Full Sail Partners Blog | Rana Blair (3)

Let’s be clear: people are not squirrels. That being said, when you’re trying to get your firm’s employees to interact with each other effectively, it may seem like trying to herd the little woodland creatures.

Most firms’ leaders already know that the most effective answers to this challenge involve improving collaboration, communication and teamwork. Easier said than done, right?

Fortunately, social collaboration tools can improve the effectiveness of not only your individual employees themselves, but also the separate functions within the firm and also the organization as a whole. Here are some of the ways a firm can use these innovative tools to add value throughout the organization.

Executives

From the CEO or partner’s perspective, social collaboration tools have the potential to improve productivity at every level within the organization. Here’s how:

• Individual employees are empowered to share information and collaborate on projects more efficiently and keep their managers and colleagues up-to-date in real time.
• Functional units can collaborate more effectively, because managers have better insight into the status of all ongoing projects. Managers also have a central location for all project communication that doesn’t disappear when an employee leaves.
• Differentiating your firm from the competition by providing a collaborative environment for not only your internal team members, but outside consultants and clients. 

As an example, collaboration tools such as Kona make it far easier to include clients as team members throughout the process. Compared to other firms that simply use emails and phone calls to keep clients in the loop, a firm using these tools can enable more integrated and up-to-date communication with clients, and at the same time, create a more enjoyable customer experience. 

Project Managers

On each project, project managers can get better visibility into milestones and issues, improving project efficiency as well as the client’s experience in several ways:

• Improves team members’ communication and accountability, while reducing time wasted in status meetings.
• Strengthens the project manager’s relationship with the client, and also differentiates the firm.
• Brings new staff up-to-speed more rapidly, shortening the time required before they can contribute.
• Creates a centralized record of working issues, tagged and easily searchable. 

Marketing/Business Development

Professionals in a firm’s marketing/BD function, like its executives, stand to benefit in the long term from the differentiation that can result from effectively managed social collaboration tools. They also benefit in more tactical ways:

• Improves communication and accountability in proposal planning, development, and review, including go/no-go decisions.
• Streamlines event planning and tradeshow preparation.
• Provides unified view of specific tasks across multiple BD proposal efforts happening simultaneously.
• Enables greater consistency and knowledge transfer across multiple groups working on proposals and other repeatable processes. 

Information Technology

IT departments can use these tools to address a range of technical needs and, at the same time, change the culture to one that is more collaborative. Among its impacts, a social collaboration tool:

• Enhances internal and external collaboration while protecting network information.
• Is less expensive than traditional collaboration solutions such as SharePoint.
• Improves management of complex IT projects and saves time by enabling peer support.
• Allows the CIO and other leaders to be more aware and experience the “pulse” of individual projects and issues.

Human Resources

For the HR function, these tools can help in ways that are both strategic and logistical. Social collaboration tools:

• Streamline and expedite recruiting and on-boarding processes.
• Use two-way internal communication about tasks, events, and topics to create a more collaborative environment and improve employee engagement.
• Allow HR employees to be more productive in planning and implementing internal events and initiatives.

Accounting

For the accounting function, social collaboration tools bring new efficiencies to a variety of ongoing processes in multiple ways:

• Rather than having to dig through email chains and contact multiple individuals for updates and answers, accounting professionals can streamline the month-end close process by generating repeatable steps to organize and capture financial information.
• Contract management can be improved by creating templates with specific steps and forms to guide each project.
• Accounting staff can create a private but accessible space to capture progress and follow-up on A/R issues, assign individual responsibilities and maintain a centralized log of progress toward resolution.

The Collaborative Edge

In a sense, your most important asset could also be a liability:  If your staff cannot collaborate effectively, you’re not optimizing your firm’s capabilities. Social collaboration tools have the potential to improve collaborative capabilities at every level and in every area of your organization, bringing about measurable improvements. At the same time, they can help you create a better client experience and differentiate your firm from others — critical factors in attracting and retaining clients and employees.  

From the treehouse, to the garage, to the conference room, and now to the web, we’ve been doing group collaboration all of our lives. We’ve done it so much that we rarely, if ever, think about the finer details that really make the difference between a pleasant journey and a treacherous adventure.  

Over the years, I’ve managed or participated in dozens hundreds of projects. I am great with communicating with people, a whiz at technology, and even pretty savvy with interpreting human behavior. Doing all three, while trying to get something done, is a challenge. I’ve learned a few things about group collaboration and the lessons are equally applicable across tools and platforms. 

Be Captain Obvious.

Be careful not to assume that everyone knows why they are assembled and what the objective is. Often, team members find themselves gathered without a complete understanding of the purpose, goal, or constraints. Too often, leaders assume that all group members have (or remember) all the details they need. The first activity using your tool of choice is to lay the groundwork. Create an accessible communication that defines:  

• The final objective and it’s priority relative to other objectives in the organization
• The team members and their roles, including the leader
• The stakeholders
• The due date

Revisit the communication frequently and highlight changes to the originally stated information. 

Even anarchists use sign-up sheets for potlucks.

No group can function devoid of guidelines on structure and communication. Guiding the team’s administrative characteristics does not quash the creative spirit. Providing structure saves time and minimizes confusion, thus encouraging the collaboration. If you don’t want to appear as dictatorial, address the appropriate considerations during the first meeting and let the masses decide. 

• Define acceptable means of communication
• Explain how documents and collateral are to be managed
• Detail how activities outside of the group collaboration tool will be memorialized inside of the tool
• Choose a process for moving seemingly off-topic elements to the appropriate venue 

When members lose their way, communicate the guidelines again. AND be willing to change previously defined processes that don’t work. 

Hammers are used to hit nails, not fingers.

“It’s really uncomfortable telling people what to do. Peer pressure goes a really long way. Can’t the software produce a list for everyone to see?” 

Really?!  Seriously?! 

Frequently, we use tools to get us out of doing the things we don’t want to do. Group collaboration tools are meant to encourage the flow of ideas and communication. No collaboration tool creator has ever recommended that you use the tool to publicly shame non-performing members. Like alarm clocks, annoying reminders can be shut off (or even thrown across the room.). The alarm clock does nothing to get us out of bed, but the boss sure does. 

• Communicate tasks and due dates clearly
• Ensure that the responsible party understands the dependencies
• Follow-up on at-risk tasks appropriately (read: personal phone call) 

Let the tool serve in its capacity and you serve in yours.  

If it quacks like a duck, it’s probably a frog.

When the group collaboration tool is not yielding the success you expect, don’t blame the tool. When we find ourselves ready to throw up our hands and go back to another tool or no tool at all, it’s best to investigate for root causes and make adjustments.

• Audit the participation of team members.  Spend one-on-one time with those who are not engaged by reviewing the project while using the tool.
• Review how the tool has been laid out for use in the project. It is possible that features have been overlooked or are being used improperly.
• Solicit suggestions on improving the use of the group collaboration tool.  If someone speaks up, the ensuing discussion will uncover misunderstandings or create opportunities to collaborate on finding a solution.  Either way, collaboration has taken place and a connection made. Win-win.

None of us are new to working in groups. Each of us brings the baggage we’ve accumulated from previous collaborations to our newest venture. The best thing we can do is to zero the scales, define, communicate, and revise. Group collaboration only works if the group is spending its time collaborating and moving easily from task, to topic, to task. Take the guesswork out of how to function within the group and use the group collaboration platform to propel the group.