Developing a Successful Strategy for Employee Collaboration

By and large, users want to be productive, they want to reduce tedious and repetitive business processes to be automated and optimized, but with a user experience (UX) that is engaging, provides the data they need to do their job, and is visually pleasing. Information Technology (IT) organizations want the systems they support to be efficient, effective, and perform well. These two sides are not mutually exclusive, however. It takes communication — and active listening — to understand the needs and constraints of each side and, ultimately, build a system or solution that makes each side happy.

When considering your own Digital Workplace, and the necessary business transformation required to reach your vision, end user productivity should be at the center of your plans. Focusing on end user productivity means a higher return on investment (ROI) for the platform — and the business activities it supports. Productivity means more users on the platform, getting more out of the platform. Productivity means faster employee on-boarding and training, more business output and stronger platform usage — all of which means a faster realization of the financial investments you’ve already made (in my world, this means SharePoint and Office 365).

When a collaboration platform meets both the requirements of the business users and the security, compliance, and governance constraints that the IT organization is responsible for managing, adoption improves dramatically — and adoption has a direct link to productivity. Even the most up-to-date technology, rolled out on time, under budget, with all of the latest features, and built perfectly to manufacturer specifications will fail if end users do not adopt. The secret is to ensure that IT works closely, and iteratively, with end users to develop a collaboration platform that meets the needs of both constituencies.

Regardless of your technology approach, any Digital Workplace transformation requires a certain level of acceptance from across the organization – from the executive team down to the end users. Why is it that some solutions or innovations are readily adopted and others fail to find a foothold within your corporate culture?

Within his ground-breaking book "Crossing the Chasm," author Geoffrey Moore discusses a number of strategies for crossing the “chasm” of adoption between market (or organizational) segments, which are based on the "Diffusion of Innovations" theory. This theory argues that there is a chasm between early adopters (technology enthusiasts and visionaries) and the early majority (pragmatists). Moore argued that moving from early adopters to the early majority is difficult because the personality traits of these two groups is so very different.

The real challenge to ensuring that your business transformation take hold and cross ‘the chasm’ is in bridging the cultural gap. Author Malcolm Gladwell referred to this as the "tipping point" in his book of the same name to identify a successful bridging of this critical juncture when the early majority accepts the new innovation.

You can begin to see where the role of a Digital Workplace "Hero" (influencer/evangelist) can have a powerful impact within the organization, helping the early adopters to document and promote their business wins, building momentum around a new solution. But to successfully cross that chasm, it requires continuous support and innovation.

How Strategy Changes as Adoption Improves

• At the launch of any new innovation, messaging should focus on Innovators and Early Adopters.
• As Innovator and Early Adopter adoption increases, document early tangible successes, demonstrating clear business impact and ROI
• Provide general awareness to Early Majority, but keep it scarce at first to keep Innovators and Early Adopters engaged.
• As Early Majority adoption increases, increase general awareness and reinforce through training.
• Begin working with Innovators and Early Adopters on extending/optimizing the innovation, ensuring they remain engaged, while also focusing on future needs.
• Maintain growth of Early and Late Majority by creating a culture that builds optimism and self-confidence by recognizing and rewarding achievement, which creates and nurtures momentum.

At the center of Moore’s theory is communication. When communication is strategic and strong, and when business users and IT work together on a shared vision of what the system should be, success is almost guaranteed. And if the platform is successfully built and deployed with communication at the center of the strategic plan, adoption will increase, and productivity will follow.

In his 1996 book "Leading Change," John P. Kotter, Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus at Harvard Business School and the Chief Innovation Officer at Kotter International, developed an 8-step methodology for accelerating organizational strategy implementation. His business transformation model provides a practical approach, focusing on leading – not managing – change.

By requiring advocacy and communication throughout the planning and implementation process, with operational managers working closely with all stakeholders to create “a sense of urgency about the task in-hand” to identify the right business drivers, teams are better able to deliver transformational change. Change happens when there is a crisis, and organizations are able to come together around a shared understanding of these business drivers: unhappy customers, rising costs, reduced budgets, and growing competitor advantages. All of these can spark lasting organizational change.

Many leaders will quickly move from crisis to analysis, which can slow progress to a halt. By making the discussion transparent, and including all stakeholders in the analysis and planning, people are better able to talk about needed changes – and how to move forward.

According to Kotter, change is most effective when adhering to the follow steps:

1. Create a sense of urgency
2. Build a coalition
3. Form a strategic vision and initiatives
4. Enlist a volunteer army
5. Enable action by removing barriers
6. Generate short-term wins
7. Sustain acceleration
8. Institute change

Within this model, the first three help an organization establish the right climate for change to happen, while the next two focus on engaging and enabling the many different stakeholders. The final three are about implementing and sustaining change. While there are short-term benefits to this methodology, the real impact happens when this model and your ongoing learnings are folded back into your team and corporate culture.

Initiatives succeed or fail when your organization fails to support a process for change, or spends too much energy resisting the change management process. It requires consistency, transparency, collaboration, and iteration.

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You can read more on the topic of digital transformation within my eBook "SharePoint Transformed: A Game Plan for Digital Workplace Heroes" available through Colligo