4 Tips for Effective Collaboration

Introduction A recent Cisco study – “Human behaviour and the barriers to effective collaboration: how it affects productivity, workplace efficiency, and business results” – outlined 4 key ingredients for successful collaboration. These were all grounded in human behaviour and included building relationships based on trust, turning human interactions into results, balancing decision-making and consensus building and evolving the workplace culture. It was interesting to note that successful collaboration had nothing to do with the latest technology or the most complicated Gantt charts – it was all about the people. “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” Andrew Carnegie Here are 4 tips to help you collaborate more effectively:

Hero every voice From the top of an organization all the way down – we need to listen to everyone’s ideas and allow them to shine. Schedule regular collaboration meetings with people across your organisation and collectively solve a problem. Be sure to encourage everyone to speak up (especially the introverts) as any voice can change the world.

Make visioning a team sport I read this line in a wonderful Forbes article that said “Today’s most successful leaders guide their organizations not through command and control, but through a shared purpose and vision”. I love this statement because it encourages leaders to share the mission and dreams of the business and allow every team member to play a role in determining how to bring the dreams to life.

Create inspirational leaders To be successful you will need to inspire those around you to also be inspirational. Identify your collaboration team and create a list of all of the people, groups and organizations who have something to gain, something to lose and something to contribute to the issue at hand. Connect with them and work out what they are passionate about. Give them the tools, the passion, and the authority to inspire.

Collaborate regularly and evaluate. Collaboration is something that requires regular practice with your selected group. Then you will start to see issues and challenges from a different point of view and gain greater clarity. Evaluate regularly: is your collaborative progressing? What needs to be achieved and by when? Be clear about your outcomes with everyone who is involved.

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