I loved monopoly when I was a kid. And there was so much excitement around owning the railroads! I recall my friends and I giggling all the time at B&O railroad – we were a bunch of 8-10 year old boys….anything involving smells or the body was funny I suppose. My friend, Anthony, somehow always ended up owning the railroads…and I paid some dear funny money in rent and penalties to him.
But it seems railroads are back to tax me once again! The modern corporate organization chart/design is very much a product of the railroads. And it’s what bothers me sometimes when considering all the “newness” of collaboration and flatter models or work flow or work arrangements and structure.
I was asked today by a colleague why I think collaboration is so important. And it’s one of the first times in awhile I was able to reflect out loud on the topic. After reciting things like efficiency and completeness and innovation, it finally dawned on me too that there is an aspect of workplace “spirituality” here. Not organized religion, but spirituality in the sense of beliefs, values, ethics, and human nature. Collaboration is merely a cycling back to our more natural way of socializing, forming, and working. It’s natural – it probably makes many of us feel good about our work and workplace – it triggers something perhaps innate in our beliefs and values.
So in addition to the professional reasons, I think many of us have personal reasons reflected in our values for seeking collaboration (and, in turn, the organization in its own value and belief system).
