Director Lynn Gibson recently attended an IOD breakfast meeting. The topic of discussion was collaboration. Here is her summary of the discussion:
Collaboration definitions:
- Informal arrangement prior to written agreement
- People coming together to share values and practice with a clarity of purpose
- Share ideas for mutual benefit
General feeling:
Collaboration is about establishing a group of people you trust with tools to maintain trust.
Positives:
Allows people to share skills / problem solve
Makes for awareness of mutual business opportunities
Many tools to assist collaboration
Problems:
How to give recognition
Who owns the value
Cross over of interests
Needs clarity of roles
Decision making by committee
Overuse of technology can hinder
Competitors/ cultural mismatch
Senior management not keeping up
EU!
Comments/ Summary:
30% of value is added to a business by 5% of employees who are collaborating!
Trust, ethos/ethics and shared tools/ technology seem to be imperative elements of a positive collaboration.
Care must be taken to prevent decisions by committee without leadership.
Difficult to ensure obtain monetary value/ profit.
