How Lotus Notes Changed the Collaboration Landscape

http://readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2011/09/sheldon-laube.php

I was part of the early days of Lotus Notes (1989-1996) while at Price Waterhouse.  I worked with Sheldon and his team and then later worked for him at a start-up.  There is a great podcast interview with Sheldon Laube linked to from this article, it is very relevant to the conversation today around enterprise collaboration and social interaction.

Enterprise Collaboration/social interaction is almost a back to the future moment.  We had it with Lotus Notes and now people are starting to recognize again the power of collaboration.

Morning vs. Evening People

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23852426-why-morning-people-rule-the-world.do

"Yet the research continues to mount, arguing that evening people have qualities which should be nurtured. They tend to be more creative, intelligent, humorous and extroverted. They are the balance to morning people, who are said to be more optimistic, proactive and conscientious."

We all have our perfect time of day to collaborate, work more efficiently, and to just get things done.  Can we use bridge these two 'time zones' so that organizations become more efficient and effective?  Simple things can bridge the morning and evening gap.  Things as simple as not scheduling meetings at 8am or 5pm.  Be aware of colleagues 'time zone' and balance your zone with theirs.  By each person being aware of the others 'time zone' you will be more likely to connect in meaningful and useful ways.

Based on the time of day I am writing this post you can guess which type of person I am.

 

Do HR Leaders understand social media

Do HR Leaders understand social media?

I am both encouraged and discouraged by what I read in this post titled HR Leaders Tout Social Media.  The encouragement comes from HR professionals acknowledging value in social media.  The discouragement because HR professionals clearly don't seem to appreciate what enterprise social media is. The following quote explains a lot; "64 percent said they plan to create content on blogs, websites, video or audio, while 57 percent plan to spend more time maintaining a profile in a social or professional network"  This quote is indicative of the misunderstanding within most organization about what enterprise social media is and isn't.  Blogs, websites, video, audio and professional social networks are NOT a part of enterprise social media.

Organizations need extensions in existing policies that address social media.  In most instances existing policies are fine, they just need to acknowledge social media.  There also needs to be a rational balancing of risk vs. reward undertaken with respect to enterprise social media.

The Social Connectedness of Knowledge

Listen to my XLRQ internet radio Embrace the Noise piece titled The Social Connectedness of Knowledge.

Truths of Enterprise Social Interaction (Collaboration)

1. Collaboration tools do not need to be complex, costly, or fully integrated into the organizations other business tools to provide value.


2. The value of Collaborative technologies often cannot be quantified.


3. The “mom test” should be applied to collaboration technologies.
   
   
   
   • David Coleman of Collaborative Strategies defines the mom test as: “…tool needs to be easy enough for my mom to use for it to be successful.”
   
   
   
   


4. Collaboration doesn’t need to be managed, just fostered.
   
   
   
   • Provide people the freedom to share their thoughts, ideas and experiences in a way that can be applicable to the organization.
   
   
   • Collaboration will grow organically if it is left alone - free from management meddling.
   
   
   •  People must be given the ability to converse with limited constraints (within acceptable usage parameters).
   
   
   
   


5. Trust is developed through genuine interaction not edict.


6. Successful organizational collaboration is evidenced through cross-functional interactions.


7. Collaborative technologies will expose the hidden networks within an organization.


8. The hidden networks are where the real work of the organization takes place and value derived.


9. Collaborative technologies empower individual contributors.


10. Productivity enhancing collaboration does not always have to be 100% business focused.


11. Context is a determining factor in the value derived from conversations.


12. Self organization and policing occurs where collaboration is free of artificial constraints.

Doing things backwards

More times than I care to remember I have encountered collaborative technology that actually hinders collaboration and knowledge sharing.  Why?  Well I think David Coleman of Collaborative Strategies hits the reason in his post about how some of the least collaborative people in an organization are often the ones picking the technology.

It isn't that IT doesn't know what they are doing (when it comes to collaboration), but that they sometimes become disconnected from the people that could benefit most from their leadership.  Having a simple conversation with people about how they would like to use technology and then helping them understand what is available and then implementing unstructured pilots can help everyone understand the value proposition.  Of course there are extremes where no one does anything about collaboration tools because of a fear of failure or making things over complicated.

Collaboration isn't rocket science, we do it everyday.  When it comes to technology to collaborate we need to stop over thinking things and use simple methods and tools.

Retaining workers

Retaining mature workers key to holding off job shortages

As I was reading this article (linked above) it struck me that the issues and tactics outlined to retaining mature workers really are the same that are needed to retain less mature (mature = older, less mature = younger).

The five steps outlined are relevant to all workers, not just older workers.  Employees desire to be connected, engaged, appreciated, and fairly compensated.  In return they will provide appropriate value and expand the organizations capabilities and collective knowledge.  The accomodations outlined for older workers are the same that will attract and retain younger workers - flexible schedules, training, etc.

Why do these supposed "experts" feel the need to create these artificial and incendiary classifications between generations?  This approach is divisive and counter productive.  We live in a connected world that is cross cultural and trans generational.  This calls for connectedness not generational segregation.

Enterprise Social Interaction

The social enterprise is not just an off-shoot of the Social Graph on the web (Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, etc.) but something that has been real and delivering value within many organizations for some time.  It was labeled collaboration, knowledge management, or not labeled at all.

