As I type this, I can’t help but think about the thousands of blogs that are out in cyberspace and wonder about the place of this small planetoid called the Green Dotted Line. Seeing as how this is my first public blog, I thought a little explanation of my discipline and perspective was an important departure point.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of working with others is . . . well . . . working with others. This is partially due to the human condition; a deeply seeded desire to compete against, not with, others. Its also partially due to other factors such as compensation, credit, and bureaucratic/organizational forces which make working collectively hard.
Collaboration consulting starts with this recognition and then seeks to apply methods and techniques to mitigate these factors.
This is hardly a new problem. People have hated working together as long as the institution of marriage and coupling has existed. The difference is that technology has created a new market for consulting companies seeking to sell tools to fix this age-old problem. This used to be called “information sharing” and somebody would install a multimillion dollar electronic filing cabinet. That got tiresome.
The most recent trend is Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 solutions to enable information sharing and collaboration. This is, at least, a step in the right direction. Low to zero cost software costs, flexible platforms, and open-source coding has made the technology accessible to anyone. This has not, however, fixed the problem of building electronic file cabinets. Why? Because we think about the technology first, not the people or the problem.
Collaboration consulting puts people and their problems first. This means making technology do our bidding instead of being beholden to it. So what does that mean?
We connect:
* People-to-people,
* People-to-data,
* Data-to-data, and get
* Data-to-people.
Some of these steps need to be enabled by technology, but not all of them. The last thing we consider are the technological solutions. We speak in terms of human factors, alternative causalities, and co-creation solutions.
That’s plenty for now.
Great to make your acquaintance. I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship.
Hey I recognize that graphic!
[...] The other thing I’m currently working on is the business process, change management, and collaboration consulting piece of a Clearspace deployment for my client’s organization. One of my tasks for the [...]
[...] to emphasize that simply having the technical capability for microblogging does not ensure success: effective deployment also entails organizational and process challenges in order to achieve the desired results. Social media success is only sometimes about tools; [...]