In the world of enterprise collaboration, the emphasis is too often placed on implementing the latest and greatest platforms and tools. The result is that many companies have an ecosystem of collaboration tools but no clear idea of how to use them to boost productivity. The next step is for companies to start looking at how these tools can really improve the digital workplace, an article from The Content Economy notes.
Companies won’t make progress with enterprise collaboration until they stop looking at these tools as something completely new and different, and view them more as evolving ways to communicate. No big-picture strategy, a multitude of competing priorities and a lack of a clear benefit were cited by respondents to one survey highlighted in the article as reasons for slow progress, particularly in the area of social enterprise.
At the end of the day, all of these tools — whether IM, social enterprise tools, wikis or document co-authoring and sharing — are simply ways to communicate. Employees have been given all these brand new tools to use, but they don’t know what to do with them.
This is where having an adoption and rollout strategy comes in. People have to be shown how these new tools work and, just as importantly, when to use them. By providing use cases and user stories to develop communication, training and education, companies can start to address the issue. What you’re going for is behavioral change — in other words, showing people why, for example, working on a document together is easier and better via a collaboration platform than through email. They have to first understand why and what’s in it for them. They then need to see the new behavior in action, starting with their superiors and colleagues.
To help reinforce why they should adopt these tools, consider the following steps.
- Use metrics to track progress to emphasize and reinforce the desired behaviors, for example, noting a significant drop in the use of email attachments month over month.
- Use stories and internal case studies to demonstrate the values and behaviors in action.
- Constantly make available quick tips, training and learning aides that are easily consumable for users. If at all possible, the training program should include an ongoing component and provide material in a variety of formats, from in-person instruction to tip sheets and short videos.
Source: The Content Economy, December 2013
