“Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups of selfish individuals.” This is a famous insight by legendary American biologist E.O. Wilson which may likewise form the baseline of a good collaboration strategy for a thriving business. That being said, it also helps to learn more from others who use collaboration as a strategy. Some examples are contained in this month’s selection of recommended reading.

8 Ways Leaders Foster Collaboration

Rewarding collaboration: As organizations move to collaborative cultures, leaders are changing the reward system – making collaborative performance part of the employee review process and giving recognition, bonuses, and promotions to those who work effectively across organizational boundaries.

Most leaders agree that effective collaboration is more important than ever in today’s turbulent business environment. In fact, a company’s very survival may depend on how well it can combine the potential of its people and the quality of the information they possess with their ability — and willingness — to share what they know with their teammates and across departmental, hierarchical, and functional boundaries…READ ON

Cooperation Is Key to an Agile Workplace

A business can’t be agile and siloed at the same time. Nonetheless, recent Gallup research shows that most employees don’t — or can’t — cooperate with other departments and share knowledge.

Gallup finds that only about a third of employees in the U.S., France, Germany, Spain and the U.K. strongly agree with the statement “In my company we openly share information, knowledge and ideas with each other.” Specifically, 30% in Spain and the U.S. strongly agree, while 36% agree in the U.K., 38% in France and 39% in Germany.

Only one of four employees from Europe (24%) and 19% in the U.S. strongly agree they are “satisfied with cooperation between my department and other departments” at their organizations (22% strongly agree in Spain,23% in France,25% in the UK and 26% in Germany)…READ ON

Employee Burnout, Part 3: How Organizations Can Stop Burnout

There is little doubt that employee burnout is a symptom of a modern workplace that is increasingly fast-paced, complex and demanding more of employees. Technology — especially mobile technology — has blurred the lines between home life and work life. Flexibility is now the watchword.

And yet, many employees feel overwhelmed by competing demands and conflicting expectations — which ultimately leads to poorer health, stressed relationships outside of work and lower productivity.

Organizations are responsible for the well-being of their employees. Alleviating burnout is not only the right thing to do, it has multiple positive effects for an organization — reducing turnover, reducing sick days and boosting productivity….READ ON

Elite U.S. school MIT cuts ties with Chinese tech firms Huawei, ZTE

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has severed ties with Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp as U.S. authorities investigate the Chinese firms for alleged sanctions violations, the school said on Wednesday.  MIT is the latest top educational institution to unplug telecom equipment made by Huawei and other Chinese companies to avoid losing federal funding.

“MIT is not accepting new engagements or renewing existing ones with Huawei and ZTE or their respective subsidiaries due to federal investigations regarding violations of sanction restrictions,” Maria Zuber, its vice president for research, said bit.ly/2K528XI in a letter on its website.

Collaborations with China, Russia and Saudi Arabia would face additional administrative review procedures…READ ON

Are you collaborating your way to success, or just becoming co-dependent?

You’ve probably heard the statement ‘collaboration is the new competition’ bandied about. I definitely have over the last few years. But it seems this ideal is finally coming to fruition in some very real ways.  The truth is that most retail businesses don’t have the resources – capital, talent, etc. – to ride the next technological wave. Particularly when their competitors move from being other retailers to startups and digital-first businesses with entirely different business models, ones that value growth over profit, and therefore invest heavily in R&D. By this, I mean R&D that is purely focused on achieving a technological advantage, not re-fitting or expanding stores….READ ON

Human and robot collaboration epitomises the workplace of the future

Information computer technology (ICT) and robotics are set to grow Australia’s workforce by hundreds-of-thousands. The ICT workforce alone, grew by 3.5 per cent, from 2016 to 2017, to 663,100 workers. According to a Deloitte Access Economics and the Australian Computer Society report, Australia’s Digital Pulse 2018, the demand for ICT workers is set to grow by almost 100,000 to 758,700 workers by 2023. By that time, almost 3 million Australian workers will be employed in occupations that use ICT regularly as part of their jobs….READ ON