Technology has created what’s being called “The Collaboration Economy.” Thought leader Evan Rosen explains in MIT’s TECHNOLOGY REVIEW this game-changing phenomenon.
Instead of operating alone, professionals now are pooling their insight, analysis, and strategies through group emails, wikis, video meetings, conference calls, social networks like Facebook and Google+, commenting on articles, receiving comments on their own blogs, and sharing material with one click. Image Marketing Consultants explains how you as a personal brand and your organization can leverage collaboration to get an edge.
Choose the right partners. The potential obstacle with collaboration is that it tends to consume more time and patience than does working alone. Therefore, you need to ensure there’s a payoff by including in your process only those useful to your objectives. Partners are not created equal.
Be open. Your partners can’t “get” how vital you are to the team unless you disclose your best thinking and hunches about strategy. The risk of collaboration is this openness but the reward can be awesome since research and experience show that joint efforts can generate superior outcomes. That’s why even competitors like BMW and Toyota cooperated in designing the battery for the electric car.
Don’t expect individual recognition. The enemy of superior outcomes from collaborating is the star system. Ego is a throw-back to the 20th century way of doing business. It’s the group effort which counts, not your input. Organizations are overhauling their cultures to recruit, develop, and retain professionals who can be a “we,” instead of a “me.”
Kate Sirignano, founder of Image Marketing Consultants, invites you to a complimentary consultation on how you can partner in this changing economy kate@imagemarketingconsultants.com, 203-404-4868.