Kingbridge Centre

Kingbridge Collaboration Institute PDF Print E-mail

A place to enable organized collaboration and surface enterprise intelligence for
eliciting new problem solving pathways
 

The Kingbridge Collaboration Institute is focused on leveraging capabilities within a collective to innovate solutions that will bring all parties mutual benefit. Collaboration can be a key strategy for competitive advantage when orchestrated effectively.  Our institute conducts research on effective and non-effective collaborations and provides services to clients in three distinct areas:

1. Host forums where leading thinkers can come together for meaningful interaction and dialogue and to reflect upon and challenge their current ways of thinking and acting

2. Work with clients to design meetings which will allow them to utilize the collective to acheive more effective outcomes

3.  Offer programs for leaders and their teams to build individual and collective collaboration capabilities 

The Purpose

John Abele, co-founder of Boston Scientific is passionate about the power of collaboration with all its definitions and dimensions and the sometimes counter intuitive strategies needed to make it work.  For the majority of John's career he was a strong advocate of less invasive medicine which required working across many medical disciplines and overcoming the biases and turf wars inherent in clinical medicine and disruptive change.  Out of this process emerged innovative collaboration technology tools and strategies.  This inspired him to foster the growth of next generation conferencing and in 2001 he created the Kingbridge Conference Centre and Institute.

When you say collaboration the average person thinks it means teams having a nice conversation and everyone agreeing about what needs to be done.   We are talking about something dramatically different.   "Collaboration is the process by which human skill, innovation and intelligence are harnessed efficiently and effectively.  The collective knowledge, capability and resources available within a broad network of participants can accomplish much more than a single entity acting alone." (Don Tapscot, Wikinomics)  The ability to integrate and leverage the human capital across global organizations is becoming a defining competency for leaders.  

Due to changes in technology, demographics, business and economy, we are entering a new era where collaborations and self organization rather than hierarchy and control are changing the face of society and economy. We are living in a time when the individual’s access to information far surpasses that of any other generation (watch "Shift Happens" to learn more).  We are working in organizations with leaders crossing 3 generations, from Babyboomer to Gen Y, each with unique contributions and experiences.   The capabilities to support decentralization and global collaboration exist and are practiced everyday by communities of people. Yet, many organizations have not taken the opportunity presented by these conditions to prepare for the future. To innovate and succeed in this new era, collaboration must become part of every leader’s lexicon.    

 
Click on Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 to explore each definition 

 

Technology
Web technologies have allowed for mass globalization of not only product distribution but information sharing.   Any time, anywhere with any web enabled device we can find exactly what we are looking for and access it regardless of where it is.   This is a powerful proposition for business.   Increased competition from worldwide sources and the resultant rise in demand for niche markets is putting pressure on large organizations still clinging to centralized, bureaucratic structure and mass production.   The consumers are telling the world what they want and expect in products and services through blogs and social networking sites and if we aren’t listening and leveraging that information, let alone encouraging it, opportunity is lost.

Multiple Generations
In tandem with the evolution of technology is the entrance of Generation Y into the workplace.   This generation, also known as the Net generation has grown up with the World Wide Web as their guide and more information at their fingertips than any previous generation.   As a result, we have seen the systematic failure of Western education as these students crave engagement and experience while the schools continue to offer learning almost exclusively through reading and regurgitation.   While their parents were passive consumers of media, this generation are active creators of media content and hungry for interaction.   They are skeptical, innovative, and practice collaboration - particularly in their online communities - almost everyday.   Although Gen Y are generally self confident they worry that the present workplace lacks opportunity for them and their values. (David Stillman, When Generations Collide)  As greater numbers of this generation enter the workforce they will have the ability to revitalize work culture and represent the value of collaboration.   Though it will be difficult to balance the needs of multiple generations in the workplace, companies able to adapt to the collaborative culture of Gen Y will gain a tremendous source of competitive advantage and innovation.

Fundamental changes in society and economy have happened before.   Human societies have always had periods of upheaval that caused people to think and behave differently.   In many cases these changes have been precipitated by new technologies - for example the telephone and the automobile - that provided opportunities for growth. This time it is the combination of many factors, not least of which is the advent of Web 2.0 and its basis in mass collaboration.  

The future lies in global collaboration across cultures, companies and disciplines.  

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