In his most excellent book Collaboration, Morten T. Hansen identifies several barriers to good collaboration. One of these barriers is cultural in nature and is called hoarding. Hoarding is where an individual or team keeps knowledge to themselves. This means that others have to ask them to ask them to do something for them, or to they'll tell them how to do it with minimal information. I am constantly surprised that when I share this barrier to collaboration with customers, how many of them look at each other and say "That's Dick" or "That's Jane." It's then followed immediately with "They call it job security." You're Not That Important In the words of my mother "Eat a Twinkie and get over it." If you're one of these people hoarding information and not collaborating, trust me on this, that little bit of information you control is not the linchpin of the company success. If you are abducted by aliens tomorrow, the company won't fold without you.  Your coworkers won't be happy and they may struggle with a few things. But in the end, they'll figure it out and things will progress. Ironically, this will actually force them to collaborate. They'll collaborate with vendors. They'll collaborate with teammates. They'll collaborate with coworkers in other departments. In the end, not only will they learn what you were hoarding, but chances are pretty good that they'll learn even more -- and use that knowledge to better the overall system and processes. You're Not Quality Control Most often, the reason people hoard information isn't bad intent nor "job security," it's a matter of pride because of expertise. It's because you have become the de facto Subject Matter Expert (SME) and it's always flowed through you. Nobody can do it as good as you. This scenario is typical throughout enterprise organizations where expertise is prized. The problem is it won't scale. Sooner or later there's an inflection point between the number of requests for information and how many you can handle. Instead of being the quality-control checkpoint, you've become the chokepoint. This is where you might put in a request for headcount, hire, and train people on the information and duties you continue to hoard. Having that fiefdom doesn't remove the chokepoint nor improve quality, it stalls growth and development. You're Not Going to Advance You may believe that hoarding knowledge creates job security such that management doesn't want to deal with losing you and your knowledge. I would advise against putting too much faith in that philosophy. And, if you do, you have just provided yourself with job security for that role and only for that role. You've become too valuable as the checkpoint to ever see your career path advance beyond management of your fiefdom. You'd better hope new technology or company acquisition doesn't make you redundant. Become a Practitioner of Best Practices What's the opposite approach? Demonstrate more value to the company by sharing your knowledge with more people. This will: Provide you with more time to advance your knowledge Expand your skill set into other ancillary areas that support your primary duties Elevate your status from SME to Trusted Advisor This will ensure that you have educated personnel to support your efforts when needed. You'll have the opportunity to move into adjacent areas, or oversee the merger of departments. You'll be leading the organization in your areas of expertise instead of holding it hostage with your hoarding. There are many ways to share the knowledge and best practices you've developed: Participate in team meetings. Request time in other team meetings that rely on your services.  Tell them what you do and why. Tell them how they can help. Answer any questions they have. Use internal vehicles such as web pages, blogs, team workspaces, online meetings, etc. to bring together different teams and people of interest to further your outreach and Transfer of Information (TOI). Use those same vehicles for external communications, along with social media activities. Simply dropping tips and tricks to other like-minded individuals can elevate you from trusted advisor within your company to a trusted advisor within the industry. These practices will gain visibility for you internally. People will look to you as a trusted advisor who is proactively delivering value to the company. Once you gain trusted advisor status in the industry, not only have you elevated your visibility, but you've elevated the visibility of your company. You will be associated as the person who is behind the best practices for the leading-edge company in your industry. Now that is what I call job security. Are you hoarding information now and why? Were you a hoarder who has seen the light and is now in a better position? Do you have to deal with knowledge hoarders at work? How is that experience for you? Tell us your story here. ... View more

The first thing you may wonder is how can you have a mobile workspace.  After all, the point of being mobile is that you can be anywhere and if you're anywhere, you may not have a physical workspace.  This means your accessories must also be mobile.  They should fit in your pockets, or at the very minimum your laptop bag.  Most people will argue that a laptop is a portable device, not a mobile device.  Even if it is equipped with mobile connectivity.  Consider what device(s) you use most when on the road. The first piece of your mobile workspace is your mobile phone or tablet.  I don't own a tablet.  I prefer something that fits in my pocket. When I'm on the go, I use my mobile phone as my primary means of communication.  Today I have the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active and I'm happy with it.  The phone is the foundation for the mobile workspace.  There are some key collaboration applications that need to be installed to realize the most value of the mobile workspace. My collaboration user persona is that of a mobile worker.  I spend time in the car.  I spend time among the buildings on the Cisco campus.  