“If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants.” Sir Isaac Newton.
In making this statement, Sir Isaac Newton paid homage to the collaborative nature of all innovation and development. These are not solo activities. We do not have the capacity to see all angles and [...]

“In flow we feel totally involved, lost in a seemingly effortless performance. Paradoxically, we feel 100% alive when we are so committed to the task at hand that we lose sight of time, of our interests, even of our existence”
M. Czikszentmihalyi ” Good business: Leadership, flow and the making of meaning.”
When was the last time [...]

Donald Schon in his book, Educating the Reflective Practitioner, argues that in considering professional practice solely as a process of rational problem solving, we ignore the artistic process of problem setting, or how we choose the decision to be made, the ends to be met and how we will get there. This artistic process is [...]

When we consider how work gets done in the medical realm, we very often focus solely on ‘the physician’, ‘the nurse’, or ‘the surgeon’ and consider them as individual actors. But is this a fair representation of the work they do and the people they are? Should they act as solo professionals or are those [...]

In 2003, Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs wrote that particular technologies radically reorganized the ways in which individuals cooperated in societies. Rheingold, one of the first scholars to discuss the rise of virtual community in his case study of The Well, is considered an authority on the ways in which society is [...]

There are good things coming out of Harvard these days. I’m not just taking about the, well, everything that they do. If you listen to their content creation machine HarvardBusiness.org then you know. One of their most recent podcasts, described how Hollywood has been one of the longest running innovators. But, at times, has been [...]

The advances in web collaboration can’t be understated. We can text, chat, post cases, comment, reply, email, web conference, teleconference, second-life-it, skype-it, google-it, tag-it, upload, download and ftp-it. More businesses than not have reaped the collaboration rewards, however, as a culture are we neglecting the value of the face-to-face meeting?

Try this: the next time you’re [...]

Last weekend I joined up with some of my favorite people in the world to run the Gunnsion Gorge- a black rock canyon filled with clear, cold, tumbling water. The pools and rapids make for excellent fun in a boat, and river otter, big horned sheep, and other families of charismatic megafauna frequent the scene.
My [...]

So, I’m sitting at my desk when I get a call from a reporter in Durango, Colorado. She quickly confirms who I am and asks, “can you tell me more about what Syndicom does?” I’m taken by surprise and answer. A few more questions later and her part of the call is finished. I ask, [...]

What better way to collaborate than to participate in some healthy competition? Last week Trails2000.org, a local Durango, CO trail advocacy group, presented a challenge to local businesses. The challenge: have your employees pledge to commute to work and win! Was the Syndicom team up to the challenge? You bet! Did we win? Well, of [...]

Where does innovation come from? Look left. Now look right. Check above you. What about near your feet? Did you see innovation? You did…
Innovation is your users. And, guess what? You’re a USER. Of something. What are you passionate about? If you have passion, then perhaps you have innovation. Now imagine tapping that passion from [...]

Collaboration depends on the people you’re working with, right… So what happens when you’re working with someone that you don’t quite “gel” with?

Perhaps you’ve taken one of those workplace personality tests? What about the Myers-Brigg? If you’re lucky, you spent a few hours with a gypsy named “moonbeam” who gave you insight into your inner [...]

The Committee on Medicine and Public Health created a monograph which elucidates and presents collaborative strategies and efforts/activities of medical communities which focus on particular problems/solutions. The outcomes of the specific collaborative initiatives bring light to a larger collaborative vision to improve healthcare.

According to the monograph, the Committee on Medicine and Public Health created a [...]

Ya’ll saw this about the NIH right? http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200804114
More details…
This week, rules went into effect that say that reports of research funded by the National Institutes of Health, the major medical research funding agency in the United States, must be made freely available after a maximum of one year. A publication based on NIH-funded work is [...]

Sunday mornings deserve most the credit. Call them what you will: “slow Sunday mornings”, “day of rest” or “beginning of your week”. For me, they are spent researching, reading and rewinding. I try to go deep so to speak. I pull back and think about ideas. My time includes a few Google searches to find [...]

Remember fire drills in grade school? The principal would come to the front of the auditorium and explain the escape method, goals and how to help each other. You were 10, so about half of what she said sunk in. The day of the test would’ve been a Wednesday (seemed like they always were). The [...]

I’m new to the idea of using collaboration to better my sales and marketing craft. To help me, some of the Syndicom folks have offered up buzz phrases so I can truly understand what great collaboration means…
“It’s like LinkedIn with a purpose…”
“Good things happen when people connect…”
“It’s not like a sewing pattern, it takes work…”
“I [...]

At the beginning of the new millennium, we published an article entitled “The Future.org.” In 2005, we expanded that article into a book, Collaborative Entrepreneurship: How Communities of Networked Firms Use Continuous Innovation to Create Economic Value. In those pieces, we predicted that a new organizational form would emerge in one of the world’s advanced [...]