Editorial
The workplace is teeming with digital tools — such as Teams, Slack, Zoom and so on — and even more so since the beginning of the pandemic Many of these tools are used in parallel to each other... just not by everyone at the same time, and certainly not by everyone in the same manner. An interesting and pressing question is, therefore: which digital platform do you choose for which type of digital communication and collaboration?
Roughly speaking, you can collaborate and communicate in four different ways:
- As a project team.
- As a department.
- As a community.
- As an organization.
Each form of collaboration and communication may benefit from using different platforms and techniques.
Collaborating and Communicating as a Project Team
A project team may be characterized by traits such as:
- A small, permanent group of people with diverse expertise.
- A limited set of largely pre-defined tasks.
- A limited time span (i.e. with a deadline).
- Predefined products or deliverables.
Collaboration and communication within such a team often takes the form of documents, schedules and other project-related deliverables. In terms of content, it may include items such as: specifications, designs, backlogs and so on. But typical for this type of collaboration is the limited group, set of tasks and time span. That is why this type of (collaborative) working is best served by what you might call a closed platform.
Think of products such as Microsoft Teams, JIRA, Trello or Basecamp. You invite the right people for a project. They see the flow of messages and documents, participate in the deliverables, et cetera. People you haven't invited won't see that content, of course, but they won't be overwhelmed by it either. And with that, these are all closed systems.
Chat can also be useful in the context of project-related collaboration and digital communication. But that is so closed — after all: you send a message to one or only a few people — that other colleagues have nothing to gain from the exchange of information, and that goes too far in many organizations.
Collaborating and Communicating as a Department
Collaboration and communication as a department, say within the hierarchy of your organization, has the characteristics that it concerns:
- A larger, sometimes changing, group of people.
- A larger set of more diverse tasks.
- Work that may be recurring in nature.
- Not all work has a fixed timeframe or deadline.
- There may not be tangible deliverables.
- Work/deliverables may be relevant to more people than just the group.
This form of “hierarchical” collaboration and communication is a bit more difficult to define. The choice of a platform depends on (a) the openness/seclusion of the group, (b) any concrete deadlines and/or (c) clear products or deliverables.
When the group is clearly defined, the work has a deadline and also concrete deliverables, it is very similar to project-based collaboration, and then a closed platform would fit. But if one or more of these things are not applicable, then an open platform fits better.
What do I mean by “open platform?” Think of Viva Engage, Workplace (Meta) or the timeline/activity feed on your intranet, for example Valo, Happeo, Interact or WorkVivo. The condition is that your channels and groups are in principle open, of course, because otherwise these are effectively closed platforms again. And when open channels, messages, documents and comments on such a platform are not limited to the department or service, but are discoverable, findable, and usable by more people from the rest of your organization.
Of course, you can also do this type of work on closed platforms (Teams, Slack and so on), and many organizations do. A practical problem is that your group is by definition limited to the people you invite. Even if you set your team to “open” in Teams, someone must first become an active member to see what is happening. And so you miss the more open collaboration and digital communication that fits the open platforms. Sometimes that can be a conscious choice, but often organizations do not (yet) think about this.
Collaborating and Communicating as a Community
Working together and communicating as a larger group around a certain theme is characterized by:
- An undefined, large(r) group of people.
- Without (or with only an undefined set of) highly diffuse tasks.
- Without a timeframe or deadline.
- Often without products or deliverables.
This type of communication and collaboration is often more formal and probably also consciously organized around themes that do not necessarily belong to the regular work, but also do not (yet) have a project-based approach. Think of an online conversation in your organization about diversity, equity and inclusion, for example.
But what about social interaction between cycling enthusiasts or hobby chefs among your colleagues? That is much more bottom-up and ad hoc and people may make their own groups, such as Slack or Teams channels.
This form of collaboration and communication really belongs in what is called an enterprise social network (ESN), which is an open platform such as Viva Engage and Workplace, just like many intranet platforms, but you could also think of Jive, Open Social and IBM Connections.
Collaborating and Communicating as an Organization
Finally: working together and communicating as a (whole) organization is more complicated. Ultimately, this is very similar to community communication, because in an organization you almost automatically have different communities or groups around work, shared themes, hobbies or experience, but the organization as a whole is essentially also a community.
There, collaboration and communication as a (whole) organization is characterized to an even greater extent by the following:
- An undefined, (very) large group of people, because it concerns all colleagues.
- Without concrete tasks, because they are housed in departments, projects and communities.
- Without a timeframe or deadline, because that is organized in departments and projects.
- Without deliverables, after all, the work is organized differently.
You may also include corporate, top-down communications in this category. After all, staying informed about this is also part of your daily work. And how about social interaction — the proverbial water cooler?
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There is no doubt that collaboration and communication as an organization fits perfectly in an open platform, such as Jive, your intranet, Viva Engage, and so on.
Now What?
As you’ve read through, you may already have concluded: All these forms of collaboration and digital communication occur within your organization.
So how do you choose the right toolset? Does this mean that you should (continue to) use all possible tools? Teams and Viva Engage, Slack and the intranet? Then this article will not have been of much help, would it? I don't think, however, there's a ready-made answer. Every now and then, I believe, you should realign the toolset that is your digital workplace, primarily with the expectations and needs of your employees in mind.
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