Collaboration tools are undeniably crucial to the performance of virtual teams- from project management and shared calendars to time-keeping, cloud-workspaces, and conferencing tools.
Each week it can appear that a new ‘must have’ tool enters the market from snapchat to wrike and the multitude of others each with their own unique capability.
In the corporate world, where many of us work, the choice of tool is generally made at a companywide or department level after much testing and evaluation. However the initial idea has to come from somewhere and then be implemented consistently by the team. Here is where problems sometimes arise
People can be surprisingly loyal to the tools they already use, and may dig their heels in and use the new tech sparingly and ineffectively unless it’s ‘sold’ to them properly. If your organisation has tools that are perfect for the job in question and the issue is they are not being used to their full potential, this is where your managerial skills can be utilised to the full.
However if new tools really do need to be considered and their use implemented across the board,here are some hints to help you choose and implement collaborative tools successfully.
- Make sure you need it. Sounds like common sense? You might think so, but collaboration programs are changing at a fast pace to solve the challenges we all face in a virtual world.
Though specific tools on paper look perfect, do they have the features you need now and importantly in the next few years? If they don’t potentially that is a waste of money.
Make sure it addresses what you need now and for the foreseeable future. - Involve your team in choosing the collaborative tools they use- they’ll be much more invested in the outcome that way. Get free demos and send links to your employees to demo and vote which ones they like best- and get them to argue why.
- Make sure you choose an intuitive tool. The last thing you want is an incredibly clever bit of kit that only a couple of people understand how to use-who then get frustrated because they become the ‘go-to’ person for everyone else who’s confused.
- Sell it! Bring your team together and immediately hit them with some ‘wow that’s clever’ aspects of the tool, and relate it specifically to how it will streamline processes and make their work easier, faster, better. If you fail to do this, there’s a chance you will find your fancy collaboration tools dead in the water.
- If you notice that the uptake isn’t as good as expected, perhaps that people are using the basic functions but emails are still flying back and forth rather than through the tool as hoped, then you need to sit down and find out what’s gone wrong.
- Don’t overwhelm them with too many tools. Even the tech-savvy Millennials amongst us are getting a case of tech-weariness- many people are apparently going back to pen and paper due to the overload! We only want so many passwords and programs in our life- past a certain tipping point they become counterproductive and time-wasting.
- Choose something fun! The new word in employee behaviour is gamification.
Many companies are installing tech tools to motivate their teams by making completing tasks like a game. Each task marked as completed on the tool earns rewards- these can be bonuses, prizes, competition or recognition. It’s been shown that people tend to respond well to this kind of ‘video game’ gratification, working faster and with better engagement. Even relatively simple timekeeping tools with stopwatch functions appeal to this game-reward approach.
When it comes down to it, if you’ve chosen the right tool and introduced it to your team effectively, then you shouldn’t really need to push your employees to adopt the technology. It will be apparent to them why it is better than the old way, and they should naturally switch with enthusiasm. If they are not, it’s time to sit down with them and find out where it went wrong: Was it product choice? Was it lack of training? Was it tech weariness? Or was it perhaps the worst thing of all: a decent product but just not really needed.
Until next time,
Julia
