Justin Kirby was very kind to do a writeup of our contribution to a NESTA funded research project he was involved in.
These ideas aren't dissimilar to what I wrote about re: Jackie Orme and I've added a short extract below.
Many large organisations claim to have excellent and world-class capabilities in:
- Business processes
- Collaborative software (video conferencing, blogs, wikis etc.)
- Developmental support (workshops, training, coaching, learning etc.)
What appears to be missing from the client perspective is a methodology, system or tool (e.g. Kaplan Norton ‘Balanced Score Card’, Six Sigma, etc.) to help optimise collaboration, working relationships and productivity, particularly if a new
project is starting or a new initiative is under way.So while the three areas mentioned earlier are very well understood by the majority of large organisations, a means or method to ‘scale’ collaboration and help enhance productivity in a systematic fashion is potentially a missing piece of the jigsaw.
By providing a systematic methodology and framework for decision making, research participant Bruce Lewin of 4 Groups has suggested that their 4G technology helps optimise the often ‘hard to manage’ or intangible elements of collaboration, namely working relationships, shared values and creative tensions that are part and parcel of any collaborative activity.
