Provides guidelines to get the most from online and offline (and mixed) collaborations. Material presented at Booth Alumni Club of Chicago event April 21 2010

1. 1 How to get the most from your collaborations!! Collaboration on Collaboration April 21 , 2010 1

2. 2 Agenda 2

3. 3 Making collaboration work Collaborative approaches offer an array of choices and complex trade-offs How do you get started? What and where do you begin? 3

4. 4 Collaboration—it’s partnership If it’s easy To connect Open up People become comfortable sharing knowledge. Frequent interaction builds community, trust and self-policing norms 4

5. 5 Collaboration? Good Ingredients Meaningful partnerships (aka collaborations) include the following factors Complementary Strengths Common Mission Reciprocity Fairness, Trust, Acceptance, Communicating, Unselfishness, and Forgiveness. --The Power of 2 by Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller (2009) AND each partner felt the significance of these factors “very strongly” 5

7. Fuel individuals’ incentives to participate.6

8. 7 Objectives, objectives and objectives OBJECTIVES Why are you looking to collaborate? What you are trying to do? (Choice of tool and platform always 2nd) With WHOM are you planning to collaborate? WHAT is your objective? How focused a task? WHEN is there an expected or anticipated deliverable? WHY are you collaborating? If there's no Trust, mutual intersection of interests, common purpose, mission , complement of strengths…think through your proposition again. HOW--this is where roles and timing matter WHERE--should obviously afford convenient access and be compatible with users’ platforms (Mobile or desktop? Do you need voice capability, text or both?) 7

9. 8 Your turn “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” George Bernard Shaw Tell us Who you are? What about Collaboration brought you here tonight? AND What collaboration(s) are you presently engaged in, or would like to create? 8

10. 9 In person collaboration 9

11. 10 Individual skills for collaboration Teams/ multiple Know and enforce team basics Have a shared goal A common way of working and a commitment to check on how it’s working The right number of people (7-12) The right mix of skills Attitude Value the other people’s contributions An interest in the others’ success, beyond the team goal Skills Facilitating discussion Project management Bilateral Know and have prerequisites Have a shared goal Attitudes Value the other person’s contribution An interest in the other person’s success Skills Listening Communicating, frequently, clearly, openly and concisely Give reasons behind your thinking Be patient and persistent Acknowledge upcoming problems Project management (mini)

12. 11 Key rules for successful collaboration Involve the relevant stakeholders Build consensus phase by phase Have a facilitator focused on the problem-solving process Have a process map Harness the power of group memory From: How to Make Collaboration Work (by David Straus)

13. 12 Invite the relevant stakeholders Better solutions due to cognitive diversity More commitment to the results, because we were part of creating them Diverse perspectives and expertise

14. 13 Build consensus phase by phase Whole group has to stay focused and in the same phase of problem solving Source: How to Make Collaboration Work, David Straus

15. 14 Have a facilitator Facilitator is: A process guide A tool giver A neutral third (or nth) party A process educator Photo by MikeBlogs, flickr Source: How to Make Collaboration Work, David Straus

16. 15 Planning a detailed (but flexible) agenda Example Facilitator may need to deviate from this !!

17. 16 A sample process map for a problem-solving process From: How to Make Collaboration Work (by David Straus)

18. 17 Good bilateral relationships make collaborations stronger

19. 18 Online collaboration 18 18

20. 19 What makes online different? Synchronicity NOT required. You can cast your net for collaborators widely Successful application of In-person Principles will yield success when adapted to the environment 19

22. Project Management

23. Email capabilities--tracking/sending of automatic notification

24. Contact management

25. Outlook synchronization to tasks and/or calendar, desktop and/or mobile

26. Online Databases

27. Online meeting platforms20

28. Asynchronous Collaboration: Possibilities and Choices 21 Relationship Building OPEN, Eco-System Recombinant Problem-Solving OpportunityFinding Democratized Crowd Sourcing Personal Expression Adapted from Amy Shuen Web2.0 Strategy Guide

29. 22 22 Successful online communities have people playing multiple roles. Focus In addition, Decision Maker acts across all times and foci Adapted from Susan Fournier and Lara Lee,

