Skyscrapers of Complexity: Collaboration Demands Rigor

Lokesh Datta is a veteran in management and strategy consulting, collaboration and project management. In this post he examines trends driving collaboration, sources of complexity in collaborative efforts, and managing complexity in collaboration. We’re happy to have him contribute and join the conversation – thanks Lokesh!

Studies suggest that collaboration is a top priority today for senior executives. Collaboration is experiencing a growth in impact and importance in the enterprise. Numerous driving forces are responsible, including:

• Trends in globalization and outsourcing
• Workforce demand for flexibility
• Critical need for rapid innovation
• Co-creating value with vendors and customers
• Technology and tools enabling a networked world
• Behavior and expectations of Gen-Y

Work is becoming more complex as specialized expertise is needed from multiple sources, often from outside the group/department; for example, engaging customers, partners, vendors, and so on. Complicating the situation further is that the expertise may reside at a geographically disparate location, perhaps even in a different time zone, with different workplace culture, working styles, social culture, languages, and expectations.

Collaboration technology/tools afford the opportunity to lower the time and distance barriers. However, in so doing, they create another layer of complexity. Working in this complex, virtual workplace requires more care and caution than in the traditional face-to-face world. We are presently in this transition towards working collaboratively in the new networked world, where new norms, etiquettes and rules-of-engagement are emerging.

To recap, at minimum complexity arises from:

• expertise needed from multiple sources
• external collaborators
• contributors in geographically disparate locations
• varied time zones, cultures, languages, expectations
• more collaboration possible than ever before thanks to technology

Mind you, humans have been collaborating since Adam & Eve. Collaboration itself is not new but the manner in which we

collaborate, and with who, is evolving and becoming more complex. Of course, the idea is to make collaboration more effective (doing the right thing) and efficient (doing things the right way).

Consider constructing a one-story versus a 50-story building.

Building science is well developed and either task can be performed well, given time and resources. However, the task for the taller building is much more complex and has to be managed with much greater rigor. It requires much closer attention to planning, coordination and execution, with significantly more testing and controls built in. Minor details become more magnified and critical. And, the taller building also requires a much stronger foundation.

A similar situation exists when traveling in an automobile versus spacecraft.

And, we can come up with numerous such examples where complexity of the undertaking mandates stronger foundation needs and greater attention to the foundational essentials. A recent study by my group, Assessing the State of Collaboration, found that the same idea applies to collaboration.

Suffice it to say that we must seek opportunities to intentionally inject simplicity; for example, simplifying processes, communications and organization, and utilizing tools that are user-friendly. However, the key to managing complexity is being vigilant about foundational essentials. For collaboration, this means using the time-tested, old-fashioned meeting management and project management principles, albeit in the new networked world of collaboration.

So, what does all this mean in practice?

My next contribution to Managing the Work will include no less than 17 specific suggestions on how to deal with complexity in collaboration. If you have any tips, let me know and I’ll include the good ones in my post.

Lokesh Datta is a co-founder of All Collaboration. Focusing on collaboration, All Collaboration offers points-of-view, original research, reviews of products and services, interviews with industry luminaries, and the “best of” articles on the web. All Collaboration has a companion discussion group on LinkedIn. Follow Lokesh on Twitter: @LDatta.