If you can swap your festival tickets, why not also swap your staff? This question is not a joke, but a serious idea of a new Dutch startup. With Qwobble, you can switch employees for one day whenever you get completely stuck in your business. A fresh input from someone working in your field would bring about creative solutions that you hadn’t thought of yourself. Qwobble launched its website last week, and is now ready for you to swap your employees.
A fresh set of eyes
The idea is that sometimes you and your colleagues get stuck in entrenched thought patterns. You have been occupied with your startup on a full-time basis, and at some point you just can’t see things clear anymore. You are out of ideas, and have no clue of how to break the vicious circles in your minds. What you need then would be a “fresh set of eyes” looking at your work, to bring you back to reality.
Qwobble’s buddy-exchange
Qwobble’s solution? An online platform on which you can find buddies facing the same problem. Qwobble’s matching system connects you with persons in similar functions, but from different companies. They know your field and understand the challenges you are facing. They might even have faced the same situation as you are in. At the same time, their company might be lost in a problem that you experienced before. For one day you will change offices, and at the end of the day you give and receive a professional advice for your stalled business.
A collaboration strategy?
The underlying concept of Qwobble is that sharing knowledge is a fruitful way of progressing. Instead of feeling hostile to our competitors, we should join forces. The startup refers to an Australian research that points out that “companies with the right strategy for collaboration are twice as likely to beat their competition.” Fair enough, but is swapping employees really a strategy, or is it more of a creative experiment?
Sharing is caring
What happens for example, when the match turns out to be a complete mis-match? CMO Daan Wonnink: (2nd from the right with the huge beard) : ‘That is too bad indeed. However, our concept is based on the idea that when you are facing a problem, you can find the right expert to help you”. On the Qwobble platform you can find a match by filtering different features, such as function level and sector. Furthermore, Wonnink says companies should not worry about losing their staff by using Qwobble: “We believe that it is good to let your staff see how other companies work. In all areas we see a transition from possessing to sharing”.
Who wants to give it a try?
Though it surely sounds as a fun experiment, its trickiness is hard to deny. Qwobble could be a fun way to meet buddies, and maybe they even have some great ideas for your startup. A fresh look on your work will most probably not harm your business, but can we trust the match Qwobble makes for us? Okay, the platform matches you with employees of your field and expertise, but perhaps it remains a little arbitrary. It seems a bit like buying a lottery ticket. Good news for those who like to play it safe: the first six months you can try Qwobble for free!
Pictures from https://www.qwobble.com