Certainly new forms of technology, especially through web services, wiki’s, instant messaging, and presence have helped push awareness and adoption forward.  Adoption and value realization of enterprise social interaction tools lags behind the consumer marketplace.  Lots of talk in the trade press abounds regarding how the technology that people encounter outside of work is expected to be in place within the organizational firewall.  What needs to be considered is how these new technologies can be applied to add value in the enterprise context.  It is not and can not be an “if we build it they will come” approach to implementing enterprise social interaction tools.

Enterprises need to clearly articulate a strategy.  A strategy that builds upon and supports the organizations goals and objectives.  To often things turn into what I term a series of unfortunate projects (approaching enterprise social interaction as a series of discrete projects) instead of creating a road map that helps achieve strategic objectives in a series of planned events.

I have put together these bulleted thoughts on the value proposition around enterprise social interaction.

• Connectedness
  
  
  
  • Provides participatory interaction vs. passive delivery
    
    
    
    • Example: use Wiki’s to develop Detailed Business Requirements
    
    
    • Reduce project cycle times through less face-to-face meetings and more meaningful interaction
    
    
    • Enhance project value through full documentation and change management of requirements “documents”
    
    
    • Provide a concise view of how the requirements evolved over time
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Communication becomes Conversation
    
    
    
    • All employees can participate in information creation and consumption based on role and interests
    
    
    • Requires an open environment where people and systems work together
    
    
    • leverage each person's tacit knowledge
    
    
    • Not just about putting technology in place, but letting conversations and interactions take place organically without management intervention
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Communities of Interest
    
    
    
    • If allowed, will form without top-down hand holding
    
    
    • Provide added value by allowing diverse view points to be heard and applied
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Interactive Management Communication
    
    
    
    • Leadership communication should be parallel not serial
    
    
    • Example: CEO communication through blog instead of email or a static web page (moderated of course as some people can be rather boorish)
    
    
    • Generational expectations to work, communication and collaboration must be adequately addressed
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Connective Fabric
  
  
  
  • Tools need to provide a connective fabric that connects people and ideas together not just processes
  
  
  • Organizations need to learn from and leverage the enterprise social graph
    
    
    
    • Understand how social interaction capabilities can accelerate innovation and drive knowledge worker productivity
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Individual knowledge is not power, it is obsolescence.  The collective knowledge of the organization is power and creates a competitive advantage
    
    
    
    • There is no such thing as sustainable competitive advantage; there is only a race to create new sources of temporary advantage.  The challenge is to string together a series of temporary advantages into advantages over time. (1)
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Stale Content/Rigid User Experiences
    
    
    
    • Top down, centralized activities reduce value and limit innovation
    
    
    • Balance needs to exist between security and usability
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• What this means for organizational hierarchy
  
  
  
  • A workplace transition from command and control to people focused and community-centric approaches that ties people, ideas, content, processes and systems together
  
  
  • >Empowerment
    
    
    
    • Employees are empowered to create and publish information that is easily disseminated throughout the organization
    
    
    • Value bubbles up to those that need it just in time
    
    
    • People need to be free to add value at will without compromising their role within the organization
    
    
    • Break down cultural barriers that limit innovation
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Process Improvement becomes more closely aligned with value than with rigid industrial age notions of productivity
  
  
  • Tools used are based on flexibility/the ability to enable connectedness vs. a command and control approach
  
  
  
  

(1) Eric Beinhocker – The origin of wealth

[amtap book:isbn=1422121038]

What KM isn't

I was just reading a some forum posts on a well known business focused social web site about KM.  The topic was around web/enterprise 2.0 and KM.  A valid and relevant topic.  There were a couple of posts where supposed KM experts postulated that KM was all about documents and search. Wrong answer.

True Knowledge Management has never been about documents and search.  Knowledge Management has always been about Connectedness.  If "experts" have been doing KM as documents and search, they haven't been practitioners of Knowledge Management.

See the KM News definition of KM for my thinking...

Identity Context & Information

Kim Cameron does a stellar job in making the connection between identity, context and information in his blog post "Trends in what is known about us".

Information accumulates power by being put into proximity and aggregated.   This even appears to be an inherent property of information itself.  Of course information can’t effect its own aggregation, but easily finds hosts who are motivated to do so: businesses, governments, researchers, industries, libraries, data centers - and the indefatigable search engine.

What Kim is describing in the above quoted paragraph is connectedness; informational connectedness.   I would go a step further and add that information accumulates power by relational context.  Each individual views aggregated information differently depending on their personal perspective and the current context in which they are viewing the information.  If I am viewing aggregated information on a job candidate, the interpretation will be different than if my context is that of a friend.

The element that many don't seem to pay attention to, and Kim brings to the fore is that what happens within social networking tools won't always remain localized.   As digital personas connect, the information generated through those interactions multiplies and in the near future will become rather easily aggregated.Â

Microsoft Buys Credentica U-Prove

It was announced today that Microsoft has purchased Credntica's U-Prove technology.

Trust (and privacy) is a key aspect of connectedness. We share more with people we trust and less with those we don't. As Kim Cameron puts it, U-Prove works on a "need to know" basis. If a web site proves worthy we might share more details and the Info Card with U-Prove will make that easier to accomplish.

We will eventually see adoption of Info Cards as a mechanism. Adoption is slow but this bit of news will undoubtedly move things along.