Creating Collaborative Environments..

I recently spoke about collaboration & leadership in the Built Environment at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Strategic FM conference and I wanted to share this particular part of my presentation with you……….

Are you creating the right collaborative ENVIRONMENT?

Are you looking for innovative and disruptive ideas in a magnolia meeting room with a flip chart?

There is a reason entrepreneurs, innovators and disruptors crave creative spaces and mobility….. It is because often the most innovative ideas come from unstructured, ‘open’ environments.

If you want to source innovation through strategic collaboration you should consider what impact your chosen space is having on the discussion.

For example:

The use of Outdoor Spaces: the above picture show the Tate Harmer designed building is a temporary co-working space wrapped around a tree in East London’s Hoxton Square. By taking a meeting outside you take away many physical barriers & distractions to innovation and you introduce organic natural factors to the discussion.

Integrating physical activity into a collaborative meeting or away day: research now confirms that by planning a brisk walk, a round of golf or a session in the gym before or during a collaborative meeting can help stimulate the brain’s creativity and make the meeting or away day much more effective and innovative.

Having the collaborative meeting on neutral territory: If you are bringing together individuals from different business, try and choose a location for the meeting that is neutral for all parties, somewhere none of the collaborators have dominance. You are likely to encourage stronger collaboration and innovation where all parties involved feel equal.

Think about independent facilitation: An inter-firm collaboration study at ‘storgaard’ in 2010 concluded: “that difficulties may arise for innovation the more one focuses on management information and performance target control.” If Independent facilitators are used for task based collaboration, they can create a more inclusive open environment where everyone has a chance to contribute and internal barriers like information and performance processes can be avoided.

For further innovation on this topic and independent facilitators to help your teams have more innovative collaborative meetings email us: info@skills4stem.co.uk or call +44(0)1234 245534