And I spend time with customers and attending events.  The applications I use most are: Jabber, WebEx, and Spark.  Jabber is my Unified Communications (UC) client.  I use it primarily for 1:1 IM's and calls.  WebEx is my meetings client.  I use it for groups participating in scheduled or ad-hoc meetings.  Spark is my team client.  I use it for working together with others to complete a project.  Each of these applications have features that are specific to their use case, but they also offer integrated real-time communications and a consistent user experience of voice, video, and content share. It's the voice, video, and content share experience that drives the need for the final piece of the mobile workspace.  The screen.  There are going to be times you won't be able to view the screen and be limited to audio only.  Being a mobile worker doesn't mean you need to be limited to audio all the time.  There are quiet rooms all over the Cisco campus and I often find myself jumping in one to attend a meeting with just my mobile phone.  Well, just my mobile phone with a stand and headset. The stand I found at Bed, Bath & Beyond in a bin and it cost me next to nothing.  The need for the stand is stability. Use a stand so you can easily view content and so your video to others doesn't become shaky.  We don't want The Blair Witch Project  affect.  My headset is the Plantronics Voyager Legend with case.  This is the must have accessory.  Every interaction is video enabled.  If you hold the phone to your ear, you can't see the video and they can't see you.  To be most effective at collaboration you want to have a consistent experience of voice, video, and content share.  The headset gives me that experience.  I'm not advocating you walk down the street with a selfie-stick(or is it a narciss-stick?) and your headset on while collaborating away.  However, find an Audio Privacy Room (APR), or even a quiet corner as I did in this photo and you can make it your mobile workspace.  One of the other things I really like about the Voyager Legend headset is the little USB that is already synched with the headset.  Now I can easily connect to my mobile device or to my portable device, wherever I am.  Furthermore, if I'm using a hard endpoint that is USB enabled, I can use the headset with that as well. The way we work is changing.  The workspace is no longer the office with a desk, computer, and phone.  Rather, the office is where you are at any given time.  You can have the same collaboration experience in the office, at home using your laptop, or remote using your smartphone.  In today's mobile world, you're going to find more and more collaborative activity happening over your smartphone.  Have the right tools to make your mobile workspace the most effective and productive workspace it can be.  Take advantage of voice, video, and content sharing no matter where you are, without disturbing others.  What tools do you use today for your mobile workspace?  What would you like to see in the future for the mobile workspace? ... View more

There are many different ways that we collaborate.  We may collaborate in person.  We may collaborate over the phone, through e-mail, using video, conferencing, or social.  These are just a few examples.  Generally speaking over the course of a collaborative exercise, we'll use most if not all these modes of communications.  What remains constant with collaboration is driving toward a common goal.  Identifying the desired goal will align collaborative efforts to ensure everybody on the team is focused and striving toward the same results. Universal Motor Agencies (UMA) has the vision.  They believe (and I agree) to achieve the vision of a customer-for-life you must put the customer experience first.  Customers will become loyal if they trust you to have their best interests at heart.  The first step was improving the customer care experience.  Customer contacts are handled faster and more efficiently then ever before.  UMA centralized the contact center on a single toll-free number, so the right agents were always available to the customer.  Complaints are resolved quicker then before with an integrated escalation process.  Finally, the quality of experience for customers calling the help desk was vastly improved by consolidating the communications infrastructure. While the goal of customer-for-life continues to see tangible results because of the efforts already completed by UMA, they have found additional internal results directly attributed to smarter communications. The most significant result is employee satisfaction is up 20%.  If your employees aren't satisfied you won't have customers for life.  Productivity for employees is up 10%.  Not only has productivity and satisfaction increased, but at the same time expenses associated with travel have dropped 40% while IT costs have dropped 30%.  These are the results that show innovation and transform the business bringing it to the next level. Sherif Wahba, IT Director at UMA sums it up perfectly when he says "We achieved a culture change.".  By boosting collaboration, UMA has accelerated decision-making and problem solving.  The UMA contact center is able to handle more calls.  They solve customer issues faster by having the right experts available to best meet the customer needs.  UMA understands that in today's digital world the technology used is important, but more important is a culture that puts the needs of the customer first and does what it takes to continually strive to meet that vision. If you'd like to learn more about Universal Motor Agencies, the full case study is available at: http://cs.co/9005B1Xz1  Let me know your thoughts on the customer-for-life.  Are you seeing success in the same?  As a customer do you feel companies are not doing enough to maintain your loyalty?  I look forward to your comments on this very important topic. ... View more

