We Got Collaboration All Wrong
Dr. Evelina Van Mensel and entrepreneur Martin Nedev on making the most of differences
“Ideally, this becomes available to everyone in the world … [not just] a student in a business school, [but] someone who has to get funding to get internet in an internet cafe….” – Dr. Evelina Van Mensel
Day in and day out, organizations around the world struggle to get their employees to collaborate effectively with each other and with key partners. What does effective collaboration look like? Similar people climbing mountains or stairs, or perhaps rowing in formation? Not so, says Dr. Evelina Van Mensel. “The real magic happens when we stop seeing each other as just teammates.” Especially where the goal is innovation and change, the action lies in collaborating with people different from you.
Evelina and her colleagues from around the world put this into practice with innovators from 20+ countries. She says: “We discovered an incredibly powerful and counterintuitive method for enabling diverse teams to solve problems together.” The upcoming book One Size Fits None: Time for an Entrepreneurial Revolution tells this story. Evelina continues, “I want to share this with the rest of the world, thus making it possible for others to apply it to their organizations and communities. This book is a crucial part in the process.”
To learn more about the book and how you can get involved in its project, click here:
One of the case studies it presents features Martin Nedev and the award-winning green fertilizer venture he co-founded, Enthela. To succeed, says Nedev in the podcast, requires enabling business people to learn to work with scientists – with people who learned to think and communicate differently from them.
He says he learned crucial skills for doing this through the innovation program Evelina helps lead. Participants included executive MBAs, college humanities students, and entrepreneurs in marginalized communities.
The case study on Martin’s company in One Size Fits None draws from an episode of What if Instead? in which we got to “sit down” with Martin and his former professor. The two focus not just on soil biology, but on this pivotal role, for innovators, of learning to collaborate across disciplines and backgrounds – professional, national, and otherwise. Here’s a thought-provoking clip from the episode:
For Martin, they key is to move away from traditional authority and the incentives that go with it, and instead create an environment where people thrive. The key? Not just working together, but playing together. When this happens, in his experience, people don’t just contribute – they innovate.
Innovation and collaboration require support, in the form of talented people, needed resources, and methods that work. Martin stresses that the world needs innovation to solve its biggest problems, but many promising ideas struggle to secure funding –especially in places where traditional investors favor quick returns over long-term impact. Evelina emphasizes that without support, even the best ideas struggle to see the light of day. "We can never underestimate the power of networks and how disadvantaged are those who don’t have one."
Click the image below to listen to the full episode.
In the book, we tell the stories about innovators like Martin and present new research showing that innovators are neither born nor taught. You cultivate a mindset like Martin’s in one way: by taking part in experiments. This is all the more important if, like him, you’re doing this beyond conventional innovation hotspots.
Click on the cover below to learn about our Kickstarter campaign to reach beyond academic audiences and reach more people so they can entrepreneurs and changemakers, the way Evelina and colleagues like Nico de Klerk, who founded the program Evelina refers to in her opening quotation, and whom we described in the previous installment, have done.
Backers of the book can choose signed copies, participate in book launch events, or bring the kind of work Dr. Evelina describes to a community, school or organization near you.
