Bringing "U"
into the community

Do you want to Express yourself? Discover information? Connect with your team? If the answer is yes, then Unity is for you!
Unity is Lockheed Martin’s collaborative tool recognizing the power of individuals to contribute information, share knowledge and collaborate in ways that improve the business through Web-based knowledge-sharing forums.

What began as a Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Services initiative, Unity has since been applied in all business areas and was rolled out to Aeronautics employees in late 2009.

Unity allows users to Express by sharing thoughts, ideas and interests; Discover by allowing users to search the wealth of information from the collective enterprise; and Connect by finding and interacting with peers to advance ideas, effective teaming and innovation.

Through the integration of Unity into our business, Aeronautics has begun the shift from a need-to-know to a need-to-share culture. Since implementation, the Aeronautics adoption rate of Personal and Team Spaces is among the highest in the corporation. Employees are finding new and creative ways to use the Unity community's blog, wiki and other social networking capabilities every day.

In an increasingly Web-based world, even our military counterparts have begun to realize the necessity of having a strong and secure collaborative infrastructure. Unity is the beginning of a revolutionary knowledge-sharing culture change at Lockheed Martin.

The following interview was first published in the Corporate "EO Report," and details Aeronautics employee Gari Harrington's experience as a part of the Unity Deployment Team.

Gari Harrington , LM Aero Unity ambassador

Q: How did you start using Unity? What tools did you use first and how did you learn how to use them?

A: When I started using Unity, I relied heavily on the Unity User Community for training guides, videos, examples and best practices. I also attended 95 percent of the unMeetings (Note: unMeetings are virtual lunch and learn sessions) that were offered on various topics. These tools were very helpful in my learning experience, but it wasn't until I got my own Personal Space that I truly started learning Unity and understanding its value. Having a Personal Space not only gives you a presence in Unity, it serves as a playground that you can use to learn about the different functions of Unity Spaces. Since Unity Personal and Team Spaces have overlapping functionality, a Personal Space is a great place to start getting the hands-on experience that is most needed when learning a new tool. I was able to take learning material from the Unity User Community, including unMeeting events, and apply it to an actual space I owned.

Q: How have you used your Personal Space? What features have you found most valuable?

A: I use the blog to communicate information to employees who have me in their network, teammates and anyone who has come across my space by doing a search in Unity. I've blogged about topics like information from a conference I attended and a great Web 2.0 video available on AeroVision. Most of my blogs pertain to social networking/Web 2.0, which is a personal interest as well as part of my activities supporting the Unity deployment and adoption in Aeronautics. I also use wikis to share information with Aeronautics users requesting help through the Unity User Community and instructions on frequently asked topics. These wikis allow me to quickly respond to requests by sending employees a link and to quickly update the information with a simple edit.

Q: Have you made any specific connections with other employees because of your Personal Space or other Unity tools? Can you provide an example?

A: I really love the idea of easily expanding my Lockheed Martin network by adding interests and skills to the profile section of my Personal Space. I've found employees who have similar interests as me, and I really enjoy finding people who have gone to the same school as me. One person not only went to the same school, but also had the same major, so we talked about different teachers and reminisced about our college days.

Q: What has been the most surprising or valuable benefit of using Unity?

A: Feeling more connected with Lockheed Martin employees and the information they provide in Unity. With the use of Activity Streams, I've come across so much information that users within my network have worked on that is of interest to me and that I would not have known about otherwise. I also feel Personal Spaces help team members connect with one another, especially virtual teams and teams located at multiple sites.

Q: Has your team adopted Unity? If yes, what types of collaboration behaviors do you see emerging using Unity?

A: My team started to adopt Unity by establishing a Team Space. We are taking small steps to take full advantage of what Unity has to offer by using the shared calendar feature to track team activities and vacation days. We have also created a list to post team members' telecommuting schedules and contact information, and we have created a few custom pages where we track, share and collaborate on specific projects. Our team has also gone over the Seven Key Collaboration Behaviors and is working to shift our collaboration behaviors to be more efficient. We have started a Collaboration Playbook to identify collaboration tools our team will be using and the appropriate use for each one.

Q: As a Unity Ambassador, you have been part of the campaign to change our culture from "need-to-know" to "need-to-share." How important do you think this culture change is to the future success of Lockheed Martin?

A: I believe the change from a need-to-know to need-to-share culture is very important and challenging. Any culture change takes time, and I think if people start to see the benefits and value of changing to a need-to-share environment, it will help in the transition. We've all heard that two heads are better than one, and in this case, many heads are better than one. Think about all the information our business areas can now easily share with each other and the business value that provides. I'll take an example of information sharing directly related to Unity — the use of a Collaboration Playbook template. Instead of starting from scratch, we took an existing Collaboration Playbook another team had created and modified it to fit our team. This not only saved time but also provided information that would have been hard to find. As others start to use Unity, I believe the value of a need-to-share culture will be apparent and will become a natural transition for the company.

To find more information about Unity, look for the Unity icon in the Links Directory on InSite.

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