As consumers, we have many options in how we browse, research, and purchase products today.  We expect more freedom and flexibility in how we work with retail companies. Forward-looking companies strive to improve their customers' experiences and provide flexibility without compromising quality. However, some industries are considered conservative and rigid. Financial institutions are often seen this way. It's ironic. Financial institutions brought us ATMs, online banking, bill payer, and generally made us more self-sufficient with our funds. Unfortunately, areas such as mortgage lending remain high-touch and require a face-to-face meetings with customers. For banks, the challenge is that it doesn’t make sense to have an expert in every branch, which means mortgage experts typically travel among branches.  Customers may have access to a lending expert only once a week, or even every two weeks.  It's difficult to do business that way. Now, look at what Nationwide has accomplished in the area of mortgage lending.  Nationwide prides itself on customer service: It’s the world’s largest building society and services 1 of every 4 U.K. homes.  In order to grow and provide exceptional service to more households, Nationwide realized it would be better to bring its mortgage experts to the customer.  They did this with video conferencing and the results have been spectacular. Most impressive is the increase in customer satisfaction from meeting with consultants over video.  The experience and expertise remain the same, but providing experts at the customer’s convenience led to a significant improvement in ratings. And, additional business for Nationwide at lower cost. I applaud Nationwide for not over-rotating on video.  They have successfully taken advantage of video to serve more members and bring home ownership to reality for those members on their terms.  They did this by continuing to provide "white glove" treatment to their members. Upon arrival, customers are greeted by a representative who brings them to the meeting room. The representative begins the video session, makes introductions, provides refreshments, and supports the process by managing documents, copies, signatures, and other branch-based tasks. Video doesn’t replace the experience, it augments it. There's a saying that there are three factors in delivering a new product or service: better, cheaper, and faster.  They also say you can only have two out of the three. It looks like Nationwide has achieved all three by being first to market with an innovative solution. Find additional details by reading the Nationwide Remote Expert case study, or watching the following video on Nationwide Remote Expert. ... View more

In the history of technology when a physical entity has been virtualized, it becomes the killer app of its time.  What's also interesting about these killer apps is they tend to be incredibly simple in what they do.  It's up to the people to use them to best suit their needs. E-mail and Instant Messaging (IM) are virtualized forms of paper communications.  Before the advent of these new forms of digital communications you'd have to write a letter and it would be delivered by post.  If it were urgent you'd send by way of telegraph.  If you needed to communicate with the office, you'd dictate a memorandum, or "memo", which was then mimeographed and delivered intra/inter-office to a select list of recipients. E-mail and IM do nothing more then move a digital document from point A to points B-n.  The content of those documents is the responsibility of the person who has something to communicate. The Private Branch eXhange (PBX) essentially virtualized the carrier and switchboard so companies could manage an internal system of phones.  Once you extend that capability with Voice over IP (VoIP) the entire physical telephone system including the patch panel is virtualized onto the data network.  The killer app feature of a virtualized phone network is the extended reach and range of the phone itself.  Wherever I am on the network, my phone number is with me.  The concept of add, move, delete goes away. Not only is the telephony network virtualized, but so is the phone itself.  Your smartphone is not really a phone at all.  In fact, your smartphone is a pocket sized computer that's running a softphone on it.  A virtualized phone.  With a virtualized phone you can use any device as your phone; the smartphone in your pocket, the tablet next to you, or the computer sitting on your desk.  The softphone lets you use any device as your phone, but i t only transmits your voice.  What you say is entirely up to you. For the past several months I've been using Cisco Spark.  What Cisco Spark does is virtualize the meeting room and it does it for a purpose.  The purpose is to bring a team together to get things done.  Think about the last time you participated on, or heard about a "tiger team" in the workplace.  What typically happens is there's an event- a new competitive message or product, a requirement that can't be realized by development, or a need to strategize a move into a new market.  This event becomes the catalyst for putting together a tiger team that's tasked with the project of how to overcome the event. The tiger team needs a place to work, so a meeting room is taken offline and turned into the "war room" for the tiger team.  The first order of business is to come up with a clever name for the tiger team and the project- such as Chupacabra.  On a regular basis "Team Chupacabra" meet in the "Chupacabra War Room" to collaborate, strategize, brainstorm, formulate a plan of action, and execute.  They talk in person, they post items to the wall or whiteboard, they share content, they use other avenues of communication to stay in touch such as e-mail, IM, voice and video calls when not meeting in person.  After the project completes the tiger team disbands and the war room is put back online to once again be a meeting room.  If it's been a successful project then members of the tiger team get a t-shirt with a clever logo and saying printed on it, so everybody knows they were involved. Take that process and everything that goes with it and virtualize it.  