how to get the most from your collaborations

Collaboration on Collaboration 1

How to get the most from your collaborations!!

April 21 , 2010 1

Collaboration on Collaboration


Agenda

2

• Dinner 6:00-6:20• Welcome-Project Sharing 6:20-6:30

• Making it Work Basics 6:40-6:50

• Synchronous, Real Time Meetings 6:50-7:30

• Break 7:30-7:40

• Asynchronous—as in Online 7:40-7:55

• Examples• Collaborations that work • Collaborations that are challenging

7:55-8:15

• Workshop - Enhancing our own collaborations

8:15-8:35

• Next steps for C on C 8:35-8:45


Making collaboration work

Collaborative approaches offer an array of choices and complex trade-offs

How do you get started?

What and where do you begin?

3

Benefits

Work, Effort


Collaboration—it’s partnership

If it’s easy • To connect• Open up

People become comfortable sharing knowledge.

Frequent interaction builds community, trust and self-policing norms

4


Collaboration? Good Ingredients

• Complementary Strengths• Common Mission• Reciprocity

Fairness, Trust, Acceptance, Communicating, Unselfishness, and Forgiveness.

--The Power of 2 by Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller (2009)

5

Meaningful partnerships (aka collaborations) include the following factors

AND each partner felt the significance of these factors “very strongly”


Consider your goals

6

Opportunity Finding?Problem Solving?Relationship BuildingPersonal Expression

Goals • Foster Expectations• Fuel individuals’

incentives to participate.


Objectives, objectives and objectives

OBJECTIVES

Why are you looking to collaborate? What you are trying to do? (Choice of tool and platform always

2nd) • With WHOM are you planning to collaborate? • WHAT is your objective? How focused a task?• WHEN is there an expected or anticipated deliverable? WHY are you collaborating? If there's no Trust, mutual

intersection of interests, common purpose, mission , complement of strengths…think through your proposition again.

• HOW--this is where roles and timing matter• WHERE--should obviously afford convenient access and be

compatible with users’ platforms (Mobile or desktop? Do you need voice capability, text or both?) 7


Your turn

Tell us Who you are? What about Collaboration brought

you here tonight?

8

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” George Bernard Shaw

AND What collaboration(s) are you presently engaged in, or would like to create?


In person collaboration

9


Individual skills for collaboration

• Bilateral– Know and have

prerequisites• Have a shared

goal– Attitudes

• Value the other person’s contribution

• An interest in the other person’s success

– Skills• Listening• Communicating,

frequently, clearly, openly and concisely

• Give reasons behind your thinking

• Be patient and persistent

• Acknowledge upcoming problems

• Project management (mini)

• Teams/ multiple– Know and enforce

team basics• Have a shared

goal• A common way of

working and a commitment to check on how it’s working

• The right number of people (7-12)

– The right mix of skills

– Attitude• Value the other

people’s contributions

• An interest in the others’ success, beyond the team goal

– Skills

• Facilitating discussion

• Project management


Key rules for successful collaboration

• Involve the relevant stakeholders

• Build consensus phase by phase

• Have a facilitator focused on the problem-solving process

• Have a process map

• Harness the power of group memory

From: How to Make Collaboration Work (by David Straus)


Invite the relevant stakeholders

• Better solutions due to cognitive diversity

• More commitment to the results, because we were part of creating them

Diverse perspectives and expertise


Build consensus phase by phase

Whole group has to stay focused and in the same phase of problem solving

Source: How to Make Collaboration Work, David Straus


Have a facilitator

• Facilitator is:– A process

guide– A tool giver– A neutral third

(or nth) party– A process

educator

Source: How to Make Collaboration Work, David Straus

Photo by MikeBlogs, flickr


Planning a detailed (but flexible) agenda

Goal Content

Process (how)

Who Timing

Get everyone focused on task at hand

What might get in my way today

What I’m looking for help with

30 secondss round of contributions

Everyone 6 mins

Understand perspectives on the problem

Facts suggesting that there is a problem

Presentation Person A 10 mins

Surface additional issues re: the problem

What else supports or refutes there is a problem

Small group discussions with structured report-out

Everyone in groups of 2-3

20 mins discussion, 20 mins report out

Agree on definition of problem

Identifying the alternative formulations

Group discussion followed by “dots style” voting

Everyone 10 mins idea generation10 mins dots voting

Facilitator may need to deviate from this !!

Example


A sample process map for a problem-solving process

From: How to Make Collaboration Work (by David Straus)


Good bilateral relationships make collaborations stronger


Online collaboration

18


What makes online different?

19

Synchronicity NOT required. You can cast your net for collaborators widelySuccessful application of In-person Principles will yield success when adapted to the environment


Understanding comes from exploration

Checklist of considerations to simplify tool selection, which do you need?

•Document management•Project Management•Email capabilities--tracking/sending of automatic notification•Contact management•Outlook synchronization to tasks and/or calendar, desktop and/or mobile•Online Databases•Online meeting platforms

20

Today’s integrated solutions – can greatly enhance online collaboration.

