Managing Complexity in Collaboration Demands Rigor

Collaboration is nothing new, as we know. Trends in collaboration are increasing its significance in organizations. This promise of collaboration is also creating significantly increased complexity. Such is the potential and “curse” of collaboration. We begin by outlining the trends propelling collaboration and the sources of complexity in collaboration. We then use our holistic 4 Ps Model of Effective Collaboration, to ensure that we address the challenge of managing complexity in collaboration holistically as well.

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Cultural Assumptions and Challenges

Updated on 25 December 2010 by Lokesh Datta

In an uber-connected world, with globally-dispersed teams, understanding and respecting cultural differences can be critical to the success of collaboration efforts. “Americans tend to believe that they've reached some sort of pinnacle in the way they practice choice.” Says Sheena Iyengar in her TED talk, The Art of Choosing. Sheena outlines three assumptions on choice by Americans and questions the validity of these assumptions across cultural boundaries.

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Darwin to Dilbert, Contextualizing Top Collaboration Quotes

Updated on 25 December 2010 by Lokesh Datta

In the context of the current state of collaboration, I would offer my views on the Top 10 Collaboration Quotes compiled by Ronda Levine of Bright Hub. Many thanks to Ronda for doing the hard work of finding and selecting great quotes and providing her insightful commentary. "It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed." - Charles Darwin. Collaboration is not a new phenomenon, as we know, so why all the fuss as of late? Studies suggest that collaboration is a top priority today for senior executives.

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Comments on the State of Collaboration

Updated on 25 December 2010 by Lokesh Datta

Here we list the comments we received on the State of Collaboration from our survey respondents. We undertook this study on the State of Collaboration to understand and assess current practices in collaboration and future outlook on collaboration. Over 450 respondents participated in the survey conducted by All Collaboration in January and February 2010.

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You assessed the State of Collaboration, and we created charts

Updated on 25 December 2010 by Lokesh Datta

Here we provide a graphical representation of the survey responses we received on the State of Collaboration. Three main messages emerged from our survey responses. 1) Complex collaboration is already a significant work activity for many people, and will only grow in importance. 2) Successful collaboration requires mostly the good principles of project management applied to dispersed teams. 3) Keep it simple on the collaboration tools.

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