Collaboration is one of the most frequent topics that come up in conversation for me. I’m not sure if it’s because of selection bias of who I tend to talk to, if it’s still a hot trending business term, or if I just signal something about wanting to talk about collaboration (I do want to talk about collaboration). After someone asked what it takes for a team to collaborate effectively, I thought I’d put together a list:
1. Be Willing to Give More than You Get
When each person in the group brings a posture of generosity, the impact is exponential. We come up with more ideas and we extend our solution exploration to the edges of what’s possible. When we’re committed to being generous in our collaborative efforts we let go of the concept of owing each other something, performing out of a sense of obligation, or holding the promise of reciprocation over our relationships at work. Instead, we bring our attention to what we can offer to the group. We all get more when we’re willing to give more than we get. It’s a reinforcing cycle – the more generous someone else is in the group in sharing an idea, exploring something new, or building off someone else’s comment, the more it inspires the rest of us to do the same. A sense of generosity is foundational for effective collaboration.
2. Pay Attention to Fun
If it’s not fun, we’re doing it wrong. I’ve been in environments where the solution to “we need to collaborate more” is a piece of technology. Technology tools can stand in the way of collaboration or they can remove barriers for collaboration. Technology can unlock our ability to collaborate more effectively, but it’s a vehicle or platform for collaboration and doesn’t hold the promise of increasing collaboration on its own. (by the way, I’m loving using Mural these days and I keep hearing great things about Miro too). The most important things we can use for more effective collaboration are our own attitudes and behaviors. When we bring relaxed attention and invest in fun, we’re more likely to surface hidden assumptions and think more creatively, which lead to more interesting ways of solving problems. Fun belongs at work too. Fun isn’t necessarily “the thing,” but it’s a symptom of other important team dynamics working well, so it’s an important metric to look after. It can quickly tell us if there are communication skills, group dynamics, or ways that we’re choosing to work together that obstructs our ability to collaborate.
3. Practice Bringing Your Attention Back to the Present Moment
This goes along with being generous in the same sense that if each person is willing to be more present, give more of their attention to who is speaking than perhaps they receive from others, the impact is magnified. When someone brings their full attention and presence it’s infectious (in the best way possible). Being present in the current moment allows for the wins and worries of the past to fade away so that we can focus on right now and develop what potential the future might hold. When we’re present in the moment with each other, we can better focus on the topic of our collaboration efforts. Being present isn’t something we achieve and sustain – it’s something we practice. Our minds naturally wander, get distracted, think of something else, focus elsewhere, but the practice is in bringing ourselves back to being present. The more we practice coming back to the present moment, the more moments in total we’re present with each other. The more moments we’re present with the each other, the more we can collaborate with impact and care.
4. Create Psychological Safety
Psychological safety is a core ingredient for the most effective team collaboration. Psychological safety means that someone is able to share an idea or make a mistake without fear of retribution. Collaboration, innovation, and creative problem-solving don’t emerge from coercion and they struggle to survive in environments without psychological safety. When people are worried that they’ll get in trouble, that there are negative consequences to sharing an idea, they aren’t able to fully contribute. They aren’t able to bring the best of themselves and their skills to collaborating with others. The most important thing leaders can do to increase collaboration in their organization is to invest in creating the conditions in which people experience psychological safety at work.
5. Agree on Shared goals
When we have shared goals, we’re working towards the same thing which means we’re more likely to achieve those goals. Shared goals are a powerful way to create alignment on a team that encourages collaborative behaviors. Alignment to shared goals is a way of offering scope and guidance, without using unnecessary constraints that can hinder creativity. When we agree on shared goals, we’re each able to act with full autonomy, independently, and maintain our alignment during our time-between-collaborating. This leads to our time collaborating together to be less disrupted by disconnected and misaligned efforts. Shared goals are empowering. If you’re on a team struggling to make progress, evaluate whether you’re all working towards the same thing, or if there are hidden assumptions about why this work is important that are showing up in people’s attitudes and behaviors.
6. Accept and Build on the Ideas of Others (Use “Yes, And…”)
Using “Yes, and…” is a tool to practice fully receiving, acknowledging, and accepting what others have to offer. Instead of each sharing our own independent, siloed ideas and concepts, potentially lobbying for who has the best idea – we get to explore new territory by bringing the best we each have to offer to collective solution design. Building awareness of the language we use and the emotional reactions we have to other ideas can change the course and the outcome. Rejecting other ideas, defending our own, and trying to convince others are all habits that erode collaborative behaviors and inclinations over time. By trying the phrase “yes, and…” it’s easier to notice when we’re not emotionally or intellectually fully receiving someone’s idea. Noticing this disconnect from the words we use versus the mindset we’re bringing is the first step to changing a pattern of “no, but…” which is a barrier to effective collaboration.
7. Invest in Diversity
Our differences are the very things that help teams surface the most impactful solutions. When we’re collaborating on a diverse team, it helps us better guard against the inevitable limits of our own personal experiences. When we value diversity as a key ingredient to collaboration at work, we’re acknowledging that the different perspectives and the lived experiences each person brings have something important to offer. Diversity won’t remove personal bias from impacting our work and how we collaborate on its own, but it’s an important ingredient to high-performing, collaborative teams.
Collaboration at work is important because it leads to better outcomes, more interesting and creative ways of solving a problem, and it’s key to innovation. Teams who collaborate effectively produce better results and have a better experience working together. We can change how collaboration happens on our own teams just by changing our own individual attitudes and behaviors, and sometimes all it takes is changing one small thing to change everything. The more individuals, teams, and leaders invest in the core ingredients of effective collaboration, the more business value and social value we can create.