Delivering Collaboration

• Clients of consultancy services are expected to be able to incorporate the output of collaborative efforts (the weave of experiences, knowledge and potential of consumers, stakeholders, and experts) into their professional activities. The goal of consultancy work, therefore, is to impart to others the ability to act in new ways with once foreign material. This is inherently a learning process that implies identity change (Lave & Wenger 1991; Brown & Duguid 1991). Coming from outside of an organization, the question remains: How can consultants provide services to an organization in a way that sets them up for success? In this paper we explore a shift in practice from a “delivery mode” of working from outside of a company, to organizing project environments and activities in a “collaborative mode” of working with company stakeholders, consumers, and other expertise. Through a recent project example we highlight how the shift challenges stakeholders to make sense of working with unfinished material in order to appreciate their own role in the process, whilst at the same time challenge the consults to renegotiate the way they use their skills and how they deliver value.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)