The Importance of Diversity in Communication for Collaboration

When designing social environments and enabling discussion and collaboration tools, we must be most careful to address the different aptitudes of both the audience and participants involved. We must also remember constantly what our goal with the collaboration activity is.

Keeping in mind that communication is not collaboration and that not all kinds of communication improve collaboration or lead to it, it is a good idea to go over some aspects that a good communication for collaboration strategy and implementation should consider.

1. Communication for what?

The first step is to clearly define the goal for the collaboration space being enabled and the final result expected. Are the communication capabilities of the collaboration space being put in place to a) allow people to meet each other, b) express themselves, c) listen to each other, d) address issues, discuss them and collaboratively work on finding solutions, e) generate a knowledge base, repository and reference source of the group or community's positions, point of views and issues.

Although one may feel like doing all of the above, each of them presents its own set of conditions and implications and it's not guaranteed that one proven communication tool or social space meets all of them. It is not enough that users are posting, talking, chatting, writing, reading, seeing each other, for that does not guarantee anything by itself. One must return to this goal again and again and check that whatever the tools used are, the goals established are met and the expected results are achieved.

2. The elements of Value Generating Communication.

Since the scope of our discussion is communication for collaboration, it is a good idea to quickly reflect on the stages a good collaboration strategy should consider to guarantee effectiveness and a significant impact on the actions of those involved:

• Awareness and Acknowledgement: Knowing others exist ant what they do.
• Recognition of the Value of Collaboration: Each member sees value and is able to identify relevant, concrete and specific benefits of engaging in the collaboration.
• Passive Communication: Organizing own ideas so they can be and are presented to others. Promoting the practice of "listening" to others and to relevant channels and sources.
• Active Communication: Bi or multidirectional communication where one speaks and others not just listen, but respond.
• Exchange Information and Share Knowledge: Active communication.
• Collaborative Planning: Needs are addressed and strategies, although independent, are built together.
• Collaborative Action: Execution is synchronized, optimizing use of resources, leveraging the actions of others and generating synergy.

But in order to keep it simple, let's focus on four practical aspects to be addressed by any communication solution designed to enable collaboration:

• Expressing: Being able to express ideas and publish information.
• Listening: Being able to access what others are expressing or sharing.
• Responding and Interacting: Being able to add value to the ideas of others or create new ones together.
• Archiving and Reviewing: Permanent access to the communication process and its outcome.

So when enabling a communication solution, keep in mind that it is not enough just to make it easy for people to express their ideas and issues, others should be able to easily access them, comment and enhanced them and re-visit and research them freely. Rate any solution on how well it serves all 4 aspects listed above, not just one or two of them.

3. People's Aptitudes and Communication Styles.

From the obvious observation that some people are more verbal than others to the more complicated notion that some people need a structured framework in order to engage topics and communicate with others in contrast to the mysterious ways the mind of others work, it is clear that not all people are created equal, but their diverse needs should be equally addressed by different approaches.

Self-Expression, Comprehension and Interaction Styles

Some people tend to me more outspoken, social and casual, while others are more conscious about their opinions.

Some people are more likely to make a statement or introduce a new topic or idea, while others are more comfortable giving an opinion on someone else's idea or engaging in an on-going discussion rather than starting one.

The unfamiliar sound of their own voice makes some people uncomfortable and limits their ability to fully participate or engage in audio communications, while for others it's the natural and easiest way to engage and participate in meetings and collaborative environments.

Some people are better at grasping other people's concepts and commenting on and improving them. Some are better at coming up with new concepts.

The nature of some people makes them more comfortable taking time to digest other people's concepts, carefully placing it on and connecting it in their personal conceptual framework, before carefully providing the proper feedback they think respect to others opinions mandates.

Different Responses to Media Types

Some people do better dealing with full texts, others with summaries, others deal better with diagrams, some like browsing texts with pictures, others prefer animated images, others comprehend better watching videos and others following presentations with lists of topics.

