Collaboration requires suspension

According to an engineer friend of mine, some of the biggest advantages of suspension bridges are that they can span bigger gaps/distances than any other kind of bridge, require less building materials and can be constructed in ways that don't impede a flow of traffic beneath them while they are being built.

Those features alone would be enough to convince me that the suspension bridge is an appropriate metaphor for organisational collaboration. There can be huge gaps between some departments and teams (and within departments and teams), we have increasingly fewer resources and time to make collaboration happen well, and we don't want our organisational collaboration efforts to get in the way of effectively serving our customers and constituents on an ongoing daily basis.

But the metaphor goes further. Collaboration efforts require suspension in terms of active support and capacity to work with bounce and sway. They also require a ready suspension of various beliefs or assumptions on the part of the different individuals or teams coming together as part of a collaborative endeavour.

That's often mainly a suspension of belief in terms of what we think we know versus what others know but also includes things like assumptions around core values, motives and notions of relative regard and respect. Open-mindedness, curiosity and humility can make such a huge difference when it comes to collaboration.

Two items from the measure of Workplace Social Capital instrument I introduced here provide insights into the horizontal 'bridging (to get ahead)' inclination in your department or team:

4. People in the team cooperate in order to help develop and apply new ideas

5. Members of the team build on each other’s ideas in order to achieve the best possible outcome

You could slightly reword those to see what sort of suspension bridging is happening between different teams at a broader organisation level. Note also the Relational Leadership: vertical social capital, without the vertigo and Bonding: how tight teams can come with fine lines TWIGs I've already explored in this newsletter.

Two great books I recommend to further explore this topic of collaboration include Morten Hansen 's Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Build Common Ground, and Reap Big Results (which includes appreciation for the four greatest barriers to collaboration as well as three key levers to make it happen, from one of the world's foremost researchers on the topic) and Keith Sawyer 's just brilliant Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration (which makes the strong case for creativity, improvisation and innovation as a result of group collaboration efforts).

There are also other great references to and insights in relation to collaboration in teams in the list of resources I outlined here .

In any case, to span bigger gaps and go further with more creativity, speed and flex (and without unnecessarily obstructing traffic) think about the collaborative suspension bridge efforts you are leading in your team or organisation at large.

You and others will likely need to suspend some things to make it happen.

This is a?Leader TWIG ?- the concept of (a)?growing something new?(a new awareness, skill or 'branch' to what you currently already know) but also (b) becoming equipped to 'catch on', realising or suddenly understanding something that is in fact right in front of you in the performative leadership moment (from the Gaelic 'tuig').

Access the?LeadRede self-coaching learning journey ?attached to this TWIG.