Good idea comes from collaboration

No one has monopoly on good ideas.  Although everyone knows this, it is a different matter to make use of these wealth of good ideas in your organization.  What's interesting is that ideas are often they come in pieces.  It's up to the team to get all ideas on the table, and assemble them to synthesize the best idea.

First, let me share a couple of YouTube clips that I stumbled upon.  It summarizes what Steven Johnson talks about on his book 'Where Good Ideas Come From':

Second YouTube clip talks about how organization needs to change to foster interdisciplinary thinking.  When team is working together to do research, create concept, evaluate the ideas and implement the best one, there are many pitfalls that can make this collaborative creation process to go astray.  It talks about the importance of individual team members understanding their contribution and roles, and communication with feedback to achieve effective collaboration.




Effective creative collaboration process is critical in software startup because resources are limited and you have to effectively utilize all your resources in coming up with the best idea.  If done well, it is a powerful competitive advantage over other players in the market.  If not done right, it can create drag within the team and even accelerate breakup of the team.

I will talk about the challenges in doing the creative team collaboration right in my next blog post.