Many organizations have been deploying WIKIs to “improve internal communication” but I am not sure if these companies have actually understood what WIKI’s are all about and how to make them valuable to their organization. There also seem to be a lack of understand of what collaboration is and how it differentiate itself from cooperation.

Many organizations seem to think that WIKI’s are just another cool tool. It reminds me of CRM when first came out. Businesses installed CRM software packages and claimed to have Customer Relationship Management, when all they actually had was a customer- & order management system.

They never took the time to actually sit down to define what relationships they had to their customers and how they wanted to manage them. They were not clear on what the goal of their CRM project was. Shortly after a new hype came around and focus was now on customer touch-points because CRM packages were not delivering the expected ROI and had to be leveraged.

This problem seems to repeat itself in the WEB 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 projects currently running in some of the companies my company is helping. Their approach to WIKI’s reminds me of something Alan Greenspan wrote in his book “The Age of Turbulence”. He says

"If you try to preserve the past, you will not be able to produce the future."

That is spot on what happens when a company with a coordinated workforce deploys a WIKI. They have not yet understood that WIKI’s are for collaboration and not just a document storage facility, which is why they struggle with reaching the point where they can leverage the power of the WIKI in their organization. The tool is being bent around the way employees currently work instead of developing the organization.

From Coordination to Collaboration

In many companies the employees only coordinate their effort. Their boss tells them what part of the work they have to do; alternatively they meet to divide up the work between them. In either case they return to their workplace and do the work independently, but often in competition with each other.

Some joined idea generation and exchange of ideas might happen over coffee or between two colleagues, but that is more the exception than the rule. Generally speaking there is no idea generation and no discussion about how the work can be done smarter, better and in a better quality. There are no value increasing activities going on.

Cooperation

In some organizations cooperation is the way of life. They work together towards a common goal, which usually is well defined (This article is not discussing how well it is communicated). It is much more of a team effort but still individuals working largely independently. The steps to the goal are laid out but the team will discuss the steps to see if they can improve things not the way to the goal or the plan itself. They might have a workshop or meeting on how to accomplish a step better, faster or simpler.

Many employees are holding back during cooperation sessions. They have the feeling that giving too much information could endanger their own position in the company. Their knowledge and how they do things make them irreplaceable and provides job security. There are however no limit to the ideas when it comes to how others are supposed to do their job better.

Many WIKIs are launched in cooperating organizations and quickly become a kind of online documentation. How things are working is explained but often management has to put pressure on employees to get them to post information. The problem is as mentioned that the employee sees their knowledge as their most important “capital” and pouring it into a tool for everyone to see makes them vulnerable in their mind.

There is not much discussion going on about the posted information in a cooperation organization and often the initiative dies after a period of time. The management effort needed to keep it alive is simply too high. The WIKI does however live on but is now merely a document storage facility.

Collaboration

When an organization collaborates around the work, a WIKI seems like the natural tool of choice. Employees will post new ideas which are matured through discussion. Members of the team participating in external meetings and conferences post presentations, documents and new ideas for the team to view and discuss.

When a new idea is posted on how to address a specific issue, other team members will add their comments, links to relevant information in documents or on the web, include new ideas or give feedback (criticize) on the idea as it is. Some ideas will continue to develop and mature until they turn into new products or new and better ways of doing the work.

The collaborating organization has realized that their products and services are not produced by individuals but by teams working together across organizational barriers. They often use other WEB 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 elements such as presence technologies to boost the process. These organizations are accelerating and there is true business acceleration power in collaboration, but there are also some issues.

Getting the rubber to meet the road

When an organization decides that they are going to start collaborating, their first focus is on informing the employees of the new initiative. But only few organizations have actually realized how much against their existing corporate culture collaboration actually is and how much work it takes to change the culture.

Collaboration is hard work in the beginning. First of all, it takes time to collaborate and the productivity might drop for a period of time as employees focus on how to accelerate, discuss their findings and develop new ideas.
It is painful to the ego when you post your best idea on a WIKI just to have it shot full of holes (criticized) by someone else or even worse – that someone get an even better idea based on your idea. But with support and coaching, employees will start to see past the unpleasant feeling and start to collaborate. They will look at the “holes” someone else have shot in their idea and start to develop the idea further. They will look at the new idea someone else got on the basis of theirs and start to feel as an important part of the team. They will give each other credits for bringing valuable ideas and information to the table helping the process on its way. They are realizing that the team can reach results that they would not be able to reach themselves. They are seeing how focusing on the holes others have shot in their idea helps them develop and present more robust ideas in the future helping them to bring even more value to the team.

Is collaboration worth the effort?

Yes, it is worth it – you will have to invest in it but it will provide sustainable and profitable growth and it will accelerate your business. Will a WIKI do all this for me? No, the WIKI is not a magical wand. It is merely a tool helping teams who already collaborate to do more and accelerate the business.

Your focus should be on the culture of your company or team and on getting the collaborative mindset into everyone’s heads. Some of the benefits you will experience are employees having more fun at work because making a difference and being a part of something greater is fun. You will observe increased employee motivation, sustainable growth, and you will get a better overview of where real business value is created in your department or company.