I pull members for my tiger team from Active Directory (AD) and/or add external participants.  I create a room for us to work in, a virtual room with the appropriate name- "Team Chupacabra- Let's Save the Goats".  The members of the tiger team can now access our virtual war room from any device to post their thoughts.  They can upload content- documents, spreadsheets, images, and videos to name a few.  With a single press of a button they can join a synch-up with voice, video, and content share among some or all of the tiger team members. I can now schedule synch-ups for regular real-time interactions, but I also allow members of the tiger team to contribute on their time, when they have ideas and input that's valuable to the project.  Other members can see and respond just as readily from any device.  The progress of the project keeps moving.  Since the rooms are virtual, as many as needed can be created and shared.  When the project is over and the goats have been saved the history remains in the room for those who want it, while others may choose to leave the room once the project is over. Is this the next killer app?  I certainly think the idea of it is, but it's up to you how the rooms are used and what you do with them.  Register for a free account of Cisco Spark at http://www.ciscospark.com and put it to use.  This is not a 30-day free trial, but rather a free account that is permanent, but has limitations on some features such as video synch-ups with a maximum of 3 participants.  While other features are fully available such as rooms and messaging.  Let me know what you think.  Where do you see value?  How can you use it? ... View more

You know when you think something is just a gimmick, but then you're proven otherwise?  This recently happened to me.  Of all things, noise cancellation headphones.  I placed them with heated car seats.  While I thought heated car seats were unnecessary, during a visit last winter to a locale that actually has winter and snow, I learned how wonderful they really are on a cold day. There are different styles of open workspace plans and the building I work in has what I would term a semi-open floor plan.  We have a section of desks surrounded by a large cubicle wall.  Our team sits in the same section or "bullpen".  It's a great setup because we can easily talk to each other as we're working together.  A very collaborative environment. As you can imagine, if a lot of teams are collaborating things can get a bit noisy.  The noise isn't an issue when working with my team mates in the same bullpen.  Sometimes it's a distraction to have others around me making noise when I want to focus on work, especially when developing collateral. Plantronics Backbeat Pro headphones with noise cancellation and I am hooked.  I used to think if I wanted quiet to work, I could just use those foam ear plugs, but they're not the best for a work environment.  I would have to keep taking them out and putting them in.  They don't even work as well.  My other option is to work from home, which is something I embrace and do, but sometimes because my calendar, I have to be in the office. Background noise can also be an issue when working on the phone.  I didn't realize these headphones had a mic built in.  I thought they were just for noise cancellation and listening to music.  There's no boom mic on them.  Turns out you don't need a boom mic.  With bluetooth and NFC I am wirelessly connected to my mobile phone, desk phone, and computer.  With a tap of a button I can now answer any phone and continue working without having to adjust or pick up a different device. I've been in an open workspace for some time now and I'm a fan of the environment.  I find I'm more collaborative with my team, I'm more connected with other coworkers, and the environment is conducive to getting things done.  Now,  I'm also able to focus when I need to, watch videos without disturbing those around me, and not be distracted by background noise when on the phone.  What are your thoughts on the open workspace?  Has your company embraced it?  Would you provide noise cancellation headphones as a new company issued device to bring in the talent you're wanting? ... View more

I recently read an article Why Getting It Wrong Is the Future of Design.  It speaks to how innovative design changes often come from doing things that would be considered completely wrong.  The article focuses on art, graphics, architecture, theater, movies, tableware, and even video games.  Then I read this line " I was following the rules, then selectively breaking one or two for maximum impact. " and it got me thinking.  What are the rules to collaboration and can we break a couple that result in benefit? I've always been one for experimentation in trying different things, using various products, and embracing change.  After reading this article I've been trying to selectively break a few rules and thinking about other rules to break.  It hasn't been easy, because there's a hard and fast best practices on how to collaborate.  Here's some of what I have come up with: Forego physical meeting rooms: even if the entire team is physically located in the same area could they be just as, or even more, effective meeting virtually?  There are a lot of remote workers and most teams at Cisco are geographically dispersed.  There are times that even though most of the team is located in the same building, we still attend virtually.  I can see benefits to this approach.  People who couldn't attend wouldn't have to rely on meeting minutes, they could simply review the meeting recording at their convenience.   The team could also move away from e-mail to using the virtual meeting room (http://www.projectsquared.com) for correspondence.  Since most projects involve some shared input into documents, room based document control is a great way to provide visibility to changes without relying on a single person to collate individual updates and rely on e-mail to share updates.  