Some surprising things about collaboration - Knowing how people connect makes it work better

Any new and promising management idea has a hidden complexity that practitioners ignore at great peril. In this article, Henry Mintzberg and his colleagues draw on their research and experience to point out nine of the of the often-overlooked factors that impact collaborative efforts. These principles include ''Real collaboration may well be psychic,'' ''The real barriers to horizontal collaboration may be vertical,'' ''Sometimes it's easier to collaborate with enemies than with friends,'' and ''Collaboration itself can be an enemy,'' to name a few. The article ends with advice on what we can learn from each of these principles.