1. The Dangers of Pushing
Collaboration Too Far
Michael Sampson
2. About Michael
• Collaboration Strategist
– Author
– Workshop Leader
– Analyst
• Work with end-user organisations
• Making Collaboration Work
– Culture
– Governance
– Adoption
16. 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.
People aren’t willing to make decisions.
17. 1
Adding more people increases
communication demands
(and decreases time available for working)
18. Frederick Brooks (1975)
The Mythical Man-Month
number of people
n(n-1)
=y
2
channels of communication
19. Frederick Brooks (1975)
The Mythical Man-Month
number of people
5(5-1)
= 10
2
channels of communication
20. Frederick Brooks (1975)
The Mythical Man-Month
number of people
40(40-1)
= 780
2
channels of communication
22. Tapping the wisdom
of the crowd
But “following the crowd” isn’t always positive:
Financial crises
Investment bubbles, e.g., housing, Internet
Riots
Groupthink
28. Groupware will .... not mysteriously transform
organizations from collections of highly
competitive loners to well integrated,
cooperative groups of collaborators. Without
careful planning for its introduction and the
changes that this will entail, the impact of
groupware will likely be quite limited. Successful
groupware implementation will require both a
careful assessment of the fit of the technology
to the organization and a well designed training
program to introduce this new technology and
its potential to the organization members.
29. Powerful VP in a discussion forum
“I think that’s a dumb idea.”
More broadly: “You aren’t paid to think.”