It’s no secret that we are in a period of accelerated content proliferation, and we are struggling to keep up. While the overgrowth of content presents a problem for individuals, it is even worse for teams. Without a consistent way to make sense of the volumes of information around us, teams are institutionally incapable of arriving at a shared understanding of a situation and picking the best path forward. Instead, we become trapped in deeper and deeper information silos.

Making matters worse, this crisis of content-overload is occurring at exactly the wrong time for businesses. It’s a drag on decision making and operational efficiency and it’s crippling organizations when the demand for better, faster innovation and time-to-market have never been higher.

By turning our traditional digital workplaces (DWP) into open virtual workplaces (VWP), teams are able to untangle their digital information and “connect the dots” to achieve their objectives.

The Limits Of Digital Work And The Digital Workplace

Our work has been digital ever since the rise of the personal computer with its applications for creating text-based documents, spreadsheets, slide decks and a host of visual assets. Digital work (DW) “comes to life” only when individuals open “digital” documents and “work” within their native format.

As part of any business program or project, there can be hundreds or even thousands of digital assets created and spread throughout a network of users, systems and individual applications. In 2014, Microsoft reported 500 billion MS Office documents were created in one year. This has created a highly fragmented content environment built around a one-at-a-time user model. While the digital applications make it easier for the individual to produce documents and other assets, the format makes collaboration and co-creation challenging.

To address this problem, the “digital workplace” (DWP) has emerged. DWP enables people to work together on individual digital assets with the assistance of new content-sharing tools. These new tools create a real-time editing environment where people can access and modify centrally shared content — e.g., Google Drive.

In the DWP, people still need to access content from different digital locations represented primarily as folders and files. Time and opportunity are wasted trying to find the right content and understanding it in the right context, in order to reach a shared understanding and make intelligence-based actions.