Go Big Always

Conversations are the new file

This election year reminds me of how unbelievably different the two collaboration software “candidates” are. What does a vote for Clearspace or Sharepoint mean? They couldn’t be more different. The bottomline is that a vote for Sharepoint is a vote for file-centric collaboration. A vote for Clearspace is a vote for people-centric collaboration. Storing vs sharing: It’s that simple.

For seven years, we’ve been purely focused on a people-centric collaboration paradaigm. We’ve learned that collaboration is communication, and that revolves around people not files. Recently, I posted a summary of (EMC VP) Chuck Hollis’ blog that chronicles his search for a collaboration platform and the adoption that follows. When you think about it, EMC is at the heart of this “election.” Their heritage is in documents (they own eRoom and Documentum) but have quickly learned the power of people-centricity and it’s sweeping their company. Many of the points from that summary have brought a fresh spotlight on the benefits of a people-centric collaboration environment. I thought I would share a good list of benefits to a people centric approach:

What is a file?

A file is a snapshot in time. It’s storage. In the case of a document, it’s one person’s editorialized version of many meetings, conversations, and opinions all rolled up, stored and “synthesized.” Files get shot around in emails, loaded into file servers or get regulated and structured. We all have millions of files. Those files need to be stored. Nothing is active with files. They’re not part of conversations. They’re checked in and out like books. With people-centric collaboration content isn’t locked into a file. A lot happens way before a document is ever created. And a whole lot happens after, too. In a people-centric platform, everything is part of a continuum.

Social Pressure

In a people-centric system, you can see not only how much activity is happening around your content, but also who is involved, when and why. If upper management strongly supports a discussion, it tells the viewer something about the relevance of the data they are consuming. If someone you respect makes a contribution, you are more apt to check out some content and more likely to contribute yourself. If you see everyone else in your department is contributing, you’ll feel some social pressure to “keep up.” These are just a few of the social nuances that are only available to a user from a people-centric perspective. Social pressure emerges in an environment that is based on social interaction. And the pressure is invaluable to a company’s productivity.

Motivating factor of something bigger

We’ve seen this at Jive, but it’s always great to hear other companies communicate the positive cultural impact. For example, at EMC working inside Clearspace is seen as “cool.” We are a social species and we like to feel connected. We like it when we feel like we are part of something larger. We don’t get that feeling from the library. We got it from school. We got it from sports teams. We get it from a company all-hands event, the water cooler and from company parties. A people-centric collaboration environment boosts morale by giving us that connected feeling all of the time. And, it’s exciting that interactions can actually be “the work.” Imagine coming into work everyday and joining in the company conversation instead of putting your head down into your cubicle to produce documents that no one will look at or find again. Which company would you want to work for?

Valuable, spontaneous interaction

We know what we know, and we have an idea about what we don’t know, but there is much more that we don’t know that we don’t know. People-centric collaboration gets a ton of its value from making connections between people that no one could have imagined. Chuck shared some great examples of spontaneous interactions that occurred in their “One EMC” Clearspace instance that generated real value. Aren’t your hallway conversations usually the most valuable? That’s because you’re talking when it’s relevant vs when it’s planned. It’s the opposite of a status meeting, which don’t need to happen in a people-centric model. You’re always up to date.

Porous departments

Similar to spontaneous interaction, departments become porous on a people-centric collaboration system. This is an important enough point that I wrote a whole post about it. Here’s a snippet from that post:

What’s awesome about having companies using a single, people-centric collaboration system is that you can get a whole new level of visibility of how people work together. That means that companies can, for the first time, see data they’ve never seen before. Chuck mentioned this network value in the case study I wrote up over the weekend but I thought I’d share an example.

A huge part of the goal of social productivity software is to unify a company and allow them to engage with each other to get work done. To achieve this, it requires a change in behaviors, not just buying some software and hoping for the best. I like how Mckinsey refers to this:

“To encourage more interaction, innovation, and collaboration, companies must become more porous by continuing to break down barriers to interactions — barriers such as hierarchies and organizational silos. Workers will exchange information if there is a fair return on sharing it and a clear value for seeking it.”

How cool is the word “porous?” It perfectly reflects the level of liquidity lacking in our collaboration with each other. Anyway, we recently pulled some reports out of Jive’s own internal Clearspace instance to get a sense of how are working with each other. There’s a ton of insight and I’ll share more in other posts. Note that we’re around 150 employees and have been using Clearspace for a year, but this should be pretty statistically significant.

Reducing ideation lag

Ideation may have been parodied by IBM, but vetting an idea is an essential part of a business’ production. With file sharing there is no context to make people feel like something is happening. Files are made in siloed teams and shared through storage systems. Participation part of a workflow, sort of like email. So it’s limited and flat. And there is no sense of awareness that it’s even happening. In a people-centric space collaboration can take place openly, in context of other activity, and in real time. And, instead of a linear path, ideas are free to circulate among whoever is interested or can add value. Chuck reported that EMC saw ideation time tables drop from 4 months to an astonishing 48 hours!

Awareness vs. Storage

Probably the most important fundamental difference between focusing a collaboration application on people, not files, is the value of awareness over storage. File-centric collaboration platforms develop features that focus on storing documents. These are things like check-ins, document expiration, version control, permissions, etc. The idea of “sharing” a document establishes that the document belongs to someone else. If the document owner gives you permission, you can see and/or edit it. A progressive file-centric collaboration platform might offer a file browser that allows a user to dig around, assuming the user knows what he/she is looking for. People-centric collaboration systems, like Clearspace, are different. There is no need to share because everything is automatically created in a shared space. Clearspace dedicates most of it’s features and GUI real estate to communication features that empower people to create awareness around conversations and content. File browsers take a backseat to recent activities that people are doing. Rather than hoping that necessity will bring people to your information, users participate in visible spaces that inevitably attract unforeseen contributors, which is the exact kind of collaboration that all businesses dream will happen.

Enjoyable user experience

If people do not enjoy using your system, they won’t use it at all. If they can’t make it their own, they’ll work around it. File browsers are inherently not fun or rewarding to use. At best one might describe them as a necessary evil. Even the best designers out there can’t even skin them to be more usable. Social tools, however, have all of the natural motivators that drive us outside of the workplace: vanity, drama, excitement, fear, rejection, ego, empathy, competition, etc. Also, it’s no secret that social networking and other social activities have been hugely popular outside of the firewall. As a result, users have familiarized themselves with social interfaces, features, and layouts. Jive has worked with designers like Cameron Moll to ensure Clearspace has a clean, enjoyable and customizable user interface.

Introducing warmth to the Enterprise

When was the last time someone said the work you did was heartwarming to them? After I first posted about Chuck’s blog, he wrote a post about the spike in interest he saw and the encouraging feeling that gave him.

I’m beginning to think it’s a gift that changes your work life, and I want as many people as possible to experience it.I want to live in a world, and have my kids live in a world, where this is how work gets done.

As a reaction to EMC’s success, Marshall Kirkpatrick told me the whole thing was “pretty heart warming, enough to make a believer out of anyone!” Communicating via a people-centric collaboration platform not only makes us more productive, but it also humanizes the working experience to the point where the work we do can be touching to another person. If that doesn’t translate to a positive social pressure and enjoyable user experience, then I don’t know what does.