The way we communicate and share information with one another, with customers, and with employees has changed dramatically, and technological advances are the enablers that are making it happen. People are now accustomed to interacting and collaborating with one another through social and collaborative platforms and are bringing these habits and methods with them into the workplace.
One of the great changes taking place in the world is that information is becoming abundant and accessible. You don't need to know all that much anymore. All you need is a smartphone and Wikipedia, and you can get hold of information very quickly and nearly everywhere.
Information used to be treated like precious gems and hoarded. But in an age in which information is abundant, hoarding it is futile. In fact, it is counterproductive. Sharing the information widely gives you a better chance of making that information useful to you and to others.
Now, however, the challenge is where to share information so that it can be found. We all wonder how to connect the people in our companies in efficient and effective ways. We all want to capture and leverage information and wisdom for competitive advantage. This means that books, blogs and general presentations are informative and inspirational, but alone are not actionable. And, when you get into the details, you find that nobody's problems are exactly the same...and those reference librarians, who lived in the old world of paper files, have long ago retired. Therefore, the challenge for organizations today is finding a way to continue doing business and improving the way they do business, but in the context of the ways in which these changes are affecting them.
We have all heard about how social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs are changing the ways in which organizations communicate and collaborate with customers. It is important to use these tools to engage with and collaborate with customers; however, organizations need to change and evolve from the inside out, and that means starting with using similar concepts and ideas for collaboration within organizations among the employees.
The new book, "The Collaborative Organization," is written by author Jacob Morgan for those who already know that emergent collaboration should be a critical investment for an organization and those who realize that it's time to act to make it happen. The purpose of this book is to act as a guide for executives, decision makers, and those involved with collaboration initiatives at their organizations.
Emergent collaboration starts with being able to identify business drivers or problems. Emergent collaboration solutions provide benefits and value that other forms of collaboration do not. After understanding the business drivers, it's critical to map them to specific desired states. Then walk through the solution mapping process either in teams or individually to understand how to move from a business problem to a desired result.
Jono Bacon: The Art of Community: Building the New Age of Participation