AUGUST 2011 64870 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Business Collaboration Meets Social Collaboration: JAVIER MUNOZ has been with the World Bank Information Management and Building a Community for SharePoint Users Technology Department’s Solutions Design and New communication technologies are changing the way World Bank Group (WBG) Implementation Team since late 2010. Previously, he staff work and interact with their colleagues. For example, teams in different worked with the World Bank locations and time zones can use virtual collaboration platforms for communication Knowledge and Learning Team and knowledge management. During 2009 and 2010, the Latin America and Caribbean in the LAC region as the KM Focal Point for the Human (LAC) and Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) units volunteered Development Department, to participate in the pilot phase of the rollout of SharePoint, a common work space where he provided advice and support to teams in capturing, for teams that bundles a number of functions previously available only as separate packaging, and disseminating applications. At the same time, there was an increase in demand across the World knowledge on health, education, and social Bank Group (WBG) for a Facebook-type collaboration platform, called “Scoop,� which protection topics. responded to teams’ need for a virtual platform to support social collaboration. SharePoint had already exceeded expectations, with many staff members from APPROVING MANAGER Rajan Bhardvaj, Senior different units in the WBG headquarters and country offices becoming active users, Information Officer (Task Team and the number of site requests increasing weekly. This demand brought the need to Leader for SharePoint). identify and group all SharePoint site owners and users so everyone could connect, share and learn from each other. This SmartLesson describes how one of the so- called “SharePoint evangelists� came to create a group in Scoop, which quickly started attracting members from all corners of the World Bank Group. Background SharePoint, also known in the Bank as “Connect� was promoted as a business Box 1: SharePoint and Scoop collaboration tool of particular value for teams working in operations. It also is a versatile tool As a business collaboration tool, SharePoint’s with a myriad of uses that ease and enhance functionalities are different from those of business collaboration and improve Scoop: productivity. The Microsoft trademark gave it instant credibility among staff and within a • Scoop is designed to enable a Web site to short period, SharePoint gained popularity become a community. It provides an Bank-wide. On the other hand, a number of informal space where staff can create staff members questioned the selection of and participate in discussions on any Scoop, as opposed to SharePoint, as the tool related topic, share useful links, read for hosting community spaces (See Box 1). the latest news, and connect with other staff. Initially, it took a bit of extra effort to recruit • SharePoint offers these same features, SharePoint users on Scoop and to help them but it is most powerful on document understand its different possible opportunities. collaboration, issues tracking, project First, we had to identify key users and potential task management, calendar, wikis, and ones. Most of the early users of Scoop came event planning, among other functions. from the LAC and PREM (anchor) units. Within a short time, the group became increasingly Scoop is the Bank’s solution for interactive popular, which meant a higher number of online staff communities. users within the different units in the WBG headquarters and the country offices. SMARTLESSONS — AUGUST 2011 1 The team behind the promotion and implementation of LAC and PREM units—is rated the second-most-popular SharePoint in the Bank is continuously meeting with the group World Bank-wide. It has over 611 registered members of the community, face-to-face or on web- members, most of whom are from the vice presidency conference via Adobe Connect. In addition to attracting units. All its members have an interest in common: using new users of SharePoint, these meetings also help to SharePoint to improve their work. promote the community and encourage team members to continue to use the Scoop Group for dialogue, discussion, 2) Select a collaborative-space community leader who is learning, and knowledge sharing. not only knowledgeable in the field of knowledge management but also has a knack for being proactive Lessons Learned and reaching out. 1) Bring people together who have something in The community leader for a new collaborative space common, keep it informal, and then watch what carries a lot of weight on his or her shoulders—including happens! responsibility for providing guidance, recruiting new members, encouraging knowledge sharing and The above citation from Etienne Wenger, a well-known discussions, and above all monitoring all the activity in knowledge management scholar, influenced the pilot the space. This is not an easy task, because it has to be phase of Scoop and in the conceptualization of the combined with the regular work schedule. In our case, SharePoint community. The common interest was that all the community leader brought valuable experience. the members either had used SharePoint or were planning Having previously served as the central rallying point for to do so. Therefore, we didn’t need to adopt any formal SharePoint promotion and user engagement, he applied mechanisms for learning or for user engagement. A those skills and expertise to the Scoop endeavor. The community-driven approach brought