Lead by example

Practice what you preach to your colleagues with motivation. Why would they take the time and have the urge to do something you won’t do yourself?

There’s an invisible marker for each user and for each organization in their transition to new forms of work. Shifting from one mode of sharing information / communication to another – one that is more open, more transparent, more collaborative – won’t happen immediately and don’t underestimate the efforts required to help some people “change” their old habits, thus leaving their comfort zone, moving from a logic where they own the information (this is my mailbox) to a logic where the information is shared within groups created as vectors for the realization of the objective for which they have been created.

Some people might believe that it’s enough to launch a tool in order to have the “magic” happen. We can sometimes hear people say, “if the tool has a purpose, it will be used, and it will operate autonomously.” Not so! The paradigm shift we are experiencing today in the transformation of our work patterns requires energy, rigour, perseverance, and exemplarity at all times. Then, gradually, the magic operates: in the same way that faxes replaced traditional postal mail or that emails replaced faxes, collaborative platforms, empowered by the new capacities made possible by the integration of automation, will gradually replace the tools that preceded them.

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This article is part of a series focusing on the best practices to be adopted for the launch and implementation of a collaborative platform or private social network within a company or organization.