The Campaign for Extreme Collaboration

LogoWelcome to the Campaign for Extreme Collaboration which is underpinned by the following core beliefs:

  1. All innovation is fundamentally collaborative
  2. Different perspectives aid problem solving
  3. Extreme collaboration triggers leaps forward
  4. Ideas are easier than relationships

What are we campaigning for?

We are campaigning for more space, licence and opportunity to collaborate and exchange ideas across organisations and sectors to tackle big global challenges.

Why does it matter?

The campaign for extreme collaboration has resulted directly in response to three major trends we see in education, business, academia, government etc (i.e. all around us): a) a tendancy towards over-specialisation, b) a counter-productive obsession with being productive all the time and c) the speed and cost of accessing information tending to zero. We believe that such narrow/silo’d/individualistic approaches are inadequate in dealing with the big global challenges which we think require collaborative solutions.

The solutions are already out there – let’s find them!

Organisations can no longer compete on the basis of their knowledge alone. In fact it is increasingly their trusted relationships with others which are becoming critical to their success.

What can you do?

We are now looking for like minded people who share our vision to help shape our thoughts and activities and instigate large scale change. If that sounds like you, please join this facebook group, tell your friends, and tell us how we can collaborate to achieve our mission. Right now we we are looking for the following:

  • Further examples of hidden connections between fields.
  • Good case studies of successful extreme collaborations.
  • Practical advice how to create successful collaborative organisational models.
  • Thanks

    Comments

    1. Excellent idea!
      Will you be doing an extreme collaboration speed-dating event? Instead of ‘men’ and ‘women’ you might have ‘broadly artsy’ and ‘broadly sciencey’, or some other so-called opposites.
      Obviously i mean for collaboration, not dating. I’m married, Roland!
      The methodology seems good – “At the end of the event participants submit to the organizers a list of who they would like to provide their contact information to. If there is a match, contact information is forwarded to both parties” … as it explains at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_dating
      Sorry if you have already done hundreds of events like this and i have just plagiarised something from my own subconscious.

    2. I love your new logo Roland!
      I like David Gauntlett’s idea! Can’t we do that at the next Innovation Edge?
      From my current perspective the *juiciest* collaborative opportunities, sadly largely wasted, are between academic researchers and practitioners. This gulf often gets bridged commercially, which can sometimes be unhelpful … and can take decades.
      I see lots of amazing innovation being created in University environments which could be enormously enriched by the experience and input from practitioners, and visa versa.
      If by extreme you mean it can feel dangerous at times, then this area of collaboration would certainly fit the bill 🙂

    3. David – plagiarised your own subconscious is a great place to start. The solutions are out there (or in there) already I guess. Like the idea of speed collaboration. We do this already at a small scale with our Crucible programme and it always sparks lots of unexpected and positive outcomes. I’d be up for trying it at a bigger scale though.
      Tessy – glad you like the logo. I do too. You should see the poster. It’s even better but a little too big for the blog. I agree about the space for collaboration you identify (my dad actually wrote a book about this very topic as it happens). I’m sure you know the quote that ‘In theory there is no difference between theory and practice but in practice there is’. Too true. Tell me more about your juciest collaborations! 🙂

    4. Interested in your Dad’s book?
      I also like ‘there is nothing as practical as a good theory’. Lewin.
      My experience in education is that when I speak to academics they shake their heads about teachers [they don’t understand] and when I speak to teachers they shake their heads about academics [when was the last time they entered the classroom?]
      In reality both their work is reduced by lack of collaboration.
      Ideas are easier than relationships, but without the relationships ideas have less/no traction. But then I am looking forward to Dr Karen Stephenson describing that next week at your seminar…

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