This document discusses collaborative learning and how it can enhance business success. It defines collaborative working as goals being achieved faster for employees and employers through sharing expertise. Individualistic working hinders productivity. The document provides examples of how collaboration benefits learners through networking and enhanced problem solving, and benefits employers through cost savings and improved teamwork. It acknowledges challenges like lack of ownership, and provides solutions like establishing goals and creating an open environment.

1. July 2014
Collaborative Learning in a Business
Environment
Jodie McIlwain and Ketan Varia
V1.0
W: www.kinetik.uk.com | E: bebetter@kinetik.uk.com | T: 0203 397 0686
Kinetik Solutions Ltd. Registered in England & Wales, No 6067771. Registered Office: 16 Wychwood Close, Edgware, Middlesex, HA8 6TE. VAT GB 839 9186 67

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Confidential not to be used without consent
This is a discussion document exploring the idea of collaborative learning
and how to utilise it in order to enhance the collective success of a company.
What this document is about
Collaborative working
sees goals achieved
faster for employees
and employers.
Individualistic ways of
working hinder
productivity in the 21st
Century.
There is a way to rollout
collaboration in both the
environment and use of
support tools

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Is your business suffering from a lack of synergy?
• Are tasks being delayed due to lack
of expertise and indecisiveness?
• Is scope creep hindering
productivity?
• Are meetings becoming a formality
in which little value is extracted
from?
Collaboration is one of the key methods to deliver change in an organisation.
50%
Of all team meetings are
a waste of time due to:

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Individualistic ways of working are less likely to be successful in
the 21st Century1
• The Silo Mentality continues to exist within companies that do not wish to share
information or think across functions
– Collaboration on all tiers of the hierarchy does not exist and is often isolated at senior levels.
• Collaborative environments are often non existent
– A space for an open forum must be created where functions of creativity can be discussed, formulated, and
then placed into action.
– Collaborative environments benefit companies through the sharing of successes and problems, boosting
morale, and encouraging collaborative learning/problem solving.
• Collaboration is needed now more than ever as processes become more complex
– A multitude of skills are needed in order to successfully complete projects.
– Peoples perception of quality has increased, leading them to desiring much more in-depth and succinct
processes and outcomes.
– Solutions to problems are no longer obvious, needing more people with a variety of experience/knowledge to
ask the right questions in order to think outside of the box.
1. The Economist July 2014: http://www.economist.com/news/business/21606267-latest-big-idea-management-deserves-some-scepticism-holes-holacracy

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Collaborative learning helps goals be achieved quicker and for them to
be more sustainable
Benefits for the learners:
 Provides an open environment with an abundance of
varied knowledge all in one room
 Allows networking to form
 Questions can be raised that had not been thought of
by a specific individual
 Enhances collective responsibility in addition to
individual accountability
 Blurring of the roles between mentor and mentee
Benefits for the employers:
 It’s cost effective with less rework needed
 Implicitly nurtures a team working ethos
 Enhances collective responsibility in addition to
individual accountability
 Creates a greater and sustainable solution

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• Collaborative working has many positive traits. However, there are some
common pitfalls, such as lack of ownership. This can be addressed by:
Collaboration does not mean a loss of focus or decision making
– Consistently re-establishing the end goal while allowing
creativity
– Keeping consistent to organisation values and
purpose
– Working with a set of ground rules which allows new
ideas to form whilst creating clear boundaries in ways
of working.
1. Kate Allen, June 2013, http://www.steljes.com/smartwaystowork/2013/06/29/collaboration-next-generation/
“The use of
collaborative tools
both internally and
externally sees a
50% rise in the
profit margins”1.

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Kinetik Solutions can provide support for collaborative learning
• We have direct experience with collaborative design alongside a specific solution
tailored to its implementation
– We are experts at bringing functions together from all levels of operational processes, be it
from distribution, service, support, or logistics.
– We implement collaborative practises through workshop design and use of tools, such as:
– Workshops which are designed in a way so that every person is engaged regardless
of their status or role in the organisation
– Tools which allow virtual working, the use of wider input from stakeholders, and
design of product/service prototypes in an agile environment
– We focus on the creation of a collaborative environment which will be sustained by making
collaboration the centre of the company’s ethos.

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The right methods to create collaboration in your organisation
Have multiple
levels of the
hierarchy present,
with a blurring
between the roles
hierachy
Consistently re-
establish the end
goal
Create an
open and
comfortable
environment
Improved organisation
capability
Faster delivery/less
risks
Sustained/flexible
solution

9. Kinetik Solutions Ltd
Registered in England & Wales, No 6067771
Registered Office 16 • Wychwood Close
Edgware • Middlesex • HA8 6TE
VAT GB 839 9186 67
www.kinetik.uk.com
bebetter@kinetik.uk.com
020 3397 0686
kinetik solutions
agility to sustain change

10. Consultancy profile
• Established in 2007, kinetik solutions delivers complex change for large
organisations in the public and private sectors
• Our team consists of highly experienced consultants each with over 10 years
change management experience in blue-chip organisations or a ‘Big 4’
management consultancy
• We continually invest in learning to offer the latest thinking in transformational
change to our clients. We run regular public events on Lean learning for our
NHS clients and are members of:
- Lean Enterprise Group
- Deming Alliance
- Operational Excellence Group
- Enterprise Thinking Group

11. Our solution areas
• Complex Transformation Programmes
We make change happen in a sustainable way
• Operational Design and Improvement
Strategic design for complex processes and their implementation
• Systems Implementation
Integrating process and IT change to achieve operational effectiveness
• Collaborative Workshops
Fast, informed decision making, from strategy to continuous improvement
• Digital Content Collaboration
Creating structures for rapid delivery in digital supply chains

12. The kinetik team
Ketan Varia Rob Worth
David Thomson
Alan Clark Maria Gilgeous
Operational Strategy,
Transformative Change Process Excellence, Lean, Six
Sigma
Process Improvement,
Lean, Technology
Change Management,
Organisation Learning
Process Innovation, TRIZ, Six
Sigma
Process Improvement,
Systems Thinking, Training
Lean, Six Sigma, Training and
Coaching
Operations Design, Supply
Chain, Lean
Ian Robertson
Herald Voorneveld
Paul Frobisher
David Thomson
The Team

13. We work with a range of clients in a variety of sectors

14. Kinetik Solutions Ltd
Registered in England & Wales, No 6067771
Registered Office 16 • Wychwood Close
Edgware • Middlesex • HA8 6TE
VAT GB 839 9186 67
www.kinetik.uk.com
bebetter@kinetik.uk.com
020 3397 0686
kinetik solutions
agility to sustain change