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Thursday, May 2, 2013

11. Collaboration


Collaboration:  “the act of working with another or others on a joint project” (The Free Dictionary – online).  Such a simple concept and yet all too often, one that is poorly executed!   Almost all work can benefit from effective collaboration as not many solo projects remain.  There are so many factors and tools that can come into play to help ensure effective collaboration.   Some of them are:

Leadership:  Good leaders help ensure a collaborative culture through both words and deeds.  Reward systems can either encourage or discourage effective collaboration – be sure that you are incenting the behavior you want.

Hiring:  Ask questions during interviews about work in groups and the role the candidate played.  This can reveal a lot about a person.  Don’t hire a loan wolf into a collaborative team environment.

Geographically Dispersed Teams: Into today’s environment, this is almost the norm.  While not absolutely critical, long distance collaboration usually works much better if the team members have spent time face-to-face, including team-building socialization time.  When I had staff in the UK I followed their Cricket, Rugby, and Football teams.  The resultant connection really helps.  The same can be said for following activities in their home state / country.  Non-US people know so much more about the US (not all accurate, but much is) than most US citizens know about the rest of the world.  Adding something like BBC to your news sources helps.

Tools:  There are so many tools these days that help collaboration.  Some of them are shared work areas like SharePoint or Lotus Notes Databases.   Video conferencing, especially Telepresence units, make a significant difference.  Use them regularly.  If they are not available, use teleconference calls often. 
  
Clearly Defined Roles:  All projects suffer without clearly defined.  Remote collaboration projects suffer even more.

Example:  Years ago I was forced into remote work environment for a month.  I had been working closely with a co-worker for he previous four months and so we knew each other well.  During one phone call he told me:  “I can hear your body language.”  If we had not spent time together first that subtle communication would have never occurred.  Therefore the lesson is that the less you know each other, the more careful you need to be about documenting decisions and having clarity around issues.

Most of my examples have been about remote collaboration, but the points remain for local teams as well.  Share your experiences.

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