John Chambers = Cisco; Cisco = John Chambers. They are arguably one of the top 5 'big' collaboration companies (people) in the world, or at least they would like you to think so. We at Collaboration King have worked with Cisco several times, in fact, taught them many of the collaboration techniques mentioned on this site... but the man himself points to 2 key aspects of collaboration that define him.
1- HIS MARRIAGE. He has 2 kids and been married (to the same woman) for quite a while. Better than most billionaires. Something is collaborating well in his life outside of work. What can we learn from marriage about collaboration? How about attraction, touch, communication, social activities, common goals and outcomes. How many of these exist in our working projects and relationships?
2- HIS CISCO TEAM. From the NYTimes this weekend:
Q. What’s changed in the last few years?
A. "Big time, the importance of collaboration. Big time, people who have teamwork skills, and their use of technology. If they’re not collaborative, if they aren’t naturally inclined toward collaboration and teamwork, if they are uncomfortable with using technology to make that happen both within Cisco and in their own life, they’re probably not going to fit in here." Cisco hierarchical change has been noted in the WSJ, and also a good article on it at HBR.
Here is John talking about out-of-the box collaboration provided by the MGTaylor process (we think more of a marriage):
Or you can watch the boring, official version of his collaboration (we think more the typical corporate fake collaboration!)
Or, the equally famous and even more boring version of collaboration at TED Talks: