Over the past 30 years, collaborative work has evolved dramatically, thanks to the rise of technology and changes in the way people work.
In the 90’s, collaborative work limited by geographical constraints
In the early 90’s, collaborative work was mainly limited to face-to-face meetings requiring the reservation of a room and travel to it. The use of simple electronic messaging was the tool of choice for sharing information and documents, gradually replacing fax and postal mail. Project management tools such as Microsoft Project were already used to track tasks and deadlines. However, these tools were often limited to use within a single company, and it was not yet possible to work in real time with employees or external partners.
The 2000’s emergence of remote and real time collaboration
In the mid-2000s, online tools such as instant messaging applications and document sharing tools began to emerge, allowing people to work together more efficiently even when they were physically far apart. This allowed for productivity gains among white-collar workers after the end of the 20th century saw countless progress plans in the factories.
Online collaboration tools such as Google Docs have also been introduced, allowing people to work on documents in real time. Virtual meetings have emerged and have also become more common, thanks to the increasing use of video conferencing. However, the cost and technology did not allow to extend these practices to all companies. These tools were often deployed within multinationals that were able to make this investment in return for avoided travel costs.
The 2010’s: mobile collaboration
As the financial crisis of 2009 accelerated the advent of mobile internet and real-time communication, collaborative work has evolved further. Employees can now work together in real time, wherever they are, using mobile collaboration tools that allow them to stay connected and share information seamlessly. The increase in server capacity and connection speed has enabled the rise of cloud-based tools such as Office 365 and G-Suite that have also made collaborative work more accessible to small and medium-sized businesses. This step has enabled them to use the same tools as large companies.
The 2020’s: a pandemic driving digital transformation
More recently, the post-pandemic period of the early 2020s has had a significant impact on collaborative work. The extremely strong constraint that has been imposed on organizations to implement remote work sees the emergence of augmented reality and virtual reality to improve collaboration between members of the same organization and its market. By allowing employees to connect in an immersive way and view information in a more intuitive way, AI (artificial intelligence) tools are beginning to play an important role in helping each of us automate certain repetitive tasks, access real-time information, and facilitate decision making using data and insights. And that’s just the beginning of the story.
And tomorrow? What will be the future of collaborative work?
Collaborative work has changed dramatically in the last 30 years and probably the next 30 will see twice as much change. Thanks to the rise of technology and changes in the way people work, online and mobile collaboration tools, as well as emerging technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and AI, make it possible to work together more efficiently and in real time, no matter where you are. All organizations are now subject to these changes that will continue to shape the interactions between each individual in the organization but also open new perspectives.