Innovation

Collaborative innovation sees diverse groups and industries sharing ideas and fuelling innovation. It can result in new knowledge and products and solutions to the most complex problems. Charities, multi-agency crisis intervention, healthcare and science have moved towards collaborative working and the results are staggering.

We are also seeing a trend towards bringing in consultants, contractors, and subject matter experts for specific projects, opening the doors to diverse teams. Virtual teams are one of the most common forms of collaborative innovation today. The process allows for collective learning and essentially benefits all involved. ‘Two heads are better than one’, providing you have diversity and not clones. The focus is on outcomes and it is exciting.

Innovation through collaboration is something that many organisations are prioritising as a strategic goal.

Decide on a clear objective and outcome: To enable your network to be truly collaborative and innovative, leaders must set a clear goal. Common goals and a "cause" or purpose underpin the project. You decide on the what and allow the group to discover the how.

Develop trust and boundaries: Mistrust, competition and unhealthy cultures will kill innovation. You must create the boundaries or rules of engagement, then create an environment where people feel safe and simply focus on the innovative process. There is no room for politics and point scoring. Foster openness and transparency as one idea always sparks another. Closed doors inhibit innovation.

Resources: As a leader. you set the goal, and then provide the resources to enable it to become a reality. This might look like time, space, money, facilities, people, or technology. Know your limits or partner with others to share resources to maximise the solutions.

Lead: Humans can fall into bad behaviours pretty quickly without good leadership. A leader that is outcome focused, inspiring, purpose driven, organised and communicates well will help to keep things on track whilst allowing the free innovative space to succeed. They will focus on behaviours, culture and results equally - acting fast when things go off track.

How are you innovating in your organisation? Are you encouraging flexible, liberated teams with collaboration or is it still self-serving, ego and empire building?