In the Press
Most people look at their organization as one or more discrete teams working independently on different aspects of a product or solution. This approach is actually predicated on the industrial assembly line concept, which structures production in a linear sequence of actions. Each person or team contributes a unique portion of the whole, but the flow of work is sequential, with separate and distinct phases of activity promoting a siloed approach to achieving the end product. The extent of collaboration often comes down to mere handoffs between the party that has completed their designated portion and the party about to begin theirs.
A better approach is to adopt a workstream view of your organization. This structure puts the emphasis on nonlinear, iterative production during which people or teams collaborate simultaneously to achieve the end product. This methodology encourages cyclical refinement and taps into the collective strength of the entire team throughout the production process. Because each collaborator or team can see the final product evolve and make minute refinements over time, the outcome is a more seamless whole. The approach combines advanced automation, increased communication and procedural best practices to change the way your business tracks production and output, regardless of what the final output is.
Projects And Collaboration
We live and work in a collaborative world. At least, that’s what we’re told. As the CEO of a company focused on strategy and technology development, I can say that given the technology now available to us — collaborative and social platforms, cloud-based applications and storage and always-on instant mobile access to everything — we have no excuse not to collaborate, regardless of industry.