Do we truly want to collaborate?…

I was asked to look at the investment prospectus of a new online collaboration tool the other day.

In the context of a couple of years of “collaboritis” (sounds worse than it is), the SAAS / online marketplace is swollen with #Slack, Wrike, Asana, Samepage, Front, Confluence, Basecamp, Webex, Sharepoint, Evernote, Hive, Yammer, etc etc — you get the idea. Why, I wondered would there need to be another? Why, I wondered were there so many anyway. Why, I wondered, do people still seek better ways to make teams collaborate more effectively.

Then, it occurred to me — is that it? Is it because we seek better ways TO MAKE TEAMS COLLABORATE more effectively.

Much is made of the (in)famous coffee machine or water cooler effect. Managers have ever since sought to replicate that effect through digital tools, augmenting reality and breaking down the physical barriers of having to be in the same city, building, floor, and even corridor as others. Much discussion about serendipity, team working and building relationships ensues. What is less openly discussed are the motivations to collaboration (and more importantly, perhaps, the disincentives).

I have in the past worked with senior managers who had every tool at their disposal to collaborate. In principle, we were all motivated through financial and socially aligned goals to make the business succeed. These same managers however left their phones on DND. They ignored mobile calls and left voicemails unanswered. Email was a black hole, and attempts to contact via Lync left to languish. Unprofessionalism notwithstanding, what was interesting was that these individuals put all their energy into managing and communicating “up”, and ignoring the needs of peers. It was clear that if collaboration required any effort from them, then it was of no interest. If a new collaboration tool could help change that person, then maybe there would be value in it.

Joint meetings or informal (water cooler) moments together were the only opportunity to express needs of the business (even to depersonalise and avoid the need to collaborate being a personal need) — and gained grudging smiles and effusive explanation of how busy they and their teams were — but no collaboration.

One could argue his eventual manager should have recognised that he was not a team player. One could say that he should never have made his way to a senior post. But team building and honest debate of what made the senior team work (and in this case, not work) didn’t help, because he remained in post. His manager still entrusted him despite the inertia it imposed on the business.

This shows that managers trying to MAKE people collaborate will rarely (if ever) work. Tools have limited if any effect other than to improve existing motivation and performance. What we must all recognise is that investing in any number of technology communication and collaboration tools will only improve what is already good to become great. It will have no effect whatsoever on teams that are essentially dysfunctional.

In short, choose your teams well, set healthy ground rules, and only then invest in tools to support them.