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Intranet Advent Day 4 – The 4 elements of collaboration

Intranet Advent Day 4 – The 4 elements of collaboration

December 4thWe’re counting down to Christmas with a stocking-filler tip every day.

To support Michael Sampson’s elements of collaboration, you need the appropriate tools for sure, but even more, you need an agreed way of working. Collaboration isn’t about launching a new ESN or social intranet, it’s about having people adopt an open approach from a personal, team, and organisational point of view.

Where does your organisation or team struggle? What can you do to improve your approach to collaboration? It starts with a conversation; it starts with you.

Four elements of collaboration

To encourage and support the four elements of collaboration, you could consider the following points.

  • Explaining when to use which tool / system – the best collaboration tool is the one we’re using together. If we don’t agree on the tool, we risk creating divides – or worse, reverting to email.
  • Have great tools that are easy to use. Anything that blocks use will hinder real work, so allow people to work on their own smartphones and tablets.
  • Consider which ‘consumer’ systems are worth being open to. Evernote? Dropbox? Or stick with O365 and OneDrive?
  • Never have meetings for simple ‘reporting’. Communication should be real-time; progress can be shared by working out loud.
  • Share problems, concerns, and progress – not just results.
  • Focus on the desired outcome more than the process, but have easy to reference governance to guide the process.
  • Always ask ‘why are we doing this?’ and always double-check if the outcome is truly valuable.
  • Recognise that mistakes, and even failures, will happen. Demonstrate that this is OK. Inaction should be punished, not action.

And remember:

Check #intranetadvent for a fresh idea each day.

Wedge Black

I support ClearBox in everything we do online, and I assist clients that are considering redeveloping or replacing their intranet platform. I worked in global and regional organisations as the intranet manager as part of the comms team, before becoming an intranet consultant. I'm the founder of the Intranet Now annual conference. I’ve tweeted about intranets and comms for fifteen years now.

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