Perhaps the biggest benefit would be consistency in attending the meetings in the same way, but also being able to always have a place for ad hoc meetings and tasks while providing visibility to all parties. Blend professional and personal social communications: I tend to keep a strong demarcation between personal and professional channels.  That's not to say I don't talk about personal matters at work or business events, although there are a few personal topics that should never be brought up in a professional setting and anybody who's been around when those few taboo subjects do come up know exactly what I'm talking about.  As an experiment, I've posted a few personal things to my professional twitter (John Gaudin (@JohnG_CSCO) | Twitter) in the form of quotes from books, movies, and such that struck a chord with me.  I ended up getting a couple of likes and a couple of new followers.  This breaking of a rule is a challenge for me as I do have a warped sense of humor and can be a foul mouthed individual, which may offend others.  However, there's a great benefit to bringing personal and professional social channels together.  If I were to leave Cisco, my followers would still be there and could then opt-out if my tweets were no longer relevant.  Otherwise, I'd have to build up a new set of followers and ask them to opt-in. Stop holding standing meetings: a lot of time is spent in reoccurring meetings that are held on a regular basis.  Standing meetings are a best practice to keep a project moving as they're used for status updates and general awareness.  When I look around during standing meetings most of the attendees are multi-tasking and only involved to provide an update.  That tells me the value of the meeting isn't very high for them.  As much as we believe we can multi-task the fact is that we can't.  Instead of requiring attendees to be less productive by forcing them to attempt to multi-task, let's remove the need instead.  Instead of a standing meeting, updates could be provided as needed through an application.  Those concerned with status of relevant tasks could check the app and if more details were needed, reach out directly to those involved.  Project meetings could become ad-hoc with only relevant individuals involved and the time normally used for standing meetings recaptured for more productive activities. The number one rule of collaboration is to have a common, unifying goal that everybody involved is working toward.  This is a rule that I don't think can be broken.  However, the way we reach that goal may change as we continue to collaborate and use different forms of collaboration that are not only more effective, but also change the way we work.  As you consider the "rules" to collaboration, to meetings, to project plans, and to programs, which ones would you like to break? ... View more

During the Collaboration Summit, I hosted a panel of Millennials to learn from them how they communicate and collaborate today.  The panel consisted of seven members representing three different MBA programs. I enjoyed hosting this panel and I found it interesting to learn what the next generation is thinking around collaboration and the tools they're using.  In the audience was a large group of customers of all sizes.  The target attendee was the person ultimately responsible for the collaboration strategy of their company.   It was very interesting to learn what was top of mind for the attendees as they posed questions to the millennials. Here are a few of my take-aways from the panel session: Some applications struggle for use: applications, even those that are tried and true, are not as appreciated as they once were.  Top of the list (by the millennials and by the attendees) during this session was voicemail.  There was also a leaning toward real time and open applications over asynchronous and point-to-point communications. Millennials will use most any application: even though some applications aren't appreciated, they will still be used.  More importantly, millennials will download and use practically any application that's referred in order to stay connected, even if it means different applications that do the same thing. They are security conscience but also trusting: the attendees were extremely concerned with security through the use of publicly available and cloud-based applications.  The panelists were less concerned feeling they know how to self-govern intellectual property, but they also trust that cloud services are inherently secure and therefore may be used. Device choice is preferred: most of the panel is OK with using a personal device for work as long as they choose the device.  They're also OK with capabilities like remote wipe knowing they will keep contacts and personal data secure in a cloud service.  There were a couple that prefer the hard demarcation with personal and professional devices.  They also want to use the right device at the right time.  Tablets may have an advantage in some areas, but won't replace laptops anytime soon. Collaboration capabilities matter: they will research what's available before making a go-to decision.  One panelist commented their choice in school and intern opportunities was led by the technical capabilities each offered over competitors. Providing the best collaboration tools to employees has always been challenging.  People become comfortable with what they know.  Applications become obsolete and are replaced with something new and different.  Gaining insight from your employees is both valuable and smart in determining your collaboration strategy.  Be sure to have a diverse representation that includes your newer and future teams as well as your existing teams.  I focused on having multiple schools, but one attendee commented that because they were all MBA students the field of representation from a workplace perspective wasn't that wide.  In the workplace don't just ask the power users, but ask everybody for feedback.  The answers may surprise you. ... View more

