Collaboration Is the Best Medicine for What Ails a Corporation

As I've swum in the waters of businesses, I've slipped upon familiar dams and bottlenecks hindering their progress. The strangely familiar challenge flooding productivity is collaboration.

Many companies throw bodies at the same battleship of problems, like another high-paying CxO, but disruption or reorganization doesn't necessarily produce better results. Results are manifested through the efforts of diversified collaboration and vital communication lanes.

Too often, projects and initiatives fail because the right players aren’t on the same ship to ensure the creation of a well-thought-out plan. In the case of information management projects, the number of times I've noticed essential groups missing from the seat at the table is notable. I’ve shaken my head so often that I've got whiplash.

Sometimes, you find certain groups excluding others at the onset because they don't understand the purpose or value of those groups being included. The division between information technology, IT, and information governance, IG, is frequent. IT is diligent about implementing tools to make life easier for the business and clients. However, not all see the complete picture. The information going into those tools requires lifecycle management, regulations, and a strategy to ensure capture, findability, and the proper disposition to ensure the privacy and security of the information, regardless of its format.

These two groups are key partner collaborators and change-makers for a company's productivity, progress, and success. Critical groups like privacy, risk management, compliance, and lines of business will aid the information journey.

Collaborating with these groups lends to the dam's opening, allowing the flow of communication to stream freely. Enabling diverse people from each area to bring their knowledge, experiences, and thought-provoking ideas to the ship will undoubtedly create a culture of trust, open communication, and successful initiatives. Creating a collaborative culture of advisors will enable successful projects, therefore meeting the company’s goals and mission by serving its client to the most rewarding outcomes possible.

The next time you hear of or sit in on an information management project, bring along a shipmate and the trusted advisors integral to its success. Trusted advisors can be internal or external, and external advisors, such as myself, can gauge the lay and state of your flood lands to help remove the dam blockers in your way.

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