Wayne Nelsen:
How do your team members talk with each other? Do they understand what must be done and approach it together? Can it be described as “being collaborative” when this happens?
Collaboration at work refers to the practice of individuals or teams within an organization working together effectively to achieve common goals or complete projects or tasks. It involves sharing ideas, information, resources, and expertise to enhance productivity, creativity, and problem-solving.
Collaboration is vital to organizations because it develops teamwork, leading to improved innovation, better decision-making, increased efficiency, and a stronger unity among team members. It enables organizations to tap into diverse perspectives and skill sets, adapt quickly to change, and achieve greater success in today’s competitive business environments.
“Collaboration allows us to know more than we can know by ourselves,” according to Paul Solarz. “It’s a way to expand our worldview and learn things that we might otherwise not learn.”
Our challenge at work is that most situations that could be great opportunities for active, candid, two-way dialogue end up being one-way pontifications where a manager “talks at” its team members versus “talking with them.”
And it doesn’t get much better in workgroups, as a select “vocal” few dominate the discussion and influence others in a direction they want to go (their bias included).
Collaboration should be a standard practice at work. It’s sometimes difficult to recognize, but executing well as a team and organization depends upon it.
It requires consistent practice. At a minimum, an every 30-day “check-in” between a manager and each of their direct reports is most beneficial. This needs to be quality time set aside where the focus of the meeting is entirely on the needs of the direct report.
It must be a two-way, collaborative effort where both work together to help the direct report succeed in their position.
If we are to understand collaboration correctly, when put into simpler terms, if a direct report of ours fails or falls short, their manager is also seen as having failed or fallen short.
Collaborative thinking and learning take effort. A lot of it. It’s part of skilled communication, utilizing emotional intelligence, great questions, and a heavy dose of positive attitude.
Communicating collaboratively takes practice, practice, and more practice; still, the outcomes make it worth the work and effort. “Collaboration is the key to success in any organization, and it starts with a willingness to ask for help.” – Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn.
As a leader, do you own the conversations in your organization?
From : linkedin
Follow