Consulting 2.0 for the Age of Collaboration

The world has changed completely. Can we face new challenges using tools that belong to the past? This question is a good starting point to reflect on the future of leadership and organizations, don’t you think? We are in the Age of Collaboration, a revolutionary time for business. The essence of this new paradigm is massive cooperation in horizontal, open and global networks. In a scenario in which everything is in permanent change, it is increasingly clear that the old recipes of the Industrial Age are not enough to overcome challenges that we have never faced before.

The solution lies in innovating in all areas, and to achieve this we need a new vision: new mental maps that help us understand what is happening; new 2.0 disciplines that allow us to interact and learn from the new reality; and a renewed energy that drives us to navigate fearlessly into the future, also in times of change and uncertainty such as the present. This is the vision that I have made a reality at Cabrera MC, an agile consultancy focused on innovation in management, and on new models of value creation through people. A different 2.0 consultancy I have already commented on it in much

Sometimes: innovating is not easy. We need new mindsets that are completely different from the previous ones. We need to reinvent ourselves as leaders and as people. And we must be able to transfer that passion and creative energy to our employees. Organizations need to design truly transformative innovation initiatives, and they must also be able to put them into practice without hindering daily performance. Completing these tasks requires an effort that leaders cannot always make on their own. Organizations need a strategic ally that provides them with best practices, knowledge and experience, and the tools and execution capacity necessary to integrate innovation within their operating structure. This is precisely our challenge as consultants: to accompany organizations in a transformation that will allow them to make the most of the new business and growth opportunities generated by the Age of Collaboration. These are the values and principles that motivate us and differentiate us:

• People and interactions before processes and tools: Technology is a very important factor. But the key is still in the talent, passion and motivation of people. That’s why we maintain daily contact with our customers. We don’t just care about getting to know technology and business, but we also strive to get to know the people behind it.

• Focus on execution rather than comprehensive analysis: Reflection without execution is useless. The difference between a dream and reality lies precisely in the execution. That is why we focus on execution and not only on the analysis of the problem. We make the most of the experience and knowledge that our clients have about their own organization. In this way we manage to substantially reduce consulting and learning times.

• Collaboration with the client rather than long negotiations: If we have a common goal, why waste time on very long negotiations? That is why we focus on added value and the client’s priorities. We collaborate intensively with integrated teams and seek speed with a commitment to quality. For us, 100% of our clients are references.

• Knowledge transfer rather than endless dependencies: In the age of transparency, retaining and dosing information is not an acceptable option. That’s why we transfer knowledge to our customers using iterative and incremental processes of continuous improvement. We focus on collaborative learning, engagement, and adopting new habits.

• Effective and affective support rather than simple solutions: Leadership is not only a matter of tangible results, but also of effective emotions. That is why we help our clients to develop the talent they already have from a close, human and practical approach. In this way, we also make our work an enriching personal experience.

The Synchrony Model

As I said before, innovating within an organization is not an easy task: each company needs a tailor-made solution for its particular innovation problem. We are fully aware of this requirement and, precisely for this reason, at Innopersonas we have built a new methodology for innovation in management: the

Synchrony© Model

. The starting premise is that synchrony is necessary to create value in the innovation process. We must draw a perfect triangle: if a company wants to innovate, it must launch concrete innovation initiatives that are capable of transforming the organization through new business processes; it must align the organization and create a shared vision of the changes that are required; and it must have the

Sufficient execution capacity to turn those new business processes into operational results

In other words, to make innovation create value, we must achieve synchrony at all three levels: Strategic Synchrony, Organizational Synchrony and Operational Synchrony.

Is your organization ready?

It is clear that the changes that our organizations require are not obvious, nor are they easy to apply, much less after decades of practices inspired by orthodox management. The solution is to leave our “comfort zone”, and to dare to interact with the new reality. Today more than ever, leadership has to do with the humility of recognizing that what has brought us here does not necessarily take us to the future; it has to do with our ability to collaborate, learn and innovate in increasingly horizontal, open and global networks; and it is closely linked to our commitment to create transparent organizations, truly designed for people.

Is your organization ready?

The biggest challenge is not in coming up with new ideas – I’m sure you have plenty of ideas on how to improve your organization – but in escaping the ideas of the past, and the legacy of orthodox management that sustains and sustains them.

Where to start?

It is not much use asking yourself “what happened?” when everything has already happened. So don’t stand still in the face of changes. Look at what is happening around you and ask yourself: how does all this affect me personally, how will these changes affect my future employability? Make sure that your organization also asks the essential questions: how do these changes affect my customers, what impact will they have on the competitiveness of my products and services, what should we do? Dare to do it.