A timely article in the Harvard Business Review around collaboration is about choosing a CCO – Chief Collaboration Officer. Who takes the lead in being the champion for collaboration in your company? They go through a number of people like the CIO, CMO and CTO – even the CFO. But depending on your organization sometimes you need a grass roots leader. Maybe a Chief Collaboration Ambassador.
An ambassador might be a less formal role, but maybe just as powerful. A few weeks ago I wrote about empowering employees and HERO’s – Highly Empowered and Resourceful Operatives – maybe there is someone who stands out. Maybe you? People like you and HERO’s throughout the company are the leaders of collaboration, you’ve been doing it for years, you might have tools like Lotus Connections now and have spent time building the business case around making business personal again.
Who works well already across C-level leadership levels and has the respect of the employee base? I know that on every assignment, there is a core group of people or person, lets call him Don, who have been championing this already and usually this is the person who does the presentations to business units, coordinates around governance and security, has the knowledge to know who and how to navigate the processes. The Don’s of the world are out there and may be a good candidate – whomever it is this person must not only be masterful in the tools but also in the craft of collaboration.
Who’s your “Don”?
Jonathan, speaking of Lotus, this is timely news given that our IBM team has been at IOD all week —
At Lotusphere 2010, IBM announced the Collaboration Agenda, a market focus on transformative collaboration solutions for healthcare, insurance, banking, and government industries. As part of that initiative, today IBM has released a new Collaboration Assessment tool, created by the Aberdeen Group.
The IBM Collaboration Assessment Tool is a complimentary diagnostic tool designed to help you and your organization in three key areas: 1) to assess your current collaboration practices, 2) to define the business benefits of integrating a collaboration solution including the value of connecting clients, employees and business partners to drive new revenue opportunities, and 3) to improve customer satisfaction, enhance operational efficiency and more.
http://www.edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf/dx/ibm.com-ibm-collaboration-assessment-tool