“No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” – Calvin Coolidge
It all began with “It’s About Sharing Success.” Three years year, I’m still driven by this purpose. And for being committed to helping people succeed, I continue to be rewarded for my collaboration efforts.
I’m honored to be invited as a guest blogger for relevant resources that support global communicators. Recently, I collaborated with these two internal communication experts:
“For when ideas flutter in haze, we collaborate without notice and collect them as butterflies only to set them free into the world.” – Shawn Lukas, goodreads.com
How well does your organization promote an environment of collaboration?
How important is sustainable business success to your organization?
When considering the answers to these questions, you’ll soon realize that collaboration matters more than you realize.
In “Transforming Internal Collaboration for the Digital Economy” by Phase 2 Technology, we learn that “Forrester Research highlights the need to harness big data, transform customer experience, leverage cloud-based innovation, and embrace the mobile mind-shift. Unfortunately, many organizations that have successfully adopted Forrester’s principles still fail to follow through on an indispensable aspect of digital transformation: internal reorganization paired with technology modernization.”
So, how does an organization successfully achieve this “indispensable aspect of digital transformation?” Through collaboration.
Organizations with collaborative cultures are also more receptive to innovation and transformation, which are necessary for sustainable business success.
You can build the most elaborate marketing technology blueprint, but it won’t serve you well without one key ingredient: collaboration.
But before we tackle that challenge, what is a marketing technology blueprint, and why is it important to your organization’s innovation success?
In “How to Create a Marketing Technology Blueprint,”Scott Vaughan, CMO of Integrate, describes it as “a simple visual diagram – captured from a white board photo, organized in PowerPoint or a good old-fashion schematic – that outlines current tech, systems, processes and data flows utilized or needed by marketing. By documenting and visualizing systems and processes, marketers can quickly capture the current state of their marketing technology, identify gaps, overlaps, and chokepoints, and, most importantly, have a single view of their technology investments.”
The most successful marketing technology blueprint is one in which the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO) collaborate together to create it.
In “Getting the CMO and the CIO to Work Together as Partners,”Matt Ariker, Martin Harrysson and Jesko Perrey point out that “the CIO is becoming a strategic partner who is crucial to developing and executing marketing strategy. To do this successfully, “CIOs, obliged to turn new technology into revenue, need the CMOs to help them with better functional and technical requirements for big data initiatives.”
I’ve worked in marketing AND IT roles, so I understand the needs of both of these valued departments in an organization. If you want to improve communication and collaboration in YOUR organization, please contact me at peggy@starrybluebrilliance.com. Together we’ll collaborate to design your continued business success.
Welcome to Collaboration@Work, a series of features dedicated to share collaboration best practices that inspire highly engaged, productive environments.
Lise Michaud is Founder of IC Kollectif, a collaborative effort with IABC/Montreal that brings together the most comprehensive internal communication (IC) resources and content under one roof.
Lise Michaud
Read on to learn how IC Kollectif helps communication professionals find and share highly relevant IC information to support organizational communication success.
Peggy L. Bieniek, ABC: How did IC Kollectif get started?
Lise Michaud: IC Kollectif’s venture started five months ago. We kicked it off on Twitter and with IABC/Montreal’s February newsletter, an issue entirely dedicated to internal communication. Our initial partnership with IABC/Montreal provided us with high visibility and credibility from the start, and we are grateful for that.
We reached 1,000 followers on Twitter within 100 days and over 1,500 followers within 125 days. More significantly, we have grown organically and globally, bringing together in-house communication practitioners, IC thought leaders, consultants, professional associations and other participants from across five continents.
We held our first joint event with IABC/Montreal in April 2016, a two-hour workshop with Stephen Welch on how to become a strategic communication advisor. We reached a new milestone with the launch of our website on July 18.
PB: What inspired IC Kollectif to support internal communication professionals?
LM: IC Kollectif was born from a desire to simplify and accelerate the process of connecting communication professionals with knowledge, resources and our global community. It is intended for professionals in internal communication and other business communication disciplines.
As communication professionals, we are called on to be creative, innovative and keenly aware of the constant evolution of our practice. I have more than 25 years of experience in senior communication roles across the public and private sectors in Canada including internal, external and change communication, media relations and social media. Like any other communication professional, my job kept me very busy, and I had little time to search online for the latest study findings and best practices related to organizational communication.
There is a huge amount of information on corporate communication online, but these sources are not all equal in terms of quality and reliability. Yet there are many indispensable sources of information that can help us in addressing our day-to-day professional challenges. Knowing where to find them and having easy access is a great help.
PB: How does IC Kollectif’s efforts promote collaboration? LM: IC Kollectif is a connector. It is the only global initiative dedicated to bring together, under one roof, numerous sources about IC and organizational communication. We are not an additional communication business competing with existing communication organizations, agencies or consultants. Quite the contrary.
Our role is to identify great resources, make them known and facilitate access to them for global communication practitioners. We constantly receive notifications and messages from Twitter and LinkedIn followers with relevant information and sources to share.
We’ve also received many endorsements from global communication professionals. US-based Paul Barton wrote that “we bring the brightest people and the best ideas together in a unique way that is inspiring and enlightening to the profession.” Mike Klein, in his Netherlands-based blog, Changing The Terms, called IC Kollectif “a potent example of an effort that accelerates connection between communication professionals and expands their access to resources and networks.”
IC Kollectif brings together not only resources and information, but it also promotes the people who produce this relevant content, and hence, creates connections among communication practitioners. Our Top IC thought leaders list created by IC Kollectif’s followers is a tangible example of this.
PB: How was the top IC Thought Leaders list created?
