Spark Collaboration: Stressing Social Interaction
Spark Collaboration helps companies, associations and other groups “systematically connect people one-on-one for greater collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing.” The Spark Collaboration platform matches people face-to-face for real time social interactions. “By meeting over coffee, lunch or video, people can create real social connections that can help them be more innovative, connected, and ultimately more productive.” Setup, says the company’s website, is quick and easy, involving a few simple steps:
- Decide who should meet. Get one department connected with another department, client, or vendor.
- Set the Specifics. Decide start and end dates, establish frequency of meet ups, and set custom rules with your own criteria. Then monitor metrics and participation.
- Get Engaged. Log in to see current and upcoming meetups and update profiles. Watch as morale, attendance and inspiration bloom in the workplace.
Background: The company was built on the success of something called the Randomised Coffee Trials (RCTs), a manual process co-designed in 2012 by Jon Kingsbury and Michael Soto at Nesta, a UK-based innovation foundation. RCTs pair staff with a new coworker from across the company on a fixed interval (weekly, monthly etc.) to get to know each other over coffee and learn about what projects they are working on. Likewise, Spark creates active connections with the larger organization that it says “help break silos, inspire innovation across countries and business units, and improve knowledge sharing across the company. More at www.sparkcollaboration.com
