While "Collaboration" by Hansen is my current favorite collaboration book, “The Cultural of Collaboration” by Evan Rosen provides several important insights.
Rosen says that an increased demand for collaboration is being fueled by technology, economic, cultural, and regulatory trends. He also says that the elements that are typically present when collaboration work include:
-a culture that values, trust, sharing, communication, and innovation
-an organization with common goals
-a well-design physical and virtual environment
-the existence of some collaborative chaos
-the room for constructive confrontation
-a sense of community
-an ability to create value with collaboration
When discussing the advantages of a culture of collaboration, Rosen states that “Internal competition delivers results short term, but collaboration builds long term value.” A collaborative culture increases the likelihood of spontaneous interactions which are valuable for an organization. It also increases knowledge sharing and mentoring.
Overall, the common attributes of a collaborative culture includes:
-frequent, cross-functional interaction
-leadership and power spread around an organization
-people being accessible regardless of their level
-reduced fear of failure
-broad input into decisions
-cross-pollination of people
-spontaneous or unscheduled interaction
-less structured interaction
-formal or informal mentoring
-tools that fit work styles
A culture of collaboration enables lifestyles and workstyles such as mobile and deskless workers. It also enables three modes of work: process, project, and incident and breaks down organizational silos.
However beware of how collaboration is promoted in a company. "Too often organizations introduce collaboration approaches, processes, and tools without linking them to organizational principles. This confuses users and stalls integration into work styles.” As demonstrated by Toyota: culture + process + tools = collaboration
Rosen provides a good list of communication and collaboration tools and discusses how to choose the right tools for the right situation. He also discusses how compliance drives and complicates collaboration.
A company can create a culture of collaboration by
-establishing a mentoring system
-inviting constructive confrontation
-integrating collaborative tools into work styles
-facilitating cross-functional brainstorming
-rewarding people for gaining broad input
-rewarding people for sharing information
-incentivizing people to innovate
-promoting collaborators
-practicing collaborative leadership
-using collaborative voice tone
-avoiding internal competition trap
-creating open physical environments and virtual environments
A good example of a global collaborative enterprise example is Boeing which went from linear to concurrent design by using:
-low-level collaboration (text discussions, some video/web conferencing synchronous)
-mid-level collaboration with partner companies via a web-enabled consortium
-high-level collaboration or design work between global partners (designing parts, plans, tools)
In general, a global collaborative enterprise:
-recruits the best talent regardless of location
-develops products and services in real time
-leverages mirror zones (teams in opposite time zones)
-exploits global work and job sharing
-capitalizes on input from multiple regional cultures
-capitalizes on input from multiple organizational cultures
-recognizes interdependency among business partners
-provides dedicated collaborative spaces
-integrates collaborative tools and capabilities into work styles
-uses visualization tools when doing design
Rosen says that an increased demand for collaboration is being fueled by technology, economic, cultural, and regulatory trends. He also says that the elements that are typically present when collaboration work include:
-a culture that values, trust, sharing, communication, and innovation
-an organization with common goals
-a well-design physical and virtual environment
-the existence of some collaborative chaos
-the room for constructive confrontation
-a sense of community
-an ability to create value with collaboration
When discussing the advantages of a culture of collaboration, Rosen states that “Internal competition delivers results short term, but collaboration builds long term value.” A collaborative culture increases the likelihood of spontaneous interactions which are valuable for an organization. It also increases knowledge sharing and mentoring.
Overall, the common attributes of a collaborative culture includes:
-frequent, cross-functional interaction
-leadership and power spread around an organization
-people being accessible regardless of their level
-reduced fear of failure
-broad input into decisions
-cross-pollination of people
-spontaneous or unscheduled interaction
-less structured interaction
-formal or informal mentoring
-tools that fit work styles
A culture of collaboration enables lifestyles and workstyles such as mobile and deskless workers. It also enables three modes of work: process, project, and incident and breaks down organizational silos.
However beware of how collaboration is promoted in a company. "Too often organizations introduce collaboration approaches, processes, and tools without linking them to organizational principles. This confuses users and stalls integration into work styles.” As demonstrated by Toyota: culture + process + tools = collaboration
Rosen provides a good list of communication and collaboration tools and discusses how to choose the right tools for the right situation. He also discusses how compliance drives and complicates collaboration.
A company can create a culture of collaboration by
-establishing a mentoring system
-inviting constructive confrontation
-integrating collaborative tools into work styles
-facilitating cross-functional brainstorming
-rewarding people for gaining broad input
-rewarding people for sharing information
-incentivizing people to innovate
-promoting collaborators
-practicing collaborative leadership
-using collaborative voice tone
-avoiding internal competition trap
-creating open physical environments and virtual environments
A good example of a global collaborative enterprise example is Boeing which went from linear to concurrent design by using:
-low-level collaboration (text discussions, some video/web conferencing synchronous)
-mid-level collaboration with partner companies via a web-enabled consortium
-high-level collaboration or design work between global partners (designing parts, plans, tools)
In general, a global collaborative enterprise:
-recruits the best talent regardless of location
-develops products and services in real time
-leverages mirror zones (teams in opposite time zones)
-exploits global work and job sharing
-capitalizes on input from multiple regional cultures
-capitalizes on input from multiple organizational cultures
-recognizes interdependency among business partners
-provides dedicated collaborative spaces
-integrates collaborative tools and capabilities into work styles
-uses visualization tools when doing design
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