Open Brainstorms

Ask a question and see if you get passed around to multiple people to get an answer. Sometimes everyone has a nickels' worth of information and it takes 20 people to get a whole buck: meaning that if collaboration is NOT occurring, everyone knows a small piece of the process but cannot describe it end to end. If collaboration takes place, anyone involved in the process will know it holistically.

Try to take one process and diagram it or follow it. See if it flows efficiently or gets balled up in silos.

Morale is a great indicator. You can see it in their faces. As you walk around are there conference rooms in use? Do people look engaged? Do you hear laughter? Generally the mood in an environment where there is trust is smiling faces and comraderie. In a sweatshop it is quite the opposite. If there is a lunchroom or break room, hang around there and listen to the conversation. As 4:30 - 5:00 PM rolls around, does the place empty out like a firehose? If so, it's probably not a fun env.

People pro actively ask others if they need help.

Project schedules, details, obstacles are publicly visible (and people are given sufficient time to review and give input).

How many people are smiling (at each other).

When you ask people "are you collaborating more" they say yes. You don't need to backdoor them with some qualitative study or metrics. You trust them.

A library of resources is being created.

They see more one on one meetings with internal colleagues scheduled.

They look back on there planner and see more collaborative meetings scheduled.

People create a list of people they actually know in the organization, this increases.

Response of public to the recruitment drive of the organization may be a surrogate marker

Annual report of the department/organization

Scientific publications