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Working with Wisdom: Orchestrating Collaboration at Work

Written by: Linda Naiman

Article Overview: How can we enhance our working relationships as a team, and improve our deliverables to the client. How do we collaborate more effectively?

Working with Wisdom: Orchestrating Collaboration at Work

A client, concerned about mediocre team performance amongst her group of managers cited poor morale, poor communication, and a lack of clarity regarding roles and skills as culprits.

Q. “How can we enhance our working relationships as a team, and improve our deliverables to the client. How do we collaborate more effectively?

A. 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 we collaborate more effectively? Here are some guidelines:

1. Talent. It’s crucial to have the right people on your team capable of adding their brilliance to the project.
2. 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.
3. 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.”
4. 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.
5. Connect the project with big picture company objectives. Create meaning and value for the organization and customers.
6. 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.
7. Provide an infrastructure and resources that enable learning, communication and collaboration. Address cultural issues that thwart collaboration.
8. 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.
9. Great work is its own reward. Give credit where credit is due and recognize teams team performance as well as individuals.
10. Use coaching to reinforce a collaborative culture. Coaching for improved teamwork, emotional intelligence, and hold difficult conversations can produce dramatic improvements to the group.
11. Add zest factors. (Hargrove) Make collaboration fun. Celebrate completions before moving on.
12. 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.

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

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Article Tags: collective purpose, company walls, culprits, deliverables, essential ingredients, global study, guiding vision, healthy relationships, hot topic, knowledge is power, meg wheatley, natural tendency, north american culture, poor communication, poor morale, share knowledge, social interaction, team performance, warren bennis, working relationships



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