Read Part 1: Desire
Read Part 2: Capability
Read Part 3: Opportunity
Read Part 4: Connectivity
One of the pet peeves I have is the notion that electronic collaboration tools could replace face-to-face facilitated sessions. This is absolutely untrue. the tools are exactly that... tools... Yes, the self-organizing communities is an important piece to web 2.0 but when we talk about enterprise 2.0, we have an opportunity to go beyond this.
The motives of the individual in web 2.0 are their own motives. I blog on a topic because I want to blog on a topic. I join an organization because I want to join an organization. In the enterprise however, the tasks we need to accomplish aren't always things I want to do. I may not have any desire to collaborate.
In fact, in most profit driven organizations, not only are there tasks I don't want to do but I may actually be penalized for "collaborating" with others if it doesn't align with my department objectives. For example a help-desk call-centre may have a goal on delighting each customer in the shortest time possible but the sales department may want to maximize sales revenue through the call centre. Both valid goals, but one has an impact on the other. These 2 departments are not incented to help one another.
In the firm, even if people are not self-motivated, we still need them to collaborate. This talks to the first aspect of the drivers for collaboration (Desire). Try as you may, you can't really force people to collaborate and expect great results. There are things however that should be looked at to make sure people want to collaborate. I'll discuss 4 of these areas:
1. Recognition
It starts with understanding what the firm needs to achieve at a macro level and designing appropriate incentives and recognition. Those things that get rewarded get repeated. Not everyone will like these type of incentives but that's the point. You want to draw people that want to collaborate and will be compensated for that. It can be small recognition programs to large compensation models depending on the situation.
2. Organizational Structure
Organizational structure also affects desire. For example if the organizational model was built based on core processes (Order to Cash) instead of traditional functional departments (Sales, Procurement, Finance, IT) there would be one objective on process change instead of 4 separate objectives. I have previously discussed organization models that are hybrids of self-organizing and hierarchical models.
3. Trust
Trust is perhaps the most difficult piece to sustain. You can always change structures and even compensation systems but trust is on-going and you screw it up once and it's a long road to regaining it. Why is this important to desire? Well if you ask me for help and I provide it but you do nothing with it, I am not likely to offer you as much help the next time. If i don't trust the executives of the organization and think I am being duped, I am not likely to cooperate.
4. Transparency
Transparency, which is related to trust is also about explaining how this all comes together. How my individual input fits into the big picture and delivers value. A firm can build trust through transparency.
If the individual isn't motivated to collaborate then I don't care what tools you put in place, it doesn't matter. Hoever, If you have a motivated individual then we have a start. The next blog will talk about the 2nd Success Driver: Capability
Read Part 1: Desire
Read Part 2: Capability
Read Part 3: Opportunity
Read Part 4: Connectivity
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