Collaboration Is About People, Not Technology. Nothing magical but a usual refrain! Recently I came across two research studies on managing people and teams: Managing Virtual Teams: Taking A More Strategic Approach by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and Annual Flexible Working Research Report: The Key to Competitive Advantage for the UK’s SMBs? by oneDrum. We shall highlight below the key findings from these reports. Noting that effective collaboration requires a holistic approach, we shall provide a broader context for these results and link to some of our earlier work and writings.

The survey by EIU is of executives in Europe of companies with annual revenue of at least $100m. The survey data is supplemented with in-depth interviews with numerous executives. Here are the key findings from Managing Virtual Teams: Taking A More Strategic Approach by EIU:

• Good management is not the norm in virtual working
• Virtual teams are in place at one-half of the organizations
• Executives are generally positive about working in virtual teams; however, there are challenges when working remotely
• More than one-half of executives say that their virtual teams use video conferencing on a regular basis
• One in three companies has set up virtual working so that they can tap into the global talent pool

A couple of items stood out for me. First, that good management is not the norm in virtual working. It is not at all surprising. Yet, it is critical for effective collaboration. Second, I have not seen much use of video conferencing for remote working here in the US. I have a feeling that this may be a significant cultural difference. We currently have a survey underway, through which we shall find out. By the way, if you have not taken our Survey on the State of Collaboration, I would urge you to do so.

In contrast to the EIU study of businesses with over US$100m revenue, oneDrum study focuses on SMBs (small and medium-size businesses). They surveyed 606 employees and 610 employers of office-based businesses with less than 250 employees. The survey results highlight that businesses are failing to recognize the critical link between productivity, innovation and competitive advantage. Here are the key findings from the Annual Flexible Working Research Report: The Key to Competitive Advantage for the UK’s SMBs?:

• Motivation for deploying a flexible working policy depends: employee morale and motivation for companies with 1-9 employees, productivity for companies with 10-49 employees, and work-life balance for companies with 50-100 employees
• Disconnect between policy and practice: While ¾ of employees feel that they can do at least some of their work remotely and ¾ of employers have flexible working schemes, 3/5 of employees never or rarely work remotely
• ¾ of companies with under 10 employees think that flexible work scheme is a good idea and their employees are more likely to work from home, whereas companies with 101-250 employees are likely to allow staff to work from home about once a week but their employees never or hardly ever work from home
• Significant regional variations exist in flexible/remote working practices within the UK

We have often emphasized a holistic approach to collaboration. We have proposed our holistic framework in The Four Ps of Effective Collaboration: Purpose, People, Process and Place. Successful collaboration efforts require careful building and managing of teams, virtual or otherwise, to be sure. Some other posts of relevance are:

• Collaboration Is More than Team Building and Management
• Managing Virtual Teams
• Christmas Terror: Spectacular Failure and Success in Collaboration

Once again, do take the 10 minute anonymous Survey on the State of Collaboration. We will make the findings public in March. Thank you.