I've seen collaboration defined about 2,000 different ways. The definition I like the most is:
"The act of working together in a joint effort."
To me, it's a really relevant definition for collaboration within a company or organization. It's a definition that's free from the constraints of "productivity enhancement" or "efficiency", (things that I think too often get associated with collaboration...important yes, but sometimes the goal is not about efficiency...sometimes it's about getting the BEST message out even if it takes a little longer), it's free from the collaboration output (the results or outcome of collaboration), it's free from the technology that supports collaboration, and it assumes there are at least two people involved (generally most agree it's difficult to collaborate with oneself).
When customers discuss their collaboration issues, they often are wearing, what I would call, technology goggles ("We can't find things...we need a better Search. We're having problems working together on documents, we need better Document Management." Sharing customer information is not working for us, we need a better Customer Relationship Management system. We need a quicker way to communicate, we should be using Instant Messaging instead of E-mail").
But at its heart, collaboration isn't really any of these things...it could LEVERAGE these things, but as with anything the old adage: "it's about the people, process and technology" applies here too. So to really improve collaboration, you've got to break it up into its parts. Now I don't presume this is a holistic view of all the things collaboration COULD be, but you've got to start somewhere...so to break apart the critical components of the process of communication:
1) Creation and Disbursement - What's the best tool to collaborate with? What are the requirements of my audience or the other people I'm collaborating with (product constraints, etc.)? Documents, Emails, Discussion boards, Intranets, Internets, Instant Messages, Paper announcements and even phone messages factor in here. The interesting thing about creation is that you usually determine the best format BEFORE you even create the content. Having the best options available is important!
2) Workflow - Do things need to be approved or reviewed by people in a defined process, or is communication more ad-hoc? Do we we need to track changes at all points?
3) Notification - How do I know when it's my turn to respond? Do I have the ability to opt in and out? Can I find out when other people have read my message?
4) Findability - How easy is it to get to again...or again? Or for other people? Or to discover things that I didn't even know existed?
5) Administration - Is it old? Has anyone used, and when was the last time? Is it secured to the right people? Are there limitations on how much I can store? Is it junk that shouldn't be included in a index, or hidden from view?
6) Archival - Where does it go when it's no longer relevant? Am I legally required to keep it? Am I legally required to destroy it?
Improving collaboration is really working to improve one, some or all of these areas. Sometimes its about improving the options people have by adding more tools, and sometimes it's about refining the ones they already have. It could be process related, it could be technology or it could be people (getting the right, trained people to do the job).
