Digi digest: 'Doing a Kelly' with collaboration

Have any of you tried to hold a conversation with someone on Excel? No, of course not. But in the famous blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment from the ‘Dilemma’ video back in 2002, that’s exactly what Kelly Rowland was doing on her Nokia (remember those?). More than twenty years later, we’re still in familiar territory.

No shame. But there are times when I’m speaking to my clients, and they’re telling me about the channels and platforms that they’re using, what they’re using them for, how people are accessing those platforms. And I have this real ‘oh’ moment.

They’re 'doing a Kelly': using WhatsApp for social groups, uploading documents on internal social networks, keeping collaborative files on desktop, sharing org charts like PowerPoint slides, intranet as the only source of internal communication stories, printing out documents, filling them in, scanning them back in to email to a manager.

It’s like using a knife to eat spaghetti

It’s a utensil. It’s used for eating food. But if you try to use it to eat spaghetti, you’re going to end up in a mess. And this mess is everywhere. Asana’s State of Collaboration report states that 45% of knowledge workers in enterprise companies say they want clearer guidance on how to collaborate effectively, signaling a disconnect between the presence of tools and knowledge about how to use them.

This is huge! Almost half of knowledge workers are struggling to use the collaborative tools that they have in their businesses. And you know that that means? That people are also struggling to connect and understand and engage with the internal communications and employee engagement efforts that you put out on your intranet, social platforms, Slack, Teams, wherever it might be.

So, what do we do?

To know that this is happening is one thing, but it’s quite another to know why. It could be a mixture of low digital capability in your business. It could be lack of signposting or knowledge of the channels and platforms that you have in place. It could be old habits, or even bad habits, like collaborative gatekeeping.

By doing some research and understanding exactly why people are misusing or simply not aware of the channels and platforms you’ve got in place, you have an opportunity to turn that into positive collaboration and positive internal communications and employee experiences, too.

If only she knew about SMS messaging or WhatsApp, that message might have got through to Nelly and Kelly might be with her boo.

Are you asleep to the potential of Office 365?

Office 365 is a humble set of apps many of us take for granted – after all, it’s the cornerstone of any digitally connected business with more than 1.2 billion global users.

So, chances are, you’ve already got the suite, but are you really using it? Or sitting on untapped app potential?

Make the most of what you’ve already got. Energise your Office 365 offering and wake up your people to the potential of the productivity powerhouse they already have.