Collaboration and Process (The Cracked Record Returns)

When I started work I was given some advice about getting people to do things. My boss outlined to me a set of techniques, one of which was the cracked-record approach. In order to get someone to do something, sometimes, and only as a last resort, you have to ask them to do it, and then ask them again, and then ask them if they have done it, and then ask them again, and on, and on, until it is done. This metaphor needs updating somewhat because I realise there are a whole set of people out there who haven’t a clue what a cracked record sounded like, but I can’t say a scratched-CD because that does something radically different to what a cracked-record does (or did).

I feel like I have got into cracked record territory on two topics on this blog: meetings and process. Yesterday I was on meetings, today I am on process. Previous postings on process are here, here, here and here.

Today’s post is prompted by reading an article on collaboration loop about a collaboration success at HP. This article demonstrates how to do collaboration right:

 

Although collaborating on sales guides within HP presented challenges, the issues were far more complex when HP partner companies became involved. Typically, the process involved sending large documents attached to e-mail messages back and forth. Fulkerson felt there had to be a better way.  

 

Since HP already used Microsoft SharePoint Server (SPS) in some areas of the company, Fulkerson leveraged that experience in creating a Collaborative Business Environment for his process. To bring outside partners into the collaborative process, he paired SPS and InfoPath with Groove Workplace, which gave non-HP users a synchronized collaborative environment in which to work. According to Fulkerson “just making a collaborative environment and asking people to use it instead of e-mail doesn’t work. People live and die by e-mail. It’s just so hard to switch.”  What made the difference for HP is that they got the Groove and SPS people to spend time watching and learning how the HP process worked.

Now what have I been trying to say to you, it’s not about the technology, it’s about the process!

 

The results: first the sales collateral process has been sped up at almost every step. Fulkerson estimates that, with the new system in place, HP was able to shorten the overall process from ca. 39 days to ca. 21 days, a 46% improvement. The implications for HP, on an enterprise-wide basis, for this kind of collaboration, are vast, as is the potential for lowering costs, speeding time to market, and increasing productivity.

They didn’t say “lets do collaboration because I believe it can make a difference”, they said “lets apply technology to this existing collaboration process”. It’s simple to say, but it’s a radically different approach which gets and radically different outcome.