Daniel Rasmus presents tips on how to collaborate during quarantine at KMWorld Connect 2020

Collaboration is critical for the everyday business and personal practices required to make remote work well. Due to COVID-19, businesses have more workers doing their job duties from home, leading to an increase in organizations having to make tough choices quickly.

Even though telecommuting is not new, organizations can effectively design work experiences and processes for remote work, especially on the new massive-scale caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Daniel Rasmus, principal analyst, Serious Insights, discussed “Collaboration in Quarantine Time” during his KMWorld Connect 2020 presentation.

KMWorld Connect, November 16-19, and its co-located events, covers future-focused strategies, technologies, and tools to help organizations transform for positive outcomes.

“All relationships require collaboration in different ways,” Rasmus said.

Though more people are working remotely, Microsoft Teams has been steadily growing over time to help employees collaborate effectively and efficiently.

Also, CISCO rapidly evolved its features for the Webex platform so more people can work together while they work from home, ensuring more security and more.

“This pandemic has forced them to rethink everything and reinvest,” Rasmus said.

The GSUITE is now a Google workspace for employees so people can move seamlessly through the different platforms.

Because people have moved to web based services it allows companies to invest in a product. But, now there’s“collaboration confusion,” he said.

There are too many products and too many updates clogging the market as people continue to work remotely.

The office was the stop gap to confusion, as people are more isolated when there is an issue they may not be sure where to turn, he explained.

When choosing what platform to use there are several questions and answers that need to be decided upon including:

• Tools
• Context
• Processes
• Management

“We’re now seeing a number of organizations are realizing they need to adopt different practices,” Rasmus said.

Though people are benefitting from working remotely, such as experiencing less commute stress and reconnecting with family, employees may be working longer hours.

Employees are also missing out on certain things such as understanding through body language, conflict resolution, and more.

An example of a problem companies are now struggling with is remote hiring, he noted.

“Do different people succeed or do people succeed differently when working from home than they would in the traditional office?” Rasmus asked.

Teams must work harder at learning, connecting, and collaborating.

Another example he presented took an example of a legislative body using Zoom or Webex to conduct meetings and vote on things.

The future of the workplace will see the integration of technology to allow for a more hybrid environment that allows collaboration in the office and at home.

To prepare teams for remote work, he suggested:

• Tools: decide on tools to use, simplify the number or tools where possible, and adopt automated scheduling techniques.
• Practice: master collaboration apps, converge on virtual escalation and conflict resolution approaches, reimagine key performance indicators, advise on security needs for those working from home, and encourage to disconnect.
• Process: select which tools support which processes and reward good collaboration behavior.

Replays of KMWorld Connect webinars will be made available for on-demand viewing on or about November 24.