Social Collaboration – Success comes with collaboration

Together we are more intelligent, faster, better. This fact also comes true in the digital age. Technologies like social intranet and platforms for social collaboration revolutionize how teams work together and interact. In contrast to conventional cooperation, which is based on traditional hierarchies, social collaboration means a new form of connected cooperation that is affected by social technologies and values from the digital natives. In the course of our blog series about the eight dimensions of the digital transformation I focus on the aspect of social collaboration today.

Responsibility and networking supplement each other

A main characteristic of social collaboration is that people work closely with each other and use tools that help to exchange information, seek knowledge and develop ideas. This can be for example wikis, blogs or newsfeeds. According to a research study from the Deutsche Messe fifty percent of all the big companies will use internal networks similar to Facebook by 2016; 30 percent assume that these networks will become as important as email and phone today.

Modern leaders let employees participate

A major benefit is that this form of cooperation matches digital natives’ expectations regarding their future employer. A numerous of digital platforms for social collaboration like Confluence, Coyo, IBM Connections, Jive, Microsoft’s SharePoint, Salesforce Chatter, Skype for Business or Yammer support a flexible working culture through which employees can organize and communicate – regardless of any physical or temporal barriers. Thus, social collaboration is not only a great concession to the values of digital natives, but it is also a commitment to digital leadership and the management principles of networking, openness, participation and agility. By the way: In our market analysis “SharePoint 2010 – or how employees in suits and hoodies work together“ we have already described how solutions for social business build bridges along conventions and habits of younger and older generations.

How to implement social collaboration and excite employees

You would like to enable social networks in your company, improve communication and information processes or make more use of your employees’ expert knowledge for projects? Or do you aim to create communities to further self-organization? There are already various providers and solutions for social collaboration in the market. Software solutions are just as different as people’s needs – from extensive tool kits to premade compact solutions, the variety and selection is huge. For companies it is of prime importance that the technology is customized to the needs of the employees. All services and tools need to be integrated in the preexisting IT-infrastructure, they also have to be operated in a save setting. With regards to privacy requirements the basis question about on premise or cloud-solutions has to be answered – Do you want to implement the solutions locally and manage it yourself or do you want to take up extern services? Based on an analysis of your team’s requirements we would like to support you with the conception and implementation of a suitable collaboration-solution. We select the services according to your special needs.

Living social collaboration – the technology is not enough

A technical solutions does not suffice to make a digital transformation happen. It rather needs an open communication culture that supports continuous dialogue between employees and leaders. Along with the implementation of social collaboration co-creation-formats have proven its worth in the past: In the course of BarCamps, OpenSpaces, FedExDays or interactive workshops employees and managers could share their expectations and fears regarding the implementation of social collaboration. My experience shows that transformation processes often fail due to the lack of strategy and communication. Most of the times employees encounter a change with great fear because they see it as a radical disruption of the existing working routine. Leaders have to moderate this change process in order to enable and excite their team for social collaboration. Right at this point we can assist you with the change support service from doubleYUU so that even the most critical employees will understand the purpose of change actions. We will develop a strategy how social collaboration is going to be successfully realized not only on a technical but also on a social level.

Feel free to contact Anja Hahn if you are interested in our change accompaniment service.