This document discusses collaboration tools and how to choose them. It begins with an introduction that outlines what will be covered, including background, tools, factors that help or hinder collaboration, and how to choose tools. It then defines collaboration and the difference between communication and collaboration. The document discusses why collaboration is important given today's world. It introduces the presenter and describes the objectives of understanding the reader's organization and needs. The rest of the document provides details on various collaboration tools, factors to consider when choosing tools, examples of setting team norms and communication plans, and finally discusses measuring results and continuing the conversation.
2. What We’ll Cover
• Background and Context
• Collaboration Tools
• Amplifiers, Hurdles, Simplifiers
• How to Choose
• Action Plan
3. Definition of terms
• Collaboration (def.) – People working with other people toward a
common outcome. (M. Sampson, “Collaboration Roadmap”)
• Communication is different from, but essential to, collaboration.
Flickr photo courtesy of jovike: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jvk/19894053/
4. Why Does This Matter?
• World is:
•
•
•
•
Smaller
Flatter
More Complex
More Connected
• Collaboration is more important than ever, but still done badly.
•
•
•
•
“We built it and they didn’t come.”
“The business” and IT don’t agree
Business factors and human factors are not supported enough
Plenty of “People-Ready Software,” not enough “Software-Ready People”
Flickr photo courtesy of Eric Fischer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/6858366278/
5. About the Presenter -- Mike Gilronan
• SharePoint Practice Director
• Former (“recovering”) CPA
• 20+ years consulting and
professional services experience
• ERP and CRM
• Collaboration and KM
• Business Analysis, Training, Project
and Practice Management
Knowledge Mgmt
Financial
SharePoint
Mgmt
mike.gilronan@mcgladrey.com
617.241.1102
@mikegil
http://mikegil.typepad.com/
Project Mgmt
6. Background – Narrative Arc
Ownership
Size
Complexity
Growth
Core Business
Partner-owned
Very large
Very High
Medium
Accounting and Business Advisory
Services
Family-owned
Medium
High
High
Software Product and Related Services
Private, VC-backed
Medium
Medium
High
Software Services and Related
Products
Private
Small
Low
Medium
Professional Services
Private
Small
Medium
High
Professional Services (System
Integrator)
Partner-owned
Large
High
Medium
Accounting and Business Advisory
Services
12. F2F (Face-to-face) Communications
• Born: Time immemorial
• Peak: pre-Guttenberg (c. 1450 AD)
• Claim to Fame: the gold standard for collaboration
• Strengths: highest trust, context, verbal + non-verbal, real-time
interactive feedback
• Weaknesses: highest cost, airfare, real estate, not persistent, requires
synchronous presence
Flickr photo courtesy of MDGOV: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdgovpics/7658177776/sizes/l/
13. (Hand-) Written Communication
• Born: ~3,500-2,900 B.C. (Phoenician, Sumerian, Egyptian alphabets)
• Peak: pre-Industrial Revolution (c. 1870s, when typewriter and
mimeograph were invented)
• Claim to Fame: Shakespeare, U.S. Constitution, early Bibles
• Strengths: personal, hand-crafted, durable
• Weaknesses: time-consuming, slow
Flickr photo courtesy of sure2talk: http://www.flickr.com/photos/finlap/213926774/sizes/o/
14. Telephone
• Born: 1876 (A.G. Bell patent)
• Peak: 1950s-1970s
• Claim to Fame: Cuban Missile Crisis, Watergate, Batman
• Strengths: real-time interaction, with inflection
• Weaknesses: (usually) no record of conversation, requires
synchronous availability
Fun fact: When was the Fax machine invented?
Flickr photo courtesy of pds209: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulsedra/9733167606/
15. Telephone
• Born: 1876 (A.G. Bell patent)
• Peak: 1950s-1970s
• Claim to Fame: Cuban Missile Crisis, Watergate, Batman
• Strengths: real-time interaction, with inflection
• Weaknesses: (usually) no record of conversation, requires
synchronous availability
Fun fact: 1843, by Alexander Bain. First commercial
version in 1861 by Giovanni Caselli, at least 11 years
before invention of workable telephones.
Flickr photo courtesy of pds209: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulsedra/9733167606/
16. E-mail
• Born: 1970s (ARPA), 1990s (commercial)
• Peak: 2000s
• Claim to Fame: Eliot Spitzer, Enron
• Strengths: Simplicity, ubiquity, (relative) permanence, asynchronous,
attachments, ubiquity, choice of devices
• Weaknesses: (Relative) permanence, spam, reply: all, poor filtering,
bad habits, storage, channel vs platform
Flickr photo courtesy of xJasonRogersx: http://www.flickr.com/photos/restlessglobetrotter/2660204217/
17. Network File Shares
• Born: 1980s (Novell, etc.)
• Peak: 1990s-2000s
• Claim to Fame: $22B local company (focused on storage)
• Strengths: Ease of use, security, integration with directory services
• Weaknesses: Require IT admin, no metadata, weak search,
hierarchical
18.
19. SharePoint
• Born: ~2001
• Peak: 2010-2013
• Claim to Fame: Fastest MSFT product to $1B
• Strengths: Platform of productivity tools, empowering content
owners
• Weaknesses: Bad IA, bad governance, bad adoption, limits
to/complexity of external sharing
20. SharePoint -- WGW Drilldown
• My Sites
• Project Team Sites
• Departmental Sites
• Geographic Sites
• KM Repositories
• Home Page
• Extranet
• Internet
21. IM and Presence
•
•
•
•
•
Born:
Peak: Yet to come
Claim to Fame:
Strengths: Instant, integrated
Weaknesses: IM means “Interrupt Me”,
exposure, newness means evolving norms
22. Video Conferencing
•
•
•
•
•
Born: late 1980s (PictureTel)
Peak: Yet to come? (Skype, Facetime, Cisco UC, Lync, etc.)
