Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos Not all collaboration is smart. Make sure you do it right. Professional service firms face a serious challenge. Their clients increasingly need them to solve complex problems–everything from regulatory compliance to cybersecurity, the kinds of problems […]
Their knowledge of their community, often going back generations, as well as need to work together and be inclusive is innate. These traits bode well when they want to take on bold initiatives, even without funding or resources. This year Clunes, a little town in Victoria, has used […]
Do you know the one about the fox and the hedgehog? No. Let me gist it for you. A long, long time ago (around 700 BCE) a smart (ancient) Greek man remarked that the fox knows many things and the hedgehog knows one big thing. Fast forward to […]
Identifying the right opportunities for collaboration is often the most exciting part as it tends to be an area where everyone has an idea. Creative juices start to flow and excitement swells at the prospect of working on projects we have long dreamt of, and within a short […]
One thing that I’ve notice is the increased chatter about collaboration from various corners of governments when they talk about delivering services in partnership with the NFP sector. I am not alone. This is something many notice and discuss discreetly. A proper, open conversation has not fully matured, […]
Science tells us that people have fine-tuned their skills to detect some features about humans in a matter of seconds. We form impressions of each other literally within a matter of seconds and mostly without being aware of it. So, I wonder how long it takes to detect […]
The most competitive businesses in the world (and thus those most likely to have a future) know one thing better than the rest: collaboration is the key. This is not a secret. Good businesses get collaboration. It’s not something to be feared despite the fact that it is […]
No matter what kind of work we do we are instinctively concerned with our sense of identity and individuality. Any attempt to create a system where our individuality is threatened is met with firm resistance. To some people, a collaborative way of working is one such threat. Those […]
A quick survey of works about collaboration indicates that there has been a fivefold increase in published books every decade over the past 25 odd years. The clear conclusion is that collaboration is a topic of increasing significance. The interesting thing is that, as a way of work, […]
With collaboration now becoming a mainstream business discipline every bit as important as HR, Marketing, ICT, or Finance, there is an unavoidable rise in offerings of tools and aids. While most are predominantly technology based, not all are tech tools. Business is booming but an entirely separate question […]
Silos are good for storing grain … or guided long-range missiles. They are expensive and valued structures that make sense if your primary concern is food safety or warfare. But when we build them in our workplace, they are nothing more than a major cost to business. There […]
The term collaboration is relatively new when taken in the context of human history. But its essence and concept go a long way back. When we apply contemporary understanding to what collaboration is, we can see many notable achievements across many fields. Here are four offering inspiration and […]
A few things make a business as competitive as its capacity to remain relevant. That is easy to disregard as many business managers tend to ignore disruptive factors. Relevance in the marketplace can be achieved by many means. Collaboration has emerged as an indispensable strategy to maintaining relevance […]
I sometimes wonder if people think that a collaboration strategy is some kind of office mantra where people walk around like zombies repeating ‘collaboration, collaboration, collaboration’ in perfect harmony. To be fair, more people are getting used to the idea that collaboration is a specifically focussed business strategy […]
How does trust affect collaboration? This is an important question that every collaboration focused organisation needs to tackle. Most of the stuff that has been written about collaboration over the past 20 years includes references to trust as a major factor. And much of these have been written […]
Clients are not what they used to be. While the idea of a client as someone who wants their needs met has not changed over decades or centuries, what has changed is how well clients understand their needs and, more importantly, communicate them. I recall a conversation with […]
A rising aspect of collaboration is the human-machine work coexistence. A steady increase in this specific form of collaboration is also raising quite a concern: technological unemployment. Study after study confirms people are convinced that robots will take over a lot of human jobs. The Pew Research Centre […]
“Start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can.” Arthur Ashe Research suggests that collaboration is good for business on many levels. Consider these findings by Deloitte: companies that prioritise collaboration are: Five times more likely to experience a considerable increase in employment Twice […]
When we consider collaboration, productivity matters a lot. Whichever way we look at it there is no escaping the fact that poor, albeit well meaning, collaboration can be costly. This issue can be tackled but it does take one specific bent; understanding that collaboration is about smart strategy […]
Every organisation has a story. Some stories are great and some are just, well, yarns. What makes the story of an organisation great is how well it manages the inevitable gap between what it says and what it does. It’s about congruence. It is normal for a gap […]
Business collaboration started off as a necessity for some industries. It slowly become a clever competitive strategy, then a norm. Businesses that get collaboration also get the fact that collaboration is not a real choice; sloppy collaboration is a cost no business can sustain. Some are learning this […]
It is always exciting when a new book about collaboration is released. It is simply a good sign. More research, more thinking, more reflecting on growing this strategic discipline is welcome news, not just for those who focus on collaboration but also those who want to innovate their […]
“If you thought collaborating with the humans was hard, wait till you get assigned to a job that requires you to collaborate with a robot” If we are to believe an increasing number of recent headlines then we are going to see robots coming: to take our jobs. […]
More collaboration! That seems to be the loud and clear message across the business world in its endeavour to deal with a host of business challenges; from disruption to business slumps. While reports continue to indicate that collaboration can temporarily frustrate people, it should be remembered that collaboration […]
I have been fortunate to have had opportunities to live in different parts of the world and to learn different languages. What I have learned in that organic process of adapting to new environments and cultures is that language skills are far more than an ability to communicate […]
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