Global Collaboration: Both Art & Science

Global Collaboration: Both Art & Science Mike Gotta Principal Analyst [email_address] www.burtongroup.com http://mikeg.typepad.com October, 2006

Context Setting Enterprises face unique technology challenges improving productivity at a global and organizational level Architecture, integration, security, governance… Efforts to improve communication, information sharing and collaboration have not always succeeded Nature of global work and influence of organizational dynamics can lead to spectacular failures IT organizations have been more risk-averse lately Market consolidation, cost pressures, compliance… But the business pendulum is swinging back towards growth and innovation putting people at the center Interest in consumer-oriented / socially-oriented solutions Global Collaboration: Both Art & Science

Global Collaboration: Both Art & Science Thesis Communication, collaboration, and content strategies are mission-critical Group productivity Process performance Growth and innovation A new model is emerging Channels for communication / spaces for collaboration Experiences that are contextual and situational-aware Tools which are standards-based and platform-integrated That increasingly spans work and lifestyle Software and software-as-a-service “ Edge” (socially-oriented) as well as “Core” (traditional IT)

Agenda A new model Collaboration is about teaming Challenges faced by teams A look at tools with a team context Recommendations Global Collaboration: Both Art & Science

A New Model Content : the currency for all modes of communication and collaboration. Content lifecycle concerns include creation, storage, management, discovery, distribution, archival, and analytics.

There are many types of teams Co-located team Group predominantly interacts in a face-to-face manner as well as electronically, some virtual aspects but that is not the status-quo. Virtual team Group interacts electronically as its primary means of communicating, sharing information and collaborating. Face-to-face interactions occur on a semi-regular basis but that is not the primary method of working together. Far-flung team Group rarely, if ever, interacts in a face-to-face manner. Complicated by formal boundaries and policies Customers, partners, suppliers, etc. Security demands, compliance demands Collaboration Is About Teaming

Organizational requirements are increasingly dynamic Teams must adapt, everyone can become virtual or far-flung at any point Never Assume Stability Co-located Team Far-Flung Team Business Partner Team Far-Flung Team Virtual Team Co-located Team

Putting a team together remains more art than science… Culture, time and distance factors (obvious) Team longevity (composition, team “DNA”) Persistent team, temporary team Stability of team membership Skills, competencies, experience… Team activities (commitment, focus and attention) Project, process, other (community-oriented) Nature of work (research vs. transactional) Level and nature of involvement Team alignment (where does the team “fit”) Standalone team One team within a hierarchy or other structure of some sort One team within a community of teams (loose affiliation) Team Formation

Relationship dynamics influence team cohesiveness Decision Rights (“what influence over my own destiny”) Roles and responsibilities Internal and external structures (e.g., formal reporting) Self-directing ownership Solidarity (“who has my back”) Diversity (points of view, experience) Trust and reciprocity Team size, relationship dynamics and “togetherness” Growth Factors (“what’s in it for me”) Mentoring and apprenticeship (bootstrapping) Knowledge transfer Performance measures and succession planning After Culture, Time & Distance

Teams are just one type of group Communities are another Communities Of Interest (related by topic, widely diverse members) Communities Of Practice (related by methods use, membership more boundaries and focused) Micro-networks and teams exist within communities Networks facilitate connecting bonds that enable “fluidity” Many different types: social / informational / mentor … Strong and weak ties between group members and those outside the group Understanding the inter-relationship between groups and networks (macro and micro) essential to understanding “teaming” from a leadership and followership perspective – as well as from a management viewpoint After Culture, Time & Distance

Challenge: Alleviating Fear Of Knowledge Harvesting Higher reliance on information sharing and collaboration tools captures a higher level of team member “know how” Workers feel that they are giving away their “value add”, are alienated due to physical isolation and perceive a lack of reciprocity when it comes to learning from others. Influencing factors include: Insecurity related to job/role/responsibility Lack of tools that enable acceptable levels of personal knowledge management Absence of management methods that acknowledge and reward active participation and intellectual contributions at team and individual levels Insufficient learning opportunities Challenges Faced By Teams

Challenge: Overcoming Tribes & Secret Societies Teams naturally evolve into formal and informal sub-groups, hierarchies and/or networks based on title, role, expertise, personal relationships, etc. Absence of face-to-face dialog related to work and social activities causes these problems to be more pronounced Influencing factors include: No connection between agreed-upon group objectives and goals that make participation and contribution personally relevant Insufficient cross-dependencies between team members that balances group and personal success Misplaced “us” versus “them” internal competition; wrong mix of social types, social distance and cultural nuances Challenges Faced By Teams

