Early last week, several news outlets, including the New York Times published articles about Ford Motor Company and Toyota Motor working together to jointly develop hybrid fuel systems for trucks and sports utility vehicles.
Each of the news releases I have seen emphasize how this agreement could help reduce costs in developing new technology, along with the possible applications and uses of the co-developed technology.
Collaboration
What this joint agreement is really stating is that both of these organizations have agreed to collaborate on the development of this new technology.
As a leader, the question that I want to ask you; Do you give permission to your teams to collaborate in this way?
I ask this because this collaboration between Ford and Toyota happened because;
The partnership sprang from informal talks between the chief executives of the two companies, Alan R. Mulally at Ford and Akio Toyoda at Toyota, that began when the two accidentally crossed paths at an airport
We can only imagine the conversation; “I’ll have my people call your people….” But I think two corporate CEO’s doing this provides a clear message that collaboration is important.
Note: While this draft was being written, this article came out by IT World Canada on how lack of internal collaboration can harm your business – a great read.
Great little post! I see relatively little collaboration in IT shops – except through formal projects. So, my variation on your question to leaders, is;
“In what ways are you encouraging collaboration – both across your organization, and with your clients, customers, and suppliers?”
Thanks for your comment,
More should be done asking those questions.
But how many leaders block any kind of talk without legal input, NDA’s etc etc ?
Regards & thank you again