How happy are you at work? Here’s something you might not know, and as an emerging body of evidence shows; if you collaborate, you’re more likely to fall into the category of happy workers. As a practitioner of collaborative strategy building, I have noted this intuitively. Many of my colleagues who practice collaboration attest to the same. Nevertheless it’s good to get some real data too; and it certainly makes a difference in ensuring your collaboration strategy works towards a comparative advantage and improved bottom line. As you will see from this week’s selection, businesses are turning to collaboration strategies for a variety of reasons; some realise that they can reach new customers through collaboration, while others realise that collaboration is a major, and in some instances lone, factor guiding innovation. And then there are others who are more concerned with creativity and how new technologies like 3D can be part of the collaboration practice.

Sincere thanks to those who have suggested articles for this edition of Roadmender Recommends.

Social collaboration-the dynamics of working out loud.
Source: http://cathexis.typepad.com/

The Future of Collaboration

Gazing into a crystal ball and predicting the future is problematic…

Gazing into a crystal ball and predicting the future is problematic, especially when it comes to technology. Five years ago, the (then) CTO of Cisco, Padmasree Warrior, took up the challenge and made five predictions on the future of collaboration. With the help of the latest IDG survey on UC and collaboration, let’s take a look at how those predictions have unfolded…READ ON

 Research report: The State of Mobile Enterprise Collaboration 2014

Last week, harmon.ie released research results showing “The State of Mobile Enterprise Collaboration 2014: From Personal Productivity Toward the Connected Enterprise on the Go.” The report found that mobile enterprise collaboration is disproportionately focused on personal productivity and task efficiency, with plenty of room to improve how businesses turn mobile enterprise collaboration into a competitive advantage…READ ON

Research: Costs and Causes of Employee Disengagement

In a recent research venture, the 10th annual survey by the Queen’s School of Business Centre for Business Venturing (QCVB) and Aon Hewitt highlighted the economic cost of employee disengagement; while another survey of more than 400,000 employees by TINYpulse distilled out 7 key causes of disengagement. Costs – While much attention has been paid to the engagement issues faced by large employers, Toronto based QCVB shifts the focus to businesses that employ between 50 and 399 employees, SMEs that we hope will be the driving force of economic recovery. Over a ten-year period, with more than 111,000 employees surveyed, this initiative provides solid evidence of the benefits of having an engaged workforce…READ ON

Collaboration in 3-D

The 3-D modeling of proteins project was started by USC Dornsife’s Raymond Stevens, who is focused on the structure and function of GPCRs and human cell signaling. Illustration by Katya Kadyshevskaya, courtesy of Ray Stevens.

USC co-founds nonprofit consortium to foster 3-D models of key proteins and promote biomedical research in Los Angeles. USC has joined with academic and industry leaders across the Pacific Rim to create a nonprofit organization that will generate high-resolution images of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), which are poorly understood but critical to human physiology…READ ON

Collaboration and the creative economy: The British Council in Australia

The British Council in Australia plays a vital role in fostering cultural leadership and helping local creative talent to make a mark internationally. Australians working in the creative sector have long been aware of the British Council, with many knowing someone who has been the beneficiary of their flagship Australia-UK exchange programs. The British Council in Australia draws from its parent organisation’s research into the creative economy, and plays an increasingly pivotal role in fostering cultural leadership locally and in the East Asian region…READ ON

Alfred Sung seeks to expand customer base with Mark’s collaboration

Fashion designer Alfred Sung
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)

TORONTO — Alfred Sung’s fashion career has spanned more than three decades and his name has been stamped on countless licensed product lines, but the designer is still keen to broaden his homegrown consumer base. Sung is hoping to achieve that goal through a collaboration with Mark’s, expressing excitement about bringing a fresh slate of women’s apparel and footwear to the homegrown retailer, which has about 380 stores across the country. “First of all, they’re a very professional, successful operation,” the soft-spoken, affable designer said in a recent interview. “And then with the locations, the amount of stores they have, that will give me a lot of exposure to customers that I would normally not have because they’re really right across Canada. So, I’m really happy about that.”..READ ON

Business Booster 2014 calls for innovation and business collaboration to face energy challenges in Europe

330 participants attended the second edition of the Business Booster, a leading European event for the energy industry, organised by KIC InnoEnergy. Executives from 100 of the leading European energy companies, including EDF, Iberdrola, Gas Natural, GDF Suez and Tauron, met with 130 entrepreneurs from 8 countries in order to share innovative ideas and new technologies in the sustainable energy industry…READ ON

OECD data supports the benefits of cross-border collaboration for regions

A recent publication by the OECD, the regional outlook 2014, looks at the contribution of regions and cities to economic performance, it addresses the issues involved in the management of public investment at local level. The report represents a fact-based support to many of EUREKA’s initiatives in the field of regional and urban policy. One of many policy recommendations included in the report is the promotion of collaboration between regional governments in the field of innovation. ‘One of the main cooperation challenges,’ explain the authors of the document, ‘is that public money stops at the regional or national administrative border.’ This challenge is at the core of EUREKA’s missions as an intergovernmental platform to promote cross-border innovation…READ ON

 …and now for something completely different…

4D Printing; it’s really cool

4D printing is here. What is 4D printing you ask? 4D printing produces a 3 dimensional object with a time component. Once produced, objects change over time with the application of water, heat or light. Lest it sound impractical or even fictive, consider this quote from a great Discovery.com article by Evan Ackerman entitled: “4D Printer Makes Shape Shifting Wood:”   “Such “programmable materials” may one day mean that you can buy flat-pack furniture at IKEA, take it home, spray it with a garden hose and then watch it assemble itself. We don’t even have to speculate: MIT is working on this exact thing.”..READ ON