What is Collaboration?

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What is Collaboration?

Jay F. Nunamaker Jr.Director

Center for the Management of Information

Soldwedel & Regents ProfessorUniversity of Arizona MIS

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Collaboration is defined as making joint cognitive effort toward achieving an

agreed upon goal

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Why Collaborate?

Exercise:List some of the reasons why people

in your organization Collaborate

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Why Collaborate?

Surface Perspectives Review

Share Work

Share the Vision

SocializeBuild Consensus

Solve ProblemsAvoid Decisions

Make Decisions

Synergy Share Information

Build Trust

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Modes of Collaboration

Same

Different

Same Different

Time

Place

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Systems to Support different Collaboration Modes

Same

Different

Same Different

Time

Place

Audio/VideoGroup Support

SessionsGroup Support

Team RoomsProject Rooms

Team DatabaseVirtual Sessions

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Collaboration Behavioral Difficulties

Exercise:List some of the behavioral

Difficulties with Collaboration

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Waiting to speakDomination

Fear of SpeakingMisunderstanding

InattentionLack of Focus

Inadequate CriteriaPremature Decisions

Missing InformationDistractionsDigressions

Wrong PeopleGroupthink

Poor Grasp of ProblemIgnored AlternativesLack of ConsensusPoor PlanningHidden AgendasConflictInadequate ResourcesPoorly Defined Goals

IneffectiveCollaboration

Collaboration Behavioral Difficulties

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Collaboration Is Expensive

• 15 Million formal Sessions / day

• ? Million Informal Sessions / day

• 4 Billion Sessions / year

• 30-80% Manager’s timeFortune 500 Companies3M Corporation Study

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Collaboration is Essential

No one has all the– Resources– Experience– Knowledge

To do the job alone

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Collaboration is:Collaboration is:• DifficultDifficult• ExpensiveExpensive• EssentialEssential

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How do people in organizations Collaborate?

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Level 1 Collected Work :Uncoordinated Individual Efforts

Level 2 Coordinated Work:Coordinated Individual Efforts

Level Concerted Work:Concerted Team Effort

Sprinters

Relay

3 Levels of Collaboration Capability

CrewHigh

Low

Degree ofCollaborativeEffort

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Level 1 Collected Work

• Individual, uncoordinated effort toward team goal• Team productivity is simple sum of individual

performances• Individualized Processes - Start to Finish• Office Applications

– MSWord Group Editing– Multiple Spreadsheet Sections– Powerpoint Presentation Passing

Sprinters

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Level 2 Coordinated Work

• Coordinated Efforts and Processes• Coordination, sharing, and hand-offs• Coordination Applications

– Workflow Applications • Adding structure to NOTES• Coordinator

Relay

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Level 3 Concerted Work

• All team members work a process simultaneously to achieve the team goal

• Repeatable Customized Process• Attention Dynamics• Collaborative Applications

– GroupSystems Online– Facilitate.COM– Meetingworks

Crew

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Inte

ract

ivit

y o

f C

om

mu

nic

atio

n

Process Structure and Task Structure

Hierarchy of Collaboration

Sprinters

IndividualWork

RelayRelayCoordinated Work

CrewCrewConcertedWork

Collected Work

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The Yellow Sticky Approach

Manual Support for Level 3 Collaboration

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• Two to Hundreds of people• Complex issues Addressed • Everyone

• Contributes Equally• Perceives everything Multiple Perspectives• Focuses Attention on Critical Issues• Takes ownership of the solution

• All Knowledge at everyone’s fingertips• Design Customized Repeatable Processes• Accomplish Goals and Produce Products

Dream Level 3 Concerted Collaboration

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GroupSystems Support for Concerted CollaborationIntegration of

– Collaborative Technology

– Attention Dynamics

– Knowledge Management

– Customized Repeatable Processes

To Dramatically Improve Productivity

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The GroupSystems Concept

• Computer for each participant

• Software for each task

• Public screen to focus attention

• Network to share information

• Access to external data

• Any Time, Any Place, Any Technology

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CollaborationCollaborationGroupSystemsGroupSystems

SessionPlanning

SessionPlanning

Knowledge ManagementKnowledge Management

ShareInformation

Generate Ideas

OrganizeIdeas

PollConsensus

ExploreIssues

ShareInformation

Generate Ideas

OrganizeIdeas

PollConsensus

ExploreIssues

OrganizationalMemory

EnterpriseModel

CorporateDatabase

Intranet World WideWeb

FTP/GopherWAIS

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SessionPlanning

SessionPlanning

Knowledge ManagementKnowledge Management

ShareInformation

Generate Ideas

OrganizeIdeas

PollConsensus

ExploreIssues

ShareInformation

Generate Ideas

OrganizeIdeas

PollConsensus

ExploreIssues

OrganizationalMemory

EnterpriseModel

CorporateDatabase

Intranet World WideWeb

FTP/GopherWAIS

BostonBostonDCDC

DCDC

DCDC

SFSF

SFSF

NYNY

NYNY

HKHK PITPIT

ATLATL

LALA

LONLON

ParisParis

CHICHI

LALA

SYDSYD

CollaborationGroupSystemsVirtual Collaboration

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GroupSystems Collaborative Support• Support for Small or Large Groups

on the Internet and Intranets • Create Shared Agendas• Generate Ideas • Share, Evaluate and Organize Information• Create Knowledge• Poll, Rank, and Prioritize ideas for consensus• Jointly Create Documents • Complete Records / Reports• Draw and Annotate on Shared Whiteboards• Import/Export to Lotus Notes and other Software• Administer Surveys• Obtain Commitment and Take Action

