Collaboration Ops

I have the opportunity to work with a client on developing some new processes, better processes and uniformed processes for a development team.  It occured to me as we were talking that this is the perfect opportunity for facilitation and collaboration.  The beginning of any collaborative, unified effort is determining:

• who does what
• what are the pain points
• when should it happen
• where do we document this or do this 
• why do we do it this way
• how can it be better 

It is the old who, what, when, where, why and how.  It does not matter if you are looking to write a manual, improve a process, implement SharePoint or a wiki, these questions have to be answered at the beginning of the project and they need to be visited over and over again.  Without knowing the who, what, when, where, why and how, it doesn’t matter how much money, technology or effort you throw at something it will only be like a bandaid on a hemoraging wound.  Creating a real solution, starts with people–people with a need and LISTENING first, then creating a solution!  Happy Collaborating!

Observation

In previous blogs I have shared some ideas on gathering requirments from users and stakeholders before crafting a solution.  As I have said before you have to identify a person with a need before you identify the solution.  Since I am a facilitator, most of my inquiries come via a facilitated session with users.  I love to do this and it is fun and effective!  BUT there are many other techniques as well. Another favorite is simply observation.  If you are astute in your observations, you will be able to document the “as is” process, ask questions and talk about lapses in the process.  Observing the user in their environment, doing their job in real time rather than having them recall how they do it is very effective and a great way to collaborate with the user regarding their role and tasks.  Happy Collaborating (and observing)!

Introducing Social Networking at work

Social Media in promoting product is something that company after company is starting to implement.  Yesterday at a TAG (Technology Across Georgia) event, the panelists talked on this subject- the why should you’s, the how to’s and the gotchas.  I was happy to see such a panel brought together for our session. I learned alot and it was all relevent in today’s market.

Implementing Social Media inhouse is a hot topic as well. How can you broach this subject and how can it succeed and not seen as frivilous, silly stuff?  Before IT is engaged, do a little ground work; start here:

1. Have a clear understanding of the current business process in team collaboration and dynamics.

2. Where are the holes in this?  Examples -Team is remote and disconnected, mulitple copies of documents all over the place, lots and lots of email back and forth, no place to search for knowledge experts, no one place to find information on a topic, etc.

3. Engage a professional facilitator to work with information workers, managers, etc on brainstorming ideas on a better way.  Grassroots buy in is important!

4. Engage remote workers in these sessions to gage their feelings on being connected to the company and team?  What would help?

5. Engage managment to see the win win in doing things in a new and better way.  Put the WHY’s before the HOW’s.

Start here and as you can see engaging the right people early on is important.  This will begin to lay out the business case.  See what ideas start bubbling up here!  More next time.  Happy Collaborating!

Collaborative Intelligence-CQ

I have been reading alot about Collaborative Intelligence lately, specifically on Getting Clever Together– i love the concept and it makes total sense to me.  Collaborating starts from the inside and then moves outward.  As I have said in other blog entries, forced collaboration may work but not in the true spirit of what collaboration is.  Collaborative Intelligence or CQ is a “measure” of a teams ability to collaborate.  There are things that can be done to “up” this quotient and to get the team to trust, communicate and truly collaborate together.  Most of us are familiar with IQ or Intelligence Quotient or EQ which is emotional intelligence.  Little to nothing can be done with IQ; some awareness of our EQ can assist us in managing this but CQ is a target that is moving and can be improved (or killed!).  I love CQ because by creating an atmosphere of collaboration, by creating situations that cause teams to communicate and trust each other and just plain get to know each other you can increase their ability to collaborate.  That means smoother projects, more creativity, better exchange of information and just flat out a happier work force or project team. 

This also hits my hot button on facilitation.  As a Certified Professional Facilitator, CQ encompasses everything that I believe about working with teams.  As a facilitator I create an atomsphere of collaboration by creating safety, a process and consensus.  These facets all work together, each an important piece of the puzzle.  AND amazingly the people in the room naturally begin to collaborate and they even LIKE IT!  They will leave the work session happy and with a feeling of accomplishment–unlike anything they have experienced without facilitation.  Talk about “upping” your Collaborative Intelligence Quotient! 

For more on CQ check out the blog referenced above.  For more on Facilitation check out the International Association of Facilitators website or my website.  Happy Collaborating!

Meeting consensus

Implementing any tool is impossible without consensus on the goals and objectives and the features needed on a product.  It doesn’t matter whether it is SharePoint, Q-Task, PBWiki, Basecamp, eRoom, Telligent or ABC Fantastic Collaboration tool–no buy in=unsuccessful implementation.  How many times have you sat in a meeting and walked out the same way you came in?  Not knowing what you were there for, not accomplishing anything and frustrated that another tool or process was going to be looked at and implemented but you had no idea why.  As a professional faciliator (CPF with the IAF) I have had the opportunity to work with groups and help them to gain consensus on goals and objectives on solutions.  Some tips:

• Have an agenda and make sure everyone knows what it is!
• Invite the right people to the meeting–not just the decision makers but the USERS of the product.
• Define the goals and objectives BEFORE deciding on a product.  Use a business analyst to assist with this.
• Use time limits and ground rules that everyone has agreed to.
• No dominators; everyone participates.

This is challenging to do.  We all know that if this was easy, we would never sit in another meeting that was torture!  A great thing to do is to bring in a Professional Facilitator.  As a facilitator and business analyst I love to be brought into these meetings!  When I am called into a situation, I have a methodology that I use to get participants to consensus.  People leave feeling accomplished and they know what is next.  They actually smile at the end!  For more information on how faciitation can help you and your business, let me know!  Happy Collaborating.