Soda - Keeping Curious

In collaborative heaven people get involved because they find their particular project stimulating, energising and downright exciting. See, not once (in what is admittedly one short sentence) have I mentioned the word money. People don’t collaborate because it pays well. Actually that’s not true either. People collaborate for all sorts of reasons and with all sorts of underlying aims, however, the point is, they see a point in collaborating. That by collaborating they can achieve a much better outcome, for themself, for their group, for their organisation and quite possibly for mankind in general.

Working on the principle of a ‘better’ outcome could also result in the accumulation of huge amounts of capital, Social Capital. This potent form of global currency is worth accumulating, and people’s future wealth may well depend on how much social capital they’ve managed to make come their way; as will the company they work for and the projects they choose to devote time to.

Collaboration and social capital might not yet be firmly linked in people minds, but there’s growing evidence to suggest that the Net Generation are well aware of the latter, having leveraged it’s importance by intrinsically believing in the former.

So next time you have one of those ‘Every man for himself moments’, pause for a second, and if it doesn’t feel too much of a Monty Python-moment think ‘Wait a minute, I have high net worth when it comes to social capital, I can collaborate myself out of this mess!’

Go on, get your invitation engine revving on Linkedin, launch your blog and get collaborating on boundaryless project that have a worthwhile outcome. Because remember, you’re never need be alone again if you collaborate.