University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
From Me to We
Book

From Me to We

Why Commercial Collaboration Will Future-Proof Business, Leaders And Personal Success

Janine Garner
Wiley, 2015
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Well Structured
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

Janine Garner, founder of a collaborative business group, explains how working in partnership with others can boost your career and your business. She reports on female entrepreneurs worldwide who practice collaborative cooperation. For example, when Australian tax expert Melissa Browne opened her first company, she embraced group coaching to collaborate with other small accounting firms and share best practices, ideas and strategies. Garner explains why this collaboration required courage, trust, transparency and a willingness to share, and how to bring those factors to bear in your collaborative experiences. She tells businesspeople to face their fears and overcome their resistance to change, so they can shift “from Me to We” as they learn to network and share. The book’s layout, including easy-to-read charts, diagrams, type and lists, makes the information even more accessible. getAbstract recommends Garner’s insights into effective collaboration to managers, CEOs, start-ups, business owners and artists.

Summary

The Collaborative Advantage

To gain a fresh competitive advantage for your business, switch your orientation “from Me to We.” Me leaders focus on their individual identity and what matters to them, their business, their worries and their opportunities. We leaders collaborate and cooperate, sharing expertise, insights and knowledge. A We orientation enables businesspeople to share their effective strategies and to learn from one another’s failures. We beats Me every time.

Innovation springs from collaboration. People who collaborate explore and create. They seek answers when something makes them curious. Working together, collaborators develop positive, productive office environments. They never lose sight of the big picture – the world beyond their organization that affects their business. They give their colleagues the space they need and celebrate their singularity.

Commercial collaboration – which occurs when businesses “collaborate, talk” and “engage” – has ancient roots. It springs from the Greek philosopher Aristotle’s immortal dictum that “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” The decision to work together and cooperate inspires people...

About the Author

Janine Garner is founder and CEO of the LBDGroup, a collaborative community of women in business and entrepreneurs. She founded Australia’s first gift-giving circle, First Seeds Fund.

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