How do you ignite inspiration and foster collaboration? A good answer can be found in an article from Forbes.com about how to get the most out of the collaboration solutions.
“Passion and engagement are contagious, they make us feel alive and inspired,” Forbes.com contributor Meghan M. Biro writes. “And they often come out of left field. Create a culture of sharing that allows this to happen.”
Our advice is that to create a culture of sharing, you need the highest level of buy-in. That means the executives need to believe in collaboration and use social enterprise tools consistently. One business need that collaboration platforms most commonly support is to reduce the reliance on email as the primary tool to communicate across an organization. As a result, one way for an executive to demonstrate their commitment is to replace email to his executives and organizations with the new tool.
While I’m not an executive, one company I worked at implemented a green strategy to reduce their impact on the environment. I was there to build a collaboration solution and decided to lead by example by not printing. This forced me to think about how to use my digital workplace, and demonstrated to my customers how to record and reuse data in a central location instead of printing and recycling.
When built correctly, with the buy-in and commitment of the organization, a social enterprise system brings hidden emails and instant messages into a lasting stockpile of knowledge rather than just extra burden on storage. The access to this knowledge builds conversations across the organization and can build engagement of employees to meet your organization’s goals.
There are some other best practices for managers working to create a culture of sharing and collaboration. One key is to avoid letting bad feelings fester. Participants should feel free to get whatever is bugging them off their chests. Disagreements dealt with honestly and openly tend to disappear quickly. In the same vein, everyone involved should be themselves. “Sustained, collaborative success can’t be faked,” Biro writes.
But remember that collaboration doesn’t mean everyone has to be best friends. Some people have no problem sharing personal details online, but respect those who want to limit their comments to business. Don’t worry; connections can still be formed.
Source: Forbes.com, July 2013
