InformationWeek

Perlmutter contends that the age of companies relying on dominance and dependence has ended, and that collaboration will take its place. He recently shared his ideas on collaboration and information-sharing with managing editor Chris Murphy:

InformationWeek: Why do you think dominance and dependence work? There are still lots of powerful companies.

Perlmutter: They try. It's just that these are human relationships--if at the interface big companies are pushing their weight around, particularly if these are knowledge workers, it doesn't work. On the person-to-person or Internet level, it takes a shift from dominance and dependence--"I own you or have power over you or pay you, so behave"--to autonomy, where I give you areas of freedom and interdependence. When you get into that mode, information flows more easily.

InformationWeek: Do you think there's still a sense still in companies that knowledge is power, and to give that knowledge up is to lose the power?

Perlmutter: It's still there. But if I'm afraid you're going to take the crown jewels from me, that limits what takes place. The normal reaction is that if you learn what I know, then you don't need me. The way I see it is it's not a race to co-opt what others know, but that you both keep learning from each other. You can't stop at any point. It's the co-learning model. Then you develop ideas that neither of you could have come up with by yourself.

InformationWeek: What's the value of these deep dialogues to measure and predict collaboration success?

Perlmutter: The main concept of deep dialogue is really getting through to each other in exchanging information at extreme levels of depth, especially where the information will create new information or knowledge. Deep dialogue deals with the quality of the information-transfer process and the trust-building aspect. You can get a transfer of information but not necessarily knowledge; knowledge involves tacit information that's not necessarily shared until there are levels of trust.

InformationWeek: How do you help companies when collaboration isn't working?

Perlmutter: People who are part of the problem should be part of the solution. The most difficult problem is the finger-pointing: It's you who's screwing it up. That doesn't get you very far. I see my role as facilitating how each is contributing to what they perceive to be the shared problem of collaboration. It usually has to do with mistrust. It's more about having people experience what they're doing, rather than my telling them.

InformationWeek: How can a leader set the tone for collaboration?

Perlmutter: Collaboration is like any motherhood concept. Who can be against collaboration? What's important is the courage to look at the way things really are. "We should all collaborate," says the boss, but the message he sends is "Don't really give them anything." Look at what you're doing, and the consequences.