by David Tebbutt
As the term suggests, collaboration is about people first and foremost. If they see no value in collaborating, they won’t – and they cannot be forced to do it.
Just about everyone collaborates up to a point. But it is more likely to be within teams or communities of practice, rather than across the company, with external organisations or, heaven forefend, the general public.
Each company has to make its own decisions and these, to a large extent, will be a reflection of the firm’s culture. A rigid command-and-control mentality is not conducive to the freewheeling Web 2.0 style of collaboration in which people of common interest find each other through social media and coalesce into working relationships and friendships.
To some companies, collaborative behaviour is threatening on many levels. Freeform Dynamics research suggests security, compliance and user distraction are the most commonly expressed fears………..