Sarah Slade

Here’s a good one, is there such a thing as being “too collaborative”? It’s something I used to get management feedback on a few times, that I was “too helpful”, which is a bit like saying that you’re too nice (I’ve had that one too).

However, this Harvard Business Review article tackles that very topic head on, and it’s pretty germane to some work I’ve been doing around adopting a helpful mindset and where that can get you. Recent research shows that some 20-35% of value-added collaborative work in organisations comes from 3-5% of employees. You know them; they always seem to know where to find the printer cartridges (when we were in the office *sob*) or how to get hold of that senior partner whose diary was in permanent meeting gridlock. While that’s great for the company in the short term, it can lead to increased demands on individuals’ time, which in turn leads to the collaborators feeling overstretched, under-resourced and under-appreciated.

The article divides collaboration resources into three categories: information, social and personal. And it’s the information bit that got me thinking. How many requests for collaboration start off with a simple information request? For example, I can guarantee at least one “Sarah, do you know where I can find…” email popping into my inbox every day, and I know from experience that can lead to a not insignificant chunk of time being spent on fossicking for whatever they’re looking for.

So my view of the problem is: how can we make information readily available so that colleagues can find it easily? And how can we make that information resource collaborative, so that it answers peoples’ questions and gives them the opportunity to contribute their knowledge?

My first thought was, a wiki! I mean…Wikpedia, right? But how does that become successful in a non-academic or corporate environment where wikis are seen as nerdy or just a bit weird?

Learning experience platforms could be used to allow and encourage people to share their knowledge and learn together in cohorts; stretching their ZPD* collaboratively, networking the information resource and creating a community of learning. So we have the technology, but what else do we need?

One of the points the HBR article made was collaboration is rarely noticed when it comes to measuring performance, either on an individual or corporate level. With an emphasis on goals, not much attention is paid to the “assists” that enabled those goals to be met. In order to develop more collaboration (and make life a little easier for the 5%ers), there needs too be a change at organisational level that enables the development of a culture of collaboration, where sharing knowledge, resources and skills is rewarded, not exploited.

*Zone of Proximal Development – it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t shoehorn the only bit of Vygotsky I remember, would it?