CNBC started a series on Collaboration last Sunday night; it was on my wavelength but didn’t make it to the DVR. I just watched it on the web.  (The schedule and archived broadcasts are available.) The first episode kicks off with a comment that is music to my net work ears: we need to nurture clusters of innovation and be sure that these clusters are connected.

One example is the X Prise project — the challenge by Richard Branson and  Paul Allen. Anousheh Ansari, whose family funded the winning SpaceshipOne. “It shows how collaboration can occur when everybody shares the same vision.” Another key element in this type of program is to encourage risk-taking to ensure breakthrough thinking. Subsequent examples include the international collaboration on trade agreements that requires trust-based negotiation; the collaboration required by Boeing to build the 787; the ways that cloud computing enables companies to work together more easily using collaboration and data sharing tools and Cisco’s telepresence system for virtual meetings;  pharmaceutical company’s urgency in collaborating for innovation.

This business-focused show includes interviews with CEOs and VPs from  Intel , Cisco, and Astra-Zeneca; and Harvard alliances guru Sansay Gulati, who reminds us that over half of alliances fail. Gulati also points out that the kum-ba-yah of reaching a vision of collaboration is often undermined unless the collaboration is accompanied by a clear understanding of how coordination will occur.

In all, a good beginning to what looks like an interesting series. Concluding “hidden value plays” by panelists include:

• Trust but verify (Chrystia Freeland, Financial Times, echoing Ronald Reagan)
• Embrace technology (Richard Tait , co-funder of Cranium and now CEO of boomboom)
• Aligned goals and roles (Gulati)

Not much news here for those of us who have been immersed in collaboration and knowledge management for years, but it’s good to see programs like this reach a wider business audience.