For an individual willing to adopt new working methods, the road is littered with obstacles. It takes a fierce energy to brave the unknown and uncover the mysteries of digital transformation.

Some projects, such as event management, briefing coordination or communities of practice, need to adopt new ways of working. Technology at our fingertips allow us to bypass certain limitations: lack of transparency, loss of energy in the coordination of different versions of documents, slowdown or even total lack of collaboration between the physical meetings or dispersion of information.
The initiative does not seem downright adventurous. Therefore, logically, solutions should be implemented in a natural way.

So we are investing in a technology that will override the barriers to collaboration. Once launched, we maintain our collaborative habits, and publish tirelessly to exhaustion. But very few people react. Our reputation may be tarnished. Two solutions: abandon or rethink how to “engage”.

Many dropouts on the road. Too bad, perseverance often offers a fruitful harvest with results exceeding all expectations.

To engage an audience and bring it to continued collaboration in more open environments, here’s three things to think about:

• As online community manager, the goal is to move towards invisibility. A community that works should not need a community manager, in theory.
• Preparing content is essential. Everyone should be able to find, upon arrival in the collaborative space, items of interest, related to specific needs. A community needs to be segmented into different roles for this reason.
• Technology must be simplified to the very basic needs. If members require more technology, this is a sign that the community supports the initiative. The project can finally be continued in co-creation mode.