A short while back I was at the Cisco Executive Briefing Center (EBC) presenting to a customer with a co-worker of mine named Bob.  It's not uncommon for us to present together and I enjoy the dual role and going back and forth.  I think it makes for a much better experience with customers combining the story of collaboration with real world examples of video.  This EBC presentation was the last of the day and on our way out we came across a group of women by the fishbowl.  The fishbowl is a large, round room with glass walls that houses the demonstrations. We stopped to chat a bit, asking where they were from and such.  We came to learn that this was a delegation of women in IT as part of the TechWomen (http://www.techwomen.org) program.  TechWomen is a professional mentorship and exchange program developed in response to President Obama's efforts to strengthen relations between the United States and the Middle East and North Africa.  We spent a few minutes asking questions and learning about the program, where everybody was from, and what their interests were in the area of technology. We then talked about how exciting the field of technology is, the fact that it's always changing and there's always something new just around the corner that will have a profound effect on how people live and how businesses work.  We talked about how exciting it is to take these new advances and innovations and incorporate them into the different environments we're responsible for to deliver compelling business value for our stakeholders and users.  Bob and I showed and talked about a few things on our mobile phones like the role presence plays and the ability to have video calls, as well as, host and attend video conferences.  These future leaders in IT were familiar with video on mobile, but it turns out they hadn't had the full immersive experience.  With that, Bob suggested we move to a couple of TelePresence rooms down the hall for a demonstration. I've done this demonstration a couple of times and I think it's great.  It's two TelePresence rooms that sit back to back.  We divided the group into two and each took a room.  We then called each other on TelePresence.  These units are slightly older and not the just announced IX5000, but they were perfect for the purpose of demonstration.  We did the usual demonstration stuff like showing how if you're moving across the room the sound will follow you on the other side and the ease of making the call with the big green "JOIN" button.  We also answered all of the technical questions that came up.  All and all it was a great, yet typical, demonstration of immersive video. Then something interesting happened.  We were finished talking about the features of TelePresence.  All of the questions had been answered.  We then started talking about the practical uses of TelePresence and the practical uses of video in general.  We talked about how video could play a pivotal role in different industries that were both well established and just getting started in these countries.  It was fascinating to hear the ideas and see the expressions as more and more use cases came to mind.  The interesting thing was at no point did anybody stop the TelePresence call, or suggest we reconvene as one physical group of people to continue our conversation.  Instead we just kept the conversation going and had the experience of being together.  As you can see, we even took a photo across the two rooms as a single group. The experience makes all the difference and when people don't have to think about it, but instead just collaborate.  They have reached a new level.  They've reached the level where they are doing instead of planning.  It seems crazy to say, but when the experience becomes so simple, so delightful, and is the new norm, we don't always realize the true value.  After all, if it's not difficult then anybody could do it.  I was so happy and so honored to be part of the experience for this TechWomen delegation.  I look forward to seeing what comes from these exceptional new leaders in IT and hope to have another chance run in with future delegations. ... View more

I recently was reminded of the old gag "Does your dog bite?".  In my mind I remember it first as a Pink Panther bit, but the line sounds like it would be from the vaudeville era.  Let's see what a Google search brings up... My mind isn't lost yet, I can still remember back. The point of this is that we often ask the right questions, but in the wrong order.  If the inspector had thought to first ask "Is this your dog?" the scene may have ended quite differently, but not as funny.  When it comes to collaboration- IT is often asking the right questions, but they're first asking technical questions instead of business questions. Instead of starting with "How do we make these technologies work together?", IT should not even consider the technology.  Rather, they must start by having conversations with their stakeholders regarding their business needs.  The first question directed to the business unit stakeholders should be "What do you need to do and how are you measured?".  The second question should be "How are you meeting those goals today?". Once IT has the answers to these questions, they can then ask "How do we help our stakeholders better meet their goals through an investment in collaboration?". To further complicate things, when IT asks the right questions in the right order, they may hear answers that aren't relevant.  Asking a simple question about a process will often times result in how the technologies don't integrate or how they must integrate and which technologies should be used.  This is the opportunity for business leaders to identify and talk about gaps in process that can be optimized or even reengineered with technology. When IT asks the right questions in the right order to the right people and the right people provide relevant answers to those questions, everybody is now in a position to leverage the collective expertise to define the solution that will deliver the greatest impact.  Impact that isn't measured in technology, nor in process, but a combination of the two that isn't project measured, but rather business measured. ... View more

