Collaboration is a hot topic these days and it is a top priority, according to Gartner’s recent survey of CIOs where Collaboration technologies ranked number 5 on the priority list. The problem is that some people get confused when the word collaboration is used. Here is Gartner’s definition of Collaboration from a research note that Tom Austin and Betsy Burton wrote a few years back:
Collaboration: work with others on a nonroutine cognitive task — that is, working together.
In a related research note, Tom Austin defined the four elements of Collaboration: Segment Collaboration into its Four Main Constituents for Maximum Return. The elements are:
- Communication
- Coordination
- Communities
- Social Interaction Facilitation
In 2009, everyone says they offer collaboration technologies, but not everyone defines collaboration or communication the same way. It used to be a simple world when phones were separate from computers. That is not the case in 2009 and that is where part of the problem is. Knowing how you want to collaborate and what technologies you want to use will keep you pointed in the right direction.
2 responses so far ↓
1 John Earnhardt // Jun 22, 2009 at 7:16 pm
I would also encourage you to check out Alan Cohen’s (@ascohen – he is VP at Cisco) blog on defining collaborators and collaboration…
he states: “In December 2008, Cisco conducted one of the first comprehensive studies on the factors associated with successful adoption of network-based collaboration. The study, Collaboration: Know Your Enthusiasts and Laggards (.pdf), surveyed 800 people in a wide variety of U.S. medium-sized and enterprise organizations.”
full blog here: http://blogs.cisco.com/news/comments/great_collaborators_nature_vs._nurture/
2 Kathie Hackler // Jun 23, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Cisco had developed some interesting material and really gets to the point that collaboration is not about the “tools” and how they are defined but the actual accomplishment of some joint task. You can lead a person to Web.2.0 but how do you make them collaborate? That is the more interesting question and I think the Cisco paper has some useful information.
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