LM: In April, we asked our Twitter followers to tell us which IC thought leaders they read and listen to. Within a few days, we received more than 50 names of IC experts that we published in a blog post. The list was viewed and shared thousands of times on social media. We also created a public Twitter list to follow the IC thought leaders on Twitter. Since we keep receiving requests for additions to the list, we update it frequently.
PB: What are the key features and benefits of your new website?
LM: In this first phase, the website includes four main sections: Sources, IC Thought Leaders list, Calendar of global communication conferences and events, and our new Blog.
Under Sources, we list organizations, agencies, publications, professionals associations, research and reports, blogs for communication professionals, a list of relevant Twitter Chats and hashtags to follow, a compilation of Communication LinkedIn groups, books, resources as well as glossaries.
Each element listed under the different sections has a link. With one click, you have a direct and immediate access to the information. We will update current sections on a regular basis and new sections will be added.
IC Kollectif focuses on a wide range of topics including change communication, digital communication, employee communication, social media, and much more. Although tactics remain an important aspect of the communication profession, we put a high focus on the value of managing communication strategically.
PB: How does your site tell the story of your business? LM:The IC Kollectif website celebrates the people and the organizations around the world who offer relevant content in organizational communication. We do this by taking a valuable role in bringing these sources and resources under one roof and in pointing communication professionals in the direction of useful information and connections to empower them in addressing their day-to-day professional challenges.
PB: What’s next in the collaboration journey for IC Kollectif? LM: Recently, we forged alliances with Australia’s Cropley Communication and US-based ALI Conferences. We are currently speaking with other organizations for possible partnerships.
We have a special interest in Communication and Public Relations research. We already have a section called Research and Reports on our website. Eventually, we’d like to expand this section by adding academic communication research to help bridge communication and PR research with global communication professionals.
Over the next weeks, we will introduce guests posts on our new blog by inviting communication professionals and experts to participate. Our aim over the next 6-18 months is to become a must-visit resource for communication professionals eager to stay on the cutting edge of practice and who value a strategic approach to communication management and leadership.
Special thanks to Lise for creating this unique collaboration effort to support global communicators in their quest to lead collaborative company cultures for their organizations!
Collaboration is one of those “sink or swim” things when it comes to organizational success.
Leaders who encourage collaboration within their organizations succeed. Those who don’t…won’t.
According to Heidi K. Gardner in “When Senior Managers Won’t Collaborate,” “leaders who want to build a culture of collaboration should begin with themselves, modeling the right behavior by contributing to others’ client work and sharing credit with those who participate in their own.”
In “Smart Leaders Know When Their Culture Sucks,”Jan Johnston Osburn says that “leaders who fail to ask if their organization has the right culture is failing in keeping their organizations fresh and innovative.”
Are you a champion for collaboration in your organization? Check out “8 Tips for Collaborative Leadership” by Carol Kinsey Gorman to find out how to foster this “essential ingredient for organizational survival and success.”
As communication thought leaders, we need to lead the charge to build collaborative company cultures that promote respect, trust and care.
Internal Communication (IC) is the foundation of a collaborative company culture. Once you build a flourishing employee culture, then your employees will carry forward that care to your customers and clients.
Here’s some inspiration and direction for your quest to build successful, sustainable, collaborative company cultures:
I’d like to thank and recognize these communication experts (also on the “Top IC Thought Leaders” list) for supporting my quest for collaboration and continuous learning:
How are you helping to build a collaborative company culture? Send your stories to peggy@starrybluebrilliance.com to share in the ongoing Collaboration@Work series. 🙂
What’s the one skill we can all learn to master that applies to any job in any industry?
It’s collaboration.
This sobering fact really hits home in “5 Essential Skills You Need to Keep Your Job in the Next 10 Years.” After Trend Spotting, Collaboration is the #2 essential skill you’ll need to keep your job in the future. Be sure to read about all of the “five skills to start building now to maintain your marketability over the next decade.”
Here are some other compelling articles to help support your efforts to master collaboration to ensure your future success in any organization in any industry:
The #1 tip for IT professionals (or anyone) to advance their career as described in “3 Ways to Advance Your IT Career,” is to Be A Team Player. Eric Grevstad explains that “you’re part of a bigger team – the whole company – and you’re judged on how much you contribute to the business’s bottom line.
The driving force behind “being a team player” is collaboration. Here are some fabulous real-life examples of how collaboration supports everyone’s success:
Is your organization looking for ways to improve communication and collaboration? Contact me at peggy@starrybluebrilliance.com to discuss how we can work together to create masterpiece communications.
This collaboration idea will literally move you to greater business success and will ensure IT (Information Technology) is a part of the strategic business conversation.
In “The Easiest Way to Get Your Team to Collaborate”Sam Shank, CEO and Co-Founder, HotelTonight, shared the successes of a “desk swap day, where people traded desks with colleagues on a different team.”
Overall, this idea was well-received by most HotelTonight employees. When reading the comments posted on this story, I noticed many people asked how this idea could effectively work for an IT team.
The best way to implement this idea for IT is to already have IT employees co-located with other business teams. This leads to positive relationships between IT and other areas of the business and improved collaboration, which leads to greater business success.
For example, in “How CIOs Build Bridges with Other C-Level Execs,”Leslie Jones, Senior Vice President and CIO at Motorola Solutions, talked about the success of “embedding IT staff in business functions, or instituting functional rotations to familiarize staff with other parts of the company. Now they are part of their business operations teams, determining strategies and plans for new customer services along with the other leaders in those groups. And then those teams turn to IT to help execute those plans.”
Here are some other resources to help focus IT on greater business success:
Need help creating and managing high-performing integrated communications and learning systems for your IT professionals? Contact me at peggy@starrybluebrilliance.com to discuss how we can collaborate to create masterpiece communications for your organization.
Photo: Pixabay
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