What's a collaboration architect?

Every manager, teacher or trainer in the world, whenever trying to run a business organization or a classroom can also be a collaboration architect without even knowing.

By reading this article you will learn more about 'collaboration' as a field of study and the architecture of collaboration as a set of new professions that emerge in three different domains: people, workplaces and IT.

Why collaboration architecture?

I have been curious about this term since I have started to use it as the opening sentence of my Linkedin profile. However, I realize that most people take it for granted because no one has ever asked me what does a collaboration architect really do?

To answer this question we need first to address the notion of collaboration architecture. An interesting article published in the Strategic Management Journal in 2012 explains:

"Firms increasingly face competitive pressures related to rapid and continuous adaptation to a complex, dynamic and highly interconnected global environment. Pressing challenges include keeping pace with shorter product life cycles, incorporating multiple technologies into the design of new products, co-creating products and services with customers and partners, and leveraging the growth of scientific and technical knowledge in many sectors. In response, we observe experimentation with new organization designs that are fundamentally different from existing forms of organizing. We propose that these new designs are based on (...) three main elements (1):

1. Actors who have the capabilities and values to self-organize;
2. Commons where the actors accumulate and share resources; and
3. Protocols, processes, and infrastructures that enable multi-actor collaboration."

This is precisely the kind of theoretical frameworks I like, because it can help us organize the field around three different but all equally necessary dimensions: the domain of people (the actors), the domain of the workplace and finally the domain of information technology (IT).

A collaboration architect intervenes at these three levels but with different job titles.

The peopleware level

The notion of 'people-ware' was invented by computer scientists to cover all the critical aspects of the human and organizational dimension in any IT project that must be seriously considered in order to achieve success. If this notion was useful in the dawn of the times, more so in the XXI century where almost all IT projects have extensive collaborative work requirements.

Yet, when I meet with managers or trainers in all sorts of organization, there is always a permanent dissatisfaction with the problem solving and decision-making processes in the organization. This often leads to varied levels of frustration in the use and deployment of technology that should be making group collaboration effortless.

What's the fundamental contribution of a collaboration architect at this level? She or he is essentially a 'group facilitator'. To understand this job title we need to grasp a fundamental distinction when dealing with collaborative processes between 'process' and 'content'. The group facilitator is able to focus on the process of collaboration (how a decision is made) regardless of the actual content (what is being decided).

Interaction Associates (IA) is one of the world’s authorities on group and organizational collaboration. Since 1969, they have introduced the concept and practice of group facilitation to the business world via David Strauss's seminal book How to Make Collaboration Work and the five principles of collaboration:

1. Involve the relevant stakeholders
2. Build consensus phase by phase
3. Design a process map
4. Designate a process facilitator
5. Harness the power of group memory

These two last points are probably the least understood by business managers when acting as collaboration architects. The need to appoint a neutral figure that manages the power of group memory in meetings is equally important for a successful collaboration than the design of an overall process map and the step by step consensus with all relevant stakeholders.

The workplace level

The digital revolution has impacted in the workplace in a level that could only be foreseen by radical sci-fi authors only 40 years ago. A new concept has emerged - the workspace - where we can be actually accessing our workplace tools and interact with our co-workers without actually being physically present. This means that technology allows us to enter our workspace even without being physically in place based on digital interactions that may or may not be visible in the workplace (1). As a result, physical offices as we know them are evolving, opening the way to a diversity of new workplaces: collaborative co-workings, huddle spaces, hot desks, among others.

An interesting article from Antonio Fernandes (2) proposes a number of requirements for the XXI century workplace:

• Connectivity Anywhere - Secure access to applications, desktops, and data on the go;
• Devices and interfaces for each user - Applications and desktops with synchronization and file sharing in corporate network security.
• Powerful user creativity in any device, cloud, and network, simplified and easily accessible to users, including mobile printing.
• Freedom of Choice of physical spaces - Videoconference Rooms, Huddle Rooms, Co-work among others;
• IoT concepts in the creation of intelligent platforms for managing the entire space according to the needs of the users in a smart workplace (meeting room and other resources reservations, etc.)

The author concludes by stating "a culture of knowledge sharing is one of the most important factors in increasing an organization's productivity." The collaboration architect must have a clear perception of the 'people domain' and their respective collaboration requirements to design and deliver the best performing workspaces.

The IT level

Finally, the protocols, processes and infrastructures that enable multi-actor collaboration converge into the IT platforms of the present days. According to the Wikipedia (3), Collaborative software or groupware is application software designed to help people involved in a common task to achieve their goals. Melanie Pinola, from Lifewire, wrote 'the term groupware references several types of computer-supported collaborative working environments (4). This includes both the software but also the hardware for collaboration, like video-conferencing and a new product category the 'team displays' which was pioneered by companies like CTOUCH and later embraced by traditional technology brands like Microsoft Surface Hub, Cisco Spark and Google with the Jamboard.

Collaboration architects at this level derive their job title from the notion of Enterprise Collaboration Architecture (ECA). This vision of IT architecture subsumes a model-driven architecture that is part of the hard systems worldview of engineering and operational research (5).

To help us assist on the job scope of such 'collaboration architects' a recent job advertisement (6) can be useful and I am transcribing an excerpt here:

"BBG Management Corporation has an opportunity for a Collaboration Architect in New York, NY. The ideal candidate will obtain a position with a leading IT consultancy in NYC. This company’s specialty is cloud technology delivery and support. This individual should have a strong technical background and experience creating collaboration solutions. Responsibilities:

• Developing and nurturing relationships with clients
• Working with clients to determine collaboration reqs, developing and reviewing the Bill of Materials
• Developing SOWs detailing budget and labour information
• Creating diagrams to illustrate potential solutions using MS Visio
• Presenting on Cisco video conferencing solutions and capabilities to potential clients
• Overseeing the onboarding process for Cisco Spark and WebEx
• Working with collaboration engineers to design solutions are easy to use and focused on video conferencing"

This kind of professionalism is also being achieved with the Leddura 2Meet partner certification program at CTOUCH. The goal is to be able to identify, train and then recommend a closed network of business partners that would be able to onboarding the use of team displays for effective collaborative work.

In conclusion

Collaboration architecture is in high demand due to the complexities of the present business ecosystem and the powerful impact of the digital revolution at all levels in our society. When trying to cope with this highly mutating environment, managers and teachers alike are becoming collaboration architects unknowingly. Whenever giving more autonomy to people and involving them in decision-making that concerns their work, this results in a more engaged workforce (or more engaged students) which is instrumental for success.

Whereas in the domains of IT or Workplace, the job description and responsibilities of a collaboration architect are clear, in the 'peopleware domain' managers and teachers often do not know how to distinguish between 'process' and 'content' during their collaborative interactions.

• Content = tasks, subjects and problems being addressed.
• Process = how things are discussed, including session format, norms, and procedures, decision methods and tools.

In the domain of people, a group facilitator is a guide or a discussion leader for the group and is responsible for getting the group members to assume full responsibility on the content the meeting.

Whenever a manager or a teacher is aware of these two types of facilitation (process and content) she or he embraces the core values of facilitation and by applying them becomes a facilitative leader, the true essence of being a collaboration architect.

References

(1) The architecture of collaboration. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261982578_The_architecture_of_collaboration [accessed Apr 22 2018].

(2) A componente ambiental do Workplace – Workspace, by António Fernandes.

(3) Collaborative software, Wikipedia.

(4) What is groupware, by Melanie Pinola.

(5) Enterprise Collaboration Architecture, Wikipedia.

(6) https://www.glassdoor.com/job-listing/collaboration-architect-bbg-management