Managed managers
Bring the old-fashioned war room to the Net and help junior managers put their heads together without actually getting together.
Problem: Managers like to manage. But rolling up their sleeves to collaborate isn't always their strong suit.
Solution: A group projectâ€"where managers work from far-flung offices and hold meetings on the Netâ€"forces them to work together.
When Ford Motor Company wanted to groom 47 junior managers from its offices around the world to become tech-savvy executives for the new economy, it chose eRoom Technology's virtual workspace to bring the group together. The leaders-in-training convened last summer for a six-month pilot test inside an eRoom, where time-zone differences pose fewer barriers to collaboration, says director of management systems Bipin Patel. Trainees can post documents and share files, then discuss them via instant messaging, chat rooms, and discussion boards.
An eRoom "is like one of those old-fashioned war rooms where they all look at the same information on the wall," says Patel. Divided into smaller teams, the group is assigned actual management projects. Senior executives in the company sponsor the projects, which are intended to solve real problemsâ€"such as increasing customer satisfactionâ€"within divisions of the company. "They develop it, they work together, they bring together external people to help them grow that part of it, and then look toward implementing it," says Patel.
You can set up an eRoom in about half an hour. eRoom Technology supplies the server for $9,995; each eRoom member costs an additional $199. You pay another 17 percent of the total bill for maintenance, support, and upgrades. Or you can opt for an eRoom without the hassle of hosting it yourself: Through eRoom.net, up to 10 employees can join a room for $249 a month. With either setup, your company information can stay within the eRoom or, if a project ends for example, you can transfer it to your own knowledge management system.
The Ford group will meet in person twice during the six-month period at company headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. "You'll always need face-to-face learning," says Patel. But he credits eRoom with making the group's first weeklong, in-person training session more productive. Before a collaboration platform like eRoom, "you came to a class and you learned something and maybe you applied it," says Patel. "But now, you come to that class having worked together, and you're a lot more focused on achieving something."
