In one of my previous posts*, I talked about the emerging Collaborative Transnational Organization as the organization of the future. To help you get started with building such an organization, I offer the six C’s of collaboration: competency, capacity, connection, convergence, culture, and collective.

Competency

The first step is to assess, understand, and then build the necessary skills and competencies for working effectively in the collaborative, transnational age. Some of the most obvious skills and competencies needed include agility, adaptability, business acumen, technical savvy, customer focus, teamwork, and a global mindset. The HR/HRIT professional also needs to develop competencies around Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Services, Software-as-a-Service, collaboration and publishing tools (e.g., wikis, blogs), and social networking software (e.g., Facebook, Linked-In).

Capacity

Second, we need to build organizational and human resource capacity by making effective use of alternative delivery models, such as shared services, outsourcing, offshoring, and on-demand infrastructures. For HR and HRIT we need to have a global enterprise architecture built on a flexible SOA platform to provide a solid technology foundation that supports the delivery of both centralized and decentralized services, both onsite (physical) and remote (virtual) services, based on business needs and organizational competency and capacity.

Connection

Third, we need to provide an infrastructure that connects individuals across the organization in an ever more mobile, global, virtual, digitized world: voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP), social networking software, and new modes of communication, such as wikis, blogs, and RSS feeds. For HR and HRIT this means embracing and integrating connectivity in the way we provide services, such as with dynamic workflows, automated approvals, real-time calendaring, online documentation, just-in-time training, ongoing assessments – services that cross organizational, geographic, and system boundaries.

Convergence

Fourth, we must manage the convergence in the workplace of myriad, disparate technologies from telephones to computers to handheld devices. Free, open technologies, such as Skype and Facebook, allow organizations to easily operate across borders without having to build costly centralized infrastructures. Mashups – a lightweight method for integrating web applications – provide a seamless user experience, allowing us to link and deliver services globally or locally, centralized or decentralized, depending on business needs.

Culture

We need to promote a culture of openness, transparency, sharing, trust, accountability, and respect for global diversity. The HR/HRIT professional must understand the global regulatory environment and the differences in business practices in cultures around the world in order to put in place a global governance framework – one that meets both corporate and local business needs and that holds individual business units accountable for local regulatory compliance along with global organizational performance.

Collective

Finally, we must hold every worker individually accountable for the collective success of the organization by developing metrics that connect local activities to global success. This can happen only by first “thinking locally” and then “acting globally” and implementing organizational metrics that focus each individual on their role in the collective performance and success of the global organization. Accountability at the local individual level is the source of success at the global enterprise level.

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*The full text for this article can be found in the current issue of the IHRIM.link magazine.