By deploying technologies like Wi-Fi, Wikis and WebEx, IT is leading the charge as enterprises restructure for maximum collaboration.
From pharmaceutical companies to oil and gas firms, enterprises are breaking down silos and boosting the bottom line through the expanded use of collaboration tools and technologies. And IT is leading the charge.
IT executives are becoming collaboration architects who partner with human resources, facilities, and corporate communications to remove barriers that impede collaboration. These barriers range from physical workspaces to organizational practices and processes.
The goal of unified communications is to allow anybody to engage anybody else spontaneously through instant messaging, web conferencing and videoconferencing, regardless of level, role or region. Asynchronous collaboration tools including wikis, forums, emerging knowledge and project management systems and collaboration-as-a-service platforms enable enterprise-wide information sharing and broad participation in decisions.
But enterprises are finding that these tools fall flat if the organizational structure prevents information sharing, promotes internal competition and requires going through channels. That’s where IT can help, particularly when it comes to the physical workplace environment.
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For example, GlaxoSmithKline’s building at the Philadelphia Navy Yard reflects the “smart working” structural change that the company is adopting globally. Unlike more typical open environments in which companies eliminate walls and assign desks, GSK’s workplace is “non-territorial” or “free-address.” Without specified seating, people let shifting activities and interactions determine their location and movement throughout the day. This enhances spontaneous interaction.
“It’s removed silos and barriers and allowed collaboration to occur in places we would have hoped it would occur—in the atrium and the coffee shop, on the [lobby] floor with people bumping into each other and then in places we just never expected,” says Ray Milora, GSK’s global head of design and change management.
Ray Milora, GSK’s global head of design and change management
Unexpected collaboration locations include the building’s main staircase and even the roof. “They move around the physical environment now, and they’re much more collaborative than they were before,” adds Milora. An IT veteran, Milora led GSK’s US rollout of the precursor of Microsoft Office 365, and he’s now focused on integrating technology, workplace design and processes.
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In the smart working environment, GSK assigns team members to “neighborhoods” which are clusters of people with interdependent roles. “You’re encouraged to not just sit in your neighborhood but use the whole building as an office,” says Milora.
But IT plays a key role in making this happen. IT deployed a wireless network throughout the Philadelphia Navy Yard facility and is making sure that employees remain connected to the network as they roam from location to location. The building, which has received LEED Platinum certification for sustainability in design, includes lockers for personal belongings and “quiet rooms” available for drop-in, ad hoc encounters.
As informality prevails in the physical workplace environment, people regularly interact with senior leaders. An all-access approach has replaced the need to go through channels. This structural shift also impacts how GSK team members use technology.
The informality in interactions regardless of level, role or region has migrated from the physical workplace to such virtual workspaces as Microsoft Lync unified communications. “Spontaneous use of voice and video has been off the charts,” says Milora. “It’s because of a very embedded way that we collaborate.”
Collaboration comes into focus at Konica Minolta
Konica Minolta’s subsidiary in Australia began changing its structure 18 months ago when David Cooke became managing director. The previous managing director had run the company from a large corner office with city views. Team members rarely interacted across departmental silos. The human resources department was “walled off” from everybody else in the primarily open-plan workspace. This legacy organizational structure was based on command-and-control.
For Konica Minolta Australia, shifting market forces in the printing industry required a more nimble approach.
On his first day as managing director, Cooke moved into a smaller, glass-front office in a high-traffic area to increase his visibility and accessibility. The former managing director’s office became a “quiet lounge” available to team members.The irony of HR hidden from team members was obvious to Cooke.
“Surely they’re the people [experts] who should be mixing in with the people more than any other department, but they were the opposite,” says Cooke. So he worked with the facilities group and IT to tear down the wall. “We opened up HR to the business.” Konica Minolta Australia also replaced the HR director with an “approachable” leader.
Next, Cooke conducted the first-ever online survey of team members about the organizational structure. Ninety percent responded, some with long comments. “These people were crying out to have a voice,” says Cooke. “It was gold. These were gold nuggets for me.” A key point that emerged was the need to shift from hoarding to sharing information, particularly financial data.
