Collaboration within companies is seen as a way to speed up problem solving, build teams, and innovate. Companies – including the one I work for – are now spending masses of money building systems to enable collaboration across the company. Solving the technical problems was fun enough, but it turns out the real challenge is a culture change. Margaret Heffernan suggests that part of the culture change might be to encourage conflict – it sounds counter-intuitive but she builds a case for companies to accept the “Devil’s Advocate” role within a company and find ways to enable or encourage, dissent. The outcome should be better decisions.
Change Meme 