Good things can get even better, despite what our cultural norms sometimes tell us. Not meaning to sound flippant when implying that even when things are challenging they are good as they give rise to opportunity, but there’s something in it. What is meant by ‘good news everyone’ […]
Some people simply won’t collaborate. Not really that surprising except when you find there are senior managers in the mix. I suppose, because collaboration is a disruptive process since it is creative and innovative, and as long term researcher into creativity Prof Barry M. Staw points out, most […]
To collaborate one needs to face the pressures that come with it. Like, for instance, what happens when we run out of things to say to one another? Well, maybe that’s not a problem for all of us, but the gist of the point is this; in the […]
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 […]
Collaboration. Such a warm and fuzzy term and yet so terrifying at times. It implies all the things humans crave. Being included in a group. Sharing your knowledge and ideas. Sharing goals and celebrating wins and successes. All true. However, it also brings up anxieties of all kinds. […]
How good is this? Australians are falling in love! With collaboration that is. I hope it’s not an ‘on the rebound’ thing. According to most indicators the love is real. Australians are joining the global trend which has been long time coming. A summary of findings from a […]
There’s an ever increasing number of collaboration tools on the market. That is a good thing. I guess. But the tools are not the strategy as some seem to believe. In the age of mass proliferation of business tools that can make almost everything we do on a […]
Humans are social beings. We crave connection with others and we define purpose in life in strong reference to fellow human beings. The workplace today is a dominant social organisation and as such it has become the most central point for us to define and live out our […]
The retail sector is one of the most ferociously aggressive areas of economy. And the fashion industry is right up there with the most competitive. It comes as no surprise then that the fashion sector very strongly embraces collaboration. Take a look at the advice published by Fashionista […]
It is rare to have a conversation about collaboration and not hear something like “trust is important”. But I have never heard anyone mention that courage is also important. I recently read a really cool piece in Forbes by Liz Ryan (see link below**) who examines why so […]
Strategists of all persuasion are well aware of the growing importance of creativity in the solution design process. It’s not only analytical skills that can define competitive strategy. With that in mind, it is useful to reflect on what has become a well-established fact about collaboration: it is […]
For collaboration to count it needs to produce the desired outcome. And the real measure of any serious outcome is how much of an impact it creates. This inevitably puts pressure on managers to ensure that the impact they produce holds water and thus the need to consider […]
Every collaboration starts as an idea. Simples, as the beloved meerkat says (apologies to readers beyond Australia, but this is an Australian reference to a popular ad for an insurance company). Those who have come up with ideas in the past know that excitement for the originator of […]
One of the most ‘normal’ things to do in any kind of business is to reduce risk. A whole industry has been developed around risk management, which by the way is now one of the sacred cows of business. No surprises there. Poor risk management is a big […]
Only a few days to go before we farewell 2014. As much as it is good to reflect on great things and accomplishments on which 2015 can be built, there is always that feeling that a just a bit more could have been achieved in the year past. […]
“You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?” So said Steven Wright, whose unique sense of humour is as insightful as it is creative and a bit outré. That, though, makes a serious segue into a bothersome question for many collaboration inclined professionals. In fact, I find […]
The simplest image that comes to mind when we mention collaboration is ‘working together’. Yet, despite the logic of the literal translation of the word, the real meaning is somewhat richer. I think the focus should be on the desired end result: making our enterprises more relevant; more […]
A young women stands before a gathering of start-up founders and asks for help from anyone eager to assist. Her passionate appeal to a room brimming with ideas of likeminded people is met with friendly gestures of approval and support. More ideas sprout from people’s lips; all offering […]
A recent study by Deloitte Access Economics on behalf of Google, paints an amazing picture about collaboration. The report is another in a string of research findings that raises a really interesting question: Which businesses are going to maintain relevance in five years’ time? This period, Deloitte says, […]
Over the past two weeks, since LEGO announced its intention to not renew its current partnership contract/arrangement with Shell, there has been a lot of discussion about the outcome. The long standing collaboration ended as a result of a very clever social media campaign by Greenpeace which claims […]
Collaboration as a strategy delivers different results in different settings. In some industries and disciplines it is almost indispensable, while in others it can still be a tough nut to crack. One of the emerging areas, which in my view will become one of the most dominant in […]
A recent survey by Forrester Consulting focused on an attempt to quantify the value of creativity in business. As an intangible, creativity is notoriously hard to measure in economic terms. However, the results of the survey showed that the six out of ten companies that foster creativity achieved […]
No doubt the biggest collaboration news this week was the ending of one of the longest corporate collaborations between LEGO and Shell. I for one am not too surprised given the range of factors involved. It seems the sentiment of the collaboration has not kept up with […]
In his opening chapter of An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, David Hume points out that one cannot win an argument against someone who defends an opinion in which they do not believe. In other words, if a person engages in a discussion for any reason other […]
No limit. That’s how I could describe the potential of collaboration today. I think the following selection of recommended reading attests to that. While I won’t play favourites, because it truly is great to see the diverse range of views and insights on collaboration as well examples of […]
