In today’s competitive environment, sharing information and expertise can be critical in driving organizational success. To foster innovation, it’s important to create collaboration communities of employees, as well as customers and partners “outside the firewall.” The Culture of Collaboration is about changing business models and organizational DNA. Collaborative organizations promote sharing over hoarding, trust over fear and community over isolation. With these and other values, we can more easily replace linear, serial business models with concurrent, real-time approaches that are infinitely more compelling. Managers may blame the lack of collaboration on technological shortcomings. And, in fact, technology plays a role. In most cases, however, the overwhelming reason why collaboration eludes organizations involves culture. The fundamental premise is that maximizing time, talent and tools to create value requires a Culture of Collaboration.

An excellent example of a company with of this kind encouraged collaboration is 3M. Quite possibly best known for Post-its and tape, 3M is actually in the business of just about everything from health care, to safety, security and protection services, display and graphics and consumer, office business products and more. 3M is a science-based company producing thousands of imaginative products worldwide and bases their success largely on the collaboration of their employees, applying their technologies to meet real-world customer needs.

In an article on Businessweek.com, we found an inspiring story of how this encouragement produced some fantastic results when Sumita Mitra, a corporate scientist working in the research lab of 3M ESPE (the company’s dental products division) recognized a need in the marketplace for a dental composite material that was both strong as well as polishable. At that time there were materials that had one attribute or the other, but not both. Due to the encouraged collaboration environment at 3M, not only did Sumita find the information she needed, but she was actually able to meet another scientist, William Schultz who was able to help her develop the new product she had in mind.

Some of the great ideas implemented by 3M which allowed Sumita to achieve success included: a web-based social network that helped her find someone she could get more information from as well as the ability to work with a scientist from another department for several months in order to create the new product.

To read Business Week’s article, click here.
To read more about 3M, click here.

Be Sociable, Share!

•