Re-imagining Collaboration for a New Age

We have entered a new age. Large scale and complex change occurs suddenly and sometimes without much warning as in the 2009 economic crisis of the global economy. Virtual collaboration creates opportunities to escape the constraints and perceived barriers of the physical world to address complex issues and access expertise on a global scale. Using technology, organizations of every form are moving beyond online meetings that imitate unsatisfying face-to-face or phone meetings and re-imagining collaboration. Why re-imagine?

By designing and facilitating processes that integrate the newest forms of interactive technology with organizational and human and needs it is easier to create the conditions in which collaboration can occur.

For example, the natural anonymity of online tools frees us from tacit biases or self-doubt and encourages individual leadership. Asynchronous tools allow global work teams release from the bonds of time zones to tackle projects with increasing effectiveness and productivity. And social networks now become visible through community tools allowing financial, time, human and other organizational assets to be redeployed toward developing innovative approaches to unique problems, rather than reinventing solutions to problems that have been previously solved.

The promise of virtual collaboration can occur across functional teams within an organizations or across organizations. It can occur in corporations, foundations, non-profits, government agencies and pubic communities of interest. However, virtual collaboration technology can only fulfill its promise when it is appreciated and understood as the dynamic that it is, occuring at the intersection of business, organizational and/or social issues, technology and group needs.

To realize the promise of virtual collaboration, leaders and collaborators alike, need to learn to think strategically and critically about the most appropriate ways to choose tools, adapt processes and work in virtual spaces.

Principles for Virtual Collaboration

Several principles of what I call social collaboration strategy point the way. The first is to consider the purpose of the collaboration and the intention of the work to be accomplished before selecting a collaborative tool. There are hundreds of collaborative tools available and more being introduced every month. Some are integrated and some are stand alone. Just as you would not use a screw drive to make a milkshake or a spoon to dig a ditch, selecting video conferencing or blogging before considering your purpose is not the most optimal way to approach virtual collaboration. In one team I work with we use a combination of chat rooms, wikis and voice conferences to work together. In another, I use a blog combined with face-to-face meetings.

The next principle is to consider who will use the tool and how best to customize the tool for your intended purpose. All users will require ongoing forms of orientation and training as your project evolves. Many of the newer tools are flexible and provide creative ground for specific kinds of work. Others are better at organizing and tracking content and project milestones.

One of the realities of virtual collaboration is that the tools change how we work, and as well, we change how the tools work for us.

Consider the micro-blogging tool, Twitter. Surely its inventors did not envision it as a tool for global social change, yet millions of people around the world spontaneously used it to share news and pressure public opinion during the 2009 presidential elections in Iran.

The idea of re-imagining is to integrate adaption into every fabric of the working world and to use virtual tools to increase productivity and effectiveness. The message here is to think about what you intend before you invest, but to also be willing to experiment and try new things. To re-imagine, it is necessary to think carefully about what should be preserved and what should be let go.

Tagged as: Collaboration