5 principles for collaborative working
5 principles for collaborative working
27. March 2020
Reading time: 5 minutes
A Digital Workplace alone does not guarantee efficiency. What you actually need – regardless of your tool of choice – is a common work culture. We compiled the most important principles for productive collaboration in the Q-Team.
The practical examples mentioned in the guide mainly refer to an Office 365 working environment. This is not to be understood as a recommendation for a specific tool, but is merely for the sake of simplicity. However, all principles can be applied to (almost) all collaboration tools.
1. Central platform over individual preferences
Where exactly did we store that file? And why? To avoid cross-platform searches, we defined MS Teams as a central collaboration platform for Qudits, and thus as a “container” for everything in terms of files, conversations, projects, etc. Each area of responsibility – whether it’s a department, a project or an initiative – gets its own Team (= collection of people and content). Each Team can be divided into different Channels (= section for conversations, files and tools). For example, if you create a dedicated Team for the customer "Q-Dits“, the individual projects of Q-Dits can be divided into different Channels. Most recently, it’s also possible to restrict access to individual Channels so that the information can only be retrieved by a specific group of people within the Team.In addition, Channels can be enriched with a wide range of features. We especially recommended the tool MS Planner, which can be added to a Channel in one or, if required, several tabs in order to organize the Team's tasks. Alternatively, Planner can also be accessed via the browser and is able to automatically send e-mail notifications to an employee if a new task has been assigned to them. This way, all Team members have an overview of all activities, their status, and responsibilities at all times. With the personal task management tool MS To Do, which can be synched with Planner, all project members can manage their individual tasks according to individual preferences.
A central collaboration platform such as MS Teams enhances collaboration and transparency by allowing each Team member to access documents, track tasks, participate in or initiate discussions and track decisions anytime and anywhere. This also accelerates the onboarding process of new employees, as all conversations, decisions and tasks can be viewed retrospectively. As a result, the central platform allows everyone to access the latest information at all times.
Quick tip
Create a new Team if a group of employees comes together to work on a joint project or topic.
Create a new Team if a group of employees comes together to work on a joint project or topic.
2. Conversations over email flood
Are you annoyed by your overflowing inbox too? Often, the flood of emails simply isn't read. But even if you try, long chains of emails and the constant change of topics within your inbox make it difficult to keep track of the conversation. That's why our discussions take place mainly in MS teams. For conversations of two or in small groups, we use the so-called persistent chat (= private chat). Afterwards, the results are shared with the whole Team via Channel conversations. There, you can attach documents and notify a specific person with @name or an entire group with @channel or @general. Besides, MS Teams stores the chat history, so that, for example, new Team members can read past conversations retrospectively. With this approach, we have reduced our internal e-mail traffic – especially for one on one discussions – to a minimum and shifted almost all communication to MS Teams. Since both the conversation and the document processing (see 3rd principle) take place on the same platform, we have noticed an enormous increase in efficiency, especially when creating presentations, quotations and the like. And if things have to be done especially quickly, you might even answer a Channel conversation with a “thumbs up” emoji instead of typing an “I agree” message. Quick tip
Start a separate conversation with a meaningful subject line for each topic. This keeps conversations neatly organized and easily accessible via the search function.
Start a separate conversation with a meaningful subject line for each topic. This keeps conversations neatly organized and easily accessible via the search function.
3. Joint document creation over individual versions
Who hasn’t experienced a similar situation? A co-worker is editing and commenting on the second to last version of the draft, and you have the honorable task of manually copying all changes into the latest document, which – by the way – is called “V02_final_FINAL2_thistimeforreal”. Hopefully, before your other co-worker continues working on “V03_Draft”. With MS Teams and its SharePoint Online integration, this can be prevented easily. The collaboration tool automatically creates a separate site with appropriate access rights in SharePoint Online for each Team and Channel. Since version management is also automatic, older versions of a file can be accessed, compared or restored at any time. This allows you to track exactly who made which change and when. Thanks to the version management functionality and the possibility to edit documents together and simultaneously, files no longer need to be versioned individually. Taking into account the 1st and 2nd principle, we handle our entire document creation centrally via MS teams. If, for example, a review is required, the document can be attached to a conversation and the responsible Team member can simply be contacted via the @ function. What shouldn’t be forgotten despite the convenient chat functions: To prevent misunderstandings, we prefer a short telephone conversation (also possible via teams, of course) to a lengthy and confusing text message, especially when kicking off a new project. Quick tip
We do not version documents individually, and instead create and edit them jointly in MS teams. We do not send documents as email attachments (especially internally).
We do not version documents individually, and instead create and edit them jointly in MS teams. We do not send documents as email attachments (especially internally).
4. SMART meetings over wasting time together
Despite MS teams and the digital collaboration culture, we place great value on personal contact and are aware that it is irreplaceable. Value creation and result orientation are of course central to our work, both online and offline, because our employees' time is the most important resource of all. In order to establish an efficient meeting culture, we defined five rules to guide us both in internal meetings and with our customers: 1. As few participants as possible – Before inviting someone to a meeting, you should be aware of what contribution you expect from each participant. Only if absolutely necessary, you may invite participants who cannot make their own contribution. 2. Infrequent meetings – Weekly status meetings with poorly or unprepared participants should be avoided. Use the appropriate MS Team channels to communicate updates instead. When coordination meetings are essential, use agile practices such as time boxing. 3. When in doubt, leave – We allow our employees to leave the meeting if they cannot contribute to the topic or result. 4. Preparation – We do not set up a meeting without an agenda, both internally and with our customers. Instead, we inform participants in the invitation about the expected results, the contributions of those present, and the duration and location of the meeting. 5. Follow–up – After each meeting, we document the results and make them available to all participants via MS Teams. Additionally, we record tasks, assigned responsibilities and deadlines in MS Planner. Quick tip
Smart stands for infrequent meetings with as few participants as possible, who all have something valuable to contribute to the subject matter.
Smart stands for infrequent meetings with as few participants as possible, who all have something valuable to contribute to the subject matter.
5. Self-responsibility over rule culture
We deliberately refrained from defining a comprehensive governance for MS teams in order to encourage our employees to take responsibility for their own actions – and thus to promote the use of the collaboration tool. Only basic topics such as roles, responsibilities, naming, and structuring of the Teams are laid down in writing. Other than that, every employee is responsible for deciding how and to what extent they want to use MS Teams for internal and external collaboration. In order to allow our employees to stay agile and react quickly, there’s no approval necessary to create new Teams, and each Team owner is responsible themselves for archiving content accordingly at the end of the lifecycle. Quick tip
We trust our employees to take responsibility instead of relying on extensive governance guidelines, and thus achieve faster results.
We trust our employees to take responsibility instead of relying on extensive governance guidelines, and thus achieve faster results.
All of the principles outlined – which are based on recommendations from Microsoft and other good practice – have proven successful in our own day-to-day work. However, every company works differently. We will gladly assist you in developing principles specifically tailored to your needs.
Author
Yasinthan Easwarapalan
Yasinthans consultancy focus lies on implementing and improving digital workplaces, project management and business analysis. In recent years, he helped various organizations to fully realize the potential of Office 365.
Yasinthan Easwarapalan
Yasinthans consultancy focus lies on implementing and improving digital workplaces, project management and business analysis. In recent years, he helped various organizations to fully realize the potential of Office 365.
