Twelve lessons to Develop and Sustain Online Knowledge Communities
Perspective on virtual collaboration benchmark.ppt
1. Benchmark Perspectives on
Virtual Collaboration
Lucy Garrick, MA WSD
Benchmark Study Fall 2009
Summary Report
Perspectives on Virtual Collaboration In Organizations
2. Table of Contents
• Overall Trends
• Research – Executive Summary
• Key Findings
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3. Today‘s Issues Are Global Issues, Requiring Collective Action
And Collaboration On A Grander Scale Than Ever Imagined
Source: flickr.com Zoriah, CC Licensed
Source: flickr.com stitch, CC Licensed
Source: flickr.com Library and Archives State of Florida
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3
4. . . . Impacting Industries, Work Teams and Work Places
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5. Purpose of Benchmark Research
• To Understand What Is Really Happening With
Virtual Collaboration In Organizations?
» Who is using it and why?
» What progress is being made toward
increasing collaboration?
» What issues need to be addressed to improve
effective collaboration?
Perspectives on Virtual Collaboration In Organizations
6. What Do The Words Mean?
• Social Media
» Computer tools used over the internet
• Enable you to find, relate and share
» Information (text, video, sound), relationships & expertise (people)
• Collaboration
» Two or more people coming together to accomplishing
something within a defined boundary
• Includes a spectrum of forms:
» Online only, blending physical and virtual world, face-to-face
» Variety of choices for collaborative behaviors; from how input and feedback are sought or
provided, priority setting and decision making
» Virtual Collaboration: Groups using computer and other tools
over the internet to accomplish a work purpose with a defined
boundary.
• Business, non-profit, government, educational, professional or community groups
• Does not include social media marketing activities, such as data gathering or marketing
communication using online tools and media.
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7. Executive Summary of Findings
1. Wide spread collaboration pilots and early production
using Enterprise 2.0 technologies.
2. Most struggle is with user adoption, but more
importantly with user engagement in collaborating.
3. Tendency is to view
social/virtual collaboration
through the lens of
traditional 20th century IT
approaches to process
and structural change.
4. Most not
connecting the dots
between three distinct
areas of focus need to
collaborate virtually
Perspectives on Virtual Collaboration In Organizations
Bench
mark
Study
Fall
2009
Summa
9. Key Findings
Perspectives on Virtual Collaboration In Organizations
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10. Primary Barriers to Collaboration
1. Difficulties engaging people in collaboration
• Wide spectrum of perceptions about what it means to
collaborate
• Lack of collaborative skills
2. Rigid emphasis on risk management
• Legitimate concerns about privacy and competitive
intelligence dominate understanding and limit unique
possibilities for advancing productivity, creativity and
collaborative effectiveness
3. Planning processes are tactically focused, rather
than strategic
• Lack of understanding on the components of
collaboration
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11. Virtual Collaboration:
Greater Than The Sum of Its Parts
Human ! • Virtual collaboration is a
Needs! uniquely different work
environment and needs
to be approached as a
dynamic set of
Issues/ Technology!
Projects! interacting elements
• Elements interact in the
context of broacher
Social Collaboration organizational strategies
Occurs At The ! and goals
Intersection !
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12. Collaborative Behavioral Gap
Many behaviors influence effective collaboration. Those
listed represent a sample of behaviors considered
fundamental to encouraging and supporting collaboration.
collaboration.
The organizations’ espoused value of selected collaborative behaviors vs. how much they are
actually practiced in day-to-day interactions. Scale of 1 to 5, with 1 = not at all and 5 = all the
time.
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13. Investment Gap
• Resistance from users,
management, etc. were cited as
major and most difficult
challenge
• Mismatch between budget
allocation and drivers of user
collaboration Struggling here
» Strategies overemphasize
technology and underemphasize
collaboration and engagement
• Organizations misunderstand
what drives the productivity of
knowledge workers and
therefore do not know how to
measure ROI Source Data Slide 12-14: The State of Enterprise 2.0, November
The Adoption 2.0 Council and Information Architected
Perspectives on Virtual Collaboration In Organizations
14. Conclusions
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15. There Is A Need To Better Adapt and
Evolve Quickly In Order For
Organizations To Thrive And Grow
• Focus on growth and development from the inside out
» Innovate products/services, as well as the use of processes and
tools that improve effectiveness, creativity and productivity
» Re-examine organizational structures and practices that meet the
needs of globalized communities and markets
• Even if you are small and local, you are impacted by
globalization in many ways
» Need to excel at accessing and leveraging global knowledge
resources
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16. Benchmark Report Details
Based on:
• Qualitative Research
– Conducted Fall 2009
– Sectors interviewed
• Higher education, aerospace, professional associations, non-profits and foundations, computer
technology, online retail, online marketing, financial services
– Size
• 40 to >150K employees
• Projects serving hundreds to 1000s of members
– Tools used
• Varied widely from public social sites, i.e. LinkedIn FB and Twitter, custom-built web communities
and proprietary platforms behind the firewall
• Quantitative Research
• Enterprise 2.0 Trends
• Industry Analysts
• Research Perspectives Offered Include:
– Conclusions and Implications
– Challenges to Traditional Thinking About Technology Adoption
– Frontiers for Tools Vendors and Organizations
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17. Thank you!
To receive a white paper on this
topic and schedule a meeting to
discuss its findings and conclusions,
email the principal investigator:
Lucy Garrick, MA
info@northshoregroup.net
www.northshoregroup.net
Twitter: newsaboutchange
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