This week Roadmender recommends a selection of articles covering areas of innovation, collaboration, leadership and entrepreneurship. While some links may not necessarily be apparent, the idea is to assemble diverse views and uncover possibilities.

One of the most frequent questions I am asked is why I believe that collaboration can create a competitive advantage.  I intend to provide in depth responses (which may take a couple of posts), however for the moment I suggest a Socialcast blog by Michael Fauscette to stimulate thinking among those already leaning towards developing strategies for collaboration. http://blog.socialcast.com/enabling-the-collaborative-enterprise/

This piece by Michael Hewitt-Gleeson argues the benefits of entrepreneurship against innovation.  The author does not propose that innovation is unnecessary, rather that the former is far more critical. http://www.schoolofthinking.org/2013/innovation-vs-entrepreneurship/

Leadership and collaboration are increasingly recognised as co-dependent.  The following is an audio lecture on the art of collaborative leadership featuring Rockwood Leadership Institute president Akaya Windwood and hosted by the Stanford Social Innovation Review. http://www.ssireview.org/podcasts/entry/the_art_of_collaborative_leadership

Survey after survey suggest that employees seek meaningful engagement and many see this as doing more than is required of their PD. Being able to experiment, take risks etc. seems to resonate with many. The following article by Julie Winkle Giulioni delves into the subject of risk and how it may benefit those enterprises that allow staff to engage it. How much might this approach pay off if we allow people to expand their risk taking behaviour in collaborative settings? Commercial organisations are structured in a way that manages risk differently than, say, in the case of cross sector collaboration. http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2013/08/08/risky-business-strategies-to-encourage-employee-risk-taking/

The following two articles are interesting in the way they strongly indicate that innovation really can be limited unless collaboration is included. In other words collaboration enables innovation (another factor that adds to my view that collaboration provides a competitive advantage). The first piece by Doug Collins explains the link between innovation and collaboration. http://www.designthinkingnetwork.com/profiles/blogs/internal-communications-meet-collaborative-innovation

In the second piece by Faisal Hoque the focus is more on measuring innovation which the author argues can be done well.  He also makes some vital points about “cross boundary collaboration”. http://www.fastcompany.com/3015229/leadership-now/can-innovation-actually-be-measured

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