Here's my pre

1. Collaboration
Something Old, Bold, and Cold
Michael Sampson

2. About Michael
• Collaboration Strategist
– Author
– Workshop Leader
– Analyst
• Work with end-user organisations
• Strategies for
Making Collaboration Work
– Culture
– Governance
– Adoption

3. Last year at Intranets 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. Something …
Old
Bold
Cold

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 not a silver bullet

11. People have been collaborating
for all of human history.

12. OLD
Micro-task collaboration can stifle
initiative and breakthrough thinking

13. project task
autonomy
meaning
low purpose
contribution

14. OLD
The current 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 people increases
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 may have 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. BOLD
Culture constrains collaboration

25. BOLD
If the culture isn’t collaborative,
new technology won’t help

26. Powerful VP in a discussion forum
“I think that’s a dumb idea.”
More broadly: “You aren’t paid to think.”

27. BOLD
“Collaboration” will be different
for different organisations

28. Sharing not-fully-formed ideas
Openness to the ideas of others
Shared exploration of decisions
Shared risk and reward

29. Apple
“We want excellent products. There is
no problem with shredding someone in
pursuit of excellent ideas.”

30. Pixar
Specially designed building—to create chance
encounters and serendipitous meetings.
And cross-training (common language)

31. BOLD
A culture that values 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 to find 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. COLD
Personality impact collaboration

38. extroverts introverts
people energy ideas
high stress low
talk method write
loud noise quiet
75% number 25%

39. Introverts can be your MVEs
(most valuable employees)
10x to 50x better than the “average”

40. COLD
Introverts need quietness and
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 time to contemplate.
Don’t want to give a heated answer.

44. E.g., they may not want to get into a
shouting match at a meeting

45. COLD
Introverts need space for creativity,
deep thinking, and high performance

46. E.g., they may not want to put the
document into SharePoint yet

47. E.g., they may not 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. Closing Thoughts

52. Collaboration provides
a significant opportunity
for improving performance

53. But remember that …
Old Collaboration is not a silver bullet
Bold Culture constrains collaboration
Cold Personality impacts collaboration

54. Michael Sampson
@collabguy
michaelsampson.net