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GroupSystems is a suite of tools

to supportjoint cognitive effort

for Deliberation, Reasoning

and Decision Making

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Each Tool Focuses Thinking

in Some Unique Way

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Team Processes

IdeaGeneration

Idea Organization

Idea Evaluation and Prioritization

Idea Exploration

Idea Developmentand Exposition

BrainstormingTopic CommenterIdea OrganizerCategorizerGroup OutlinerGroup MatrixAlternative EvaluatorVoteStake Holder analysisAssumption surfacingGroup WriterTeam GraphicsScreen Prototyper

GSS Tools

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• Parallel communication• Anonymity • Structured processes• Improved information access• Organizational memory• Enables larger groups• Improved goal congruence

Why GroupSystems Can Improve Collaboration

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Why GroupSystems Improves Collaboration

• Parallel Input– No air time competition

– No waiting for a turn

– No forgetting your ideas

– No domination

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• Anonymity– No Intimidation

– No Domination

– No Evaluation Apprehension

– Focus on Ideas not personalities

– Free to float unpopular ideas

Why GroupSystems Improves Collaboration

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• Structured Process– Path to get from A to B

– Minimal off-task discussion

– Milestones for progress assessment

– Efficient path toward convergence

– Focused effort and deliberation

Why GroupSystems Improves Collaboration

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• Knowledge Management– Improved Information Access– Organizational Memory– Artificial Intelligence Categorization– Advanced Searching– Explicit Knowledge– Tacit Knowledge– Automated Sense-Making

Why GroupSystems Improves Collaboration

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• Improved Goal Congruence– Shared Understandings

– Consensus Assessment

– Focus on Differences

– Concerted Effort

Why GroupSystems Improves Collaboration

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IntellectualBandwidth

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Intellectual BandwidthRepresents

All the relevant Knowledge for a given set of Stakeholders

on a particular Issue

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AppliedKnowledge

AllKnowledge

OfA

Domain

ExplicitCapturedAvailable

Knowledge

IntellectualCapital

Intellectual Bandwidth

IntellectualBandwidth

KnowledgeDomain

Task Team

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Collaboration &Knowledge ManagementIncrease and LeverageIntellectual Bandwidth

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Intellectual Bandwidth

Collaborative Capability

Collected

Wisdom (Principles)Knowledge (Patterns)Information (Relationships) Data (Symbols)

Understanding

Intellectual CapitalOrganizational

Members

USE & DEPLOYMENT

Access

Concerted

Coordinated

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Level of Understanding

CollaborativeCapability

Increasing and Leveraging Intellectual BandwidthWith Collaboration & Knowledge Management

Individual Collective Coordinated Concerted

Data

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

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Application Sharing

Individual Collected Coordinated Concerted

Level of Understanding

Level of Collaborative Capability

Data

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Group Support Systems

Email

Manual Journal Search

Web Search Engine

Sense Making

Team Database

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Organization X

CollaborativeCapability

IntellectualBandwidth

Increasing and Leveraging Intellectual BandwidthWith Collaboration & Knowledge Management

Collaboration UnderstandingOrganization X Concerted Information

Level of Understanding

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Data

Individual Collective Coordinated Concerted

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Organization X

CollaborativeCapability

IntellectualBandwidth

Increasing and Leveraging Intellectual BandwidthWith Collaboration & Knowledge Management

Collaboration UnderstandingOrganization X Concerted Information Organization Z Individual Knowledge

Level of Understanding

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Data

Organization Z

Individual Collective Coordinated Concerted

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Organization X

CollaborativeCapability

IntellectualBandwidth

Increasing and Leveraging Intellectual BandwidthWith Collaboration & Knowledge Management

Collaboration UnderstandingOrganization X Collaborative Information Organization Z Cumulative Knowledge Organization Y Coordinative Data

Levels of Understanding

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Data

Organization Z

Organization Y

Individual Collective Coordinated Concerted

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Level of Understanding

Levels of Collaborative Capability

Group Size

5

1015

20

25

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Data

Individual Collective Coordinated Concerted

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Level ofUnderstanding

Level ofCollaborative

Capability

Group Size

Collaboration Understanding SizeOrganization X Concerted Information 27

5

1015

20

25

Organization X

IntellectualBandwidth

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Data

Collected Connected Coordinated Concerted

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Level ofUnderstanding

CollaborativeCapability

Group Size

Collaboration Knowledge Management SizeOrganization X Concerted Information 23Organization Z Individual Knowledge 15

5

1015

20

25

Organization X

IntellectualBandwidth

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Data

Organization Z

Individual Collective Coordinated Concerted

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Level ofUnderstanding

CollaborativeCapability

Group Size

Collaboration Knowledge Management SizeOrganization X Concerted Information 23Organization Z Cumulative Knowledge 15Organization Y Coordinative Data 13

5

15

20

25

Organization X

IntellectualBandwidth

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Data

Organization Z

Organization X

10 Individual Collective Coordinative Concerted