What Do Employees Fear That Collaboration Can Fix?

In the context of the enterprise collaborative era that we’re intersecting, there are key employees engagement issues that resurface, illustrating the negative effects of the obsolete hierarchical model used in the past. Strict organizational charts ended up altering internal stability rather than supporting it.

Here are 3 of the most common fears employees have (and that collaborative tools can help overcome):

1. Admit they don’t know how to do something – if your boss asks you to solve something or you get a request from a customer, saying “I don’t know how to do that” is the last thing you’d be expected to say. But truth is we all have knowledge gaps, even when it comes to our area of expertise. In a strict environment where occasional knowledge lack is blamed, doing your own research is the only available solution. While external resources are not always reliable, going through bulk documentation is not productive in terms of time.
2. Overstepping one’s competences – having initiatives is not always something that managers appreciate. It’s enough for a manager to dismiss an action of this kind only once in order to cut off any similar ambitions in the future. I personally don’t see any risk in listening to what one has to say as long as that person doesn’t neglect their current responsibilities. And most of the times that’s not the case – employees that have initiatives are usually proactive people that have enough resources to meet all their obligations, especially if the extra project is not imposed, but rather a personal commitment.
3. Asking for help from colleagues you are not that close to – managing social relations with your work colleagues is not ready to hand for everyone. If you’re not a social person or you just need to find an occasion to introduce yourself to a coworker that could offer you a key solution to one of your problems, getting his/her support becomes quite difficult. Not to mention that if you’re not sharing the same physical workspace, communication is even more out of reach.

What using a collaborative tool can change: Employees and managers alike need to feel like a community despite the obstacles that time zones, space, business positions or information shortcomings can bring. Implementing and using technology in order to overcome these fears and bad practices won’t solve everything at a clap. It takes engagement and an open management outlook, but IT WILL show your availability to change something in order to improve the dynamics within your organization.

Happy Knowledge Sharing!