Collaboration – a spark for innovation

by | May 31, 2021 | Opentalk Blogs

Have you ever had that situation where you’re chatting away with someone and something you say sparks a thought for them and they in turn spark a better thought in you and then you’re both laughing and saying it together ‘yeah that’s a great idea’?

And so it can be in organisations too!

When you collaborate and I mean truly collaborate, you create a platform for innovation. The act of collaborating can be innovative and the outcomes of the collaborative process can also be innovative.

Many challenges organisations face can’t be resolved by one individual or group alone but require the collective effort of a range of people, with various ‘sights’ on a problem. Persistent challenges often need radical thinking and courage to try new approaches. And where you have new ideas, you have the potential for innovation.

For radical change, real ground-breaking changes to occur, Matthew Syed in Rebel Ideas highlights the need for ‘cross pollination’ of ideas – thinking across disciplines or borders, which hitherto were divided in their thinking or ways of working.

Syed highlights an ‘unmistakable drive towards recombination as a means for innovation’, citing examples of previously unrelated disciplines combining together to produce something new, e.g., behavioural economics. The processes of ‘combining’ and the outcomes that result, open up whole new areas and possibilities.

By sharing and exchanging multiple views of a problem, collaborators can begin to challenge thinking and assumptions, seeing issues from a wider perspective. The open dialogue and process of exchanging is how we build connections with others, breaking down silos and establishing trust- the necessary foundation for psychological safety, a starting point for combining ideas into new possibilities.

When we feel safe, we are more comfortable to be ourselves, to let the creativity flow and to openly share our ideas, with less censor. This positive environment gives a sense of opportunity and possibility and we ‘see’ things that we hadn’t seen before.

While it is important to have new ideas and be creative, we need to move the thinking forward into action to develop something that can add value. And as we know from disciplines like strategy, change and project management, implementation is a critical phase in the success of initiatives. Implementation, is a ‘team sport’ and needs the commitment, energy and focus of all, to move actions forward.

As people, our strong need for social connection can over-ride all other needs when we are in groups and we can be individually perceptive but collectively blind! (Syed). This means we withhold our thoughts and are slow to go against the ‘norm’ and challenge existing practices. We need ways to ensure that the thinking we do together and the processes we follow encourage constructive sharing and exchange and the group broadens thinking, rather than narrows thinking too soon.

A key responsibility for leadership and management is creating the environment where people and thus organisations, can thrive. This involves enabling and safeguarding collaboration and innovation processes to ensure that they reap the multiple potential benefits possible.

In the first of this three-part series on collaboration, I discussed the importance of laying the foundation and developing the right mindset for collaboration. It’s difficult to collaborate well without the right competencies, as was discussed in part two of this series. For the process of collaboration to really work and to be a ‘hotbed’ of innovation, there needs to be free exchange of perspectives and ideas across ‘boundaries’ and an airing of the ‘wild and wonderful’ or normally unheard perspectives. Once aired, the group needs a process to structure the thinking to move it forward into action, outcomes and improvements.

So as a leader or manager, what are some of the other things you can do to enable innovation through a collaborative process?

  • Provide forums and avenues for people to think and work across boundaries, e.g., a cross-functional strategy development
  • Agree all ideas need to be heard and explored to safeguard from dismissing them too soon
  • Agree how to limit censure, to challenge assumptions and ‘tried and tested’ approaches
  • Use tools like Appreciative Inquiry and Design Thinking to air wild and wonderful ideas, spark new thinking and to structure the progress from ideas into action
  • Think beyond the dialogue stage to how to move ideas forward and take positive action
  • Hand over facilitation of the process to others with the right skills

You need a spark to start lighting a fire but you need a lot of other elements, working together to build that spark into something that is roaring and heart-warming. As a leader, you can be the ‘bellows’ giving oxygen to sparks. You don’t always know where those sparks will go but trust the process and enjoy the warmth.

 

 

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