Working with Wisdom: Orchestrating Collaboration at Work
May 15th, 2008 by Linda Naiman
Collaboration has become a hot topic lately, and a recent IBM global study of CEOs revealed that collaboration is key to innovation success, especially when collaboration occurs beyond company walls. Projects are often too complex for individuals or even teams in one company to tackle. Collaboration can be a challenge depending on the culture of an organization.
As Meg Wheatley said to me in an interview for Orchestrating Collaboration at Work:
“In North American culture, we have so conditioned people to be competitive and to look out for themselves that teamwork has become a problem. Yet working together is a more natural state for humans than working in isolation, and teamwork is a natural tendency. The arts, and sports as well, provide people with the experience of what it’s like to work together.”
We’ve also been taught that knowledge is power, and therefore if we share knowledge, our power or currency is diminished.
So how can groups collaborate more effectively?
- Talent. It’s crucial to have the right people on your team capable of adding their brilliance to the project.
- Healthy relationships are at heart of collaboration. Appreciating others, engaging in purposeful conversations and the ability to resolve conflicts are essential ingredients for collaboration. Find ways for the team to get to know each other not just as professionals, but as human beings, to build trust and provide occasions for informal social interaction.
- A guiding vision and clarity of purpose are key to collaboration. Warren Bennis said “Great Groups think they are on a mission from God… Their clear, collective purpose makes everything they do seem meaningful and valuable.”
- Provide a clear mission objective. Team members jointly prepare a written purpose statement for their collaboration, and define rules of engagement which include goals, roles, responsibilities and deliverables. Communicate how decisions are made.
- Connect the project with big picture company objectives. Create meaning and value for the organization and customers.
- Create an atmosphere of safety, trust and respect. Encourage multiple perspectives, diverse viewpoints and creativity. Keep members energised through stimulating, quality discussions around cutting edge issues.
- Provide an infrastructure and resources that enable learning, communication and collaboration. Address cultural issues that defeat collaboration.
- Provide great leadership. Nurture the brilliance of your people and do everything you can to remove barriers to high performance. Avoid being too autocratic and allow time for the team to weigh in on decisions.
- Great work is its own reward. Give credit where credit is due and recognize teams team performance as well as individuals.
- Use coaching to reinforce a collaborative culture. Coaching for improved teamwork, emotional intelligence, and hold difficult conversations can produce dramatic improvements to the group.
- Add zest factors. (Hargrove) Make collaboration fun. Celebrate completions before moving on.
- Capture best practices and mistakes to learn from. Publish on your intranet or wiki to give everyone access to your wisdom.
Show this list to your team and ask them what they think is most important, and you will have insights on the best ways to improve performance, either through training, coaching, adding zest, or providing missing resources.
What other factors do you think are important for creative collaboration?
References:
Orchestrating Collaboration at Work: by Arthur VanGundy and Linda Naiman
Mastering the Art of Creative Collaboration by Robert Hargrove
Organizing Genius, by Warren Bennis
HI Linda,
I enjoyed reading your blog on collaboration. When I was completing my Masters in Leadership thesis my topic was on collaboration. One of my findings was that a group cannot fully become collaborative until each member of the group buys in fully into a process of defining collaboration for that particular team. My findings iindicated “that when groups are working together and striving for collaboration there are many factors that influence success. It is important for the leader and the group to understand these factors and create a process that is appropriate for these individuals in the group.”
Five themes in the collaborative process emerged to pay attention to. These are “feeling of collaboration; goal, purpose and commitment; beliefs, values, perception; comfort with technology; and learning to collaborate.” It is important to have a vision not just of the shared product or task, but also a vision of collaboration- what it will look like when you are fully collaborative and a process that addresses these five themes.
We make assumptions sometimes that we know what collaboration is, that our group agrees on what it will look like; and thiis unexplored assumption often leads to conflict, to questions of trust, to project stalling or even sabotage, and even tension on how best to proceed when often people are also in competition with each other in other areas. Thanks for raising this up as a topic for discussion.
Reference: Payne, D (2000) Creating Community through Collaboration and Technology, Royal Roads University.
Hi Debbie,
Thanks for sharing your wisdom. You make an excellent point about having a vision of collaboration- what it will look like when you are fully collaborative, and about assumptions that we know what collaboration is. That is why it is so important to work out rules of engagement.
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