At IDEO, collaborative interaction is a core competitive advantage.
To accomplish this, IDEO promotes a “democracy of ideas.” It discourages formal titles, does not have a dress code, and encourages employees to move around, especially during mental blocks. Stimulating interactions are encouraged by creating open work spaces and many opportunities for collaboration in the office. Designers are encouraged to talk to one another in whatever forum possible, and experts co-mingle in offices that look like “cacophonous kindergarten classrooms.” As described by Tom Peters, “Walk into the offices of IDEO design in Palo Alto, California, immediately you’ll be caught up in the energy, buzz, creative disarray and sheer lunacy of it all.” For IDEO, creative interaction and collaborative communication are keys to success.
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The Nature of Communication
Workplaces are becoming increasingly collaborative, making communication more important than ever. New technologies, trends toward global real-time work, and a younger generation more comfortable with social connectivity are dramatically reshaping how companies and employees function. Social tools such as wikis and blogs are putting more communication power in the hands of employees and customers. Do companies worry that this will lead to confusion and loss of control? Not at Google, IBM, and Xerox, where collaborative communication processes are breaking down traditional corporate barriers and allowing self-organization and peer production to emerge as new organizing principles for the workplace.

The Wiki Workplace

At Google, collaborative interaction means a different kind of control over the way in which decisions are made. CEO Eric Schmidt says “You talk about the strategy, you get people excited, you tell people what the company’s priorities are, and somehow it works