Organizational Culture

  • Virtual Enterprise Applies The Culture of Collaboration

    I am delighted to see that the principles covered in The Culture of Collaboration book are taking hold.

    Not a day goes by without somebody telling me how the book is helping his or her career, transforming a team or, in some cases, an enterprise. From an author’s perspective, it’s exciting and rewarding to see how organizations are creating value through the 10 Cultural Elements of Collaboration and the other principles that I wrote about in the book.

    This brings me to Wilson F. Engel III, Ph.D. Dr. Engel has posted a detailed review of the book on Epinions.com in which he describes how he and his colleagues read The Culture of Collaboration and successfully applied the principles to their global virtual enterprise.  According to Dr. Engel’s review, "In effect, we used every principle in Rosen’s book—which was required reading for our group—and the principles WORK!"

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  • BMW Collaboration with DaimlerChrysler

    Collaboration creates value internally, with business partners, and sometimes with competitors. But how do we know whether collaborating with competitors makes sense? One test is whether collaboration saves money for everybody involved without risking marketplace position or advantage.

    BMW and DaimlerChrysler are expanding their collaboration on developing hybrid drive systems. The collaboration, described in a story in Reliable Plant Magazine, will let the two companies achieve increased efficiency through economies of scale. The plan is to accelerate commercialization. Since each company will adapt the components in different ways to complement each brand, the deal is considered win/win. 

    BMW has a long and rich commitment to collaboration. As I describe in The Culture of Collaboration book, BMW figured out how to integrate collaborative tools and culture into its operations long before many other companies. Telecooperation is the word BMW has used to describe the marriage of collaborative tools and culture in a globally-distributed design and manufacturing environment. And the X5 was the first vehicle built entirely through telecooperation. In 1999, the company invited me to visit its design center in Munich. I witnessed then how engineers in Munich were successfully collaborating with counterparts in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Some months later, the physical representation of their collaboration, the X5, rolled off the line.

    Whether collaboration is internal or external, the marriage of tools and culture can create awesome value.

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  • Toyota’s Leadership

    In his story entitled “From 0 to 60 to World Domination” in the New York Times Magazine this week, Jon Gertner makes some excellent observations.

    Gertner notes that production and sales figures tell only part of the story of Toyota’s success. The other part is cultural. Gertner characterizes the Toyota Way as the company’s culture of efficiency and problem-solving. However, the reason Toyota is efficient and can solve problems is the company’s Culture of Collaboration. 

    At Toyota, hierarchy plays less of a role than at many other organizations—and flat organizational structures are part and parcel of the Culture of Collaboration. Many Toyota leaders have worked on the production line and have sold cars. Therefore, leaders respect people on the front lines and people at all levels contribute to decisions. When I was conducting research for the book, I experienced first hand the fundamental role that collaboration plays at Toyota.

    Toyota extends the Toyota Way and the Culture of Collaboration through its innovative application of collaborative tools. Interactive video plays a role. Using videoconferencing with a variety of task-specific tools, Toyota has created a rich product design and manufacturing environment.

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  • Collaborative Leadership for Harvard

    In naming Drew Gilpin Faust its first female president, Harvard University is choosing a candidate who has never led a university. What Faust brings to the table, however, is scholarship and collaborative leadership. In Harvard’s news release and in countless news stories about the appointment, the adjective collaborative appears.

    Faust is the dean of the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, the smallest of Harvard’s schools. Her collaborative approach appealed to the search committee which wants to heal the wounds of a campus divided by her predecessor, Larry Summers. Besides his controversial comments about women’s aptitude, Summers has been accused of having a controlling leadership style.

    Increasingly, organizations seek collaborative leaders. Dictating policy without inviting input into decisions is old news. Creating value requires putting aside titles and hierarchy. Real-time collaboration tools such as instant messaging and spontaneous web and videoconferencing support this shift by encouraging people regardless of title or function to solve problems, brainstorm and create value on the fly. I know one software company CIO who has ruffled some feathers by using IM regularly with people several levels down. But the organization’s culture is catching up with her collaborative leadership style.

    For any manager wondering whether collaborative leadership enhances careers, the story of Drew Gilpin Faust should provide at least a hint.

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  • IndustryWeek Features The Culture of Collaboration

    IndustryWeek, which provides excellent targeted content to the manufacturing sector, is featuring The Culture of Collaboration book this week. Besides the author Q&A that appears on its web site, IndustryWeek is pushing the content to more than 30,000 email newsletter subscribers. I appreciate IndustryWeek’s interest in the book and the topic.

    The Q&A gave me an opportunity to hit on some of the book’s central themes including the shift to real-time collaboration and the move away from the pass-along approach to work and decision-making. IndustryWeek asked me about Six Sigma’s role in collaboration and how to build trust among multicultural collaborators. And I used The Dow Chemical Company as an example of how Six Sigma has enhanced the collaborative culture. I also described how Dow uses tools to extend—rather than create—its collaborative culture.

    Dow uses over 300 collaborative rooms called iRooms. These rooms link Dow people in forty-three countries via an IP network carrying video, voice and data. The iRooms provide a range of capabilities including Polycom videoconferencing, audio conferencing, shared digital whiteboard and application sharing. But the point I make in the Q&A—and in the book—is that an organization’s culture must become collaborative before tools can make a big difference.

    The IndustryWeek Q&A also describes how BMW and Boeing build trust among multicultural collaborators.

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  • Collaboration’s Sullied Past

    I’ve been fielding lots of calls this month from HR people who are working on realigning their organizational cultures around collaboration. Collaboration is suddenly the initiative du jour. Seizing on this trend, many marketers are positioning products as collaboration solutions. These products range from copying machines to furniture.

    But collaboration wasn’t always a good word. In The United States during World War II, the word meant conspiring with the Nazis. Edwin Black has written a fascinating investigative series for The Jewish Telegraphic Agency called “Hitler’s Carmaker.” The series (registration required) describes the alleged relationship between General Motors and the Third Reich. The words collaboration, collaborate and collaborator appear repeatedly in the series and in spin-off articles that Black has written, namely the one in the January 7, 2007 edition of The San Francisco Chronicle illustrated with an iron cross with the words “GM: Collaboration with Germany was Pervasive—and Persistent.” Clearly, the connotation of collaboration in these stories is different from the word’s current meaning.

    While the skeletons of collaboration’s past periodically fall out of the closet, the new positive consciousness for collaboration is significantly impacting business and society. Manufacturers are slashing time-to-market. Scientists are developing disease cures in record time. And through the use of collaborative processes and tools, we can come together in real time to solve problems and make decisions.

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