The Link Between Innovation and Collaboration

Can we make innovation more intentional? Can increasing collaboration really improve an organization’s ability to innovate?

We see a continuum of levels of collaboration in the government agencies that we work with.

One example is law enforcement organizations, where operational collaboration is quite common. Better information sharing increases public safety and better outcomes of law enforcement investigations. We also find that different organizations are more or less likely to share information and collaborate across agencies. As another example, in specific government procurements, collaboration has a direct effect on the quality of solicitations. Increased collaboration here means that program offices will get better solutions if the solicitation is clear and reflects their requirements and priorities therefore driving innovative results.

In our experience, collaboration is an essential part of intentional innovation – that is, making innovation a habit in your organization. It is an extension of collaboration. We define innovation as the implementation of great ideas, whether bold or simple, that generate a positive impact. Here are some reasons that we find this to be true:

• Collaboration requires communication including listening, sharing ideas, identifying barriers, and promotes action. All of these are important to putting new ideas into action. New ideas in action are innovations

• Collaboration leads to stronger relationships among teams and engenders trust. Trust leads to a psychologically safe work environment where people are comfortable sharing ideas. More ideas from different people promote innovation

• Collaboration promotes empathy, seeing a problem from different lenses or perspectives. This directly ties to innovation because it makes non-obvious ideas and solutions come to the forefront of collaborative problem-solving initiatives

• Collaboration shapes culture. The more a team collaborates with each other, the more positive cultural elements like sharing ideas and implementing new ones more often can happen naturally

As a team member or a manager/ leader in a Government organization, thinking intentionally about building a culture of collaboration to promote innovation is an important part of the job. Sometimes we think we do not have time for culture building because it is hard to measure. And yet, it is one of the time investments that can make the biggest difference in any organization. Intentional innovation starts with you!