On the surface everyone is a collaborator, and every team is a collaborating team. That is the ‘sell’ in contemporary workplaces. Businesses invest in collaboration as a part of their business strategy for a variety of reasons; improving organisational culture, trust, productivity, competitiveness or even, more imaginatively, to […]
While collaboration has often been praised and promoted as a cure all, endorsing it in this way borders on irresponsible. In business there are no easy, fail-safe ways of finding good business solutions to complex problems, designing winning strategies or delivering results that meet everyone’s expectations. The appeal […]
It’s time to wrest the subtle art of collaboration from the jaws of everyday spin. The famous co-founder of once widely popular start-up WeWork claimed that the majority (70%) of those who paid to use the WeWork shared space collaborated. This always seemed like a possibility given that […]
We’re nearly at the 2-year mark since COVID 19 disrupted our universe. Businesses have learnt many lessons, and many have embraced new strategies such as collaboration, even with competitors. In fact, competitors tend to embrace collaboration with each other more often than is recognised. This is not surprising […]
The most influential photographers in the history of the medium (almost 200 years) created pictures, iconic pictures in fact, with cameras and technology that were well below the standard of cameras one can buy today. Nowadays, everyone can access cameras that are superior to, for example, that used […]
Listen to this article (5 mins) “I think the next century will be the century of complexity.” That was the response Stephen Hawking gave to a journalist at the dawn of this century in January 2000. One fifth of the century in and we have seen plenty of […]
A recent business survey found that businesses which merely manage to survive tend to be stuck in going it alone, while those that are highly collaborative are more likely to see revenue growth. Increasingly, businesses are clear on the role of collaboration as a strategy of growth through […]
People in the contemporary workplace (read: high performing, highly motivated, competitive and resilient) expect to be given three things: meaningful work, appropriate reward and ample opportunities to collaborate. That last bit often gets neglected by executive decision makers, who in many instances ascended to those positions via old […]
Every now and then collaboration can be frustrating. Invariably it gets people wondering if it is worth the effort and in particular if collaboration is really possible given that humans are prone to both competition and collaboration. How to reconcile the drivers? In my first book (The Collaboration […]
2018 saw collaboration as a business strategy march towards mainstream practice. The proliferation of new research and material on the subject of collaboration is a clear indication that the value of good collaboration is a major ingredient of a sustainable and resilient business. This latest selection of recommended […]
A couple of years ago researchers at Berkley published a paper titled “Failure at the Top: How Power Undermines Collaborative Performance” which concluded that when asked to collaborate “groups of high power individuals performed worse because they fought over their relative status in the group, were less focused […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Collaboration is rich ground for keen researchers. It is important that more research into collaboration is conducted as the discipline continues to mature. At the same time, as with all research, one has to be aware that findings are not automatically taken as truth. It is important to […]
This is not a paid promotion. It is not even a recommendation. Rather; it is positive feedback which is, of course, subjective. I am talking about the Kennedy app. ‘A minimalist journal that helps you contextualise your memories’, is how the app was described when it was launched […]
The hype surrounding the start-up culture that has gripped western economies over the past decade or so has become a de facto yardstick for any kind of achievement. Essentially, one struggles to find enough people to understand that not all businesses should be built upon the start-up model; […]
“Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything. A country’s ability to improve its standard of living over time depends almost entirely on its ability to raise its output per worker.” – Paul Krugman. There are a number of reasons why an enterprise may […]
The hot property of business strategy at the moment is agility. Being agile is the new IT! Agile performance is a response to a range of disruptive factors that every business faces. The so called fourth Industrial Revolution is real. How visible this is to everybody is another […]
Collaboration is a good thing. But it can be better when we understand its more challenging aspects. And as with all forms of business practice, it is of critical importance that collaboration be examined from a variety of angles. Recognising that collaboration is not a magic wand is […]
These days, everyone is connected. Everyone is into following, liking, endorsing, linking, sharing, updating and so on. That is how we ‘do’ relationships now. So it seems anyway. A flurry of activities such as these may create a sense of relationship and make us feel good, but (and […]
Hands up those who work for an organisation that has a vision statement. Hands up those who think that a company’s vision inspires them to collaborate. No such in-depth research exists but maybe it should; given that the likelihood of better workplace collaboration can be inspired directly by […]
Right now we are experiencing a mini boom in the proliferation of collaboration focused tech tools. There is a sense of a race currently underway, with major players pouring resources into collaboration tools and starts-ups cropping up everywhere. I see that as a good thing because it also […]
Collaboration is a strategy. So, it only works as it should when it is approached as a strategy. But how we approach strategy is an even larger question. Over the years I have taken part in strategic planning in a range of capacities. Some I led myself, in […]
Some people approach collaboration with suspicion. It’s a deep seated attitude going back to the days when competition was defined in terms that neglected a very simple fact; common good and common goals underpin all healthy competition. Competition and collaboration are the new marriage made in heaven for […]
ROADMENDER 