Recently, I was speaking with leaders of an organization who would like to see their organization move towards greater cross-organizational collaboration. The organization in question has traditional vertical structures that we might consider silos. The organization has a reasonable degree of trust and goodwill among its members.
There are a variety of approaches that would help this organization become more collaborative. Some are more traditional than others. Most would require that the organization change from something which it is now to something else in the future. To varying degrees, this could involve changes in processes, behaviors, attitudes and mechanisms. If all of these approaches were used, we would say that the organization is being transformed.
As an alternative approach, how might our learning about networks apply to this organization to help it meet its need for greater cross-organizational collaboration?
How would such an organization become a networked organization? Would it require being transformed into something quite different from what it has been?
