In an article published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Satish Nambisan (Associate Professor, Lally School of Management & Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) focuses on three types of platforms for collaboration. Here are brief excerpts:
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EXPLORATION: What’s the Problem? Most social issues or problems are multipart puzzles. But when pieces of the puzzle—however minor those pieces may be—are missing, partners may not understand what, exactly, the problem is. Exploration platforms bring together diverse stakeholders so that they may frame problems fully and accurately. Once the partners develop a shared definition of the problem, they can start working on solutions.
EXPERIMENTATION: What’s the Solution? Businesses routinely put their innovations through a rigorous process of technical and market testing before they introduce them to the market. Yet most nonprofits and government agencies skip experimentation. Consequently, many social innovations go more or less directly from idea to implementation. Yet as social innovations cross boundaries and increase in complexity, experimentation will become the cornerstone of effective problem solving.
EXECUTION: Giving the Solution Away. Once collaborators have defined their problems and identified their solutions, they can use execution platforms to roll out their findings. The most effective execution platforms build and distribute solution templates. Templates capture the core elements of a solution, but can be easily customized to fit different contexts. They also help partners coordinate their efforts. (For an example of an execution template, see “Art Mimics Art” on page 61 of this issue.)
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Here is where you can download the complete article:
http://www.ssireview.org/images/articles/2009SU_Feature_Nambisan.pdf
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