SharePoint users— initial target group was staff, first inviting users in the site owners, regular contributors, and regular users— LAC and PREM units—and then all site owners in the together and gave each individual an opportunity to share World Bank Group—to join and promote the online experiences, post a question, learn from others, and community among staff in their units. This was a real connect with best practitioners. kickoff, because the Bank has hundreds of site owners and just as many sites. This approach had amazing success! A staff member in one unit would show interest in and learn about another Another feature that generated a great deal of attention unit’s work. Today, the original group—created from the was a summary of examples of best practices from 1 different teams in the World Bank. This is when the real Etienne Wenger (June 2006). “Communities of practice, a brief introduc- tion.� http://www.ewenger.com/theory/communities_of_practice_intro.htm. learning began. For example, the staff from Human 2 SMARTLESSONS — AUGUST 2011 Resources started to learn from LAC, External 5) Invite management to get behind the Operational Communications learned from development and implementation of a new PREM and LAC Human Development, and so service or product—in this case, to on. The community leader also began participate in and promote the Scoop receiving invitations to different panels and community. meetings—from such units as the Reform Secretariat, Operational Policies and Country Because the Scoop community entails a way Services (OPCS), and others—that provided of working that is new to the World Bank, opportunities to promote and sell the Scoop senior management sometimes need to community. provide a direct response to ensure that users have accurate and current information. For 3) The key to active community participation example, representatives of senior is good—and versatile—content. management have participated in several discussions on technical functions, Good content is the key to collaboration, governance, integration with other bank and for the content to be good it has to be systems, and so on. versatile. One of the most active features in the community is the discussions section, Senior management of the Information in which users create and participate in Solutions Group (ISGIS) have also invited ISG discussions to address issues, share new staff to join the Scoop community and and upcoming work-related events, and participate in its activities. They used their provide useful information on training and monthly e-newsletters and staff meetings to learning opportunities. Another popular highlight the number of members feature is the news page, content is participating and the level of activity in the received via Google Alerts and Twitter. It community. presents a monthly snapshot of news— always revised and filtered by the Conclusion community leader—and provides information on what organizations and The community of SharePoint users on Scoop people are doing with SharePoint outside has become the point of reference for WBG of the World Bank Group. staff who want to share, learn, discuss, and connect with others using or with an interest The richness of the content on the space has in SharePoint. This is how business increased its popularity and made it an open collaboration has met social collaboration. online meeting place for a wide range of The Scoop team has received recognition, participants, from administrative support first with the Superusers Award and more staff to senior management. recently by being included in the Scoop Wall of Fame during the WBG’s Innovation Days. 4) Social-collaboration and business- Our ultimate goal is to increase the number collaboration tools can be used in parallel— of users—at headquarters as well as in the even regarding SharePoint use! country offices—to make it a more vibrant collaboration platform. In fact, staff from In early 2009, Scoop and SharePoint were countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, promoted throughout the World Bank France, Romania, Sudan, and Paraguay, just using different approaches and methods. to name a few, have expressed their interest As a consequence, staff lacked adequate in SharePoint by participating in the DISCLAIMER information on the capabilities of each community’s discussions. Looking further SmartLessons is an awards tool, and the results were confusion, ahead, we see a new dimension for the program to share lessons learned in development-oriented advisory resistance, and misunderstandings. The community, with SharePoint sites soon services and investment SharePoint community made it possible becoming available for collaboration with operations. The findings, for staff to gain a better understanding of authorized external users - client countries, interpretations, and conclusions the purpose of each collaboration tool. partners, and consultants. expressed in this paper are those And Scoop’s social-collaboration features of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of IFC helped form and strengthen the or its partner organizations, the community of SharePoint users across the Executive Directors of The World WBG. Bank or the governments they represent. IFC does not assume any responsibility for the Note: Now, the SharePoint team is completeness or accuracy of the frequently asked for advice on whether a information contained in this team should use either of the tools—or document. Please see the terms both, through an integrated collaboration and conditions at www.ifc.org/ approach. smartlessons or contact the program at smartlessons@ifc.org. SMARTLESSONS — AUGUST 2011 3