Filed under: Collaboration and social, Digital workplace
Staff and business areas often identify a need for collaboration tools, without knowing what the best solution would be. They may have some familiarity with a handful of tools, but not know how others work.
As discussed in the earlier article Successful collaboration requires support, there needs to be a centralised team that supports collaboration tools throughout the organisation.
One of the key roles of this central team is to help business areas choose the right tools. This starts with determining whether there is a legitimate and practical need for collaboration tools. The right solution (or mix of solutions) needs to be selected, followed by support, guidance and training.
In practice, this means asking a lot of questions. These build an understanding of the current situation, points of pain, business context, and business needs.
To kick-start this process, this briefing outlines a number of questions the central team could ask. Use these as a starting point when approached by business units, and adapt them to fit the specific situation.
These questions must not be seen as obstructive, or as a hurdle designed to minimise the spread of collaboration tools. Instead, they should be used as a basis for constructive dialogue, with both sides learning valuable information.
Information gained from these types of questions is invaluable for the central team, helping them design or adapt collaboration solutions to fit the organisation’s changing needs.
[CM Briefing 2009-14, read the full article]