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Your Story: Throwing new tools at a communication problem?
Merlin Mann | Mar 15 2008
I'm working on a (likely non-43 Folders) piece about a topic that seems to keep coming up whenever I talk with people about how their team plans, collaborates, and generally communicates with one another. I'd love to hear from you in comments if you have a contribution to make. What’s your story?Do you have a story about a time when your team or company tried to solve a human communication problem by adding a new tool? In your estimation, how did things turn out?
Yours doesn't need to be a horror story to be included here -- there are certainly ample examples in which a thorny problem disappeared by introducing a bit of high (or low) technology to the mix. But, the anecdotes I hear from worker bees often focus on the frustration they felt when a wiki, a new CMS, a mailing list, or some other tool was introduced into an ecosystem that was suffering from a more fundamental communication problem. A lot of people tell me that this makes matters much worse all around, often amplifying the complexity of the original problem, in addition to piling on burnt cycles that were committed on getting everyone up to speed on the new "silver bullet." If you have a minute over the next week or so, please share your story here. Redact details that you think need redacting, but please consider telling me how things went for you and your group. And, if you feel like a whole or partial solution to the core problem ever did come along, that would be great to know, as well. Already documented this someplace else? Know of someone else who did? Links to relevant stories are also greatly appreciated. If things pan out, I may be contacting a few of you offline for more details, and conceivably, an interview or two. Thanks in advance. 34 Comments
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Simple tools are only as effective as the people who use themSubmitted by twofistededitor on April 8, 2008 - 8:03am.
My example is very small, but it illustrates a how any tool, no matter how simple, can still fail if the implementation is not supported by the people who use it. Last year, I worked as the only administrative assistant for a medium-sized construction business. Our problems were relatively small, but very pervasive. Our company vehicles were constantly in for repair because our mechanics didn't communicate with each other and therefore we weren't tracking maintenance. I only knew the oil hadn't been changed in a specific vehicle when it broke down onsite and had to be towed to a shop. I created a simple form that I could fill out in the office and put into a binder for each vehicle. All that was required was a phone call or a sticky note on my desk so I could track in the info. However, without the commitment of the hierarchy and the people who needed to track the information, it didn't work. I could have bought expensive software to fix this problem, but it still wouldn't have worked without the input of all the people connected to the problem. » POSTED IN:
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