I’m a proponent of decentralized management of collaboration
platforms, such as Huddle, SharePoint, or Teambox. I like these platforms because the control belongs with the teams and the departments rather than a
centralized group.

The key to achieving decentralized management of collaboration
platform sites is a power user on the team who can serve as the
platform administrator, site manager, and all-around collaboration go-to
person. Here are seven qualities of the power user who would be an ideal
candidate to become a site administrator for their team’s collaboration
platform.

1: Organized

Decentralizing collaboration platform management shouldn’t lead
to disorganization. Therefore, a natural sense of organization is an important
quality for a collaboration platform power user turned administrator for their
team’s site. In fact, when a collaboration platform power user steps into
a collaboration site administrator role for their team or department, the team
can be better organized on their site as they can set up document libraries,
workspaces, and other elements to suit their particular requirements.

2: Trustworthy

Trust is a cornerstone of decentralizing collaboration
platform management, though it rarely makes it into the requirements document. Every organization can point to
people in their ranks who are trusted for their technology acumen. I’m talking
about the person who can answer team members’ technology questions and is the first person to dive into new features in the business applications
they use to do their job. 

3: Process oriented

Formal and informal processes may change when decentralizing
collaboration platform management. Leading edge collaboration platforms
including Huddle and SharePoint enable even non-programmers to set up a simple
workflow process for managing document approvals and other simple tasks.

A power user turned administrator who is process minded could
help their team build these workflows in order to help their team’s
productivity. This simple non-programmatic task may have been out of reach for
teams under a centralized management model because of IT’s numerous and shifting
priorities.

4: Vested

Look for a person who is more
vested in the platform’s success than the IT department or other department that might be detached from what project teams do on a daily basis. Perhaps that person has been burned by document versioning, no audit trails, or many of the other issues that can occur when emailing documents back and forth. Once this power user has the admin privileges to make
the changes that solve their pain points, the team can use the platform to their
advantage.

5: Document savvy

Whenever I hear a pundit decry the end of Microsoft Office,
I think back to how many business processes I’ve seen where the ubiquitous
Office suite played a major role. Because of this, the power user must understand how collaboration platforms integrate
with Microsoft Office, how to explain the integration with users, and how to troubleshoot
the integration when it’s not working.

6: Responsive

I was on contract in an organization where “I’ll get
back to you” in response to a technical question about SharePoint or Microsoft
Office meant the question was never going to be answered.

Smoothing out the
rough edges of a collaboration platform for end users requires a responsive
person even in the decentralized management model I advocate. Being responsive
also builds users’ trust, especially since they may have felt underserved
and underrepresented in a centralized management model.

7: Patient

It takes a patient person to always answer user questions and address their platform-related complaints.
The power user may shoulder even more burden when their team moves to
decentralized collaboration platform management as a way to turn around
platform usage after a failed implementation.

Conclusion

The human element can be integral to the success of
decentralizing collaboration platform management even more so than technology,
documentation, or training. It’s up to management to make sure that project
teams have the right person in their ranks to make decentralizing collaboration
management successful.