How Analytics Can Improve Collaboration

For as long as I can remember, I've been a numbers guy. Credit my early years playing sports and collecting baseball cards or perhaps my father's facility with math. I wouldn't have survived at Carnegie Mellon if I were quantitatively challenged. (Even the poets there know how to code, but I digress.) Regardless, I've generally abided by W. Edwards Deming's credo, “In God we trust; all others bring data.”

It should be no surprise, then, that my expectations for collaboration and productivity tools go beyond getting the job done. That is, I don't just want to filter my inbox to see the number of messages to which I've replied. As I've said many times before, e-mail begets more e-mail. More e-mail doesn't necessarily make you more productive. In fact, I'd argue the opposite.