Something about Collaboration

I am all for collaboration.  Who wouldn’t be?

For collaboration to work, there has to be a reason to collaborate.  Random people sitting in a giant open plan office with no reason to connect does not enable collaboration, its just noisy. VOIP, wifi, an art collection and glassed in meeting spaces with soft furnishings and water falls dont change realities.

People have always collaborated when they had a reason to do so.  Walls did not inhibit this and lack of walls will not expedite the process.  Collaboration begets innovation which begets competitive advantage.  We have all seen the poster.

Collaboration doesn’t work just because a manager says it will be so.  Instead, managers need to see the opportunities and make the connections.  A manager exists to have that wider view, that broader perspective that can scope opportunities (did you just chuckle?).

Linking complementary projects is fostering collaboration.  Inviting a commercialisation specialist to a project meeting to challenge early stage thinking – thats collaboration.  Pulling together external stakeholders to pressure test your thinking is collaboration.  None of this needs to be hard, just done with creativity and purpose with a dash of outcome thrown in.

A bar tab and some like minded people is all that is required to make collaboration work.  Build trust around a common interest and give them something gnarly to chew on. Above all dont force it.

SDG