Collaboration: Innovation From Teams

A recent Wall Street Journal article argues that the best innovation from companies has come not from solo geniuses or small elite teams. Rather, the best innovative ideas come from networks of many people who share and collaborate on new ideas.  The problem is though that most companies aren’t structured in ways that nurture collaborative thinking.

The article outlines the main problems that block the flow of information and ideas are:

Communication Breakdown — Companies with strict departmental segregation are often blocked by their organizational structure — the flow of ideas between different groups is often just a trickle. Personality conflicts, especially among managers, often come into play to limit the flow of conversation between groups.

Bad Gatekeepers — Often companies set up a few reviewers to determine feasibility of new ideas and for selecting which ideas warrant further investigation. The people in these positions can have their own agendas or might not be willing to open up to new ways of thinking or working. Under these circumstances, good ideas can get killed early on.

Insularity — When companies partner or outsource with other companies or individuals, the point of contact to the outside group is often a single individual. That individual becomes a weakest link and can limit the exchange of information flow between the two groups.

The article suggests the following strategies to foster greater collaboration between people and for enabling company-wide innovation:

Get People Talking — Find ways for people from different backgrounds and departments within the company to interact and discuss their ideas.

FastTrack New Ideas — A process for fairly and quickly being able to select promising ideas needs to be implemented.

Select the right leaders — For example, a star engineer may not be the best leader for a project. Technically they may have a firm grip on how to approach an idea, but often someone with good connections throughout the company may be a better choice for overall success of the project.

Make Collaboration Easy — Dont’ let company budgets or reporting structures stifle innovation.  Make it easy to matrix people across the organization to support collaboration.