Collaboration

Insight article by Becky Viccars, Associate Leadership Development Practitioner

We often talk about collaboration being a key factor in high functioning and high performing organisations, and for good reason.

86% of corporate executives, employees, and educators across diverse market sectors blame lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures. (fierceinc.com)

HBR research found that firms with more cross-boundary collaboration achieve greater customer loyalty and higher margins. (hbr.org)

And time spent resolving issues related to inefficient collaboration can cost organisations an estimated $16,491 a year per manager in wasted time, or up to $874,000 annually for an enterprise of 1,000. (zoom.com)

So as you can see, there’s plenty of research to back up what intuitively makes sense. The cost of a lack of communication and cooperation between teams is high. On its way to impacting the bottom line, lack of, or poor collaboration, severely impacts trust, performance, creativity, productivity and efficiency.

The word “collaboration” gets banded about and sometimes it can seem like its meaning has been watered down. Collaboration isn’t the idea that we all “get along” and “play together nicely”, we don’t all need to agree, in fact it’s better that we don’t.

Effective collaboration seeks out diverse opinions, works across silos and is invigorated by creative abrasion. But in a fast-paced world it can feel quicker and easier to focus internally or on the immediate task in hand, rather than reaching out and fostering truly collaborative working relationships.

I recently had the pleasure of working on a project with two other consultants. All three of us brought something uniquely different in terms of our skills and experience. And as a result, we all saw the project differently and had a different focus and priorities.

It was a fantastic exploration of collaborative working. We definitely didn’t all “get on” or agree at first, we stormed, and it was super uncomfortable. We also really believed in what we were doing, recognised each other’s expertise and stayed engaged and committed to making it work.

We got there, and the results spoke for themselves. The group responded brilliantly, we clearly saw their development over the course of the project, and the feedback we received was phenomenal.

So, what does it take to be a collaborative leader?

We’re talking about leaders who…

• are horizon focused

Leaders who are able to focus in on the task in hand while keeping a clear view of the big picture, the wider organisations goals. By connecting with their organisation’s wider goals, as well as their team’s goals, they can more easily find common ground across silos. Focusing on what makes them part of a wider team not just the one they head up.

They’re also able to see and tap into the networks beyond their department, organisation or even industry.

• are cultural brokers

They build relationships across departments, focus on relationships across the organisation and not just the vertical, hierarchical ones that immediately impact them i.e. their managers and their team. And not just for themselves, they help and encourage others to navigate the cultural differences and build trust, across the organisation (hbr.org).

• are willing to have tough conversations

Having built a relationship across the organisation, to then be able to have, or hold space for others to have those tough conversations. Storming, or what Patric Lencioni calls “mining for conflict”. Linda Hill refers to “creative abrasion”, the ability to generate discourse and debate. Coupled with “creative agility”, the ability to test and experiment through quick pursuit, reflection and adjustment. And “creative resolution”, the ability to make integrative decisions that combine disparate or even opposing ideas (Linda Hill). We can’t all agree, but if we find a way through the result will be greater than the sum of its parts.

• seek difference, stay curious and listen well (Brene Brown)

Our cognitive bias will naturally seek the familiar, we will naturally move towards those who will agree with us or who see the solution in a similar way. To find difference, collaborative leaders actively seek out difference with curiosity and an open mind. They have the ability to advocate for their point of view whilst also staying curious and listening well to others. If people hold tightly to their positions, then creative agility is lost, and creative resolution becomes unrealistic. Collaborative leaders hear the concerns behind others viewpoints and support them to find commonality, a shared rational and creative resolution.

I’ll leave you with these questions to ponder:

• Which of the capabilities of collaborative leaders are you excelling at and which would benefit from some focus?
• Have your leaders got the breadth and depth of mindset and skills required to be collaborative leaders?
• Can your organisation afford not to increase their collaborative leadership?

*Article references:

86 Percent of Employees Cite Lack of Collaboration for Workplace Failures (Fierce Inc)

When Senior Managers Won’t Collaborate – Lessons from Professional Services Firms (Heidi K. Gardner HBR.org)

Global Collaboration Workplace Report (Zoom.com)

The Most Creative Teams Have a Specific Type of Cultural Diversity (Sujin Jang HBR.org)

Photo credit: Photo by ThisisEngineering on Unsplash