30. 23 Community owners can use tactics that drive participation Talk to influentials more, others less. Increase the number of interactions. Solicit opinions people with vested interests create a challenge to overcome, Create a poll, allow people to vote. Remove unused features. Mention names more often. Arrange time-specific activities. Advertise for a volunteer helper. Ideas quoted directly from FeverBee – by Richard Millington

31. 24 Good topics to drive participation focus on the members as people Ask them generically about themselves. Ask about likes/dislikes. Get people to agree/re-affirmation their beliefs. Discuss seasonal stories. Anxieties. Ask for advice. Breaking news/gossip. Reminisce. Aspirations. Treat members like people !!! Suggested in FeverBee by Richard Millington 24

32. 25 Some successful examples of collaborations 25

33. 26 Success online: SIKM Leaders Community The benefits of being more inclusive have been many, including a wider range of presenters on the monthly calls, participants in the online discussions, experiences and perspectives. Stan Garfield SIKM Leaders Community launched by in July 2005, Key Objective: Knowledge sharing among KM leaders at consulting and systems integration firms, hence the title of SIKM. Organizing Principles: Anyone who is part of KM initiative can join. Threaded discussion hosted on Yahoo groups, Stan serves as founder, administrator. He coordinates the monthly topic/speaker and posts reminders for the upcoming call or any event. Collaboration occurs both through threaded discussion, and a scheduled monthly conference call (posted on the group calendar with dial-in info); and attempt to meet in person annually.

34. 27 Systems Integration and Consulting KM Leaders--SIKM Shared Tools and Resource Threaded Discussion Platform Total Cumulative Messages: 2269 Average. Posts/Month: 2005: 3 2009: 49 427 Members Founded: July 2005 Stan: creator, coordinator, administrator, Collaborator 27

35. 28 SIKM –Why it works Long sharing of common interests has evolved to create collective user value. Personalities emerge over time and familiarity is created beyond the posted reference name through monthly conference calls, Annual face-to-face fosters community building through extended sharing and interaction. The industry arc allows people to reach beyond their internal organization boundaries to tap best practices, vetted resources and contacts and fosters professional development growth and reputation. Materials readily available for those to review at their convenience. People can stay abreast of changes in the discussion or listen to missed calls and review slides from missed presentations. 28

36. 29 SIKM—ongoing challenges As with any “led” initiative, the assumption of responsibility and ongoing presence of the founder, organizer in the role of administrator places some doubt for its ongoing sustaining power if he were to step back or away. Fresh material and presenters given the growing archive. Keep it interesting not redundant. The actual alteration in the KM discipline and its rise and fall as a presence in corporate and consulting life…people take on different tasks unrelated to KM and fall away. 29

37. 30 Polymath is an online math problem solving network

38. 31 Polymath collaboration structure

39. 32 Polymath results

40. 33 SAP’s business and vision drives community efforts

41. 34 SAP sponsors multiple communities

42. 35 SAP gets strong results from simple technology

43. 36 Some collaborations with challenges 36

44. 37 Civic Connect is project of Civic Consulting Alliance

45. 38 CCA wanted to capitalize on its alumni and friends Network of alumni and friends Consultants and other professionals energized about the organization Have full-time jobs with intermittent opportunities (e.g., week between projects) Extremely well-connected Part of large offices with other professionals in Chicago Members of large multi-national firms Existing mechanisms 5th Thursday cocktail parties (2-4 x per year) E-newsletter (about 800) LinkedIn group (about 150)

46. 39 Solution advancing and conversation process

47. 40 The pilot had some challenges, which we are fixing

48. 41 Discussion Questions? Thoughts? Ideas?

49. 42 Online discussions challenges Strategic Management Practices Issues Group Meets monthly face to face in a facilitated discussion on articles selected and posted in advance. Online Discussion capability added to Linked-IN to extend and promote the F2F discussions No conversation emerging online 42

50. Presenter information Rachel Kaberon 847-687-8480 rkaberon@arkaysolutionsllc.com David Friedman 312-863-3489 David.friedman@bridgewellpartners.com