Collaboration: The Foundation of Great Teams!
By Paula Martin & Cathy Cassidy
Collaboration is the act of working together to achieve a common goal. Among high-performing project teams, collaboration is the base that not only helps the team achieve their goal but moves them forward, through the stages of team development, towards high-performance faster.
Here are five ways you can work collaboratively and
ensure work gets done.
- Use tools and techniques that are collaborative in nature. Just because you or anyone else on a team announces that you will run your project collaboratively, doesn't make it so. You need to make sure that the methodology you implement uses input from everyone impacted by the project; the processes you use to make decisions or solve a problem are designed to gather ideas and analyze solutions are based on proven methods and not opinions; and you need to use team-based tools and methods that require participation of everyone in attendance.
- Use proactive versus reactive accountability. Reactive accountability is about assigning accountability after the job is done. Teams that use reactive accountability often find themselves a victim of the "I didn't know I was supposed to do that", response and have team members that are more worried about being blamed when something goes wrong that they do don't take action. Proactive accountability is about defining who will be accountable for what before any action is taken and it is unconditional. At the end of the project you ask if that accountability was fulfilled or not. There are no ifs, ands or buts. The team or person either fulfilled their accountability or they did not. If they did not, they are subject to consequences. The consequence of not fulfilling accountability are typically minor the first time around, but escalate each time the individual or group fails to learn from its mistakes. With proactive accountability the focus is on action and learning, rather than covering one's backside. Use proactive accountability to facilitate collaboration by 1) making sure everyone knows what proactive accountability is, 2) ensuring everyone knows who is assigned to what deliverable, 3) Giving the entire team a common goal so you have team accountability, 4) Communicating up front the consequences, for not fulfilling one's accountability.
- Always work towards consensus. A decision based on consensus is a decision that everyone can live with. In fact, everyone may not think it's the best decision, but they can support it. As a facilitator, you will know you have consensus when everyone in the group agrees that they can "live with" the decision and most importantly, not criticize it later. To help the group reach consensus and then check that you have it try using collaborative tools and methods that document the groups thinking and then use a multi-voting tool, simply asking the question "Is there anyone who can't live with this decision?" or ask for a show of hands to see that you have it. Remember, consensus is not about obtaining 100% agreement, it's about getting 100% of the group to agree to live with the decision.
- Develop a team contract. During your kick-off meeting, have your team develop a set of guidelines that everyone on the team agrees to follow. Make sure you include guidelines on team participation, decision-making, conflict resolution, meeting procedures, as well as a set of commitments to the project that each team member agrees to. In keeping in line with proactive accountability, don't forget to get the team to come to consensus on the consequences everyone will be subject to, if they don't abide by the guidelines.
- Act as a facilitator, not a director. Your role as a project leader, is not about being the expert in a particular technical process (although you may be that as well), it's about being the expert at leading and facilitating the project management methodology to ensure the goal(s) of the project are met. When considering your role as a facilitator, remember these three important rules for facilitating: 1) Honor individual differences. Every member of the team is an individual first. They use different sensory modes (auditory, visual and kinesthetic) to take in and process information . They use different methods for making decisions and completing their work. As the project leader, it is your job to make sure everyone is able to get the information in their preferred sensory mode, use their own process for making decisions and complete their work in the best way for the them. 2) Enforce the team contract. Hold people accountability if they break the rules. Hold yourself accountable if you break the rules. 3) Make sure everyone has an equal opportunity to participate.
Collaboration helps teams become high-performing and drives better results. But collaboration doesn't happen automatically. It needs a facilitator (you), methods and techniques that are collaborative in nature (CORE Project Management Method, MTA Decision Making and Problem Solving method), it is enhanced with proactive accountability. In our experience, when teams work collaboratively, there is less rework and fewer changes during execution, and fewer political battles to fight. Given that all of your work is completed by teams, working collaboratively will deliver results your customers will accept and you can be proud of.