Professionals and companies are facing perhaps the most challenging environment in decades, making internal collaboration and strategic partnerships more relevant and important than ever before.
Whether in business or in life it’s often the human element that makes or breaks any forms of relationship, collaboration or alliance. People create alliances, companies don’t. Technology does not run an enterprise; relationships do! So, at the end of the day…it’s about people, relationships and trust. TOOLS ARE THE ENABLERS but PEOPLE ARE THE KEY!
Why collaborate at all and why now?
We live in what I call the New Normal!
- In the workplace, we need to do more with less – less funding, time, executive support or focus, and with less human resources;
- We live in a Global Marketplace – “It’s a Small World After All”. The world is no longer dominated by a handful of countries or companies and the geographical boundaries are gone;
- Companies are perhaps facing the most challenging spending environment in decades and as a result need to be leveraging their employees’ talents and ideas through internal collaboration and strategic partnerships as key enablers of sales growth, innovation and competitive differentiation;
- Rise in unemployment has given birth to a “free agent” nation of freelancers, contractors, part time employment, and the rise of entrepreneurship by choice or by force. A great resource: (http://www.freelancersunion.org);
- Many individuals between the ages of 40 to 65 have been displaced (people with not only a lot of expertise but also with a lot of wisdom).
There are so many benefits to collaborating. (Refer to an earlier blog post “Is Collaboration the New Workplace and Business Model?) https://www.francineallaire.com/2011/03/is-collaboration-the-new-workplace-and-business-model/
So why, then, is successful collaboration so difficult to attain?
Humans are tribal creatures, constantly drawing boundaries between friends and foes.
- Our society rewards individualistic efforts and encourages competitiveness;
- We are most comfortable with and have a tendency to trust people who are like us (come from the same town, attended the same school, are fans of the same team….);
- We have a tendency to segregate based on race, ethnicity, age, religion, education, occupation or gender;
- In our quest to find similarities and commonalities we are often more divisive than inclusive, and the best partnerships don’t come from partnering with people who are like us.
We are constantly surrounded by potential partners; colleagues, neighbors, friends, fellow volunteers… But powerful partnerships – the kind in which you and a collaborator regularly work together, reach goals together you never could have accomplished apart, and gain the deep satisfaction only such an alliance can bring are still elusive for most of us.
We are crowded in offices, airports, and subways – frequently within arms reach of dozens of people – but often on a very lonely pursuit. Wired? Yes, Networked Yes, Collaborating? Not much.
“In fact, I would venture to say that we are more isolated now than ever before, we work from home, we’re more engaged with our tools: computer, email, IPod, IPhone, Social Media – than we are with each other.”
According to a Gallup Research conducted last year:
- Median number of work partnerships for an American employee is just 4;
- Most disturbing statistic – for 16 % of the working population the number is 0;
- and 33% said that they have never had a great partnership at work.
For over two decades, Gallup has conducted exhaustive research on human nature and productivity in the workplace. They spent 5 years, interviewed thousands of people from all walks of life and with different titles, responsibility levels and positions, and crunched data from hundreds of surveys in an attempt to crack the code on collaboration and to discover what elements are crucial for two people to become a successful team (in business or in life) and came up with 8 elements. (Note 1)
8 Critical Elements of Successful / Powerful Collaboration
- Complimentary Strengths
- A Common Vision
- Fairness
- Trust
- Acceptance
- Forgiveness
- Communication
- Unselfishness
Some takeaways from their research:
Complimentary Strengths: Our strengths are stronger and our weaknesses weaker than we realize . Individuals are not well rounded but pairs can be.
A Common Vision: A shared common vision is the FOUNDATION for all partnerships.
Fairness: The partnership has little chance of succeeding unless both parties believe it is fair , but fair doesn’t mean equal.
Trust: Trust is the linchpin of a partnership – No trust, no partnership!
Acceptance: Egocentrism kills partnerships! The need to accept each other as we are and don’t try to change each other.
Forgiveness: People are imperfect, we all make mistakes, and we sometimes do the wrong things – we need to cut each other some slack.
Communication: The only way two minds can be united in one mission is if the pair communicates well.
Unselfishness : We must take as much satisfaction at seeing the other succeed as we do from our own success.
Being a good partner is hard work!
- Need to get beyond ourselves
- Give up the notion that we are well-rounded
- Stop expecting our colleagues to be universally proficient
- Incorporate someone else’s motivations into our view of the accomplishment
- Put aside our competitive nature, our prepackaged view of how the things should be done
- Put aside our desire not to be inconvenienced with the imperfections of another fellow human being
- Focus more on what we do for the partnership than what we get from it
- Demonstrate trust in more people
- Be slower to anger and quicker to forgive
- …and communicate continuously.
If you collaborate…
- You will discover more comrades among your colleagues
- You will find greater strengths in yourself and in your collaborators
- Your happiness level will increase
- You will achieve greater heights than you thought attainable
- You will not stand alone on these summits.
Take off your headphones – Break away from the screen – Get out of your office – And unleash the Power of Collaboration!
Note 1 Book: Power of 2 – How to Make the Most of Your Partnerships at Work and in Life by Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller, PH.D
I’d like to hear your thoughts and comments on this important topic. Please share.
Kim Marino says
Great blog post. I especially like your focus on “more on what we do for the partnership than what we get from it.” Finding this collaborate teamwork and partnership in the workplace and in life is the direction we all need to be. Thank you for bringing this information to light!!
Francine Allaire says
Hi Kim,
Thank you for stopping by and sharing your view. I appreciate the engagement and your kind words. To emphasize your point, it never cease to amaze me, when companies and/or individuals contact me to establish some form of collaboration and/or partnership and, while they can give me all the benefits and outcome they hope to get by partnering/collaborating together, are actually surprised when I ask the obvious questions “what’s in it for me?, and most importantly, how does the audience I serve stand to gain and benefit from our collaboration?”, most of them are speechless because they never considered the answers to these two important questions (while in fact, that where they should have started before approaching anyone about anything). Again thank you. Francine