Gordon Vala-Webb presents a framework for developing a collaboration strategy. The strategy involves: 1) Defining business outcomes from collaboration. 2) Focusing efforts on specific people, tasks, and types of collaboration. 3) Nurturing new ways of working by addressing psychological needs. 4) Measuring collaboration activities and outcomes to evaluate progress. 5) Revising the strategy based on feedback to accelerate or stop certain approaches. The presentation provides examples of collaboration tools and challenges of implementing new strategies in organizations. Attendees are engaged in exercises to apply the framework to their own contexts.

1. Collaboration strategy
KM World 2016, Washington
Gordon Vala-Webb
cc: chase_elliott - https://www.flickr.com/photos/19746950@N00

2. Our agenda

3. How to build a collaboration strategy
1. Outcome: What business result(s)?
2. Focus: Who? Do what? How?
- Types of collaboration
3. Nurturing the new
- SCARF model
4. Feedback-Revise:
- Measure activities and outcomes
5. Revise / accelerate / stop Slide 3

4. Who are we?

5. Who are you?
2
2
3
5
0 5 10 15
KM / Collaboration
responsibilities
Zombie orgs?
Size
Private / public sector
Slide 5

6. Who is me?
Book: Building Smarter
Organizations (May, 2017)
National Director, Innovation
and Information at McMillan
Led KM / Innovation /
Collaboration
• Canadian law firm
• PwC Canada and Global
• Gov’t agency
Experience in government
policy, non-profit and no-profit
sectors
Slide 6

7. Collaboration management - context

8. The unknown unknowns
Donald Rumsfeld
US Secretary
of Defense
News briefing
Feb 12, 2002
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.
Slide 8

9. Collaboration management is hard
Slide 9

10. Introducing something new is hard, risky, and
uncertain
“It ought to be remembered that there
is nothing more difficult to
take in hand, more perilous to
conduct, or more uncertain in
its success, than to take the lead in the
introduction of a new order of things.”
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
Slide 10

11. Unlearning is harder than learning
1.Vested interests / power
2.Subconscious pattern
3.Constant reinforcement
Slide 11

12. What is collaboration?
October 31, 2011

13. Best collaboration experience you ever had . . .
• Tell your story
 School? Work?
 Family? Friends?
• Who was involved?
• Why was it so great?
You
Others
Slide 13

14. Group exercise: What kinds of collaboration
matter to your organization?
Discuss
What kinds?
Why?
Slide 14
One-to-one
Few-to-few
Many-to-many

15. Outcome(s):
Why does your organization care?
Slide 15
October 31, 2011The DIKW pyramid must be unlearned

16. VUCA world
cc: frogthroat - https://www.flickr.com/photos/22980078@N04

17. "An organization's ability to
learn, and translate that learning
into action rapidly, is the
ultimate competitive
advantage."
Jack Welch
CEO 1981-2001
General Electric

18. Meanwhile, the work has been getting “smarter”
Slide 18
Source: http://cdn.dupress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Screen-Shot-2012-10-01-at-9.20.13-PM.png?2b7236

19. It makes up 41% - and growing, everywhere
Slide 19
https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Preparing_for_a_new_era_of_knowledge_work_3034?srid=520

20. Departments and teams
Working WITH each other? Or . . .
cc: Douglas Brown - https://www.flickr.com/photos/11556508@N00

21. . . . is it more like ping pong?
We do our work (ping) - then you do your work (pong)
cc: Schwarzkaefer - https://www.flickr.com/photos/109187123@N04

22. Collaboration across silos is hard
Gordon Vala-Webb – Building Smarter Organizations 2016
Slide 22

23. Source:
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech
_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy

24. Email : closed, push communication
Slide 24
Emailed
Knowledge

25. Lots of different reasons
Type Value
Customer care processes 30% faster
Higher customer satisfaction 18% higher
Better business decisions 15% increase in
successful ideas
Improved global sales
processes
10% increase in
revenue
Reduction in travel cost 10-20% reduction
Slide 25Source: Dachis Group, 2012
McKinsey: 20-25%
productivity
improvement

26. How to build a collaboration strategy
1. Outcome: What business
result(s)?
2. Focus: Who? Do what? How?
- Types of collaboration
3. Nurturing the new
- SCARF model
4. Feedback-Revise:
- Measure activities and outcomes
5. Revise / accelerate / stop Slide 26

27. What is your business outcome? (Exercise)
Slide 27
Write down – for your organization -
the outcomes(s) it wants (be specific)

28. Focus: Types of collaboration
Slide 28
October 31, 2011The DIKW pyramid must be unlearned

29. Thinking about knowledge work (Davenport)
Slide 29
Co-
ordination
Network
Transaction Expert
Routine
Work
Interpretation /
Judgement
Individual
Group
Adapted from
“Rethinking knowledge work”
by Thomas Davenport, Feb 2011
Content
mgmt and
information
presentation
Open / Pull
communication

30. Make the work visible
cc: marianbeck - https://www.flickr.com/photos/89253915@N07

31. Work = dark matter

32. Black book and email
How we organize ourselves and others
cc: caruba - https://www.flickr.com/photos/71005308@N00

33. Email is good at transactions – and not much else
Slide 33
Source: http://www.pwc.com.ar/es_AR/ar/publicaciones-por-industria/assets/transforming-collaboration-with-social-tools.pdf
Closed-push-random Open-pull-contextual