Voicemail! That's right.  Voicemail, which we know and have used, has declined almost 10% in the past year.  Bringing up the question "Is this the death of voicemail?".  Just because a particular technology is on the decline doesn't mean that technology is going to be obsolete any time soon.  Take a look at these Ten technologies that should be extinct (but aren't).  Aside from the telegram, don't the others look familiar?  I was surprised to read that Western Union was still sending telegrams into the 21st century.  I had a vision of a man in the Western Union uniform and hat riding his bike up to the front door and receiving a nickel tip as he hands over the telegram. What is contributing to the decline in voicemail?  After all, when we call any business after hours we always end up at a voicemail system.  Do you actually leave a voicemail, or do you prefer to hang up and call back the next day during normal business hours?  Are you annoyed when they don't leave alternative contact information in the voicemail announcement such as an e-mail address?  If you go to the website for that business, do you find it frustrating when there is no "submit a question" or "chat with a representative" option? It's probably no surprise that Millennials Shy Away from Voice Mail.  As I speak with customers of Cisco, it's becoming more and more evident that the veteran workforce is also shying away from voicemail.  Although the reasons may be different.  Caller ID is one thing that overshadows voicemail.  So many people will return (for lack of a better word) a number from caller ID before they listen to the voicemail. The other contributor is instant messaging (IM).  There's been a change where a phone conversation doesn't start with picking up the handset and calling.  Rather is starts with an IM "QQ", "Can you talk?", or the ever ubiquitous "Hi".  Then if needed the conversation will escalate to a call.  This is where the importance of having a solid UC client comes in.  The experience of transitioning from each mode to the next must be simple, fast, and reliable.  The modes are: 1:1 IM or SMS, group conversation, telephone/video call, telephone/video group conference, and content share.  I don't need to leave a voicemail because we're already in a conversation, just a different mode.  I know you're there when I press the button in my IM window to call you. Even though I can see why voicemail is on the decline, I have a hard time believing it will go the way of the telegram.  The contradiction here is that while voicemail use is on the decline, if we were told voicemail will no longer be available, it would cause a riot.  It is a must have feature of UC.  Instead, I believe voicemail will become just another message format.  There are only a few formats today: video, audio, text (electronic), and print.  Accessing voicemail, or the format, is where the transformation will take place.  My car will read out loud text messages on my phone as I drive.  I should be able to receive voicemail in its' traditional audio format, as a text (IM, SMS, e-mail, web page, any mode), or even printed as a fax.  Just not as a telegram.  In that same fashion, I should be able to receive any text message in an audio or voicemail format.  As video voicemail becomes more prevalent, there may be an uptick in voicemail use.  We'll just have to wait and see. ... View more

To have successful business collaboration there is one thing that matters and that one thing is the experience.  Collaboration is about bringing people together to meet common objectives.  The objectives can be anything, but they should be clear, concise, unifying, and attainable.  The way we collaborate is through communications.  Every form of communications has an experience.  The experience of talking in person, through instant message, over the phone, or on video.  Rather then talk about the individual experiences, I'd like to talk about the following collective experiences: The User Experience- the users of today are more sophisticated then in the past.  This provides potential in How Enterprises Are Capitalizing On The Consumerization Of IT.  One of the fastest growing trends is BYOD, particularly smart phones and tablets, and the investment in mobile applications.  This allows the user to have the same experience at work as they do at home because they're using the same devices they're already familiar with.  The other major trend seen today is the move toward the use of cloud services.  In most cases the use of cloud services actually accelerates the promises of BYOD by extending the reach and range of business applications.  Take into consideration these trends and how best to improve the user experience.  First, consider the collaboration user personas and how they can use and benefit from trends such as BYOD and cloud.  In doing so, you'll be able to provide the best possible user experience by optimizing and reengineering processes. The Workplace Experience- isn't it interesting that one of the top collaboration experiences is inanimate?  Sure, we collaborate with people all the time, but rarely do we consider the environment.  Yet, we spend hours collaborating within the workplace, but in the increasingly mobile world of today, we also spend hours collaborating outside the workplace.  It's become a blend of physical and virtual environments that truly demonstrate How Technology Has Changed Workplace Communication and improved the way we work.  At first the idea of the "office being where you are" may be daunting, but what that means is you're able to work the way you want.  The workplace is becoming ever more flexible in where we work from, how we bring people together, and the devices and applications we use to collaborate.  Furthermore, the workplace is evolving to be more open, maximize real estate, become green, and support the vision of what work will become for your company. The Customer Experience- as consumers of products and services we hope to never, ever have to call a support line, but the reality is sooner or later we will.  