Kids on Collaboration and Innovation

Updated on 25 December 2010 by Lokesh Datta

This is the kids’ corner today! I shall highlight three posts that address children’s behaviors that apply to collaboration and innovation. These behavioral attributes relate nicely to an earlier post in which we discussed that effective collaboration happens at the intersection of assertive and cooperative behaviors.

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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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If You Can’t Pass the Ball, You Can’t play!

Updated on 25 December 2010 by Lokesh Datta

So said Coach Dean Smith to Michael Jordan in his freshman (first) year at the University of North Carolina (UNC)! As we know now, Michael went on to become arguably the greatest player in the NBA history, leading his team, the Chicago Bulls, to six championships. Coach Smith could see the talent and leadership potential in Michael but that was not enough. Michael could play a key role on the team, but Michael also had to learn to collaborate effectively with his teammates, to be a winner. As the Coach knew, all players, not just the presumed best, have individual roles to play, in collaboration with others, to achieve the mission of winning. Individual excellence is expected and appreciated; however, it is necessary but not sufficient.

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Articulate the Purpose of Your Collaboration Effort!

Updated on 25 December 2010 by Lokesh Datta

Articulating the purpose of any project is not as easy as it seems. A lack of clearly-defined business reasons and clarity of purpose create at least confusion, if they don’t derail the effort and its impact altogether. We have proposed the 4 Ps Model for Effective Collaboration: Purpose, People, Process and Place. The PURPOSE is the starting point. The purpose of any collaborative effort must have a business context; after all, you are trying to solve a business problem that would have a demonstrable business impact, at least presumably. Or else, you would have no valid reason. Here is a set of proposed steps for articulating the PURPOSE of your collaborative effort.

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Effective Collaboration Is More than Deliverables

Updated on 25 December 2010 by Lokesh Datta

What is effective collaboration? Well, it depends! The short and sweet answer is that a collaboration effort is effective when it achieves its goals: high quality deliverables, on-time, every time during the project and within budget. Note that this description of effectiveness focuses on the destination only, and not the journey. This is a good enough answer, if the collaborative effort is a one-off, discreet occurrence. What if there were many more journeys to be had, in the enterprise, to reach many more destinations, for success of the business! Now the journey becomes as important, if not more, as the destination.

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