The Smart Way to Collaborate

Collaboration is a fantastic concept. It evokes teamwork, functionality, and innovation. When we work together, amazing things can happen. The world is covered with examples. The pyramids of Egypt, the skyscrapers of New York City, probes sent off into the outer reaches of our galaxy are all exemplary feats of human engineering and collaboration.

The people who worked on these feats of human engineering each endeavored under very different conditions. The technology, the resources, the minds, the stakes, the workplace dynamics were all different. Human psychology hasn’t changed much over time though. Sensitivity to context and circumstances is still vital, but so is an understanding of the basic of human psychology at work in collaborative environments. 

It’s safe to say that where there is strong collaborative spirit, there is a greater degree of success. Here are a few things to note about collaborative spirit and how to stoke it.

The Four Stages of Relationship Development 

At this point the four stages of relationship building (forming, storming, norming, performing) are classic. I have read them expressed in a number of ways in a number of contexts. Nonetheless, they can be easily forgotten.

Forming. In this stage people are usually polite to each other and a bit reserved. Typically a group leader dominates activities. This is the best stage to clarify issues that will need to be resolved. It’s a fertile period of trust building. Don’t rush through this stage. Trust is a learned behavior. 

Storming. In this stage the clash of ideas and behaviors generates conflict. Politeness gives way to our passions and convictions. Power dynamics may be challenged. Group members test the limits of their relationship boundaries. In short order members learn those limits and hopefully learn that they can trust each other to understand and mitigate each other’s needs.

Norming. In this stage group members transition from identifying and mitigating needs to proactive problem-solving. They are now ready to collaborate to solve conflicts. The trust built early on is the foundation for risk taking and experimentation.

Performing. In this stage the creative energies unblocked by problem-solving activities rise to the surface. The energy emitted has opportunity to synergize, and partnerships are invigorated, exceeding their early expectations. 

The stages can help us pinpoint where we are as a group, thereby alleviating stress and guiding our behavior moving forward. However, an important consideration is what brought the group together? 

For a group to consider itself accountable to itself and its members, there must be some homogeneity. It is sometimes best to initiate the forming stage with a few unifying prompts:

• Define the area of interest for the group, as in, why are we all here, together.
• Document the start and stop of the activity, as in, what is the task at hand and what are future tasks to complete once the task at hand is complete.
• Delegate tasks on a project basis, as in, who will do what.
• Establish the rules of engagement, as in, what is the style of decision-making that the group will employ.
• Determine conflict resolution strategies consensually, as in, determine conflict resolution strategies consensually.
• Pinpoint in plain-speak the intention behind your activity, as in, what is the intended outcome.

The last point is crucial because if all else fails a clear statement of intent as regards purpose will guide individual behavior even when the group hasn’t discussed it. Again, this takes trust. We must trust our group members’ decision-making in lieu of directives. That’s why the forming stage shouldn’t be glossed over. 

Lead to Collaboration 

A leader who is attuned to the above phases without shying away from them will develop or refine emotional intelligence. It’s a skill born out of interaction with others. Emotionally intelligent people are unafraid to share ideas, learn in groups, carry out tasks collaboratively, and get things done as a unit. These leaders know, intuitively that an emotional connection can withstand storms of difficulty. 

A worthwhile text on the subject is Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatis, and Annie McKee. They hash out the four domains of emotional intelligence and their competencies.

1. Self-Awareness. This competency is about reading one’s own emotions and recognizing their impact with a gut sense to interpret and guide direction. It is also knowing and nourishing one’s strengths and weaknesses. 
2. Self-Management. This competency is about keeping disruptive emotions and impulses under control. Displaying honesty, integrity and trustworthiness. Practicing flexibility in adapting to changing situations or overcoming obstacles. Cultivating the drive to improve performance in order to meet inner standards of excellence. A readiness to act and seize opportunities. And seeing the upside in events.
3. Social Awareness. This competency is about sensing others’ emotions, understanding their perspective, and taking active interest in their concerns. It’s about reading the currents, decision networks and politics at the organizational level. And recognizing and meeting follower, client or customer needs.
4. Relationship Management. This competency is about guiding and motivating with a compelling vision. It’s about wielding a range of tactics for persuasion. Bolstering others’ abilities through feedback and guidance. Initiating, managing and leading in new directions. It’s about cultivating and maintaining relationship webs. And about both cooperation and team-building. 

