Team Leader Must Lead THROUGH the Tools
28 October 2009 Tweet There are many different collaboration tools on the market, each purported to be the best way to organize teams and help them communicate in particular situations. There is also a great deal of discussion on this site and elsewhere about the best team behaviors and processes to follow for best results. But the number one rule of thumb I learned many years ago is the team leader must rigorously use the selected tools, regardless which ones, to manage the entire process.
The team leader needs to lead by example and direct all the team's communication through the appropriate tools. Only then will others be forced to log in, experience the tools, get exposed to the other information and functionality, and (we all hope) begin to modify their own behavior to make best use of the tools.
That means, for example:
- Book all meetings, conference calls, etc. with associated details on the collaboration tool calendar (if it exists). If the leader wants to send an email alert to the participants, the email should contain a link back to the group calendar rather than contain all the information outside the tool.
- Avoid engaging in side discussions with group members by email, and instead transfer the discussion to the forum section (if it exists) in the collaboration tool, so that all members can join and benefit from the discussion. Of course if the topic is private there can be exceptions.
- Positively reinforce that it is OK to edit the boss' work on a Wiki or similar collaboration tool. Encourage some close team members to take the lead and overcome the natural resistance to edit other people's work, especially that of senior people.
- Stop any file sharing by email, and instead instruct the people to share the files online with the collaboration tools.
- Encourage the use of text documents rather than Powerpoint or other presentation tools. These presentation tools can be effective ways of showing finished work, but are ineffective ways of sharing work in progress in a way that other people can add in their thoughts. For example, Marketing Requirements Documents (MRD) are much more effective in text mode than Powerpoint, especially while the team is drafting them.
Lokesh Datta
See Related Posts:
- Does Your Team Collaborate Like It's 1990?
- Use Visuals to Improve Collaboration Effectiveness
- Organizing the UI for a Wiki - Finding the right balance
- Effective Collaboration is Supposed to Look "Messy"!
- Even the U.S. State Department Now Uses Wikis
- What We Can Do to Improve Collaboration
- A Taxonomy of Collaboration Tools
- Author! Author! Author! - Effective Collaborative Writing
- The 4Ps of Effective Collaboration - Redux
Reader Comments (3)
Excellent thoughts. I agree with evrything that is said here. It does however require behaviorial change and that can only happen if the tools and processes are easy to use and reliable. Having been driven by a leader will certainly help in prolifiration of usage of the tool.
Following on what Ashok said, training and comfort with tools would also help. It indeed requires a behavioral change. And, sometimes, behavioral change takes a while, so the duration of the project could be a challenge, but it is a great start. I was involved in a short-duration, high-intensity project with a team of some 20-30 people, where SharePoint was used as a “collaborative tool.” Perhaps due to a lack of familiarity or unpleasant user interface or time pressures in which people often revert to their comfort zone, it created a large amount of email traffic, with sidebar conversations. I often wondered if using SharePoint was a help or hindrance.
Ashok raises a good point about the comfort with the tools. I would argue that the process leader needs to be on the "bleeding edge" of using and applying the tools.
In addition if the leader finds the tools are difficult to use, he or she should be the first one to complain and demand a change.