Collaboration is an experiment

The latest wave in technology is collaboration. Microsoft, Google, and even Apple have announced products to let multiple people work on documents and spreadsheets at the same time. For them, collaboration is The Next Big Thing.

I think we should pause and think before rushing into collaboration. I don't say that it is bad. I don't say we should avoid it. But I will say that it is a different way to work, and we may want to move with caution.

Office work on PCs (composing and editing documents, creating spreadsheets, preparing presentations) has been, due to technology, solitary work. The first PCs had no networking capabilities, so work had to be individual. Even with the hardware and basic network support in operating systems, applications were designed for single users.

Yet it was not technology alone that made work solitary. The work was solitary prior to PCs, with secretaries typing at separate desks. Offices and assignments were designed for independent tasks, possibly out of a desire for efficiency (or efficiency as perceived by managers).

Collaboration (on-line, real-time, multiple-person collaboration as envisioned in this new wave of tools) is a different way of working. For starters, multiple people have to work on the same task at the same time. That implies that people agree on the order in which they perform their tasks, and the time they devote to them (or at least the order and time for some tasks).

Collaboration also means the sharing of information. Not just the sharing of documents and files, but the sharing of thoughts and ideas during the composition of documents.

We can learn about collaboration from our experiences with pair programming, in which two programmers sit at one computer and develop a program. The key lessons I have learned are:

• Two people can share information effectively; three or more are less effective
• Pair program for a portion of the day, not the entire day
• Programmers share with multiple techniques: by talking, pointing at the screen, and writing on whiteboards
• Some pairs of people are more effective than others
• People need time to transition from solitary-only to pair-programming

I think the same lessons will apply to most office workers.

Collaboration tools may be effective with two people, but more people working on a single task may be, in the end, less effective. Some people may be "drowned out" by "the crowd".

People will need ways to share their thoughts, beyond simply typing on the screen. Programmers working together can talk; people working in a shared word process will need some other communication channel such as a phone conversation or chat window.

Don't expect people to collaborate for the entire day. It may be that some individuals are better at working collaboratively than others, due to their psychological make-up. But those individuals will have been "selected out" of the workforce long ago, due to the solitary nature of office work.

Allow for transition time to the new technique of collaborative editing. Workers have honed their skills at solitary composition over the years. Changing to a new method requires time -- and may lead to a temporary loss of productivity. (Just as transitioning from typewriters to word processors had a temporary loss of productivity.)

Collaboration is a new way of working. There are many unknowns, including its eventual effect on productivity. Don't avoid it, but don't assume that your team can adopt it overnight. Approach it with open eyes and gradually, and learn as you go.