Behavior once considered a faux pas at best and professional suicide at worst is now considered collaborative. As business adopts instant messaging and other forms of real-time, spontaneous collaboration, workplace dynamics are changing. In forward-thinking organizations, instant messaging or even a spontaneous video chat with your boss’s boss or somebody several levels down the organization chart is becoming acceptable.

By 2010, 90% of people with business email accounts will have IT-controlled IM accounts, according to Gartner. Also, Gartner reports that the enterprise IM market is growing at 20% per year through 2009. IM is more effective than email in making remote workers feel more connected. Remote workers include telecommuters, road warriors, and people working from small branch offices and outsourced workspace. By 2010, more than 40 million people in the United States will work remotely or from home, according to JALA International, which analyzes data on telecommuting. Currently, almost a third of managers work at home at least part of the time, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

To feel more connected, geographically-dispersed team members are choosing real-time, spontaneous tools like IM. Secure, corporate-sanctioned IM is beginning to eclipse email in many workplaces. With IM at their fingertips, people are checking whether colleagues at all levels of the organization are available. New capabilities allow real time on the fly connections with a single click from a spreadsheet, document or database (see my March 7 post). Rather than wait for a scheduled call or meeting, people are instead collaborating spontaneously.

Real-time collaboration is wreaking havoc on hierarchy and is challenging the status quo. Therefore, as I point out in The Culture of Collaboration book, organizational culture must catch up with new ways of working. However, tools extend and enhance—rather than create—culture.

Let me know how IM is impacting workplace dynamics within your organization. Feel free to post a comment or send me email at evan@thecultureofcollaboration.com