Untangling collaboration spaces
Categorised under: Collaboration
An all-too-common scenario:
Collaboration spaces, such as wikis or SharePoint team areas, have multiplied across the organisation. Now numbering in the thousands, some are hugely successful but many are not. Confusion and pain has oustripped the value offered by the collaboration spaces, and things may be getting worse not better.
How to untangle such a huge mess? What approach can be taken that will address thousands of spaces?
I scribbled the following diagram on a napkin at lunch yesterday, outlining a possible methodology:
- identify ownership
- understand culture & business needs
- kill the dead & undead spaces
- identify exemplars
- develop strategy
- establish governance
- design forward-looking solutions
There’s lot’s more to spell out, and the diagram probably needs reworking.
My initial questions:
- Does this make sense as an approach?
- We’re thinking of fleshing this out as a consulting methodology, would there be interest in this?
Tags: Collaboration
James Robertson is the Managing Director of 
11 Comments:
I like it! Maybe there could also be a continuous loop of assessing, planning, and improvement based on which workspaces/groups are most successful each year. Even for large organizations that start off with good ideas on governance and roles, there is inevitably will be some groups that do well in some that don’t. cheers,
Joe
My initial reaction is that steps 3 and 4 could be reversed. The exemplars might contain some previously unknown cure(s) for the dead and undead. Building even what has since become a near-dead portal consumed some resources, and I hate to see anyone throw out the baby with the bathwater. In some cases, maybe the dead can be revived with a little CPR (collaboration platform resusitation) in the form of borrowing best practices from the exemplars. I have a client organization where a thriving SharePoint-based community helped one of its anemic sister communities learn to leverage its own portal better — they were active collaborator-scientists, but hadn’t quite gotten the hang of bringing that behavior online. So I guess the question is, when is “dead” really just “unconscious.” The model might want some mitigation of “kill the dead.” Moreover, some of the stages (2 & 5, or 5 & 6) might overlap considerably, rather than being strictly sequential. Anyway, do go forward with your model — seems like it will work nicely.
@Joe, agree completely. What is outlined above is a once-off strategy for cleaning up the organic growth of collaboration spaces. Part of the governance model must then contain an ongoing process of assessment, refinement and cleanup.
@Roger, I like your “CPR” approach!
Yes, I think you make an excellent argument for swapping steps 3 and 4, will revise accordingly. Also agree that like any simplified model, real-world realities will mean some overlap, blurring of lines, and revisiting of items.
My guess is that steps 3-4 are actually parts of the same step, could be played out in a negotiated “winners pile” “losers pile” “worth saving pile” exercise with key stakeholders. Anything “worth saving” needs an intensive care team and a 30 day revival deadline.
I love the cleanup-before-strategy&governance sequence ie real world practice helps to clarify what could work in future.
Yes, it makes sense as an approach (with the enhancements suggested by other comments). And yes, it’s a needed consulting service for big organisations. Collectively we’ve been in this situation with all sorts of different collaborative tools that offer different “spaces”. Notes, eRoom, and even wikis come to mind.
And, once you’ve done it a few times, it could result in a good practice report on “Governing collaborative spaces”.
Certainly makes sense and I am sure there would be interest. As a Records Manager / Archivist etc I am interested in whether the fleshed-out version (particularly under steps 2, 3, 5 and 6) would recognise the need to capture any records that come out of such collaboration spaces, particularly in situations where recordkeeping compliance is a requirement. I like to hope that in many organisations collaboration spaces are already closely linked with appropriate recordkeeping programmes so that accurate and context-based capture of evidential information already takes place, but it is certainly an aspect to consider for organisations that don’t have an appropriate recordkeeping programme in place.
My interpretation of your approach
1. Make it neat
2. Keep it that way
I like the approach and also find change mgmt at its peak between stage 2 and 3, when owners are unwilling to let go.
I estimate that there are more than 18,000 sharepoint installations now. SP sites are easy to create and normally managed by the IT dept who seldom rationalise site creation when requested. So I strongly feel a cleanup and stay neat methodology will be popular, for those who can openly admit
18,000 spaces are a good large number!
I guess this is a good approach to dealing with a situation `as is’ but many of the admin tools can be used to get a handle on things up front eg, don’t provision a site without an owner, business reason and a budget code. Get this retrospectively from those sites already out there. Close all sites automatically after 12 months unless the owner renews. Send weekly reminders from month 11. Understand the reasons for failure becuase the negative can be a recepie for success. Acknowledge the range of uses of online collaboration spaces, from simple document and message sharing to complex business process and reporting frameworks. Don’t assume a one size fits all solution for design or governance. Appreciate the intention to simplify but as a top down sort of guy I would play it 2,5,1,6,3,4,7,
@Greg, amen to all your suggestions! We’ve written quite a lot about this:
Collaboration tools are anti knowledge sharing?
Successful collaboration requires support
Close team spaces when projects end
The Transfield entry in the 2008 Intranet Innovation Awards goes further, and shows all of what you suggest in place, plus much more. (Worth the price of the report alone.)
All that being said, the reality is that most organisations start into collaboration tools without really making a conscious decision. And before they know it, they have thousands of spaces and a lot of cleaning up to do…