Collaboration: Keep it simple for your CEO
How do you get your CEO’s backing for a more collective approach to creativity and innovation in your organisation? CEO sponsorship is so important – it’s like a snowball gathering mass on a downhill run – the higher up the hill it begins, the bigger the impact at the bottom.
In an excellent webinar this week, ahead of the forthcoming Merit Summit in Vienna (with a theme of “Co-creating Learning Organisations”), Professor Carlo Giardinetti set out his vision of the challenges of tapping into the collective intelligence of organisations.
Few leaders doubt that collaborative approaches are a “good thing”, yet Giardinetti rightly notes that many stop short of supporting initiatives they see as unwieldy or unworkable. Understandably, they put a heavy premium on simple, pragmatic and results-driven models for better collaboration.
The rest of us see the gains from applying collective intelligence but need help to sell it “upwards”. So we need to put ourselves firmly in the CEO’s shoes. Is our vision as clear as it can be? Is it simple to administer? Is it robust against the everyday challenges of corporate reality? And how will its results shine through – for all to see?
Answer these questions and we can give this snowball a massive shove – from the top of the hill ….
Merriborn Media is a business dedicated to developing clever content, engaged online communities and effective collaborative working and learning for clients. Both Merriborn Media and its founder Trevor Merriden were ranked in the Top 3 of social learning evangelists for 2016 in a recent major study.