Good stuff, as always. One thing that worries me sometimes is the question of "why isn't this already in place?" Given my interests, I tend to think there is something in the way we manage organizations that lead us to drive exactly the wrong behaviors. Instead of collaboration, we encourage individual action by demanding people meet individual deadlines for individual deliverables. This is done under the assumption that if everyone gets their work done "on time," then the overall projects will finish "on time." But it never seems to work - and this tends to leave no time for people to actually work together.

One element of the solution has to be to work on the management end of things and find ways to focus on the overall goal, and then leave the team to figure out the best ways to get there. There is still the need to monitor project status, but focus on the PROJECT, not the individuals.