Copyright Forbes
We all know collaboration is essential, yet it often feels like an elusive ideal. Meetings devolve into one-way lectures. The loudest voices dominate. Through all of this, innovative ideas remain stifled. So, how can leaders break free from this doomed loop and foster a truly collaborative environment where innovation thrives? Amanda Greenberg, CEO and co-founder of Balloon, a platform that eliminates the groupthink problem from collaboration and decision-making, advises that, “Collaboration is even more important now than ever before for workplaces. But tapping into the full potential of an organization’s workforce requires bringing together all the different groups of people to discuss ideas and tap into the collective intelligence.” Greenberg highlights that emerging technology can be the push for us all to engage in higher levels of creativity. “If AI is going to organize everything that already exists, then originality is the next frontier. Unlocking human thinking and creativity with technology is where we meet and generate the future together.” Balloon’s platform brings in experts like Amy Edmondson, Adam Grant, Daniel Pink and many other thought leaders to design templates that help organizations crack into and engage their workforce’s unique ideas and perspectives in a way that sets everyone up for success. The Barriers to Breakthrough: Identifying Collaboration's Common Pitfalls Greenberg explains that effective collaboration isn’t just about gathering a group of people in a room, virtual or physical. It's about dismantling the systemic barriers that prevent genuine engagement and insight sharing. The top three obstacles she sees leaders face are: MORE FOR YOU Cognitive Biases: Our brains are wired to take shortcuts, leading to cognitive biases that skew how we perceive information and value input. Groupthink, anchoring bias (relying too heavily on initial information), and relationship biases (favoring ideas from known individuals) all subtly undermine collaborative efforts. Logistical Roadblocks: Even with the best intentions, logistical challenges can derail collaboration. Scheduling conflicts, the limitations of real-time communication and the ‘one person speaks at a time’ meeting structure stifle the flow of ideas and limit participation. Unequal Voice Distribution: In many teams, a small percentage of individuals dominate conversations, leaving quieter voices unheard. This not only suppresses valuable insights but also creates a sense of disengagement and frustration among those who feel their contributions are not valued. A study conducted by the Kellogg School of Management found that in a typical six- to eight-person meeting, three people do 70% of the talking. Susan LaMotte, vice president of employer brand at Shaker Recruitment Marketing, a full-service talent marketing agency, explains, “You can’t build a brand on a reality employees are afraid to describe. Psychological safety is not a perk. It is the only path to the truth.” collaboration doesn’t always mean every voice is truly heard. Bias, hierarchy, and the pace of work can unintentionally silence the ideas that move organizations forward. When using a platform like Balloon, what emerges are insights grounded in lived experience, giving leaders a clearer view of what really matters and the confidence to act on it. Because of Balloon’s anonymous, asynchronous format it gives people space to pause, reflect and share what they truly think, not just what feels safe to say. How Can Technology Support the Quality and Impact of Collaborative Efforts? Recognizing these challenges, Greenberg explains that the Balloon platform was built with the mission to, “unleash human capital and unlock a more collaborative environment.” It helps to facilitate a structured and insight building approach to collaboration that is centered around specific business goals. The design principles driving this approach and platform have been centered around: Non-Leading, Open-Ended Questions: Uses carefully crafted questions that are broad enough to stimulate new thinking yet focused enough to guide the conversation toward specific outcomes. Greenberg explains that, “How a group operates and works together heavily impacts an individual’s contribution to that group. When designing Balloon, we focused on solving the challenge of how you can ask really efficient, open-ended questions. Questions that aren’t leading and are open enough to spur authentically new thinking?” Scott Kurnitt, former CEO of About.com and one of the many Balloon template designers emphasizes, “"Having a tool to eliminate group think can improve the decision-making process in any company. There is so much benefit from simply giving each team member a canvas to express themselves without concern for ‘saying the wrong’ thing. What smart business leader doesn’t want to receive unbridled ideas and opinions from wherever they might come from? Finally, the VP and Receptionist are equalized, not for their titles, but for their thoughts.” Time-Boxed Flights: “We wanted to unleash the creative capacity of everyone, regardless of their role in an organization. We designed ‘flights’ that would focus on one key goal and be time bound to push idea generation.” These flights guide participants through in a way that is flexible to fit within many areas of a business by creating space for asynchronous collaboration that folds into synchronous dialogue and exploration of ideas. This approach aligns with insights found through research conducted by the Harvard Business Review pointing to the fact that constraints actually drive innovation vs. working against it. Setting clear constraints can enhance creativity by focusing effort and encouraging novel solutions. AI Integration for Theme and Insight Identification: AI-powered tools analyze collaborative data to identify trends, surface hidden insights and prioritize key insights. This helps leaders understand the flow of ideas, identify areas of alignment and disagreement and make more informed decisions. Howard Tullman, entrepreneur and one of the Balloon template designers emphasizes, “Business owners and operators often forget that