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Organisational StructureWhat do you believepowers innovation?Creativity, efficiency and rapid decision making.Creativity enables a person, a team or anorganisation to produce new ideas, conceptsand solutions. Rapid decision making is thereto guide creativity and point it in the rightdirection – the direction of real innovation.By connecting people who have complementaryideas, information or skills, cross-disciplinaryorganisations stimulate creativity as muchas they supervise it. Compared to traditionalpyramid structures, they allow more room forinterconnection and freedom of expression, soideas multiply, concerted decisions are made swiftlyand this fosters the emergence of innovation.Why are ‘virtual collaborativeplatforms’ so conducive toinnovation?I think it’s because they provide a unique space,a virtual space, where people who might notmeet in their everyday jobs can share ideas,identify possibilities and generally gain fromone another. Within this space, communitiescan form across the entire organisation on thebasis of ideas, experience or common interests.Is a cross-disciplinaryapproach the onlyway forward?Many organizations are recognising that it is.We have reached the limits of overly verticalsystems where decision making processes areslow and individuals don’t cooperate or sharetheir ideas enough. All collaborative horizontalsystems, whether virtual or otherwise, offer a newway of working. They make our employees moreaccountable, optimise the development of ideasand effectively leverage the innovation process.Is this a turning point inFrench corporate culture?I believe that it is. For many companies however,this change will be a real challenge in itself. Ina vertical system, some managers have becomeused to closely supervising their teams, whichcan prove counter-productive when pushed toextremes. Horizontal structures change a manager’srole: he or she becomes an advisor, even acoach for the other team members. They inturn become more responsible as the managersteers their work and their thinking around toopenness and cooperation. Identifying how tocooperate or how to get others to cooperate tostrengthen projects and results is absolutelykey to innovation.How easy will it beto implement?It all depends on the existing corporate culture.No change can be made ex-nihilo or be totallyradical. A company which doesn’t already placethe emphasis on cross-disciplinary cooperationwill have difficulty introducing such informationsystems. On the other hand, if there is a realambition, they can contribute to the change andencourage staff to share their ideas and innovate.The primary condition is that Management conveysa strong message around the collaboration project.A message that collaboration equals innovation.‘ By connecting people who have complementaryideas, information or skills, cross-disciplinaryorganisations stimulate creativity.’CLOSEWORK® GLOBAL REVIEW 2012 47