A collaborative atmosphere can be hard to just order up. As we just pointed out, it takes constant, diligent hard work to overcome old habits. It takes tons of training to teach employees the value of getting everyone to participate. It takes more training to teach good communication skills- the foundation of good collaboration.
Once you have those elements in place, it can still be tough to transform those skills into true workplace collaboration. When employees take on the same roles for every project, at every meeting, and during every brainstorming session, it's hardly a recipe for innovation.
Managers who want to spark creativity and promote out-of-the-box thinking often try and encourage team members to take on new roles. Everyone gets complacent when they slide into the same old easy, routine roles in every collaborative effort.