Maish Nichani has written a post on 'the culture of collaboration and what it means for your intranet'':
Collaboration requires a different way of working. It requires attitudes, values, goals, and practices that is based on interdependent work. Not silo-based work, not workflow-based work but all-together-in-one-melting-pot-based work.
If the culture of the organisation is hospitable to the culture of collaboration then you're going to have a fun time and you'll be wondering what the fuss is all about. If the culture is pointing the other way around, well, you better start praying.
I wrote something similar to this in a recent client report when talking about collaboration spaces, which the client is deploying on a new intranet:
Achieving success with online services is not simply a matter of building the new intranet and replicating existing offline structures and meeting spaces. Using new online tools is as much a different and new way of working as it is a new piece of technology.
It's an oft-spoken point: Just because you give people new tools, doesn't mean they'll suddenly start collaborating or working any differently. It requires much more thought, design, and many, very small, varied steps, to change the way a business, and a business's people, work.
Maish also outlines several other useful scenarios, and highlights Intranet Innovation Award winner IDEO as a mature organisation when it comes to collaborating. To be honest, I'd say IDEO are actually pretty advanced, but the sentiment is similar. Head to Pebble Road for the full, excellent article.