All this is made possible by the interconnection of two distinct brain regions, and we get an important lesson in emotional intelligence from the neurology of those brain regions.

Brain research reveals that the areas of the brain specialized in higher level brain function and emotional responses are separate yet interwoven. That complex weave is our primal brain circuitry that allows us to perform tasks rapidly and efficiently. 

Business culture tends to emphasize higher-level brain processes over limbic ones. The irony is that when things get stressful, it’s the limbic brain that tends to take over. There is good reason for this. Emotions are crucial for survival, being the brain’s way of alerting us to something urgent and offering an immediate plan for action—fight, flee, freeze. The thinking brain evolved from the limbic brain and continues to take orders from it when it perceives a threat. 

Today we face complex social realities with a brain designed for surviving physical emergencies. And so we find ourselves hijacked — swept away by anxiety or anger better suited for handling bodily threats than office politics.

The point being that things are moving faster than our brains have time to process, so adding speed or pressure is not smart.

Permanent busyness is not smart and it hinders collaboration from the individual level outwards.

Collaboration Starts with the Individual

The pace of life for many of us has accelerated past fast to manic. This problematizes collaboration. Every person acts as if it were every man for himself when in reality we could do so much more in cohesive groups. It’s an unfortunate side effect of our Manic Society. In this Manic Society, we are changing faster, succeeding faster and failing faster. The challenge is to make sure we do not blur the vision, blur the goals, and blur what’s important to us because it undercuts sustainable success. 

Sustainable success that doesn’t deplete you begins with an awareness of and respect for the vast potential inside us all. Realizing our potential and using it in smart ways is our purpose and our salvation. Therefore, self-knowledge is a primary key to success. The better you know yourself — what you value, what inspires you, what you are made of — the more effectively you will live, work and relate to others.

Self-knowledge enables you to be inner-directed, self-referring and true to yourself. Without self-knowledge there can be no authentic success, no authentic happiness and no authentic living. If you live your life according to other people’s rules and expectations, you will live a half-life, at best. Remember this: you have gifts to share and a contribution to make.

A good place to start is by believing in our own creativity and abilities. By being self-reliant. We need to believe in our own abilities to create and to improve upon our skills by teaming up with the right people. We need to stop studying creativity just in labs and recognize that it’s all around us. We need to prepare ourselves for jobs that don’t yet exist using technologies that haven’t been invented to solve problems that we haven’t recognized.

The five competencies of Creative IQ aren’t simply best practices for organizations to transform themselves; they are tools that can help you plot or change a career path. 

Knowledge mining. Use your own experiences and aspirations as fodder for creativity. If you can’t directly tap into those, practice. Go on Pinterest, read articles, seek out inspiration. There is so much knowledge available that it’s staggering.

Framing. Understanding your frame of reference as it compares with other people’s frame is a key strategy no matter your aspirations or industry. People who understand framing techniques are able to recognize where they stand, when they need to refocus their lens, and who else needs to be in the picture. 

Playing. Be experimental and take risks. Don’t always approach a problem thinking about solving it. Be playful, have fun, try weird tactics, and you might be surprised with what emerges. 

Making. After decades of rewarding mental agility, we are experiencing a maker’s renaissance. Americans want to make things again. Thanks to a whole host of new technologies and the democratization of the tools of creativity –– from Photoshop to 3-D printers to Behance –– we’re doing it.

Pivoting. Pivoting from the inception to the production side of creation is the final competency. Truly creative people don’t stop at the idea; they make the pivot into creation. 

A few more words on framing. 

Framing is about context, at base. When you think about it, context can be infinitely small and infinitely large. For example, the geosphere is a context, the biosphere is too, as is the sociosphere. When creating make sure you are sensitive to what your context is and how your outputs will impact it. 

The short of it is that working smart is a team effort, fueled by the individual’s emotional intelligence, perception of success, and creativity. When those facets of teamwork are defined and agreed upon, all manner of innovation can flourish and change the team forever.

Other articles on the topic of teamwork and collaboration

• Building High Performance Teams
• Understanding the Dynamics of Groups at Work 
• How to Build Synergy & Harmony in Your Team?
• The One Thing Every Team Should Become