Claim to Fame: Jack Bauer?
Strengths: Instant, integrated*, context and non-verbal cues
Weaknesses: Quality of video, emerging norms of behavior, not evenly distributed at
enterprise level
23. Enterprise Social Platforms
• Born: 2000s
• Peak: Yet to come?
• Claim to Fame: “Enterprise 2.0”
• Strengths: Transparency, connectedness, serendipity, searchability,
data exhaust
• Weaknesses: Emerging norms, mobility, fragmentation, governance
25. How Do I Choose?
• Preferences and styles
Flickr photo courtesy of earthworm: http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthworm/4565061206
26. How Do I Choose?
• Preferences and styles
• Multiple ways to connect
Flickr photo courtesy of earthworm: http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthworm/4565061206
27. How Do I Choose?
• Preferences and styles
• Multiple ways to connect
• Delineate between core team and broader stakeholder needs
Flickr photo courtesy of earthworm: http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthworm/4565061206
28. How Do I Choose?
• Preferences and styles
• Multiple ways to connect
• Delineate between core team and broader stakeholder needs
• Build on comfort to add new capabilities (with clear objectives)
Flickr photo courtesy of earthworm: http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthworm/4565061206
29. How Do I Choose?
• Preferences and styles
• Multiple ways to connect
• Delineate between core team and broader stakeholder needs
• Build on comfort to add new capabilities (with clear objectives)
• Consider how team members will reach out, and for what purpose
Flickr photo courtesy of earthworm: http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthworm/4565061206
30. How Do I Choose?
• Preferences and styles
• Multiple ways to connect
• Delineate between core team and broader stakeholder needs
• Build on comfort to add new capabilities (with clear objectives)
• Consider how team members will reach out, and for what purpose
• Don’t forget face-to-face meetings (with a purpose!)
Flickr photo courtesy of earthworm: http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthworm/4565061206
31. How Do I Choose?
• Preferences and styles
• Multiple ways to connect
• Delineate between core team and broader stakeholder needs
• Build on comfort to add new capabilities (with clear objectives)
• Consider how team members will reach out, and for what purpose
• Don’t forget face-to-face meetings (with a purpose!)
• Create synchronous and asynchronous venues
Flickr photo courtesy of earthworm: http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthworm/4565061206
32. How Do I Choose?
• Preferences and styles
• Multiple ways to connect
• Delineate between core team and broader stakeholder needs
• Build on comfort to add new capabilities (with clear objectives)
• Consider how team members will reach out, and for what purpose
• Don’t forget face-to-face meetings (with a purpose!)
• Create synchronous and asynchronous venues
• Track progress
Flickr photo courtesy of earthworm: http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthworm/4565061206
33. How Do I Choose?
• Preferences and styles
• Multiple ways to connect
• Delineate between core team and broader stakeholder needs
• Build on comfort to add new capabilities (with clear objectives)
• Consider how team members will reach out, and for what purpose
• Don’t forget face-to-face meetings (with a purpose!)
• Create synchronous and asynchronous venues
• Track progress
• Use alerts!
Flickr photo courtesy of earthworm: http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthworm/4565061206
34. How Do I Choose?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Preferences and styles
Multiple ways to connect
Delineate between core team and broader stakeholder needs
Build on comfort to add new capabilities (with clear objectives)
Consider how team members will reach out, and for what purpose
Don’t forget face-to-face meetings (with a purpose!)
Create synchronous and asynchronous venues
Track progress
Use alerts!
Provide feedback, revisit what’s working/not working
Flickr photo courtesy of earthworm: http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthworm/4565061206
35. Tools and Techniques – Team Norms
• Arrival times: early? late OK? Call
first?
• Working hours?
• Expected availability on IM?
• Turnaround time on email and
voicemail?
• Number of exchanges on e-mail
before a phone call is made?
• Rating content?
• Use of BCC? Reply: All?
• Totally transparent meetings?
MOST IMPORTANT:
• What are consequences for breaking
these norms, and who enforces?
36. Tools and Techniques – Communications
Plans
Sample Team Communication Planning Matrix
Objectives
Audience
Publish definitive RFP Response
RFP documents Team
Coordinate
RFP Response
activities each day Team
Media
Timing
Content Creator
Content Approver
Other
Publish PDF documents to Outset of RFP
RFP Response Team
response
Portal
process
RFP Response
Team Lead
RFP Response Team
Lead
Consider Office 365 for ease of
external collaboration (external
sharing must be activated at site
collection level by Farm Admin)
Conference call
RFP Response
Team Lead
RFP Response Team
Lead
Call notes should be disseminated to
team at close of call
Daily
Web conference to
Review
review documents that Prior to
deliverables prior RFP Response
are stored in portal and submission of RFP Response
to submission
Team
version-controlled
deliverables
Team Lead
[Adapted from “Leading Effective Virtual Teams,” by Nancy Settle-Murphy, used with permission]
RFP Response Team
Lead
38. Go Forth…
• Listen to your teams
• Document your norms
• Build and publicize your plans
• Deploy your tools
• Govern your processes
• Measure your results
• Listen to your teams
40. Wrap-Up
• Q&A
• Giveaways
• Continue the conversation (and materials):
• @mikegil
• http://mikegil.typepad.com
• Thank you to SPSRI and our generous sponsors!
Flickr photo courtesy of redstamp: http://www.flickr.com/photos/redstamp/3425825517/
All Flickr photos used with permission under Creative Commons license.