An anthropologist learns early to resist the lure of the “now” as the only reality worth studying. Cultures carry their past within them. Patterns of thought, the metaphors that shape our stories, the values that determine what we ignore and what we celebrate. These change far more slowly than market conditions. The same is true in organisations. Beneath the fresh branding and the new strategic frameworks, much of the underlying thinking is amazingly persistent. What changes most is the language in which it is dressed.
Strategy doesn’t begin with answers. It begins with orientation and orientation begins with perception. The Groundwork Model invites us to slow down and prepare the ground before acting, so that strategy becomes an emergent response to complexity not a reflex to anxiety. It’s about creating the conditions for clarity, not forcing clarity too soon.
Collaboration is a natural disruptor. It leads us to re-examine assumptions we rely on to maintain our modus operandi. It challenges our adopted views on roles we play and our capacity to be transparent. It would be naive to ignore the fact that collaboration is something that not […]
This edition of ROADMENDER Recommends is full of great finds. As usual there are great infographics for those who believe in the power of visuals. The standouts, however, are two articles on the history of collaboration in social and technological contexts. A growing number of those who see […]
Over the past 15-20 years collaboration has steadily gained increased recognition in different parts of the world as a genuinely enabling strategy. Different rationales have emerged suggesting a range of approaches; from the idea that collaboration is ‘new competition’ to the inescapable view that there is such a […]
In working with a number of collaborative efforts over the past twenty years between non-profits, corporates and universities I have come to several counter-intuitive understandings. Top of my list is that collaboration begins alone. Too often the effort to collaborate, whether this be instigated by financial hardship or […]
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