Collaborate to Compete

Book excerpt: Collaborate, or die! Knowledge has become the new source of wealth, and the co-creation and sharing of knowledge through collaboration, the key to the success of today?s organization. Collaboration is everyone?s business and every business?s concern. Unfortunately, the mindset of most business people is not one of cooperation, but of competition. Collaborate to Compete, offers a practical, applied approach to fostering a spirit of cooperation not just within an organization, but also with suppliers, customers, and even competitors to gain a competitive advantage. Many knowledge management initiatives and approaches have failed in their attempt to harness and share the knowledge resident in organizations because they focus on technology, systems, and the valuation of intellectual property, but often neglect the human side. Collaborate to Compete goes beyond the traditional technological approaches of knowledge management systems to address the human challenges, as well as the psychological, cultural, and organizational barriers to employees, suppliers, and customers actually using these systems. Collaborate to Compete Shows how to create an atmosphere of trust, teamwork and collaboration and the promotion of emotional intelligence. Offers practical tools, processes and exercises that are helpful in developing a culture of collaboration. Introduces a unique assessment instrument, the Collaboration Quotient?, that measures the readiness of individuals and of their organization to collaborate. It is also used to monitor the organization?s progress in developing collaboration. Provides a detailed design for a practical and effective Internet-based knowledge network that facilitates knowledge sharing and co-creation. Includes comprehensive coverage on: how to transform a command-and-control organization into a collaborative one; how to measure, maintain, and increase collaboration; how to identify and eliminate the systems and processes that hinder collaboration; how to reward and encourage collaboration; and much more. Features examples and case studies that provide a blueprint for implementation, including organizations such as Documentum, Hill & Knowlton, Intel, Northrop Grumman, Open Text, Siemens, Turner Construction, Vignette and others.