Collaboration By Morten Hansen

??Week 19: Collaboration ??

When you lack the resources or expertise to scale, consider collaborating with others.

Australia ranks as one of the lowest countries in the OECD when it comes to collaboration.?

The difference between good and bad collaboration is a set of principles Morten calls “disciplined collaboration”

Disciplined collaboration:? properly assessing when (and when not) to collaborate and instilling both the willingness and ability to do it.

1. Evaluate opportunities:? will it have a great upside?? Collaboration is a means to an end and that end is better performance?
2. Spotting barriers to collaboration: “ not invented here,? hoarding,? search (can't find the right information), transfer of trust barrier.
3. Tailor Solutions to remove barriers.

Tailoring Solutions is a mix of three levers:? unification lever,? people lever, and network lever.

Bundling different products into a solution can be a potent way of selling more through collaboration.

Ask yourself: What valuable customer relations do you have that the other parties can benefit from?

People withholding their customers' relations is a big barrier to collaboration.

BARRIERS TO COLLABORATION

1. Not invented here barrier -? viewing your problems as unique and not willing to learn from others.

Insular culture -? reinforcing existing beliefs.

Status Gap -? unwilling to work with people above or below are you

Self-reliance -? unwilling to ask for help.

Fear of revealing shortcomings -? exposing your vulnerabilities.

2. Hoarding barrier -? withholding help, information, time and effort.?

Competition -? undermines people's willingness to collaborate

Narrow Incentives.

Being too busy -? don't feel they have the time to help.

Fear of losing power -? knowledge equals power in a scarcity mindset

3. The search barrier -? the inability to find information and people needed to collaborate.

Company size -? the bigger the company the greater the search problem.

Physical Distance -? spread across cities, regions, countries and continents.

Information overload -? the ratio of the total amount of information vs the amount of useful information.

Poverty of networks -? Milgram's six degrees of separation rule

4. The transfer barrier -? expertise, know-how and technology.

The problem isn't motivation but abilities.

Tacit knowledge -? the information that's hard to articulate orally, in writing,? in manuals, in equations, and in software code.

No common framework -? a lack of understanding of each other's working habits,? appreciation for mood,? and Articulating something.

Weak ties - don't know each other well -? relationships where people talk often and a close working association.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Lever 1 - Unifying people. Finding alignment and commonalities.

Create a unifying goal - example: Putting a man on the moon.

The goal must be simple and concrete

The goal must stir passion

The goal must put competition on the outside.

Create a core value of teamwork

Create a language of collaboration - For example, the “Stamford community game” changed the name to “The Wall Street game” and produced far less cooperation. Behaviours of self-interest become true even if it's not true at the outset,? outset just by labelling.

COLLABORATION MUST BE MEASURED

1. Needs developed
2. Satisfactory
3. Highly effective

Data must be collected

It must be evaluated

It must have consequences

Collaborative companies run on networks and working relationships.

NETWORKS:

Identify opportunities then capture them. Use professional relationships to find resources, technology, an idea, an expert, and a collaboration partner. Capture value as people realise the benefits from the resources identified.?

SIX NETWORK RULES - Identify opportunities and capture value.

1. Build outward, not inward
2. Build diversity, not size. Different industries, backgrounds, viewpoints, technologies etc
3. Build weak ties, not strong ones - good friends often know many of the same people we know.
4. Use Bridges, not familiar faces. Super connectors that transverse sectors. Most people are not good at bridges.?
5. Swarm the target, do not go it alone.
6. Switch to strong ties, once you have traction,? don’t rely on weak ones.

FINAL THOUGHTS:?

Redefining success from narrow agendas to bigger goals.

Putting personal goals and interests second.

Getting others to transcend their own agendas.

Tearing down personal barriers - such as hunger for power, arrogance, defensiveness, attitude, fear, and big egos.

Summary: My good friend Frank Wyatt once told me that the key to collaboration is to “surrender” - meaning ego and personal agendas. To allow trust to flourish and true collaboration to happen.?

1 Key Takeaway/Insight:? Use professional relationships to find resources, a technology, an idea, an expert, and a collaboration partner.?

Rating: 7 out of 10 ?

Author: Morten Hansen

Link to purchase:?https://www.amazon.com/Collaboration-Leaders-Common-Ground-Results/dp/1422115151

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