technology and Collaboration

Technology and Collaboration Stephen Abram, Mary Lee Kennedy

Presentation

How can Internet Librarians leverage today’s technology for collaboration?

Where does technology fall short on delivering on the promises of information and knowledge exchanges?

What is the role of technology in terms of people, processes and practices?

A Simple Truth

What matters is not what you have but what you do with it.

Technology in Today’s Organization

Proposition:

IT has become so ubiquitous that it should be managed as a commodity like electricity rather than as a potential source of strategic advantage. Smart businesses would refrain from devoting large portions of their capital budgets to the latest, greatest technology because overspending is far riskier than under-spending--it siphons resources away from the ability to make products, deliver services, and satisfy customers.

Carr, Nick. “IT Doesn’t Matter”, Harvard Business Review, 2003.

The “Empty Promises”

Technology will make it easy for you to collaborate

Technology will ensure everyone is on the same page

Technology will reduce the cost of doing business

Technology will make the organization more efficient

The Facts

Collaboration is a cultural norm not a technology

Technology can cause change but change cannot be sustained without an investment in culture and processes

Much $ has been wasted on technology

Defining business requirements, particularly user needs and wants, are critical success factors for collaboration projects

We couldn’t live without technology – the real question is which technology (ies) do we need?

Some Key New Technologies

For the user

Web conferencing

Presence management

Real-time translation

Real-time text to voice

Collaboration sites

Wikis

For the information provider

Web services

RSS feeds

Learning objects

Digitization

Faceted meta data

What can Collaboratories do?

Distance education

Training

Conferences

Speeches

Homework helpers

Virtual universities and their curricula

Application training and certification

Employee communication

Board meetings

Demonstrations

Seminars

Product updates and introductions

Lectures

Tours

Research team collaboration

Customer briefings

Product rollout training

Community building

Donor communication and fundraising

What kinds of features are offered?

Shared web browsing

PowerPoint presentations

Application sharing

Content sharing

Desktop sharing

Streaming audio / video

Shared whiteboard collaboration

Real time polling

Rich transcripts

Multiple presenter support

Dynamic session control and remote participation

One-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many

Recording and playback

Question management

Program templates

Management reporting

eCommerce support

Roles for Collaboratories

This goes beyond chat rooms and videoconferences

Communities of interest

Communities of practice

e-Neighbourhoods

Distance education

Rich communication

Employee management

Information Engagement Levels Read/View Argue/Defend Present/Teach Stimulate/Live Act on/ Discuss Content Source Situation Dr. Thomas Davenport

MS Live Meeting (PlaceWare) Webex Centra

Browserlessness

Browserlessness can equate to Boundarylessness

Opera, Mozilla Foxfire, MSIE, etc.

Netscape

Simple Collaboration Tools

MSN .NET Messenger

AOL Internet Messenger

ICQ

Yahoo! Messenger

Yahoo! IMvironments

IRC

Trillian by Cerulean

85%+ of people from ages 15-25 have at least one IM account - only 5% of over 30’s Messenger

What is context? Learning Research Entertainment Communities and Neighborhoods Workplace

Examples

What do you use?

Information Professionals Responsibility

Critical First Steps in Collaboration

Define purpose for collaboration

Loose or strong ties

Identify collaboration community

Peers or hierarchical

Demographic make up (language, technology use, geography, culture)

Identify collaboration values, beliefs, norms, informal rules

Establish communication and decision-making pattern

Then evaluate the technologies that could support it

Lessons Learned

Technology adoption – Crossing the Chasm

Culture

Strategic alignment

Integration strategy

Underlying Principles

Form follows function

Functions change quickly

Form drives behavior

Hierarchies work for some functions

No cookie cutter forms

Reporting relationships create “ties that bind”

Underlying Principles

Some relationships are weaker than others

Organizations are ecosystems

Stability signals staleness (& death)

Clarity dissolves most, if not all, conflicts

Underlying Principle

COLLOCATION:

Based on proximity, people are more likely to collaborate if they are less than 50 feet apart

What happens when they are in different time zones? Different continents?

Personal distance is 18-24 inches

What is the impact of larger & larger monitors?

Overriding Principle

Organizational forms - virtual or not! –

are tools for shaping your work processes & employee relationships to support your strategic priorities

Star Model Strategy Structure People Rewards Processes Direction Reporting & Relationships Work flows Skills & Mindsets Compensation & Recognition

Star Model

Strategy: where you’re headed

Structure: decision-making power, roles

People: mindsets, competencies, interpersonal relations

Processes: work flow

Rewards: motivators

Impact of Technology Strategy Structure People Rewards Processes Direction Reporting & Relationships Work flows Skills & Mindsets Compensation & Recognition Technology

Considering this in a virtual environment

Virtual teams develop an inner authority based on their members’ commitment to shared purpose.

In virtual teams, power comes from information, expertise, and knowledge, the new foundations of wealth.

