How do you stop Collaboration from being the Cinderella?

Gerald did a great post recently on Collaboration and we are all convinced of the huge potential for improving collaboration within all kinds of organisations whether they are public sector or private sector. The problem is that collaboration is everyone's problem and no one's problem. Ask anyone whether collaboration could be improved in their organisation and the chances are that they will agree that it could be, but its like a background ache rather than a burning pain and it is very easy for not much to get done about it.

Who is responsible for improving collaboration in your organisation? What access to resources do they have for analysing the current effectiveness of collaboration, let alone improving it? Insofar as anyone does this I suppose in many organisations it is the CIO, so improvements do happen as new technology is rolled out (e.g. mobile mail which I think is a hugely powerful innovation that is generally underestimated because its is such a simple change) but they are not really driven by the business. Collaboration benefits get treated as a useful side effect - they valued, but not measured or that deliberately aimed at.

I don't think any of the above applies exclusively to the public sector and even at Cisco, where there has always been a strong emphasis on collaboration and where we are aggressively embracing Web 2.0 collaboration tools, we have still got a lot to learn about collaboration and have some difficulty driving it forward because it is such a horizontal and pervasive issue. Nowadays a lot of organisations are doing Green Audits, what about Collaboration Audits or internal teams of collaboration consultants or a more explicit focus on collaboration strategies?

All of these things would be an attempt to give the drive towards more effective collaboration a greater profile and a greater urgency. I think this is a big issue and I would be really interested in getting people's views on it. 

1) Do you think there is a problem about lack ownership of collaboration as an issue?

2) Do you know organisations who are doing a good job of driving improved collaboration and if so, what sort of approaches are they using to give this issue priority and urgency?

3) Do you think organisations should be doing collaboration audits, developing collaboration strategies and having internal collaboration consultants or do you think there are better tools and strategies organisations can use to tackle this issue?

All thoughts and reactions very welcome!

Paul