Collaborating harmoniously, then and now

Collaboration is top-of-mind for many business leaders. When I think about the first time I really had to collaborate with others to achieve a common goal, I go way back to my grade school choir and how we sang different notes together to create multi-part harmonies. Sometimes the harmony matched the shape of the melody, moving up or down. Other times the melody moved around our harmonies. In every case, collaboration was the key to making the music sound beautiful … or at that point, palatable.

Fast forward to 2020 in the midst of a pandemic. As I was watching a video performance of the choir from my alma matter, I thought about how the group had to adapt to new ways of collaborating. Each individual singing their part at home to a recording of the melody and then combining these 30+ virtual contributions to create one, harmonious song.

In essence, the business world has been forced to take the same agile and adaptive approach to collaboration.

How we collaborate is changing

Pre-COVID, one could argue that our inclinations toward collaboration were motivated by human nature. However, it was more of an opt-in. The times and moments when teams got together were largely episodic. People could go about their business individually or work with colleagues, and the recency and frequency of collaborative events was less consequential.

Now, when the only connective tissue between us all are these virtual screens, it feels like there is a massively increased hunger for collaboration.

That tracks with data from our recent Future of Work survey, which found that collaboration matters to business leaders more than ever, especially with respect to digital transformation. A majority of the survey group agreed everyone in an organization – from business leaders to employees – must take a more active, collaborative role to ensure transformative success. That includes people in IT functions collaborating more with colleagues across the business, and – relevant to us in the software industry – adopting platforms and systems that allow employees to collaboratively build and implement their own technology solutions.

More and better collaboration underpins this inclusive approach to work, but the way we collaborate is changing. No longer do many of us have the occasion of bumping into coworkers in the hallway and spontaneously generating a plan to partner on shared interests. Collaboration today is much more pre-planned and pervasive. My calendar, for example, on any given day is full of multi-person sessions on a wide array of topics. But I could tag them all with the descriptor “collaborative sessions.” That wasn’t so much the case in the past.

I think we do lose a bit of individual personal perspective when the distributed nature of our current workspaces prevents us from physically bumping into each other in the halls, in the office kitchenette, etc. Even those 30- or 45 second “How was your weekend,” check-ins while getting coffee were valuable. They are personal connections that followed into meeting rooms and, many times, gave people a better appreciation and greater empathy for the individuals with whom they were engaging in that physical meeting space. We may have lost a little bit of that, and that’s unfortunate.

However, the other side of the story is that the frequency by which we’re all connecting on digital technology, like instant messaging and video calls, now may more than make up for that loss. It’s both a reminder and a challenge to those of us creating these collaborative platforms that they are critical tools for enabling individuals and groups to easily interact.

Organizations now have a mandate to foster agility within collaborations

Right now, there are still a whole range of simple questions that we don’t know the answers to. When is it okay to go back to the office? When will we allow people to travel to client sites? What should the new working environment look like and facilitate? These are today’s set of unknowns. And as business leaders work together to determine the right answers to those questions for their respective organizations, they’re doing it while working in parallel to service the structures of their business plans, strategies, and execution principles. This requires a new level of agility; the ability to quickly pull people together to gain perspectives, scenario plan, and ultimately make decisions on events that are outside of the blueprints and the norms of the business-as-usual practice.

That’s why analyst firms like Gartner are forecasting the need for collaborative, social software will grow 17% in 2021. We’re recognizing the importance of technology in connecting remote workforces for collaborations on mission-critical solutions. At the same time, we’re also recognizing tech’s importance in collaborating to feel connected and part of a team. (A Friday lunchtime skribbl contest, for example.)

The future absolutely requires working in harmony through collaboration

This agile, remote-together organizational structure is now a very real and sustaining operating model for the near future and beyond, moving the, perhaps, once-incidental concept of collaboration to the forefront of business strategy.

Circling back to my grade school choir metaphor, the coda of my story is this: There are obvious parallels between collaborating on a musical performance and working together to achieve the outcomes essential for your organization’s success. We realize the best results when we work together as a group; listen to each other; and value and respect each other’s strengths and individual talents. Collaboration is the key to the proverbial sum-is-greater-than-its-parts-level of performance on every type of virtual stage. And none more so than for businesses that need to pivot, react, reinvent, and deliver on their customer promises – and do it better than anyone else – each and every day.

Author’s background note: Music has been a part of my life since I was a child, singing and also playing guitar. And I’m still lucky enough to get together with other musicians every now and again to collaborate and perform. We even have some fun with it at work. Check out our company band’s most recent music videos. (No recording contract offers yet … but we’re still hoping!)