Team Work Sucks: Is Collaboration the Antidote?

Team Work Sucks! That was how we wrapped up last week’s post after beginning our exploration of Team Work vs. Collaboration. This week's post is better valued as a part 2 to our exploration.  So, if you didn’t get chance before, quickly pop over to last week’s post and come right back so we can continue our conversation.

So if Industrial era Team Work sucks, what is the antidote?Collaboration is the popular choice. But is it merely a placebo or a curative step in the right direction to better organise how we work and achieve in the 21^st century business world?I made a promise at the end of last week’s post; that we will dive into how Collaboration differs from Team Work.So here goes…

Collaboration isn’t…

Is this familiar to you?

The marketoonist™ Tom Fishburne’s recent blog post on cross-functional collaboration presents a cautionary tale of collaboration gone wrong and organisational redesign going off the rails.

It is an example of a bright/right idea that addresses the ‘what to do’ but with little investment of thought in the ‘how to implement’; and even less consideration of the impact and consequences beyond the launch 'event'.A HR-Marketing function misstep in this instance.  It is also a reminder that if you are trying to transform a culture through behavioural change, prepare for a long distance endurance race not a sprint.Think more like Haile Gebrselassie and less like Usain Bolt.

 Avoid these 3 Success-Blocking Traps

1. Resist the siren call of quick-fix culture change and glitzy rebranding campaigns; particularly those which materialise after a management out-of-office jolly retreat. They are notoriously tricky to pull off and infamously prone to make your employee community suspicious of your (good) intentions. An ill-thought-out campaign execution with no tangible action to secure the buy-in of the whole employee community, will likely result in the abandonment of what is often a decent idea.Campaign example: To Win the Hearts and Minds of Our Employees.Ugh! If we keep seeing these ideas and solutions in terms of win or lose military-style campaigns as opposed to a long term process of constant evolution; then be prepared to do like Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. The record will show you beating a hasty retreat from imminent defeat with a trail of destruction in your wake and a future in exile.I admit that was a bit dramatic; but you get the picture.2. Resist the compulsion to believe that your new sexy employee social media network and internal communication hubs will magically, through the power of technology, create a culture of viral sharing and cross-functional collaboration. Sorry, that’s hogwash.3. Resist the urge to slap new titles or the latest business phraseology on old values, irrelevant competencies and tired HR documents in the hopes that it will miraculously bring about the desired change.The ‘Find’ (Team Work) and ‘Replace’ (Collaboration) function is not your friend. It is a road to ruin.So, are you still serious about ensuring your organisation’s values and competencies contribute to the success of the business?

 Get your Hands Dirty.

If your answer is yes, get ready to do the grunt work and get your hands dirty.Start with an audit of the values, behaviours and skills currently embedded in your organisation’s employee recruitment and selection processes, learning and development programmes, and performance management practises etc.

• Assess whether and how they are aligned to the organisation’s vision of the culture needed to drive the business forward.
• Evaluate whether the organisation’s leaders are aligned with the values, competencies and desired culture. Do they understand and accept the benefits or are they only paying lip service?
• Gauge if your organisation is truly ready to implement and live with the desired values, competencies and culture.

I find this 4 step approach useful in identifying critical behaviours and values, and ensuring each competency is relevant to the business culture. It works best if you see it as a set of 4 questions to be answered.Once you have completed this, it is much easier to design and tailor comprehensive competency framework suited to the business.Let’s take a closer look at collaboration.

Collaboration is…

1. The context: Whether you are talking about teams working in close physical proximity or remotely or virtually, each individual employee is a contributor not a worker.  The contributor has a heightened self-awareness of the value he/she brings to the team and expects this to be recognised, incentivised and rewarded.It celebrates uniquely talented and different-minded individuals, coming together to form a collaborative force with unity of purpose to produce the new or to solve problems, create, repurpose and build for the enjoyment or benefit of many.2. The values:  Values such as trust, respect and integrity must be shared by all active participants. This is the foundation and they must be upheld as non-negotiable.  If not, they risk becoming worthless clichés. 3. The mind-set and culture: Collaboration demands meaningful connectivity between each individual contributor in an environment which welcomes different thinking and encourages the search for lots of possible answers to questions and the discovery of solutions.4. The behaviours: E.g. fluidity (to work cross function, media, location), questioning, transparency, adaptability and tolerance for ambiguity and change.

The Curative Benefits of Collaboration  

Creating a genuine collaborative culture in today’s business is the response to the realisation that “many people are starting to realize that they work a lot and that working on stuff they believe in and making things happen is much more satisfying than just getting a pay check and waiting to get fired or die.” Seth Godin’s ‘Tribes’.When businesses ask their employees to bring their best selves, their talent, passion, energy and ideas to work, HR must take the lead to create an environment where meaningful and relevant work is done, appropriately incentivised and rewarded.  HR is obligated to proactively remove any obstacles which may prevent individual or groups of employees from doing their best work for the business.We don’t have all the answers but authentic collaboration is huge opportunity to which we must pay attention. Giving employees free rein to use their brains and investing in building a collaborative culture may mean the difference between your business failing, barely surviving, or thriving.The choice, in the end, is yours.So until we meet again next week down The HR Rabbit Hole…