From Surviving to Thriving: Building a Collaborative Culture

While collaboration isn’t exactly some new cutting-edge concept, it is arguably more important than ever before. You don’t have to scan the news for long to see that there are significant challenges facing society – challenges that we have been poorly tackling. And you don’t have to reflect for long to see that there are impacts for organisations – including threats to viability – if they do not commence successfully managing these challenges soon.

How to create a Collaborative Culture

Economic uncertainty. Extreme weather events. Supply chain issues. The impact of digital disruption. Geopolitical conflict. Whatever the issue, few organisations have been successful at dealing with the complexity and uncertainty faced.

That is where collaboration comes in. It not only improves our ability to be better informed about the context faced and therefore, make better decisions, but it also helps grow the resources that we have at our disposal to deal with our challenges.

The opportunities available – innovative solutions, improved reputation, and trust, enhanced staff engagement – are significant. Too often, however, our collaborative efforts are too superficial, going nowhere.

So, how can collaboration be embedded within the “way we do things around here?”

Pull the Levers

To increase the potential for collaboration to become successfully embedded within your organisation, it is worthwhile appreciating that there are numerous levers that you have, internally, at your disposal. Rather than taking a narrow cast view, you have a far better chance of success if you take a holistic approach, particularly as all levers reinforce one another:

There are many ways that you can call on each of these levers but let’s now look at some of the common means to build a collaborative culture.

Strategy: But Why?

Don’t jump into collaboration just because you saw an article spruiking it in the Irish Tech News. As a team, you need to be very clear why you would want to implement a collaborative culture in the first place.

Is collaboration necessary for innovation? Do you wish to enter a new market through collaborative means? Or improve relationships with outraged customers or other stakeholders?

Whatever the answer, clarity around how collaboration will support your corporate strategy or vision is the key; without it, collaboration just becomes another fad function like sustainability that never gets the resources, training, or executive support necessary to be anything more than something superficial for marketing purposes.

And make no mistake, your stakeholders see right through that every day of the week.

Structure: Who Really Is Calling the Shots?

The main point to make about structure is that it sends signals to staff about who has control and the ability to make decision. In hierarchical structures, for example, decision making is centralised, establishing boundaries as to what is acceptable. Consequently, even if your new strategy raves about the benefits of collaboration, that doesn’t mean that staff will suddenly change established norms.

Critical to good collaboration is strong relationships and trust in each other and trust in the ability to collaborate. So, how can structure enhance collaboration? Do you have good spaces at work to stimulate collaboration? What are you implementing to stimulate cross-team or cross-divisional collaboration? If collaborators are based in separate cities or countries, what needs to be implemented to ensure not only that a safe space exists, but also that strong relationships are enabled.

People: Fulfilling Their Potential

People will often respond very well to the opportunity to solve problems and make decisions, individually or collectively, if they feel supported. That then opens up a number of questions that you need to consider; namely:

• What training is necessary? Certainly, there may be courses on collaboration that are appealing to your organisation. However, it is critical to facilitate a culture of open, engaged, trusting relationships. Therefore, do you need to train people in emotional intelligence, as well as listening, questioning, and problem-solving skills?
• What support will team leaders need? They have such a difficult job at the best of times, delivering the strategic needs from more senior staff while also supporting the majority of the organisation’s staff – those who are customer or stakeholder-facing. If your collaborative efforts are to succeed, you need your team leaders succeeding. How can their lives be made easier? With briefing kits? Mentoring? What are the big obstacles that always get in their way?

But, in line with your organisation’s strategy, what do you mean by “people”? Is it solely staff? Or could that include external stakeholders?

There are real benefits to involving stakeholders in collaborations. Through involving those who have an interest or goal similar to that of your organisation – but come from different perspectives – the resulting “collision of ideas” is good for enabling the identification of innovative solutions. It’s good for business in the short- to long-term.

Whatever “people” entails, they need to be adequately resourced to do their jobs.

Systems: Setting Expectations??

When it comes to collaboration, a reference to systems – and for that matter, processes – can mean so much more than your average management system. Key examples to consider include:

• Values statements: Can be of real benefit but, I would strongly advise organisations to be very careful about these. Too often, the words used are like a bingo card with little meaning, particularly in a crisis.
• Bonus schemes: One key reason for change programs failing is because there is a lack of alignment between the change sought and an organisation’s executive and managerial incentive schemes. Always be clear where the money is flowing.
• Key performance indicators: One very simple means by which to encourage collaboration is through implementing good, outcomes-based cross-team to cross-divisional KPIs.
• Debrief processes: Not all collaborative efforts are going to work.  So, how could your organisation learn from these?
• Team agendas: Just as organisations within high-risk cultures – construction, energy, mining, utilities – have safety as the first item on team agendas across the organisation, why not have something to do with collaboration as a stock-standard agenda item throughout your organisation?

Culture: Eating Your Collaborative Strategy for Breakfast

Culture will never form precisely as you would like to plan for it to unfold. It takes time for cultures to form and time for cultures to shift.

While you cannot shift a culture overnight, you can work to shape it through actions in the here and now. What would you like that collaborative culture to look like in the future? A no-blame culture, surely, must be a fundamental message. Nevertheless, be prepared for the first time there is an incident, or someone makes a big mistake – because the response from the executive team will send a seismic signal as to whether collaboration truly is valued. Or not.

Similarly, empowerment of staff must be valued. To reiterate, to truly build a culture that values collaboration requires taking a holistic approach and using the many levers you have at your disposal. One of the most important levers is leadership style.

Leadership: Giving Collaboration Every Chance of Success

I can only imagine how busy many leaders and managers are, today. Or how stressful their work environment is, for that matter. Setting up – and then maintaining – a collaborative culture may take time. Of course, in the short-term, it could feel like a distraction, taking you away from your own deadlines. However, in the long-term, it takes away so much that you currently feel on your shoulders.

Yet, it doesn’t take away the importance of your role. Far from it, your role in building more leaders and managers in your organisation, and even externally, becomes critical. You become the ultimate coach, sharing power control, and the outcomes sought with the rest of your large team.

It starts with some critical reflective questions.

What do I need to let go of? Am I creating an environment for my teams to reach their full potential within? What is holding me / us back? How am I going about maintaining high quality relationships with my people, internally and externally?

It starts with you.

David Ross is an international strategist, founder of Phoenix Strategic Management and author of Confronting the Storm: Regenerating Leadership and Hope in the Age of Uncertainty

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