You know you're going to fail...

I was at a conference this week where the speaker was touting the organization's shiny new web site that would be rolled-out very soon. Of course, it was going to solve all of the problems the organization was having with people not working together. At the conference I was at the week-before-last I heard someone saying the same thing, "We're are totally revamping our Web site so that people will work together better." If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say that some new tool was going to solve their collaboration problems, I could treat you all to a round of drinks.

I came across a great blog post this morning at Inkling Markets where Nate makes a great point-- Enterprise 2.0 - Tiger Woods would kick your ass with 3 golf clubs:

Tiger Woods could walk into Kmart, grab 3 clubs from the cheapest, shittiest bag of golf clubs in the store and still kick your ass on the course.

Why?

Because it's not about the tools.

If you're having trouble getting people to work together no tool is going to fix that. People who are truly motivated to work together will find a way to get it done no matter the tool. If your groups are not working together now they're never going to work together unless you solve your people problems first. Before you spend a ton of time and money on technology-- invest a lot of time in conversation.