Summary
- Our client is a major high-tech manufacturing company seeking to improve team collaboration across functional and geographic lines of business.
- The deployment of GalaxyLens significantly increased the level of effective collaboration. This was achieved by streamlining and redistributing responsibilities for collaboration to eliminate bottlenecks and overload and by bridging gaps in team communication structures.
Highlights
The communication tools used by this organisation includes email and chat and a proprietary content management system. Our technology is able to capture any data sources stored by a client on its servers.
GalaxyLens initially identified the communication and information sharing patterns throughout the organisation. As part of this process, invisible communication pathways were automatically mapped and critical knowledge flow networks quantified.
It quickly became evident that there were numerous pressure points of collaboration overload between people and teams, which were adversely impacting the time it was taking to get things done and the efficiency of decision making.
There were also noticeable gaps in the flow of knowledge and information between teams, which was reducing the level of effective collaboration. The medium through which knowledge was being shared was also a key issue. For example, it became evident that knowledgeable people in high demand should have been transferring certain types of information to permanent locations rather than the more transient medium of email.
Outcomes
GalaxyLens identified previously unknown disenfranchised, misaligned, overwhelmed and isolated people and teams. This enabled us to significantly improve the collaboration efficiency by:
- Enhancing participation by ensuring the allocation of appropriate resources and contribution opportunities for the identified disenfranchised,
- Creating greater value at the intersection of different skills and functional interests for the misaligned,
- More clearly defining the role and accountability parameters for the overwhelmed,
- Developing a more inclusive approach to idea development and explanation of the larger context to ensure greater inclusion on the part of the isolated.
These outcomes should not be considered in a vacuum. For example, people should be encouraged to be constructive contrarians and creative challengers. Similarly, it is acceptable for people/teams to deliberately isolate themselves for specific purposes (e.g. as found in Agile initiatives).