History Belongs to the Collaborators

Small groups coming together, working together and learning together has literally resulted in significant shifts in technology and culture (the way we do things) throughout history. Here are 5 famous collaborations mentioned by the 3M Post-It brand.?

In companies collaboration’s that achieve the same desired effect, is something most, if not all, employees hope for and is a key competitive advantage for those companies that actually get it right. The tricky thing is attempting to create a collaborative culture does not always result in a collaborative culture, which can leave leaders wanting to create such a culture frustrated and eventually hopeless. According to Francesca Gino, a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, this is because the approach taken by most business leaders is too narrow. She goes on to explain that most leaders attempting to foster collaboration see it as a value they need to cultivate, where they should approach it rather as a skill that needs to be taught.?

What is the difference? The first approach makes use of methods or tactics that attempt to create an environment and create opportunities for individuals to collaborate. This is still an important step, but if it is the only step a leader's attempt to build a collaborative culture is built on a critical, and often incorrect, assumption. What is that assumption? The assumption is that individuals have the mindset, and skills to effectively collaborate with others.

Mindset for collaboration

In successful collaborations, judgment gives way to curiosity. There is a core mindset shift that lies at the heart of any effective collaboration, and that is to move from an inward focus, what I would like to say, and what I would like to achieve, to an outward focus, what can I learn from others, and how can I contribute to others. All of us somewhere throughout our careers can relate to the first mindset. It often manifests itself when others differ from what we have to say or provides critique on what we’ve achieved, i.e. the work we’ve delivered. The words “how dare you” come to mind, and it becomes almost impossible to take in the rest of what the other person has to say. There are however skills we have found individuals and teams can focus on to help establish a more outward focus that will enable them to better collaborate with each other.

Skills for collaboration

1. Listen to listen, not to respond

When we listen to respond we are physically present, but psychologically absent. We have already started formulating how we want to convey our own message, i.e. inward focus, and stopped listening to what the other person has to say. When we learn to listen for the sake of listening, our first response is often not a statement, but rather a question, because we want to understand the other person’s perspective better.

2. Become comfortable with feedback

Only when individuals become comfortable with giving - and receiving feedback well will true collaboration become possible, and it needs to be both, otherwise effective collaboration will not happen. The reason for this is when an individual is able to give feedback, but not receive it well, others will become less inclined to consider the person's feedback, because they are not willing to receive feedback provided to them. Inversely, when a person is able to receive feedback, but avoids providing feedback or provides it in a judgemental way, it doesn’t allow for a collaborative conversation to happen.

3. Learn to lead and to follow

When working collaboratively every individual in the team needs to learn to lead and to follow. Every individual needs to lead by openly sharing their ideas, knowledge, skills, and abilities. Every individual, including the team leader, needs to learn to follow as well. If any individual in the teams’ proposed path seems to be the best way forward, even if they’re not the assigned team leader, the rest of the team needs to follow by figuring out how to best implement said path.

4. Clarity in application

When it comes to the implementation side of any collaboration it is important to clearly communicate what is going to be done, why it is going to be done, and how it is going to be done. As humans, when we don’t have clarity we tend to feel threatened and therefore we become more inward focused, as a method of “self-preservation”, resulting in us being less likely to effectively collaborate with others.

The collaborative mindset, i.e. an outward focus, and the skills that can help establish this mindset will take intentional effort, but in a time in history where radical collaboration is needed to address the world's most pressing issues, it seems like a small price to pay.