You mean collaboration doesn't mean lots of extra work?

“I’ve been thinking of collaboration as extra steps, as extra work. I’ve been adding things in and trying to do more. I know now that it’s really about my mindset, not about trying to fit more in”, said a participant in collaboration training this week.

It’s a profound realisation and I was thrilled to have it articulated so succinctly.

We often come to collaboration thinking it means lots of work, lots of talk, lots of meetings, lots of time and not all of it useful.

And sometimes that’s true.

But more fundamentally, collaboration means changing the way you see your stakeholders and their place in the process, changing how you think about yourself and your stakeholders. You can make this change in a moment, without adding so much as an email to your workload.

Looking at the world with a collaborative mindset is like donning a new pair of glasses. You don’t need to do anything differently to see the world differently through new glasses. But because you have a different view you will likely do different things.

So when you next get worried about collaboration and how much effort it could take, just reach for your new collaboration goggles and take a different look at the world. You will find that you can’t help but collaborate better, even without adding lots of new work.

Remember, collaboration really happens between your own ears, so think like a collaborator and get your projects moving today.