FINDING 4
Executives Underuse Collaboration Tools

Culture and lack of training, not technical problems or security, are the biggest roadblocks to the use of collaborative technologies. Security is a concern for IT executives, but it’s not the primary obstacle—corporate culture and inadequate training are. Lack of executive support is an underlying issue. Few senior executives surveyed use collaboration tools other than e-mail, telephony, and the shared calendars found in Microsoft Outlook and other e-mail systems. Of course, executives may not need the same tools, or as many tools, as project teams.

But since corporate culture is heavily influenced by executive behavior, and support for training and infrastructure depends in part on management buy-in, the lack of use of these tools by executives has a dampening effect. When executives set an example of collaboration, other collaboration-friendly behaviors—providing adequate training, encouraging experimentation and rewarding employees who collaborate, for instance—are more likely to emerge.

CIOs who want to increase collaboration among employees must encourage executives to set an example by embracing these tools and technologies.