Today's guest post comes from Lokesh Datta, a co-founder of All Collaboration. Focusing on collaboration, All Collaboration offers points-of-view, original research, reviews of products and services, interviews with industry luminaries, and the “best of” articles on the web. All Collaboration has a companion Discussion Group on LinkedIn. Follow Lokesh on Twitter: @LDatta.

People collaborate, tools don’t! We hear this admonition often and, in fact, I plead guilty to using it as well. Is that sufficient, however, for successful collaboration? Not really! People and tools are both necessary but not sufficient. Effective collaboration requires a holistic approach, consisting of: Purpose, People, Process and Place.

What happens if any one of these is lacking is detail, clarity or fit?

Lack of clearly-defined and shared PUPOSE => CONFUSION: When you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there! Confusion is actually putting it mildly. The team will at the very least wader, second guess, and engage in rework and even redundant work. And at the end, the team may achieve the perceived goals which may not have even the intended impact on the organization.

Poor mix of PEOPLE skills and incentives => GRADUAL or NO PROGRESS: Collection of people doesn’t symphony make! When the team lacks the right mix of people with requisite skills, collaboration is in jeopardy. When you have a good mix of skills but poor incentives to collaborate, people would be less motivated and progress would be gradual which may jeopardize the schedule and quality of work.

Ill-conceived PROCESS for the problem on-hand => CUL-de-SAC: Unguided missiles are just as powerful as guided missiles, with a difference! Digging too many dry wells, taking too many detours, engaging in too many iterations, etc. are at the very least a source of frustration if not dejection and a complete waste of time and resources.

Great PLACE (tools) but not right for the people and process => INFORMATION MESS: All that glitters is not always gold! [Aside: Places is more than tools; it also addresses the mix or face-to-face versus virtual team activities, real-time meetings (face-to-face, web conferencing, IM) and virtual discussions (wikis, discussion boards, emails).] When tools get in the way of collaboration, they are not collaboration tools. There are no collaboration tools, only tools that people actually use for collaboration! When tools are not consistent with project needs, people are not comfortable with tools, or discipline is not enforced, one ends up with information and communications mess.

So what can you do?

1. Define PURPOSE clearly: Begin with the end in mind! Bullet points on a PowerPoint slide are not particularly helpful or clarifying. Develop a level of detail and granularity that would minimize misunderstandings later. Gain a shared understanding and agreement among team members through discussions. Outline what success looks like and articulate success metrics in particular.

2. Get the right PEOPLE mix: Select people based on needs of the project in terms of skills, expertise and experience. Determine if suppliers, customers or partners need to have a voice. Choose fewer rather than more people. Define roles & expectations clearly. Bring to bear incentives. Flatten hierarchy.

3. Design PROCESS for the project on hand: No need to reinvent the wheel if relevant process or sub-processes exist, but adapt them to the problem. What worked before for a different purpose, with a different group of people, may not work this time. Let the team figure it out. It brings about clarity, shared understanding and commitment. Be flexible along the way.

4. When it comes to PLACE (tools), pick the right horse for the course: Let the Purpose, People and Process determine the tools. Select tools for communication, organization and writing/editing. Collaborators should be comfortable with and committed to the tools, or else detours and silos in information and communication flow would occur. Tools should provide transparency of progress, status, information and discussions. And, keep it simple on tools!

Oh, and avoid the “collaboration trap” where collaboration becomes a goal unto itself.

What challenges have you encountered in collaboration? What symptoms have you observed for collaboration going off-track? What would you recommend?