Collaboration may help everyone to reinvent themselves to avoid looking like satirical version of future as seen by British illustrator John Holcroft.

2014 will be remembered, among other things, for a marked increase in collaboration appeal to the business and government sectors. The not-for-profit sector, while very much aware of the need to shift gears, is slightly lagging. Irrespective of all of this, it is now very clear that 2015 will be a challenging year to any enterprise that does not pay sufficient attention to innovation, collaboration and business resilience to an ever increasing number of disruptions. The good news is that learning and improving is also made easier through collaboration. This week’s selection of reading finishes with a simple list of 50 quotes collected by Inc Magazine, aimed to inspire people who seek to re-invent their careers. This slightly fun intended article includes a quote by Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, who remarked that ‘in a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing’. I hope you find something that resonates with your plans for 2015. Enjoy.

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

In focus: The art of collaboration

Wisdom of crowds and big data come into play called collaboration….

One of the constant threads that has run throughout our focuses this year has been the idea of people working closer together, be it through the sharing economy or as part of a start-up community, brands big and small are seemingly clamouring to reap the mutual benefits of collaborating with one another. Gone are the days of dirty tricks campaigns and bitter rivalries, it’s all healthy competition and shared learnings, right? On a recent trip to one of New York’s biggest co-working spaces Virgin put the question to its founder – where has this spirit of collaboration come from and what happened to the old attitudes? “Why don’t you ask Uber and Lyft about that one? Well, don’t get me wrong,” came the smiling response. “Things aren’t like they used to be, but bad stuff still goes on.”…READ ON

Are You Unknowingly Fighting Collaboration?

The outcome from working together is visually demonstrated by observing efforts in dragon boat racing, team sports or even marching band field shows. In each scenario, trust and collaboration are keys to realizing success. In my research, I focus on the emerging field of Organization IQ, or Org IQ. One of the first to identify this was executive management consultant, futurist and author Karl Albrecht. He also looked at what made organizations less intelligent and more ineffective…READ ON

Collaboration Seeks To Increase Impact

Deloitte’s Monitor Institute has been collaborating with New Profit, a venture philanthropy fund, for 15 years “to help social entrepreneurs grow their impact,” according to Monitor’s Chief Operating Officer Dana O’Donovan. O’Donovan says, “Our work with New Profit reflects a strong belief that we have – which is that impactful cross-sector collaborations are going to drive solutions to some of the world’s biggest issues.”…READ ON

Joint ventures on the rise

Joint ventures and M&A are both poised to grow in the coming years, as interest in corporate partnerships grows. In fact, 68 percent of respondents to McKinsey’s newest survey on the subject1 expect their companies’ joint-venture activity to increase over the next five years, and 59 percent expect an increase in M&A…READ ON

Why Collaboration is Important for Nonprofits: New Incubator Built

Collaboration is important for nonprofits because it is based on the idea that organizations attempting to change the world for the better create a unified vision and strive towards common goals. However, even in the most pure of endeavors, there are some who shy away from the idea of working together. So are there valid reasons for nonprofit organizations to begin collaborating with one and other?..READ ON

World-class teams

There are very few tricks for improving organizational performance left in the management deck of cards. In recent years, many eager corporate hands have played the organization redesign card; others, strategic planning; still others, value-based management. If they played them well, their companies are now fitter, stronger, more flexible, and more focused. But so too are their competitors. Sloppy strategies have been tightened; yawning skill gaps closed; troubled economies made healthy; and bloated organizations made lean…READ ON

6 Secrets of Top Performing Work Teams

Don’t just throw the best people together. How members get along is far more important than their capacities as individuals. What makes for smart teams?…READ ON

The history of ‘The Innovators’ tells us that collaboration is core to innovation

The digital era and its discontents occupy a large part of the screens of humanity these days. Attention is a currency, attracted, bought, and spent on billions of mobile devices and computers, used to raise awareness of current events or market new products and services. Over the past month of my travel, however, I’ve enjoyed diving back into history in “The Innovators,” Walter Isaacson’s terrific new book about the people behind the digital revolution that has changed how we work, live, govern, and play…READ ON

…and now for something completely different…

50 Quotes to Inspire You to Reinvent Your Career

What did you want to be when you were 5? An astronaut? Basketball player? President? When we’re little, we imagine that we’ll do something exciting with our lives. But somewhere along the way, all that changes. We become adults with mortgages to pay, get caught in the 9-to-5 grind, and toil away at careers that don’t fulfill any of our childhood dreams. Here are 50 quotes to inspire you to unchain yourself from your desk job and pursue your passion. Because even if you missed your shot at NBA superstardom, you can still turn that thing you love to do for fun into what you do for a living…READ ON