disruptive innovation and cultural change both start from the bottom up. Having an efficient and anonymous enterprise-wide listening and learning system - especially in today’s world where significant portions of the workforce are remote - is critical both as an early warning system for intervention and course correction and as a method to avoid the concrete layers and "upstream sweetening" that often keep senior management from accurately assessing the health, morale, and growth opportunities embedded within their own companies.” Emphasis on Newness: By measuring how many ideas are completely new or presented with a new nuance to them, leaders will be able to track meaningful idea generation and spot opportunities sooner. Balloon’s data illustrate the power of addressing groupthink and other costly cognitive biases: roughly 80% of the ideas and perspectives shared on the platform are brand-new or meaningfully nuanced, revealing insights that had never surfaced through traditional meetings or brainstorming sessions. Prioritization of Participation and Engagement: Creates a structured way to collaborate that is engaging and allows those who would typically not participate to contribute in a way that feels comfortable for them and is extremely useful in operationalizing team and project success. According to Balloon’s data, asynchronous flights achieve an average of 83% participation, while synchronous flights see nearly universal engagement (99–100%), demonstrating how the intentional design of the platform effectively brings every voice into the conversation. What Sets Collaboration Efforts Up for Success? Every leader can set their collaborative efforts up for greater success if they integrate the lessons learned from Greenberg and her team’s work and research at Balloon. Key recommendations she has include: Creating a Safe Space: Begin collaborative efforts by enabling team members to share their ideas anonymously, eliminating biases based on the source. This creates a psychologically safe environment where everyone feels comfortable contributing their authentic perspectives, even if they differ from the prevailing opinions or viewpoints of those in decision-making power positions. Google’s Project Aristotle, a 2012 research initiative, was used to identify the key factors of effective teams within the company. The project found that psychological safety was the most important element, followed by dependability, structure and clarity, meaning and impact. The findings showed that traits like personality and the number of geniuses on a team were less important than a team's ability to create a safe environment for collaboration and vulnerability. Allowing Time for Reflection: Provide opportunities for team members to process information and contribute their ideas asynchronously, allowing time for reflection and deeper thinking. This caters to different working styles and ensures that introverted individuals have the space to formulate their thoughts and share them effectively. It also prevents interruptions and anchoring biases that limit the flow of ideas and prevent true contribution from diverse groups. Jason DaCosta, Senior Vice President of Customer Operations at Alarm.com, highlights that, “As our team has grown and as the environment in which we operate has become more complex, it’s become harder and harder to set aside time to have meetings in which we discuss challenges/topics that are truly strategic. It's as if we can never find the time because there is always some new daily fire, or a continuation of a crisis from days' prior. Because of this, when we do occasionally get a meeting on the books, finding time to prepare for it is extremely difficult.” DaCosta goes on to explain that, “The biggest impact we’ve seen by using Balloon is our ability to have more productive strategic meetings without requiring too much pre-reading or pre-work. We've found that we get many more ideas this way and, perhaps more critically, we get ideas from more people, even those who may not speak up as much in an in-person setting. From there, we can quickly work through the process of determining who is in support of various ideas. He shares that by narrowing their focus down, their in-person discussions are much more lively, involving more productive debate than they'd seen in the past, and feel more collaborative in nature. Reducing Time Spent in Meetings: Providing easy ways for individuals to share their thoughts and ideas through an easy and safe medium, meeting time can be made far more efficient. Greenberg highlights that organizations using Balloon have seen meeting time reduced by 70%. DaCosta confirms that the amount of time their organization set aside for collaboration meetings decreased because discussions became more efficient. Guiding Collaboration with Purpose: Frame collaborative sessions with well-defined questions and clear objectives. This provides a roadmap for the conversation, ensures that all voices are heard, and keeps the discussion focused and productive. Collaboration in the Age of AI: Operationalizing the "Superpower" Greenberg encourages leader to understand that, “The ability to combine the best of human ingenuity with the power of AI unlocks a new era of collaborative potential.” She emphasizes that, “By designing solutions that tap into what’s unique about how the brain can work, the biases that can be eliminated and the need to prioritize participation and engagement, leaders can truly operationalize this concept that seems rather mushy at first. By focusing on data-driven insights, eliminating biases and fostering a culture of inclusivity, leaders can empower their teams to unlock their collective intelligence and achieve unprecedented levels of innovation and success.” Instead of viewing collaboration as a buzzword, leaders should view it as a strategic advantage. In fact, it’s a key to unlocking the full potential of their teams and driving organizational success. By understanding the inherent challenges, embracing the principles of insight mobility and leveraging technology to enable better collaboration, leaders can transform their teams into collaborative powerhouses.
