Collaborate and Win

Collaborate and Win

Share Ideas and You Share in the Success

The desire to share information and collaborate more easily was at the top of the list for employees of Goodwill Industries in 2007 when CIO Steve Bergman sought to improve the organization.

In an article published by CIO magazine, it revealed; How businesses can use IT to harness the collective creativity of their employees (or anyone, really), is a hot topic. Tom Malone, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management recently launched the Center for Collective Intelligence to study the subject. He says, “One of the most interesting possible roles for CIOs going forward is to become not just technology innovators but organizational innovators. A lot of the most important innovations in the next couple of decades will not be innovations in technology itself but innovations in how people work together.”

An organization cannot spend, cut, or save their way to success – they must innovate through collaboration.

The challenge now is to revise how people work together to reveal efficiencies and more effective methods which can drive real reductions in overhead. The workforce is changing dramatically right now, and so are the tools and technologies for working together. Goodwill Industries shared how they lived their way into a more collaborative, and effective future through open dialogue and creative problems solving.

"Steve Bergman says he didn’t set out to be an innovator. Not exactly, anyway. Goodwill is a big, decentralized organization. A couple hundred affiliates in two dozen countries generate nearly $3 billion in annual revenue. Most of us know Goodwill because of the stores that sell donated clothing and household items. But they also provide job training and placement services. Goodwill has a long-term goal of helping 20 million people worldwide get jobs that would allow them to become self-sufficient. Business leaders around the company concluded that to facilitate growth, the organization needed a better way to share information."

This may sound familiar; are you working within pieces of information and having trouble bringing the big picture into view? The best place to start may be with simple questions. Get clear on what is happening in your organization and then seek partners who are ready to dive into the problem-solving deep-end and figure out the next steps to take.

Consider this…

When Bergman joined the organization, “I went around and interviewed many of the key business leaders asking them what the most pressing IT issues were and how I could make the greatest impact. Collaboration and knowledge sharing were at the top of the list.” The collaboration that was needed was only revealed through open discussion, simple and effective communication is all you need to get started on a road to greater collaboration and team effectiveness. In the case of Goodwill Industries, the company may be a non-profit, but, as Bergman observes, “the bottom line is the bottom line.”

The results Bergman realized were to custom build a file sharing and knowledge management systems for Goodwill Industries. While there were many knowledge management systems on the market they were a poor fit. The diverse needs of various departments, and Goodwill’s goal of providing training and job placement assistance to 20-million people, meant the only option was a custom option. By the time they had created a unique solution, it was under-budget and better aligned for in-depth collaboration.

Start with three collaboration questions…

1.How well does your organization collaborate today?

2.What might make even a good system of collaboration even better within next year?

3.Who do you want to begin an open and simple dialogue with about collaboration and information sharing?

These are just a few questions with which to start a discussion about collaboration in your organization. Here at LQ we are taking on a new system for more remote collaboration created by Kazeli. We are in the very first phase, and look forward to using it to share files, unify client support notes, and streamline our outreach efforts. The possibilities are endless and everyone will have more ways to surface bright ideas. We know we will succeed because we are creating a system for sharing success.



DARE TO BE GREAT!