More than smart people and cool platforms

Companies are realizing that creativity grows exponentially when you get people at the same time, and this partially accounts for the radical rethinking of the "cubicle" workplace, both at hip new companies and more established ones like Intel. Collaboration is particularly crucial to the design process, which involves constant iteration on a theme until you've arrived at its most ideal form.

Technologies -- particularly the cloud, social media, and mobile -- are facilitating an unprecedented possibility for collaboration in business. Ideas can be shared and improved upon in real-time, and the silos that before separated functions just as IT, sales, marketing and management are disappearing. Nevertheless, simply giving people iPads and Chatter doesn't make your business environment collaborative. Mindsets must be adjusted and processes streamlined. If not you risk crossing that fine line that separates collaboration and chaos.

Few tips on how to configure your people

Here are a few tips on how to configure your people, processes and innovation to establish a social, collaborative work environment that facilitates technology.

?  Invest in speed and connectivity. People's patience for slow connections is in the extreme thin these days, and poor service can in all seriousness hamper your efforts. This may sound obvious, however don't take for granted that you'll achieve a collaborative environment if you've got internet issues.

?  Get help. One of the benefits of cloud innovation is that it can be turned from time to time like a spigot. If a new innovation isn't working for your team, you can get rid of it such as easily as you implemented it. But, this often means employing specialized skills that you don't necessarily need 365 days a year. For this reason, companies may benefit from an elastic pool of contractors with specific expertise in collaborative technologies that you can call on as-needed.

?  Establish A Vision. Decide from the outset what you want your company to be to the customer, and constantly reiterate this message through every channel. Think about Steve Jobs' vision of delivering advanced computing innovation in an ergonomically-designed package. The specifics may have continually changed with the latest research developments, however the vision guided the culture for 35 years.

Michael Kirven is co-founder of agile business consulting firm Bluewolf, which provides lifecycle research, cloud implementations, IT staffing, managed services and other services to sync business and IT for efficient, adaptive performance. He as well co-authored the book "Iterate or Die" along with Bluewolf co-founder Eric Berridge.