Many think that collaboration is a touchy-feely and weak approach while others think it is just about offering technology to aid communication—like a fancy telephone. To make collaboration work you need to know why you are doing it.
This may seem like a very obvious and perhaps even silly rule. Yet I find that most people and most organizations I have met with have very different ideas about the meaning of collaboration. Many think that collaboration is a touchy-feely and weak approach while others think it is just about offering technology to aid communication—like a fancy telephone. While the meaning of collaboration is fuzzy, what seems to be even fuzzier is why they want to collaborate in the first place.
When I have asked clients why they are collaborating, most of the responses I received were similar to the following:
• To reduce costs: My training budget was slashed and I have to find a way of bringing a dispersed workforce together to get vital training on much less money, so I invested in collaboration technology.
• To reduce travel and time away from work: We hold weekly sales meetings that are critical to the success of our business and we have grown to a point where it is taking them too long away from critical clients for everyone to come by every week to get the latest strategy or share ideas.
• We can't get everyone into the same room at the same time: Everyone's calendar is so jammed that it has become impossible to get everyone together at the same time.
• Because we want to involve everyone in the company: It is a personal value of mine to include everyone in the important decision-making of the company. It makes everyone feel good about working for this company.
While these responses seem to be answering my question in a very direct and reasonable way, I have noticed something importantly similar about them. The reasons all seem to be formed from a similar mindset described by this generic statement: "We are used to doing _____ in our business, and things have changed to a point where we need to find a way to support our interactions so we can keep doing it in spite of the changes." The responses tend to be ones that are desires to keep doing the same actions we are used to, not really getting at the business reasons for why we want to collaborate.
Another way of looking at this question is to ask yourself, "What are the business behaviors my organization needs to have in order to achieve the results I am looking for?" When I know what specific business results I am looking for and that collaboration is a critical behavior I can tie directly to achieving my results, then I know why I want to collaborate. It is rare that I run into a client who responds to my "why" question with a response like, "Because we need to increase our revenue by $4 million next year and I want to come together with my customers and suppliers to figure out together how we can increase our value to the marketplace to earn that increase in revenue." When I get a response like that, it is very clear to me why they want to collaborate and whether the investment in collaboration is worth the time, effort, and money to make it happen.
© 2013 Laura Lowell
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