For most of modern work history, collaboration was the little sibling of digital tools. Cast to the side and excluded from ‘big kid’ games, collaboration tools were neither serious nor essential.
But not anymore.
As mobile phones became prolific, communication via email ushered in an ‘always on’ era of work where constant availability was the norm. Communication through email started to move towards the main nucleus of work.
But email wasn’t equipped to handle this shift, and many new collaboration tools sprang up to take its place. The intense adoption of instant messaging apps and social media-style channels suddenly made enterprises start taking the little kid of collaboration seriously.
Some newer companies see collaboration as the centre of all of their work, while others still view it as a fun add-on to improve the employee experience.
Which one is right?
Keeping domain data at the core
The traditional model of business applications looks a lot like an ERP system. It has all of the information the company needs regarding finances, vendors, and other essential data. For many companies, the ERP is the trusted system of record. If the ERP didn’t record it, it didn’t happen.
The advantage of this model is that it provides the structure needed to understand where the business is and what needs to be done. It’s a sophisticated model that keeps detailed and accurate information. At any moment, you can quickly zero in on critical business information, generate reports, or know how things are progressing.
The disadvantage of the ERP model is that it is very impersonal and stagnant. Information only changes when approved actions are taken. Approval workflows are often not included in an ERP, which means a lot of communication needs to happen in a separate channel such as email, chat, or a process management tool.
This is not a mild issue. 86% of employees cite a lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures, according to Salesforce. If the traditional digital workplace lacks this core component, what is a better solution?
Talk first, work later
In response, many younger companies have adopted a collaboration-first mindset to how their business functions. The trusted system of record for what goes on inside the business is not a highly structured ERP-like system, but a chat or email history. If someone asks “What happened?”, everyone does a dive into their inbox.
The advantage of putting collaboration first is that the business can be much more dynamic, adaptive, and human-centric. Teams are more agile and in the know, and chat tools are usually more user-friendly. Work is not just about the data you generate, but about how humans interact with that data and what they do with it.
The problem with keeping collaboration at the centre is that it is quite messy by nature, especially when separated from the context of work. Although the best collaboration tools integrate with your main databases and allow you to perform actions, chat tools cannot quickly produce reports and check on the status of work. Keeping a separate collaboration system as your primary system of record is a very chaotic way to run a business.
Collaboration tools are also distracting by nature. They bombard users with notifications and give the appearance of work being done when in actuality it is just digital chatter that gives a false sense of productivity.
