Swarm Creativity

Chapter 5 Real Life Examples

Lessons Learned from COINs

Peter A. Gloor

DGMT 747 Collaboration at a Deepti Kundra

Distance Billiejean Curvan
Prof. Christine Miller
 Peter A. Gloor
The Author

He has enjoyed a 20-year career as an

executive for UBS, PwC and Deloitte. He
divvied his time between the MIT Sloan
School of Management, Aalto University,
University of Cologne, and his growing
startup company galaxyadvisors.
FOCUS

How COINs work

What COINs tell us about successful enterprises

Small World COINs

Anatomy of COINs

Intrinsic Motivation

Self Organizing

Shared Goal

Permeable
Working Pattern of a COIN

Create Collaborate Communicate

Working Pattern of a COIN

Create Collaborate Communicate

Technology
Culture
COINs in an Enterprise

Effective communication by sharing knowledge

Flexibility to change roles during project

Building and Maintaining Trust

Small World COIN
Small World COIN

Small-world networks contain cliques and sub-networks

High degree of connectivity

Effective in relaying information while keeping the number of links required to connect
at a minimum
e-Banking for a Private Swiss Bank

A web-based e-banking portal with leading-edge functionality for its

private clients
e-Banking for a Private Swiss Bank

A web-based e-banking portal with leading-edge functionality for its

private clients

CHALLENGE

To establish and maintain

local trust in a virtual team

Project’s software and hardware crashed

during final testing - 4 weeks delay
e-Banking for a Private Swiss Bank
A web-based e-banking portal with leading-edge functionality for its
private clients
CHALLENGE
To establish and maintain
local trust in a virtual team
Project’s software and hardware crashed
during final testing - 4 weeks delay
PROJECT PROFILE
Team: 30-40 people
Bank and Deloite members
Native languages included Italian,
German, Spanish, English and Flemish
Different work cultures
Members from various skill sets and
experience
e-Banking for a Private Swiss Bank

PROBLEMS

Distributed Commitment
e-Banking for a Private Swiss Bank

PROBLEMS

Distributed Commitment Collaboration limited to the core team

e-Banking for a Private Swiss Bank

PROBLEMS

Distributed Commitment Collaboration limited to the core team Lack of responsibility

Developers Bank members

e-Banking for a Private Swiss Bank

SUCCESS DEPENDED ON:

Building the team - work ethics and culture need to be defined

Working together - plan for changing roles in a team

Optimizing knowledge flow - questions everyone’s role in the team

Agile software development

- Individuals and interactions over tools and processes

- Working software over comprehensive development
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over plan
Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS)

BANK WIDE WEB - Project team to Business Unit

 Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS)

BANK WIDE WEB - Project team to Business Unit

Informal group sharing same vision

Hosting Organization Project team

 Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS)

BANK WIDE WEB - Project team to Business Unit

Informal group sharing same vision Members become “missionaries”

Hosting Organization Project team Project team External recognition

 Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS)

BANK WIDE WEB - Project team to Business Unit

Informal group sharing same vision Members become “missionaries” COIN sanctioned

Hosting Organization Project team Project team External recognition Organization recognizes COIN
“The rapid distribution of the new idea is a
consequence of the power of the
communal vision that cyberteam members
radiate and transmit to their environment.”
Valuable Insights

COINS drive collaborative creativity [open culture for new ideas]

COINS will happen whether an organization likes it or not

COINS are active within their organizational boundaries [awareness of the creative output]

Investing in COINS helps to innovate fast and pull ahead of competition