a couple
of hours on a deliverable. I checked Jive first and found that my client had
posted some thoughts that would change the approach/emphasis on that
deliverable. Instead of working on that deliverable, we conversed over
Jive about the topic and agreed to get together in person that next morning.
I would love to work
with all my clients this way, but I do think this particular client is a little
ahead of the game, especially for a typical IT organization. It takes
strong leadership to make the shift from email to collaboration tools.
People are very attached to email as their standard way of working and
don’t yet trust these tools, still thinking email is safer for ensuring
responses and more secure for expressing thoughts.
To be frank, we haven't
figured this out at Thought Ensemble yet, despite multiple experiments with
Yammer, Chatter and Sharepoint. We are still small enough that we tend to
carry on most important conversations over text message and in meetings.
One of my secret goals is that we'll improve our already awesome thought
sharing and ensemble working this year with one of these tools. I guess
it is not so secret anymore!
But, even if most
companies aren't ready quite yet, I'm "calling" it: It is game
over for email. It isn't effective. People are becoming
increasingly frustrated and will welcome a better way. We've seen it
happen with people's personal conversations: people across generations
engage in conversations and messaging on Facebook, but don't check their
personal email.
2016 is going to be the
tipping point for social collaboration in the enterprise. Do you want to
be ahead or behind the curve?
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