Summary: Effective team-building High performing teams are skilled in two main areas Structure: planning, readiness, roles, standardization, synchronization… Adaptation: improvising, creating thinking, receptive to fresh approaches, encourage ingenuity Solid leadership, followership, and communication are common traits in successful virtual team environments Engagement, explanation, and expectation setting helps prevent teams from “getting stuck” Influencing factors include: Setting clear vision/goals, consensus on objectives, and metrics Building team identity, ensuring similar team mental models Nurturing social contracts and feedback loops across team members Paying attention to conflict management and resolution practices Challenges Faced By Teams

Sometimes outside perspectives can help Challenges Faced By Teams Thinking Inside The Box http://www.5off5on.com/welcome.html Thinking Outside The Box http://www.pilobolus.com/

Agenda A new model Collaboration is about teaming Challenges faced by teams A look at tools with a team context Recommendations Q&A Global Collaboration: Both Art & Science

A Look At Tools Within A Team Context Virtual Workspaces Establishes a common shared space for group coordination and information sharing regardless of communication channel Document libraries, group calendar, search, workflow… Instant Messaging & Chat Action Item Management Meeting & Calendar Management Web Conferencing Document Sharing Threaded Discussions Voice Conferencing Source: Sitecape Workflow

A Look At Tools Within A Team Context Wikis Establishes a way of collaborating through content Anyone can edit Everything is versioned Conducive to organic content management Every page is editable with revisions tracked Sidebar navigation with search and toolbox to locate other pages that link here Work areas within this wiki Background information Community members Source: WaterWiki, http://europeandcis.undp.org/WaterWiki/index.php/General_Water_Resources

Blogs Expanding the value of conversation and community Some applications can be delivered with blogs as the underlying engine Disconnected support for blogs improving A Look At Tools Within A Team Context Chronologically ordered entries People adding their perspectives to this journal / diary Other blogs that this person or group finds interesting and/or relevant Trackback indicator and comments

Tags & Social Bookmarks Searching for community wisdom Tagging everything People, content and applications Tag visualization and tag mining For intranets, integrated with search, security and identity A Look At Tools Within A Team Context Source: www.connotea.com Size and color of tags helps user awareness All tags are clickable with links going to a drill down page Tags can be displayed by time or other factors

A Look At Tools Within A Team Context Publish & subscribe via XML Syndication (e.g., RSS) Alleviates information overload and underload Helps users manage their attention and peripheral vision Community building aspects Information items within the banking channel Channel subscriptions Source: KnowNow

Presence & Location Establishing a perception of being connected Across devices, at work, on the road or even at home Policy and privacy concerns Defining a presence life-cycle Publish, subscribe, discover, aggregate, broker, federate… A Look At Tools Within A Team Context Frappr! Plazes Source: IBM

Instant Messaging (IM) Value to team members from persistent group dialog Evolving into a platform for “instant” applications A Look At Tools Within A Team Context Source: Parlano Federation with public IM systems Long-running conversations segmented by channel

A Look At Tools Within A Team Context Web conferencing Long-standing option for groups to collaborate over long distance Basic meetings, events and virtual classrooms with record/playback Evolving into a persistence group collaboration space Source: Adobe Attendee Presence Group Chat Conference Notes

A Look At Tools Within A Team Context More On Record/Playback Virtual and far flung teams often lose important context from daily work and social interactions Meeting capture applicable for interviews, project requirements, milestones, lessons learned, informal tutorials… Source: Quindi Source: YouTube Record face-to-face meetings Post to web site

Social Networking Identifies strong and weak ties across groups (e.g., information flows), often combined with profiles that “humanize” co-workers A Look At Tools Within A Team Context Results ordered by social distance Organizational and profile information Source: Microsoft Knowledge Network Source: IBM, Blue Pages

Recommendations Organizational Recommendations Make sure you understand the interplay across: Team purpose, structure and activity type Degree of coordination and activity complexity over team lifecycle Inter-dependencies between team members and team size Geographic dispersion, culture and management styles Value planning, communication & team bootstrapping: Define clear goals, priorities, roles, responsibilities and “practices” Pay attention to morale, engagement (motivation) and trust factors Set expectations on behavior and performance measures; define conflict resolution procedures Create the right team mix, ensure team mental models are shared; provide growth avenues that balance personal and team needs Prioritize verbal and face-to-face communication; build social relationships with and across team members

Recommendations Technology Recommendations Leverage virtual workspaces and wikis to provide a common team area that centralizes shared activities and artifacts Exploit blogs as a means to build team and enterprise community by encouraging informal dialog and opinion Examine tagging and pub/sub tools to diversify communication channels and provide more flexible information discovery/delivery options for team members Bridge distance factors and increase team cohesion through use of real-time communication tools (including presence, location and record/playback) Explore use of personal profiles and social networking tools to “humanize” employees and help co-workers connect to those who share common interests, know-how and work activities

Global Collaboration: Both Art & Science

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Global Collaboration: Both Art & Science