One size does not fit all

Virtual organizations are more complex & require complex solutions

Organizational structure:

Matrix with explicit dual reporting relationships

Customer-based

Product or Service-based

Process-based

Hierarchical

Team-based with different leadership roles

Working Virtually

reduces daily commutes

increases productivity

eliminates “drop-in’s”

balances professional & personal commitments

reduces overhead

increases

independence

Advantages

Working Virtually

Basic structure of the workplace is relationships. Work gets done through relationships.

Adapted from M. Schrage, No More Teams

Changed structure

Changed relationships

The “I’s” have it:

Invisibility & Isolation

Challenges

Invisibility

Communication 101

high % of messages transmitted via body language

The 50-feet rule

closer proximity increases collaboration

Lipnack & Stamps, Virtual Teams

Out of sight is out of mind

honest oversights lead to undermining of trust, productivity & performance

fewer opportunities for management feedback

Challenges

Isolation

Working & behavioural preferences

extraverts, “people who need people”

High tech does not eliminate the need for high touch & interactions with human beings

must be factored in for some people

Challenges

Overwork

Increased burn-out

longer hours

difficulty in separating office & home lives

“ Work is always there. I can hear the phone, I can hear the fax - I’ll just quickly check my e-mail.”

Challenges

Procrastination

Dealing with distractions

goes hand-in-hand with overwork & burn-out

Self-motivator extraordinaire

individuals must:

institute routines

maintain momentum

keep connected with processes & co-workers

Self-disciplined to “get on with it”

Challenges

Maintaining focus

Working hard, working steadily, but in the right direction?

Delicate art of keeping a vision in front of people you can’t see

“ I sometimes feel like I’m herding cats…”

Veteran Virtual Team Leader

Challenges

The current reality

“ It is harder for virtual teams to be successful than for traditional face-to-face teams. Misunderstandings are more likely to arise and more things are likely to go wrong.”

Lipnack & Stamps, Virtual Teams

Challenges

Working Virtually Solutions:

Combine high tech with frequent high touch

Balance the scales

“ Best accessory

to a laptop

is a 747”

Tom Peters

Occasional online interaction is 1 step up from reading someone’s resume. Lipnack & Stamps

Recognize that virtual relationships take longer to develop

“ conversations” & virtual water coolers must be explicit & supported

Establish & enforce clear ground rules & norms for shared work space & processes

what’s our acceptable turn-around time for returning e-mails? Checking documents?

Actively seek opportunities to increase understanding of each other, provide feedback & build trust

“ If we are to enjoy the efficiencies and other benefits of the virtual organization, we will have to rediscover how to run organizations based more on trust than on control. Virtuality requires trust to make it work: Technology on its own is not enough.”

Charles Handy

“ Trust & the Virtual Team”

Harvard Business School’s

Virtual Work, Real Results

Experience teaches us

Lessons learned from others:

communicate, communicate

don’t assume, never assume

weekly team calls

monthly organization calls

bi-annual face-to-face organizational meetings

travel expenses up; frustration/fallout down

team principles & ground rules are imperative

Experience teaches us

What virtual organizations do you work within now?

What makes them successful?

What makes them unbearable?

Virtual team competencies:

10. The right technology

9. Shared work space & processes

8. Established ground rules

7. Acceptance of cultural, style & preference differences

6. Effective group dynamics

5. Clear identity

Virtual team competencies:

4. Teamwork skills

3. Leadership

2. True trust

….and the number one requirement for working virtually successfully is!!!!!!!

#1 Virtual team competency: “ All for One & One for All!”

Virtual team leadership competencies:

Make the invisible, visible

Make the intangible, tangible

Create & foster a climate of trust

Establish & constantly model standards of accountability

Communicate clearly, constantly & effectively within each receiver’s realm

Don’t try to do all this yourself

Virtual team member competencies:

Self-disciplined?

Strong communicator?

Good collaborator?

Organized?

Document your work well?

Are you ready to work virtually?

Virtual team members: Are you ready to work virtually?

Respectful of other’s working & communication styles? Cultural differences?

Extroverted? Introverted?

Comfortable with technology?

Confident?

? Do you WANT to??

Do’s & Don’ts for Virtual Teams

DO:

ensure clear purpose

clear goals, deliverables

meet 1st face-to-face

share work electronically

create a common work area

have agreed upon & respected working styles, communication preferences

DON’T:

expect virtual teams to be “just like” teams within given location

under-estimate value of face time

expect to agree on everything

accept lone rangers, complaining or “off line” gossiping

Worksheet

What is working well within your team now?

What could be improved?

What ideas or changes would you like to pursue?

Yeah, but...

“Good people in a poorly designed organizational structure fail, while average people in a healthy organization succeed.”

N. Dean Meyer and Associates

Structure that is not supportive or strategic will never succeed, regardless of technology

Our competencies, Our fit

Our profession is based on our ability to communicate with our clients & our colleagues in a variety of situations, & on our ability to master technology. Ours is a profession equipped to work in the virtual world -