A collaborative culture in any enterprise allows for the mediated design of a trusted environment (or at the very least, trust-building environment).  Collaboration in any organisation allows for creation of a culture which offers employees the ability to create new meaning which is an essential form of motivation for productivity. 

Here are some good reads to help stimulate collaboration culture building.

7 Strategies for Better Group Decision-Making

When you have a tough business problem to solve, you likely bring it to a group. After all, more minds are better than one, right? Not necessarily. Larger pools of knowledge are by no means a guarantee of better outcomes. Because of an over-reliance on hierarchy, an instinct to prevent dissent, and a desire to preserve harmony, many groups fall into groupthink.

Misconceived expert opinions can quickly distort a group decision. Individual biases can easily spread across the group and lead to outcomes far outside individual preferences. And most of these processes occur subconsciously…READ ON

The 5 Habits Of Highly-Effective Team Members

How often do you think about the way your coworkers see you? Your answers of yes or no to 5 statements can help you shift your professional relationships so that you’re a highly-effective colleague…READ ON

Humans aren’t inherently selfish – we’re actually hardwired to work together

There has long been a general assumption that human beings are essentially selfish. We’re apparently ruthless, with strong impulses to compete against each other for resources and to accumulate power and possessions.

If we are kind to one another, it’s usually because we have ulterior motives. If we are good, it’s only because we have managed to control and transcend our innate selfishness and brutality.

This bleak view of human nature is closely associated with the science writer Richard Dawkins, whose book The Selfish Gene became popular because it fitted so well with (and helped to justify) the competitive and individualistic ethos of late 20th-century societies…READ ON

5 tips for fixing dysfunctional teams

Team dysfunction comes at a high cost for most companies, and while it’s possible to prevent some team dysfunction, not all of it can be stopped at the front gates. Once inside, it can threaten to tear apart entire teams, derail projects, and delay company-wide goals. There are some strategies that can fix the dysfunction in teams…READ ON

IKEA X LEGO – The Design Collaboration of Every Child and Adult’s Dreams

Have you ever stepped on a LEGO piece and have your whole life flash before your eyes or are you normal? Kids love to play with LEGO blocks but always leave a mess, these boxes were designed to encourage storing their toys so you can feel safe about walking around the house like its not a land mine! So IKEA and LEGO teamed up to make storage bins, called BYGGLEK, that makes tidying up another fun game. The white boxes come in four sizes and can store hundreds of bricks and you can easily stack them up because they are made like giant LEGO blocks. “The box itself can be a house, a swimming pool, a sports arena – there is no right or wrong!” said Rasmus Buch Løgstrup, the Lego designer who led this project. The BYGGLEK range consists of one set of three small boxes, and two sets of bigger boxes and one set of LEGO bricks for the complete experience right from the moment you get your package…READ ON

A collaborative social project “Slum School” aims to serve the less-privileged communities of Lahore

Young Professionals have developed a Slum School Prototype as an experimental and collaborative social design project initiated by Architorque’s Academic and Research Center. The project explores the over lapping tripartite realms of design, social cause i.e. education for under privilege kids, and virtual e-learning in the context of informal settlements of Lahore.

Mashable Pakistan got the chance to interview one of the core team members and got to know more about their inspiration and future prospects about the project…READ ON

Collaborate with Your Competitors—and Win

Collaboration between competitors is in fashion. General Motors and Toyota assemble automobiles, Siemens and Philips develop semiconductors, Canon supplies photocopiers to Kodak, France’s Thomson and Japan’s JVC manufacture videocassette recorders. But the spread of what we call “competitive collaboration”—joint ventures, outsourcing agreements, product licensings, cooperative research—has triggered unease about the long-term consequences.

A strategic alliance can strengthen both companies against outsiders even as it weakens one partner vis-à-vis the other. In particular, alliances between Asian companies and Western rivals seem to work against the Western partner. Cooperation becomes a low-cost route for new competitors to gain technology and market access….READ ON