Facebook Workplace and other popular corporate collaboration tools, such as Yammer, Slack, Skype, WhatsApp and Salesforce Chatter, all promise a kind of magic bullet for today’s geographically diverse workplace. And, if the goal is easier communication and a more modern channel for information sharing, then these tools can achieve some measure of success.
Where they miss the point, however, is in their ability to derive meaningful insights from the interactions that take place between and among employees.
A recent article in CIO featured efforts by skincare company Rodan & Fields to improve internal collaboration by using Facebook Workplace. The article touted the benefit of consolidating many software platforms down to one, and creating a “commonplace and common model for people to interact.”
Collaboration has become something of a buzzword lately due to an abundance of so many new collaborative technologies hitting the market. And the right collaboration tools will increase productivity by instilling positive changes in how people work and by fundamentally changing the corporate culture.
But companies have to make more than halfhearted attempts at collaboration: Instead, they’re realizing only half of the value of collaboration by creating better ways to discuss ideas, but putting fewer of them in place. The great irony is that those companies that view collaboration as synonymous with IM or chat features are not properly equipping their workforces. They also risk creating a culture of employees who collaborate more without feeling more connected.
Instead, the goal should be to develop new ideas that are not only hashed out, but actually heard by senior management and implemented. To be effective, collaboration platforms require a real evolution in the overall workplace culture. Management should move beyond static business silos to support the healthy sharing of new ideas across diverse project groups.
Collaboration should increase workforce unity.
People willingly choose to use new systems when they can achieve actual benefits from them. On the other hand, people forced to collaborate against their will often resist the process until it becomes counterproductive. For this reason, the most effective organizations measure the success of new…