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Collaborate better: A guide for teams and partners

Christine June 12, 2015 Leave a Comment 5855

The right effort at the right level

Let’s look at 4 ways of working with others. Your understanding of what happens at each level can help you become a more valuable contributor to any project. From there you can build a checklist for any collaborative effort you engage in.

Working together is a continuum that we can show on a line. Starting from a point where no goals are shared, or very few, as in networking, the sharing can intensify to where most goals and project elements are shared, as in collaboration.

Working together is a continuum. Starting from a point where no goals are shared, or very few, as in networking, the sharing can intensify to where most goals and project elements are shared, as in collaboration.

1. Networking

When you exchange contact information with someone and express interest in an idea at an informal meeting, you are kicking off a sharing process that you can pursue at a later date.

Examples: You’ll shake hands, exchange business cards, and offer to discuss ideas in the near future. Or you get called to a brainstorming session that needs your expertise.

2. Cooperation

This is when there there’s an informal sharing of information and activities for various goals. Partners informally hold one or two of these goals in common, although they may not share in the benefits and risks associated with a specific project or undertaking. They like to keep their resources and activities separate so that integration is kept to a minimum—only on an as-needed basis. This can become a longer-term arrangement.

Example: Your association shares a trade show booth with a company that offers services useful to your clients and members, dividing the participant fee, and making the booth more valuable to its visitors.

3. Coordination

More intense than cooperation, the parties involved build trust with one another, andcreate a deeper integration of their efforts and activities for a well-defined, shared purpose. Risks and rewards are acknowledged, while responsibility for them is distributed among the partners, not fully shared.

Example: Three companies are engaged by a non-profit to organize a benefit dinner event for a charitable cause; activities include arranging the venue, meals, speakers and entertainment. There is overlap in roles and tasks, so they agree to work together on many of the arrangements, as the success of the event depends on their coordinated efforts. 

4. Collaboration

Here’s the full sharing of all project elements—from aims and activities to risks and rewards. Highly suited to projects that require creativity, depth, new ideas, and innovative approaches, collaboration brings enhanced capacity, fresh insight, and innovation to all involved in the project, extending the reach of these ideas in new an unforeseen ways

Example: Some years ago, Nike approached Apple about a chip to insert in their running shoe. Explore the story in the book, A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger. Read the 2006 Apple press release, and read more about where Nike is today in supporting their customers as a result of this collaboration.

Your checklist for success

When two or more of us put our efforts together, the first thing we should check is the level of joint effort needed. Is it networking, coordination, cooperation, or collaboration? Once we have an idea of the degree to which we will be sharing, we can clarify our expectations and assumptions.

In the Ways of working together chart above, you see that as the effort, skills and investment increase, so do the sharing and integration of project goals and other elements. The intensity of collaboration increases, too.

The greater the level of collaboration, the more fully the goals and resources of the project are shared by the partners. 

Our awareness of this can be very helpful at a personal, team, and organizational level. We can better assess our involvement in a project to understand what effort is needed. Have you ever offered too much to a project because you were passionate about the aim, only to find that it was not the real aim? We forget to share—and should check carefully—our assumptions about the project.

Somewhere on the continuum from networking to collaboration, you can see your activities in terms of what you understand is needed to reach the desired goal or purpose. In our different ways, contributors are gauging, accepting, and agreeing to an understanding of project elements, and it’s easy to lose track. Depending on the project, contributors share things such as:

  • Information
  • Resources and activities
  • Goals, purpose, and expected results
  • Roles, responsibilities, skills, and accountability
  • Tasks, tools, and communications channels
  • Possible challenges, assumptions, and compromises
  • Benefits, risks and rewards
Use this list to discuss the project the contributions—yours and others’—to better estimate what is needed. For example, at the networking level, you are confined mainly to the first element: Information. As you ascend the continuum, you will add more of the other elements in different ratios and work them into your joint planning. You can determine them based on discussion and what you know about a project.

Do this as a team or have a facilitator assist the process. Contact me for a free initial consultation. We can work out how to assess what’s needed in terms of resources, other project elements, and, in particular, evaluation. Your shared goals are the basis for joint success!

Christine
2015-06-12
Tags:
assumptions checklist for collaboration Collaboration Collaboration greatness collaborative discussion collaborative projects collaborative team cooperation coordination innovation insight levels of collaboration networking project management rewards risks share purpose shared goals success factors
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Written by Christine

Christine Hastie specializes in coaching writers, collaborators, and teams to success. Working in creative, technical, and therapeutic fields, she guides people to find their true message, especially when producing written resources that advance knowledge and help others.

View all articles by Christine

Website: http://christinehastie.com

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