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Success: The Collaborative Win

Written by: Dianne Crampton

Article Overview: For some people, success is everything. Winning at all costs is the name of the game. Collateral damage is calculated. If someone is hurt in the process it’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it is. You will hear leaders say things like, “You are either with me or against me.” There is no middle ground. Some people call these leaders good business people. Others call them short sighted. Loyal followers abandon ship when it is clear the collateral damage includes them or when their personal values and integrity collide with business practices as usual. Is there a better way? This article looks at success from a collaborative perspective where winning strikes an effective balance between how work is done and the people who acieve it.

Success: The Collaborative Win

For some people success is everything. Winning at all costs define the rules of the game and little deviations from truth and honesty are minor blips on the radar. What matters is getting from point A to point B from the most direct route possible and if that means obliterating an obstacle to get there … then so be it.

For other people success is the quality of the journey. Getting to point B from point A is sometimes a meandering route. The goal is often obscured by side trips. Relating to others and enjoying work is often more important than the goal. Loyal followers abandon ship when they are uncertain that success can be achieved or when their personal values and work ethic require achievement rather than continually mucking through process.

Other people know success involves achieving goals, building relationships and improving processes. Success is a matter of balance. And, when goals are reached, there is time to celebrate, evaluate, fine-tune and lay the foundation for future success.

Success means effectively achieving what an organization has set out to do. It is a fundamental rationality for why teams are formed. For this reason, it’s essential that team members clearly understand and commit to organizational values and to the organization’s vision, mission and goals. If people resolutely believe that goals aren’t achievable, they often will demand a change in leadership or look for a better organization to share their time, talent and commitment.

Likewise, success is the second of two TIGERS collaborative core values that are highly correlated with the other values. This means that if people believe their organization will be successful then the core values trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy and risk can also be positively affected. Therefore, building core value supported behaviors is facilitated by employees who understand how what they contribute supports success.

The second correlated value is interdependence. By definition interdependence means if “WE win I win.” Success is in the definition but instead of suggesting one person can win without the mutual success of others, the success of everyone defines the successful outcome. This means that if people believe that their efforts will be successful in a balanced way, they will dig in and make the sacrifices necessary to achieve success – for everyone.

For example, Michael Hoseus, co-author of Toyota Culture, the Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way, McGraw Hill 2008, autographed a copy of my book with the inscription, “Always take are of the people.” When I asked him to give me a Toyota business example of this he shared the following scenario.

Work teams and the work teams accomplish at Toyota are put at risk when people fail to show up for work. Maybe family issues cause the absence. Maybe illness is the reason. Maybe people call in sick and spend the day at the beach. For what ever reason, other team members must pick up the slack or production goals fall putting Toyota at risk.

As a result, Toyota establishes an annual zero absence goal and supports it with a family-wide incentive. If an employee has no unexcused absences during the year (an aggressive advance notice of excused absence is required), then the family wins an opulent celebration that includes travel and lodging for the family, and activities for children and adults of such a grand scale that families look forward to it every year.

As a result, families do their own problem solving to plan in advance for important school functions, and build their own family support networks to address unexpected life issues. This includes taking care of their health and working safely to minimize the risk of absence.

The bottom line is that there are employees with a formidable work ethic who are proud of never missing a day of work. Yet, in some organizations, employees look for excuses to stay home or outright lie to take a day off. From the Toyota perspective, this hurts the company, fellow employees, the integrity and trustworthiness of the employee, and the success of the company.

With this in mind, what behaviors damage success?

• Lack of personal commitment and accountability for organization goals
• Withholding information caused by unhealthy competition among work groups and managers
• Poor morale
• Lack of direction
• Short-term problem solving

What behaviors build success?

• Building commitment and ownership of company goals at all levels of organization
• Involving as many workers’ ideas into goal implementation as appropriate
• Establishing and communicating quality standards, planning, work design and system refinement strategies for all levels of operation.
• Celebrating successes
• Giving credit to employees who make a difference
• Evaluating and removing operational barriers
• Training to improve both work, process and relational skills

Success as a collaborative core value strikes a balance between how work is done and the people doing the work. When the six TIGERS collaborative values are recognized and held as important, the resulting behaviors produce greater harmony and improved communication among people, which results in less strife. The payoff is increased creativity, productivity and improved morale.

In those organizations where behavior standards are spelled out and expectations of how people are to treat one another are commonly known, both group harmony and increased productivity follow.

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  7 Tips for Collaborative Leadership – Connecting High Performance Teams

Article Tags: business practices, collaboration, collaborative perspective, collateral damage, good business, integrity, loyal followers, name of the game, personal values, team building, team culture



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Re: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD...RIGHT NOW!!! - Success = Thinking (Head) + Heart (Feeling / Interest) + Hand (doing/ action). Success - H3 Robert
Re: Success - I study success intently, and would like to share: Here's two excellent and nearly identical success-formulas from a couple of the world's masters. FIRST FORMULA: 1. Passionate Desire 2. Clear, Definite Purpose 3. Committed Decision 4. Take Action In Faith (Bonus Secret Sauce: 5. Repeat Consistently) I made a video about this, but am not allowed to link it yet. Google "Ryze Success Steps" for it. Oh, and this is Napoleon Hill's (Master Of Success Laws)'s Formula. SECOND FORMULA: 1. Passionate Desire 2. Understand It Is Already Done (Faith) 3. Relax & Allow It To Unfold (Go about your life calmly) This one is courtesy of Abraham-Hicks (inspiration for the movie The Secret). Hope that helps!
Success Strategies - How to get the results you want now? Success Strategies and Action Steps I have used are: The Power of Choice Where you are at this present moment, is exactly perfect from the choices you have made. If you want to be somewhere else, you have to decide clearly what that is (your goal/outcome) and create action steps to achieve this. The Power of Focus The book "The Power of Focus" by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt, is one of my treasures in my Entrepreneur Library. If you focus on what you want versus what you do not want, your conscious and sub-conscious mind will direct attention to this. The movie, What the Bleep, Down the Rabbit Hole, explains this in detail about quantum physics and what we create in our lives. The Power of Commitment This is not about commitment to others. The first step is the commitment, your word, you make to yourself. Accountability and responsibility are additional success strategies and ingredients to creating the success, defined by you, that you want. The commitment to others reflects your integrity, your word and the team you work with. Co-workers, clients, yoru family, friends and community. My Success Acronyn in Success Breakthroughs(c) is: S pecific & self-directed U nlimited opportunities & possibilities C reate powerful outcomes C onsistent measureable results E xperience pwoerful transformation S olution and action-oriented S uccessful habits and outcomes Break Through to Powerful LIfestyle & Performance Choices Moira
Re: Books for the Entrepreneur - Here's one of my most recent books The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success By Brian Tracy
Re: What is your age? - Kevin, Success is the best revenge. they are telling the world that been raised by sinlge parent will not determine their success in life


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