Mankin and Cohen offer a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective four-phase “action framework” to achieve “collaboration [as well as communication and cooperation] across time, distance, organization, and culture.” To their credit, they concentrate almost entirely on explaining how to apply basic principles, citing benchmark examples that include the John Deere Construction & Forestry Technology Program, Radica Games Group, and Solectron Corporation. Obviously, all organizations have boundaries and many of them are essential to achieving success, for example, non-negotiable values to which everyone involved is held accountable. Without appropriate behavior, there would be chaos. Also, there are limits on available resources that mean that priorities must be set and then served. No organization can afford to be everything to everyone associated with it. Boundaries are inevitable. That said, Mankin and Cohen assert that there is an interdependence of structure and relationships that can enable any organization (regardless of size or nature) to collaborate effectively, and do so “across time, distance, organization, and culture.” The core concept of this book is a metaprinciple that is explained in Chapter 1. With exquisite care, Mankin and Cohen use an especially apt metaphor–jazz–to illustrate how the metaprinciple provides the “theme” and the action framework (please see pages 5-8 and Chapters 7 and 8) provides the “score.” Extending the metaphor, Mankin and Cohen urge their reader to use the theme to improvise on the framework and create collaboration within her or his own organization and such efforts will “transcend all boundaries to produce deeply fulfilling performances.”
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