Now, Konica Minolta Australia shares monthly financial results a couple of days after each quarter ends, and Cooke shares other financial and business updates, such as customer wins and losses, in real time.
Konica Minolta’s structural changes are impacting the role of IT. As remote diagnosis increasingly replaces on-site service calls for the company’s printer business, service has become a function of IT. The company has eliminated outsourcing contracts and hired more IT people. Salespeople and IT are collaborating as customer conversations now include topics such as network security, enterprise content management, document management, and changing workplace practices.
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As Konica Minolta Australia evolves from an equipment vendor to an IT services provider, the company is looking to acquire small IT services companies with specialized knowledge. This infusion of expertise and broader input into decisions may provide further opportunity for structural change “like a satellite that comes into the mother ship and then transforms the mother ship from within,” Cooke says.
Energy boost at FMC Technologies
At Houston-based FMC Technologies, which provides equipment and services for the energy industry, a workforce shift is triggering structural change. Many senior engineers are retiring within a few years leaving a potential knowledge gap. So working with technologists, a knowledge management group is spearheading the shift to enhance information sharing and maximize collaboration. The company, which has more than 20,000 team members in 17 countries, has established a Center for Innovative Collaboration staffed by nine people globally.
“It’s awesome to me the breadth of what we’re tackling,” says Kim Glover, manager of knowledge management for FMC Technologies. More than 50 global knowledge “networks” or communities of practice have formed. These range from subsea drilling to design drafting. The networks, supported by a range of collaboration tools, have helped break down barriers among functions and business units.
Tools include Cisco WebEx for spontaneous web conferencing and videoconferencing, a discussion forum called “The Edge” and a wiki platform called “The Well” both based on Microsoft SharePoint. FMC Technologies is also using ThinkTank for “structured collaboration.” This approach involves determining specific objectives, gaining broad input, generating and improving ideas and assessing and prioritizing input to produce tangible results and solutions during a session or within a time frame.
The purpose of knowledge networks is often to streamline a process or improve a product. Within the networks, some 500 workgroups tackle more specific issues. The networks have mostly replaced a previous system of global councils which met annually and operated without collaborative tools. In one case, a global network of more than 800 computer aided design and drafting (CADD) professionals saved millions of dollars by standardizing layering work instructions and reducing process time from three years to one.
‘Smart’ meetings
While unstructured, spontaneous collaboration breaks down barriers and silos, enterprises are simultaneously creating value through structured collaboration. Both approaches can help transform traditional meetings into collaborative group sessions (CGS) whether participants are in one or multiple locations.
In a traditional meeting, the highest-ranking person often sets the agenda and controls the proceedings. Then participants retreat to their own workspaces to write reports or do follow up work that is then discussed at yet another meeting. In contrast, a CGS is about creating value on the spot by collaboratively making decisions, creating marketing plans, producing budgets, adjusting production schedules, improving processes and products among other results.
Since adopting a more collaborative structure, Konica Minolta Australia has experienced the highest revenue, unit sales, market share and profit in the company’s history. “As soon as we did those things, we saw a tangible result,” says Cooke.
And more change is on the horizon. Collaboration is migrating into recognition and reward systems. While FMC Technologies has yet to incorporate collaboration in determining raises, getting promoted will increasingly depend on how well team members collaborate. “They will be valued more if they share and collaborate rather than the old way which is ‘I’m more useful if I hoard my knowledge,’” says Glover.
For GlaxoSmithKline, enterprise structure continues to evolve. The “smart working” approach has migrated to laboratories as GSK pilots a “smart lab” outside London. GSK has designed the smart lab space to increase chance encounters and spontaneous interaction. Plus the company has enhanced collaboration among chemists and biologists by co-locating them in the same work space. “We’re going after all of those rules and breaking down all those walls,” says Milora. “We’re attacking it piece by piece by piece by piece.”
Evan Rosen’s new book entitled The Bounty Effect: 7 Steps to The Culture of Collaboration® shows how to design collaborative enterprise structures. More information on the book is available at www.thecultureofcollaboration.com. He can be reached at evan@thecultureofcollaboration.com
