It's not just the technology, stupid : there is a "social vector"
In this part we reflect on your next change in leveraging the talents of your workforce through the usage of relevant digital tools.
"Bottom-up collaboration" : people want to create collaborative spaces, they want to form teams on-the-fly to work better together and share documents - whilst doing so in an unstructured way (though a little governance will help & still be required)"
In other words
You want to involve your workforce and your workforce wants to be involved more, but without the interference from IT / HR procedures. Cross functional collaboration and greater openness to outside contributors is the way of all future work, so solliciting feedback from all these actors will show them their input is being taken into account.
Becoming a more digital workplace can be transformative for your company, but before starting this transformation you need to know WHAT it is you want to see transformed (what processes, what problems, what opportunities). This implies involving your people not only initially, but in an ongoing way. At first, this should be a group of future "ambassadors" within the company, then you can involve everybody else.
If you detected a whiff of change management methodology here, then you're right!
Before diving in, clarify both business & technological priorities WITH your users
Travelling this road towards a digital workplace entails workshops with both business and technological leaders - and we're not only talking about the higher management within your company.
The actual situation needs to be known & if relevant re-assessed (a fresh new start may sometimes be just what the doctor ordered). The intranet as-is can stay, and official resources and information will always need to be controlled and supervised with some permissions in mind.
To "attack" the transformation from different angles, only workshops about clearly defined subjects have a chance at eventual success. For example the consideration of using team-chat for easier collaboration vs. e-mails & physical meetings.
If this all sounds like a bit of business and functional analysis, then you're right! Looking for the right people to guide you through the transformation? Contact us and have a chat with our consultants!
In the last part of this mini-series we'll look at what's in the center of any Digital Workplace strategy : Search. Because search defines & empowers us.
Contact us
