Uploaded byMichael Sampson
Collaboration: Something Old, Something Bold, Something Cold
Collaboration provides significant opportunities but requires consideration of cultural and personality factors: 1) Collaboration is not a silver bullet and its use should be intentional. 2) A culture that does not value collaboration will constrain its effectiveness, requiring work to make the culture more collaborative. 3) Personality impacts how people collaborate best, and introverts in particular need environments that value quiet, trust, and space for deep thinking to perform at their highest levels.
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Collaboration: Something Old, Something Bold, Something Cold
- 1. Collaboration Something Old, Bold,and Cold Michael Sampson
- 2. About Michael • CollaborationStrategist – Author – Workshop Leader – Analyst • Work with end-user organisations • Strategies for Making Collaboration Work – Culture – Governance – Adoption
- 3. Last year atIntranets 2011 … Supporting collaboration a major 1 opportunity for the intranet 2 Remember the fundamentals 3 Follow a collaboration roadmap
- 4. none all
- 5. none all ideal band
- 6.
- 7. Something … Old Collaboration is not a silver bullet Bold Cold
- 8. Something … Old Collaboration is not a silver bullet Bold Culture constrains collaboration Cold
- 9. Something … Old Collaboration is not a silver bullet Bold Culture constrains collaboration Cold Personality impacts collaboration
- 10. OLD Collaboration is nota silver bullet
- 11. People have beencollaborating for all of human history.
- 12. OLD Micro-task collaborationcan stifle initiative and breakthrough thinking
- 13. project task autonomy meaning low purpose contribution
- 14. OLD Thecurrent emphasis on finding experts could signal poor job design
- 15. Our intranet allows us to find experts. But that could mean: Our staff are undertrained. We have hired the wrong people. Our knowledge management system is broken. There are unclear expectations about job roles.
- 16. OLD Adding more peopleincreases communication demands (and decreases time available for working)
- 17. Frederick Brooks (1975) The Mythical Man-Month number of people n(n-1) =y 2 channels of communication
- 18. Frederick Brooks (1975) The Mythical Man-Month number of people 5(5-1) = 10 2 channels of communication
- 19. Frederick Brooks (1975) The Mythical Man-Month number of people 40(40-1) = 780 2 channels of communication
- 20. OLD While crowds mayhave wisdom, they can also stimulate madness
- 21. Tapping the wisdom of the crowd But “following the crowd” isn’t always positive: Financial crises Investment bubbles, e.g., housing, Internet Riots Groupthink
- 22. OLD Summary Collaboration is an old idea.
- 23. OLD Summary It’s not a silver bullet. Be intentional about its use.
- 24.
- 25. BOLD If the cultureisn’t collaborative, new technology won’t help
- 26. Powerful VP ina discussion forum “I think that’s a dumb idea.” More broadly: “You aren’t paid to think.”
- 27. BOLD “Collaboration” will bedifferent for different organisations
- 28. Sharing not-fully-formed ideas Opennessto the ideas of others Shared exploration of decisions Shared risk and reward
- 29. Apple “We wantexcellent products. There is no problem with shredding someone in pursuit of excellent ideas.”
- 30. Pixar Specially designed building—tocreate chance encounters and serendipitous meetings. And cross-training (common language)
- 31. BOLD A culture thatvalues efficiency above all else will be poor at collaboration
- 32. in-person online comprehension trust low cost social capital
- 33. Apollo 13 vs.Challenger
- 34. You need tofind the right balance. Getting on a plane may be the best idea.
- 35. BOLD Summary Take the bold step of starting with culture, not technology
- 36. BOLD Summary If your culture is anti-collaborative, you have (lots of) work to do
- 37.
- 38. extroverts introverts people energy ideas high stress low talk method write loud noise quiet 75% number 25%
- 39. Introverts can beyour MVEs (most valuable employees) 10x to 50x better than the “average”
- 40. COLD Introverts need quietnessand freedom from distractions
- 41. Can’t concentrate and do their best work E.g., may not want Yammer running continually
- 42. COLD Without trust and integrity, introverts won’t give their best ideas
- 43. Will want timeto contemplate. Don’t want to give a heated answer.
- 44. E.g., they maynot want to get into a shouting match at a meeting
- 45. COLD Introverts needspace for creativity, deep thinking, and high performance
- 46. E.g., they maynot want to put the document into SharePoint yet
- 47. E.g., they maynot want to “work out loud” on Yammer
- 48. COLD Summary The hard, cold reality is that personality impacts collaboration.
- 49. COLD Summary Find an introvert at your work. Learn how they collaborate best.
- 50. COLD Summary But – we need each other
- 51.
- 52. Collaboration provides asignificant opportunity for improving performance
- 53. But remember that… Old Collaboration is not a silver bullet Bold Culture constrains collaboration Cold Personality impacts collaboration
- 54.