Want to improve innovation and productivity? Improving your approach to collaboration is a great start. An article from Enterprise Irregulars outlines five easily digestible tips on how to use enterprise collaboration technology to improve efficiency and reduce pain points in your organization.
- Step away from the email inbox: Email has its place, but it was never meant for file-sharing. Enterprise collaboration solutions are much more effective for this type of work.
- Work together on notes and content: Again, stay away from email here. Collaboration tools that allow for simultaneous file editing and tracking changes are especially helpful.
- Take advantage of social enterprise tools: Such solutions don’t necessarily replace email for one-to-one communication. However, they’re highly valuable at providing a way to exchange information with a larger group of people, and to have all of that information retained and searchable.
- Move beyond conference calls: The crux of the digital workplace is that people don’t have to be located in the same building to collaborate. Modern tools allow screen-sharing and video feeds, so team meetings with remote members are more natural and productive. The digital workplace allows flexibility for individuals to work remotely and yet still be connected to their colleagues.
- Incentivize use: This is the most important point centered on the idea of user adoption with collaboration and social technology. Organizations often have a “if we build it, they will come” mentality about introducing technology solutions. But to be successful, an organization’s culture must encourage people to work together and support each other’s mutual successes. If that’s not the case, then no matter how you spin up the technology, it’ll never support additional productivity. That’s why it’s so important to examine your culture and understand how your employees are motivated before making an investment in any collaboration and social technology tools.
Taking all five of these factors into account is vital to helping your organization get the most out of the digital workplace and making it easier for employees to be effective.
Source: Enterprise Irregulars, February 2014
