Building a Collaborative Enterprise

Four keys to creating a culture of trust and teamwork

by

and

Laurence Prusak

by

and

Laurence Prusak

From the Magazine (July–August 2011)

Summary.

Reprint: R1107G

Can large companies be both innovative and efficient? Yes, argue Adler, of the University of Southern California; Heckscher, of Rutgers; and Prusak, an independent consultant. But they must develop new organizational capabilities that will create the atmosphere of trust that knowledge work requires—and the coordinating mechanisms to make it scalable. Specifically, such organizations must learn to:

Define a shared purpose that guides what people at all levels of the organization are trying to achieve together;

Cultivate an ethic of contribution in which the highest value is accorded to people who look beyond their specific roles and advance the common purpose;

Develop scalable procedures for coordinating people’s efforts so that process-management activities become truly interdependent; and

Create an infrastructure in which individuals’ spheres of influence overlap and collaboration is both valued and rewarded.

These four goals may sound idealized, but the imperative to achieve them is practical, say the authors. Only the truly collaborative enterprises that can tap into everyone’s ideas—in an organized way—will compete imaginatively, quickly, and cost-effectively enough to become the household names of this century.

The Idea in Brief

At many leading-edge enterprises, a new form of organization is emerging—one that is simultaneously innovative and efficient, agile and scalable. It is a way of working that focuses on knowledge production.

By marrying a sense of purpose to a robust operating structure, these collaborative communities are harnessing knowledge workers’ creativity in a flexible—but also highly manageable—fashion.

To build such communities, companies must master a new set of skills:

define and build a shared purpose

cultivate an ethic of contribution

develop scalable processes for coordinating people’s efforts

create an infrastructure in which collaboration is valued and rewarded.

A software engineer we’ll call James vividly remembers his first day at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). The very first message he received: “Here are your Instructions” (yes, with a capital I).

A version of this article appeared in the July–August 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Paul Adler is a professor of management and organization at the Marshall School of Business of the University of Southern California, where he holds the Harold Quinton Chair in Business Policy.
Charles Heckscher is a professor at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations and director of the Center for Organizational Learning and Transformation.
LP

Laurence Prusak is an independent consultant who teaches in the Information and Knowledge Strategy program at Columbia University.

Building a Collaborative Enterprise

The Idea in Brief

Partner Center

Explore HBR

HBR Store

About HBR

Manage My Account

Follow HBR