Avoid issues –select your goal and then decide on your tools. Pick the functionality that best meets your sharing needs.


Asynchronous Collaboration: Possibilities and Choices

Recombinant

21

OPEN, Eco-System

Crowd Sourcing

Democratized

Relationship Building

Personal Expression

Problem-Solving

Opportunity Finding

Adapted from Amy Shuen Web2.0 Strategy Guide


Successful online communities have people playing multiple roles.

Timing (for community or individual)

Early Middle Later

Internal Greeter

Mentor LearnerBackupPartnerProvider

CatalystPerformer SupporterAccountant

Historian

External Talent scout

CelebrityAmbassador

Fo

cus

In addition, Decision Maker acts across all times and foci

Adapted from Susan Fournier and Lara Lee,


Community owners can use tactics that drive participation

• Talk to influentials more, others less.

• Increase the number of interactions.

• Solicit opinions – people with vested interests – create a challenge to overcome, – Create a poll, allow people to vote.

• Remove unused features. • Mention names more often. • Arrange time-specific activities. • Advertise for a volunteer helper.

Ideas quoted directly from FeverBee – by Richard Millington


Good topics to drive participation focus on the members as people

• Ask them generically about themselves.

• Ask about likes/dislikes. • Get people to agree/re-

affirmation their beliefs. • Discuss seasonal stories.• Anxieties. • Ask for advice. • Breaking news/gossip. • Reminisce. • Aspirations.

Suggested in FeverBee by Richard Millington

Treat members like people !!!


Some successful examples of collaborations

25


Success online: SIKM Leaders Community

Stan Garfield SIKM Leaders Community launched by in July 2005, Key Objective: Knowledge sharing among KM leaders at consulting

and systems integration firms, hence the title of SIKM. Organizing Principles: • Anyone who is part of KM initiative can join.• Threaded discussion hosted on Yahoo groups, Stan serves as

founder, administrator. He coordinates the monthly topic/speaker and posts reminders for the upcoming call or any event.

• Collaboration occurs both through threaded discussion, and a scheduled monthly conference call (posted on the group calendar with dial-in info); and attempt to meet in person annually.

The benefits of being more inclusive have

been many, including a wider range of

presenters on the monthly calls,

participants in the online discussions, experiences and perspectives.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/sikmleaders/


Systems Integration and Consulting KM Leaders--SIKM

427 MembersFounded: July 2005

Total Cumulative Messages:

2269

Average. Posts/Month:2005: 32009: 49

Threaded Discussion Platform

Stan: creator,

coordinator, administrat

or, Collaborator

Shared Tools and

Resource


SIKM –Why it works

• Long sharing of common interests has evolved to create collective user value.

• Personalities emerge over time and familiarity is created beyond the posted reference name through monthly conference calls,

• Annual face-to-face fosters community building through extended sharing and interaction.

• The industry arc allows people to reach beyond their internal organization boundaries to tap best practices, vetted resources and contacts and fosters professional development growth and reputation.

• Materials readily available for those to review at their convenience. People can stay abreast of changes in the discussion or listen to missed calls and review slides from missed presentations.

28


SIKM—ongoing challenges

As with any “led” initiative, the assumption of responsibility and ongoing presence of the founder, organizer in the role of administrator places some doubt for its ongoing sustaining power if he were to step back or away.

Fresh material and presenters given the growing archive. Keep it interesting not redundant.

The actual alteration in the KM discipline and its rise and fall as a presence in corporate and consulting life…people take on different tasks unrelated to KM and fall away.

29


Polymath is an online math problem solving network


Polymath collaboration structure


Polymath results


SAP’s business and vision drives community efforts


SAP sponsors multiple communities


SAP gets strong results from simple technology


Some collaborations with challenges

36


Civic Connect is project of Civic Consulting Alliance


CCA wanted to capitalize on its alumni and friends

• Network of alumni and friends– Consultants and

other professionals energized about the organization

– Have full-time jobs with intermittent opportunities (e.g., week between projects)

– Extremely well-connected

• Part of large offices with other professionals in Chicago

• Members of large multi-national firms

• Existing mechanisms– 5th Thursday

cocktail parties (2-4 x per year)

– E-newsletter (about 800)

– LinkedIn group (about 150)


Solution advancing and conversation process


The pilot had some challenges, which we are fixing


Discussion

•Questions? •Thoughts?• Ideas?


Online discussions challenges

Strategic Management Practices Issues Group

• Meets monthly face to face in a facilitated discussion on articles selected and posted in advance.

• Online Discussion capability added to Linked-IN to extend and promote the F2F discussions

• No conversation emerging online42


Presenter information

• Rachel Kaberon– 847-687-8480– [email protected]

• David Friedman– 312-863-3489– [email protected]

m

mailto:[email protected]

how to get the most from your collaborations

Business