business collaboration

the field of dreams problem

In my recent use of a couple of BC tools, I have been thinking a bit of what I call The Field of Dreams Problem. Named after a movie of the same title, I use this term refer to the key article of faith raised by that movie: If you build it, they will come. Recall that in the movie, Kevin Costner's character is driven by an inner voice to build a baseball diamond out in the middle of an Iowa cornfield, sure in the faith that if he built it, They Will Come.

To illustrate the core dynamic of the Field of Dreams problem in Business Collaboration, I would contrast two really different, but excellent tools Intranets.com and LinkedIn.com. I've come to think that each of these types of tools requires a different solution to The Field of Dreams Problem; solutions I call "Carrots" and "Sticks".

If you haven't seen it, yet, LinkedIn.com is probably the best business-focused social networking tool currently available. I am a heavy user of LinkedIn and have been amazed how its viral feel makes me want to use it more. The virtuous circle it creates spins energy that makes it easier and easier to use it more and more (at least at the beginning, or when you are motivated by a perceived immediate need to do business networking.) The benefits of being a part of this circle create the "Carrot" that you are trying to earn by using the tool. Now there are some real challenges with LinkedIn's approach that I think I'll write about at another time, particularly in its ability to keep engaged those who have the most to offer but who may perceive they have less to gain. But the bottom line is, for the average person, you want to use tools like LinkedIn more and more. You want the Carrot so you come back.

In contrast to LinkedIn, are solutions that require organizational legislation -- and this would include most of what we need to use to move toward George Pohle's definition of the On Demand "Future of Business". Getting people to jump aboard this type of solution requires "Sticks". You have to use this "or else". An excellent tool in this category is Intranets.com, which is a collaborative suite of online tools for document management, calendaring, scheduling, task management, web and audio conferencing, and database management. Most of us have at least one of these tools on our computers already, so there isn't too much individual burning desire out there to learn another one. These tools get used because someone legislates it. Otherwise, we'd use what we already know, largely out of habit.

From a dynamics point of view, the energy around these approaches is quite different: in one case, you want to use something more and more. In the other, you have to use it more and more. In terms of motivation for adoption of these different types of solutions, one is intuitive, the other cerebral. One individual, the other institutional. Both solve the Field of Dreams problem.

the word is convergence

When I began my career, the world was made of silos. There was a silo for engineering; another for production; more silos still for quality, customer support and training. Within those silos, were worlds unto themselves: empires, really. Products moved through each silo of a company. People stayed in each one, looking over the wall at the others.

The game was to build your silo as much as possible. Make it tall, wide. Dominate the others. Bring the best people in the bottom of your silo. Teach and groom them until they rise to the top -- or at least as high as you want them to go.

"Cross-functional" and "Matrixed" became buzzwords as we all began to realize that we actually had to work together. We had to share information and responsibility for outcomes. Still, though, the organizational structure of silos remained. We had a person from each silo involved, that was all. There was still "us" and "they". But there was a new "ours". Something we owned together.

Since that time, we've experienced an acceleration of expectations. Acceleration of flow. Acceleration of communication. Acceleration of chaos. In a world of new product releases 3 times a year, a 5 year product plan seems ludicrous. Developing skills and knowledge within a "silo" to focus on some non-immediate need is suicidal, when competing against companies possessing the facility to obtain the right knowledge now to do the job.

So the word is convergence, driven by co-evolution. Engineering co-evolving and increasingly converges with production with quality (built in) with knowledge flows (not training) and with support functions built in. More than ever, lines between silos are smudged. And if you are not converging, you are dying at the hands of someone who has. Why? Because to converge functions is to collaborate intensively -- to provide an environment of coevolution. It is building a business that is designed to converge. And that is what business collaboration is: the ability to converge, arbitrarily, strategically, real-time to gain greater advantage -- evolve fast and survive.