34. Network working – Catch 22 at beginning
Slide 34
People Content

35. Co-ordination: Making the work visible (kanban)
Slide 35Try it for free: www.trello.com

36. Example – Content publishing
http://blog.mention.com/7-basic-tools-for-media-content/
Slide 36

37. = Workspace
cc: Ocell - https://www.flickr.com/photos/25555668@N00

38. Slide 38
Project
Decision
Customer / BD
Slide 38

39. Office365 Outlook Groups
Create a group and add people
Emails are collated in a threa
Shared:
• Calendar
• OneNote
• OneDriveSource: http://www.jasonplant.co.uk/tag/office365/
Slide 39

40. Task board
Screenshot of kanban task board from ThreadKM Slide 40

41. How to build a collaboration strategy
1. Outcome: What business result(s)?
2.Focus: Who? Do what? How?
- Types of collaboration
3. Nurturing the new
- SCARF model
4. Feedback-Revise:
- Measure activities and outcomes
5. Revise / accelerate / stop
Slide 41

42. Focus: Who? Do what? How? (Exercise)
For your own organization, answer these:
Who?
• What group / audience / people with
shared characteristics?
Do what
• Would do what behaviour / activity
differently after improving “collaboration”
How?
• Would be changed? Different? What type
of collaboration makes the most sense?

43. Nurturing the new
October 31, 2011

44. Desire: feeling animals that think
Slide 44
David Rock, “SCARF: a brain-based model for collaborating with and
influencing others”; NeuroLeadership Journal, 2008
Relative importance
Error response
Choosing
Friend / foe
Unfairness = threat

45. Command-and-control culture
Slide 45
“In a healthy
system, information
flows are
unimpeded by clots
of power or the
sclerosis of
hierarchy.”
Philip Slater, The
Chrysalis Effect

46. Sell!
Slide 46

47. From a survey of the best of the best (we all have
far to go )
65% Share my info & my ideas
openly
49% React to ideas of other people openly
30% Participate openly in developing new
ideas and innovations.
Source: Jane McConnell – Digital Workplace survey 2013
Slide 47

48. Shift in leadership and culture
Exercise: Fill-in the blanks
Slide 48
Traditional Collaborative
Power From authority ?
Info is for . . ? Share
Feedback
reward /
recognition
Annual SMART
goals with
carrots/sticks
?
Roles ? Flexible and
evolving
Solutions Provided to team ?
Try it for free:
http://www.collaborativeleadership.org/pages/pdfs/CL_self-assessments_lores.pdf
In the team
Seek them
Specific
rule-bound
Intrinsic motivation
Immediate feedback,
Personal coaching
Control

49. People - audiences and stakeholders
A stakeholder is someone who
controls – or influences –
organizational resources / authority
that you need to make the change
An audience is those who will
experience the change directly
Slide 49

50. How to build a collaboration strategy
1. Outcome: What business result(s)?
2. Focus: Who? Do what? How?
- Types of collaboration
3.Nurturing the new
- SCARF model
4. Feedback-Revise:
- Measure activities and outcomes
5. Revise / accelerate / stop
Slide 50

51. Nurturing the new: SCARF model (exercise)
Thinking of your own organization,
and the change you want to make:
• Who?
• Would have which SCARF
reaction?
• What could you do to mitigate or
accelerate?
Slide 51

52. Measuring
Slide 52

53. Why measure?
• Make our leaders happy
(a.k.a. justifying our existence)
• Learn what works (and doesn’t)
(Don’t forget to make choices)
• Measure the contribution
(Remember to net out costs)
Slide 53

54. Measure - survey example
Slide 54
Global “before” survey of PwC staff / partners
64%
0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0% 25.0% 30.0% 35.0%
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Neither agree nor disagree
Agree
Strongly agree
Q: Easy to share and develop ideas with other
PwC professionals?

55. Measure – tell a story
Slide 55
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Montreal
Toronto
Calgary
”I wasn’t expecting much but it is
a stunning achievement of
mammoth proportions”
Actual Person, Key Role
Upward
sloping
graphs
Quotes
from
frontline
Pictures
and
stories

56. How to build a collaboration strategy
1. Outcome: What business result(s)?
2. Focus: Who? Do what? How?
- Types of collaboration
3. Nurturing the new
- SCARF model
4.Feedback-Revise:
- Measure activities and
outcomes
5. Revise / accelerate / stop
Slide 56

57. Group exercise
In your group help each person
identify at least one:
• useful activity measure
• business value measure
that they can practically implement.
Slide 57

58. The ending
KM World October
2012

59. Testing your collaboration strategy
Test Result
Desired business result? ?
Who will change? How? ?
WIIFM? (SCARF) ?
Measures – activities /
outcomes?
?
Flexibility built in? ?
Slide 59

60. Wild ride ahead
cc: Ed from Ohio - https://www.flickr.com/photos/62229127@N00

61. What are you afraid of?
Slide 61

62. “It’s not the strongest of the
species that survives, nor
the most intelligent, but the
one most responsive to
change.”
Charles Darwin
Slide 62
KM World October
2012
The DIKW pyramid must be unlearned

63. Thank you . . .
This publication has been prepared for general guidance on matters of interest only, and does
not constitute professional advice. You should not act upon the information contained in this
publication without obtaining specific professional advice. No representation or warranty
(express or implied) is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained
in this publication, and, to the extent permitted by law, Gordon Vala-Webb and Dynamic
Adaptation does not accept or assume any liability, responsibility or duty of care for any
consequences of you or anyone else acting, or refraining to act, in reliance on the information
contained in this publication or for any decision based on it.
© 2016 Gordon Vala-Webb. All rights reserved.
Gordon (at) BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com
KM World
Wednesday, 11:45am C202
Stopping a Zombie Organization
Twitter: @BuildSmarterOrgs
Book: pre-order for May 2017
www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com/book
Slide 63

64. Questions?
cc: kaddisudhi - https://www.flickr.com/photos/68808592@N00