Some people are unable to listen to an audio report or conference for an hour without any visual stimulation. Many are unable to block the rest of the senses and focus and could just be easily distracted. Visual stimulation could grasp and guarantee some people's attention, while textual support is key for others to be able to follow the discussion.

Some even need to be able to touch, handle, go forward and backwards, underline, add marks and notes to the topic in order to relate to it.

---

We could continue describing aptitudes and styles, but the point to make here is that in enabling communication tools and collaboration spaces one must avoid imposing technologies, approaches and practices upon others and make sure that different options are provided to address the diverse aptitudes of those involved.

Otherwise, we'll be hindering the effectiveness of the collaboration effort and limiting ourselves to the rule of the verbal, visual, textual, structured or silent ones, depending on the choice of technology and communication method we choose.

4. The Colors of the Digital Rainbow

We are not all Indigo, pun intended, Margarita ;-) Different media have different advantages and disadvantages, in particular for the results and outcomes of the discussions and their impact in collaboration.

• Blogs are ideal for people who feel comfortable on arranging their ideas and thoughts through an introspective process.
• Excellent for expressing original concepts and generating awareness.
• The author is in control of his/her own space, concepts and ideas and feels more comfortable.
• Clean chronological record of the evolution of concepts.
• Comments are welcome but play a secondary role, since topics are only started by the blog's author.
• Forums are ideal for people who like to read and add value to other people's ideas and to collaborative build knowledge and engage in discussions.
• Excellent for sharing original concepts and submitting them to the scrutiny of others.
• An excellent tool for those good at improving on other people's concepts.
• Ideal for collaboration.
• While still being flexible and freely accessible by a large number of people, they naturally structure conversations in threads and allow easy identification of the evolution of concepts, discussions and additions made by each participant.
• Clean chronological, conceptual and group/personal additions record.
• Chat rooms are better for people with good visuomotor skills (and typing skills) with an spontaneous aptitude and a fresh knowledge of the issues involved.
• Ideal for brainstorming and quick development of ideas or addressing specific topics or issues.
• But it may be hard to maintain focus unless the chat is moderated.
• Difficult to track concepts, value additions and discussions through the transcripts even when moderated.
• Lack of structure (unless moderated) puts off people who require structure to participate.
• Too fast for those who like to bring a more reflected introspective addition to the communication process.
• Audio blogging or pod casting are better for people with good verbal skills and spontaneous.
• Audio and video discussions can be accessible by people without reading skills, but this presents the challenge that people without reading skills traditionally lack regular access to the tools or equipment required for playback or reproduction.
• So, while in theory we can reach more people through audio and video, in practice it may be the other way around for future reference and access to the content generated.

• Unless the recipient owns a portable audio device and the audio file is easily ported to this device, the need to be in front of the compute (with earphones or alone) can be quite inconvenient to some.

• Lack of common indexing, book marking and browsing capabilities also make reviewing and research most inconvenient.

• Teleconferences and Videoconferences are better for people with good social skills.
• Proper moderation is a must.
• Pre-distributed agenda and list of topics is of high benefit.
• Pre-distributed support documents or concurrent complementary material is also of high benefit.
• The availability of transcripts and printable material is a must for review and research.

5. The pot of gold at the end of the Digital Rainbow

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) allow us to provide different concurrent approaches and solutions for group interaction and community communication and collaboration, thus making sure that we facilitate the engagement of the participants and ease future access, indexing and reference of the experience, content and knowledge generated.

If you are planning to facilitate a communication and collaboration environment, make sure you don't impose IT solutions upon participants, as flashy as they may seem.While it may be a lot easier for some users to push a button and record their thoughts, it definitely does not guarantee that they will be listened to, shared among the collaboration group or community and certainly presents challenges as to how collaboration is organized and promoted around it.

As usual, human action is most valuable. In this case, moderating, editing, rearranging, generating excerpts, introductions, conclusions and summaries and proper transcripts may be the thing that guarantees that knowledge generated is easily accessed by others in the future, a clear track of value added by each participant is accessible and that enables other people to add additional value and continue evolving the concepts, ideas, initiatives and solutions discussed.