The expectations placed on customer service is high and enterprises must pay attention to the quality of customer service they offer .  Just as we want to work our way, we expect customer service our way through multichannel support.  We want a personalized customer experience and this experience should follow us from in person to at home to on the road.  My preferences are so well known that new recommendations are made anytime I access an online store.  Then why don't I have the same personalization when I walk into a store?  If a company is going to be reactive to an issue, they'd better be fast about it.  Especially in the digital and social world of today.  I'd much rather a company be proactive and use the channels of todays' digital and social world to apprise me of issues before they become complaints.  The voice of the customer has become louder then ever before and transforming the customer experience can lead to additional profits and satisfaction. These collective experiences are changing and will continue to change.  In the next 10, 20, 100 years they may be completely different from what we see today.  However, we will still have the need to collaborate as users and customers taking advantage of the tools available in our workplace or home environment.  Taking individual communications and bringing them together into a collective experience is how to transform business collaboration.  Provide a physical and virtual workplace environment that's conducive to meeting collaborative objectives.  Allow users to have a choice to work the way they want and be more efficient in the process.  Listen to the voice of the customer and invite them to participate in making their experiences better. ... View more

Recently, while working on a project to develop collateral for a promotion with a team of collaborators, I was struck by how many different tools and methods were used to achieve the final product.  In this case, the final product was a piece of collateral.  Actually it was several pieces of collateral, but each part of the same project.  Each piece had a small team of subject matter experts (SMEs) working together with several members participating on multiple teams. Anybody who has worked with me knows I'm a major fan of document management and version control when working collaboratively on collateral, a single source of truth so to say.  I find it exceedingly frustrating to be the one responsible for collating the feedback from the team members.  First, it takes quite a bit of time to collect the feedback, read through it, and incorporate.  Second, it seems without fail there will always be at least one section that everybody comments on and each comment is different making it impossible to incorporate all opinions.  Third, with the technology available today, the first two frustrations are completely unnecessary. For this project I had the team use Box for the repository and management of the deliverables.  This is the first time I've used Box and overall I'm impressed with it.  It's cloud-based with version control, comments, task assignments, and many more features that I have yet to discover and use.  As edits were made to the source document they would inevitably be saved with the existing file name and an appendage of the date, version number, or the initials of the person that made the edits.  The first of many wrenches was that different people had different ways of identifying their modified document. Box does a good job of version control and with a bit of coaching we soon had everybody updating a single file and allowing Box to manage the versions.  This simplified the process and removed confusion on which was the latest version to make edits against.  The next step is sending the draft document to corporate editing.  Another wrench is introduced as corporate editing requires a Word document, they use "track changes" for edits, and create a new file name with their naming convention.  I understand the need to have an approval cycle for edits, but this introduces another copy that needs to be appropriately managed and updated to the Box repository. The next step is sending the final draft to layout where the source content is applied to an appropriate template and typically converted to a PDF format for posting to the web.  I added the appropriate people to the Box folder giving them permission to download and add content, but unfortunately their process required an e-mail with the final content attached.  Yet another wrench that required somebody else to upload the final piece of collateral. The final step is posting to the web.  Once again, e-mail is the preferred method.  This is because the web team consists of shared resources and they subscribe to a mail alias that requests are sent to.  I sent my request to the mail alias with a direct link to the final, edited, in appropriate layout and template document I wanted posted.  Unfortunately, the process was to send the document as an attachment to the mail alias.  We then used e-mail as notification to the collateral being in stage for QA then production for QA.  The final wrench was turned. Coincidently enough, a colleague of mine had just written a blog about multiple tools Cute Babies, Collaboration, and Competition and how they can hinder the collaborative efforts of cross-functional teams.  Not only are there multiple tools, but there are also multiple processes that can affect the use of tools.  In these multiple team, cross-functional efforts I think it's the responsibility of the project lead to determine in the beginning which tools and processes are to be used and it's the responsibility of the team members to adapt.  After all, in the end, it's the project lead that's accountable and shouldn't we support them in a truly collaborative environment that meets their needs?  Even if our wrench is the cutest. ... View more