Online collaboration in the workplace allows for scalable participation beyond physical constraints, bridging distances within and outside an organization. It differs from external social media in that it challenges but extends established company structures and hierarchies while maintaining business processes and virtual "walls". To build online communities and scale collaboration, organizations should establish a shared vision to guide active contribution towards shared goals and outcomes, maintain coherence as new participants introduce dissonance, and start small while focusing on meaningful interactions and purpose. Online collaboration can be supported through technologies that reflect strategic habits, continuous experimentation and iterative prototyping of new and existing tools, and explicit sharing of captured learnings.

1. Online Collaboration
in the Workplace
Going Social and
Collaborating Across
the Boundaries
@MarkElliott

2. What is off-line collaboration?
A culture and practice of:
• Co-creation (ideas, media, plans, outcomes)
• Cooperative processes (proposing,
responding, sharing)
• Coordination of knowledge (generating
patterns & efficiency)

3. What is online collaboration?
The previous slide points, plus:
• Scalability of participation, beyond who
can fit in a room
• Bridging distance, within and without the
organisation
• Increased speed and penetration of
communication

4. What online collaboration is not?
• A broadcast, one-way channel
• “Controllable” (but it is “influence-able”)
• A technology problem (if you build it
they will not just come)

5. How it differs from ext. social media
• There are walls (and "Chinese walls”)
• There are integrated business processes
• It challenges but extends established
structures, hierarchies and relationships

6. How do you build communities & scale collaboration?
• Establish shared vision that guides active
•
•
contribution to shared plans and outcomes
Maintain coherence of vision, plan and
activities as new participants necessarily
introduce dissonance
Start small and grow organically, staying
focused on meaningful interactions and
purpose - always host & facilitate

7. How can it be supported by collaboration technologies?
• Reflect: Develop a "strategy habit" to continuously
•
•
improve & communicate with clarity
Experiment: Continuously & iteratively prototype
with new and existing tools
Learn: Capture your learnings explicitly & share
them as widely as possible

8. Discussion?
www.collabforge.com
twitter.com/MarkElliott