No doubt it gets more complicated than this, but this is collaboration.

True collaboration requires the open sharing of information. Participants in collaborative processes consider themselves to be peers who can freely communicate their thoughts. The collective thought process generates better thinking and results than isolated thinking.

However, this open state presents a difficult challenge for public sector organizations that have information they need to protect. There are a range of legitimate confidentiality issues ranging from privacy of personal and corporate information to state secrets.

The culture of an organization that has a mandate to keep certain matters absolutely confidential could be expected to have some difficulty with the open requirement of collaboration. Regulatory, police and military organizations all spring to mind. You could ask “is there greater harm to come from inadvertently revealing confidential information or failing to embrace the open collaborative spirit?” The need to protect wins; there’s no doubt about it.

This question, however, suggests an either or situation. The question recognizes the contradiction in being both open and closed. With consideration for the dominant culture in an organization, being both open and closed seems impossible. However, the complexity and sophistication of well run modern organizations suggest they are both open and closed.

The seminal 2006 book about collaboration in the Internet age Wikinomics, How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything has many valuable insights and ideas based on the revolutionary successes like Google, Amazon, Linux, FaceBook, YouTube, and more. The authors, Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams help us understand the driving forces in this revolution; namely the ability of individuals and organizations to mastermind open source methods using technology.

Taking nothing away from Google and company, it’s even more surprising and revealing to learn about how companies like Procter and Gamble, IBM, Boeing, and a remarkable group of Chinese motorcycle companies are embracing these methods. P&G has adopted a radical strategy of collaboration by opening up 27,000 patents for licensing and by adopting an innovation strategy dubbed “proudly found elsewhere.” P&G is an innovation leader and recognizes that to continue in this role, it needs to tap into the minds of 1.8 million researchers, not just the 9,000 it has on the inside.

IBM technology is now open source! It supports and works with the open source community to create the software that it uses in client solutions.

The Chinese motorcycle companies have captured 50% of the world market for motor cycles based on a basic modular design that allows an army of companies to design and build components that assemble easily, in a lego block manner.