Collaboration means working together. Effective collaborative means working together efficiently and effectively. This is not a new requirement for business success, but it has become a critical success factor that applies to all the relationships that create a business, including those with customers, business allies, suppliers, divisions, departments, functions, projects, specialities, vertical levels, and employees. Work is becoming more complex, so individuals and isolated group are not as effective as teams, who have the synergy essential to achieving performance goals. Employee learning and growth, sharing of information, responsibility, partnering, commitment, and so forth are promoted by the collaborative organization environment. Traditional organizations tend to keep decision making, information, rewards, and power at the top. As a result the minds and hearts of the lower level employees are seldom engaged.
The collaborative organization capitalizes on the abilities of the members of the organization more effectively and leverages the synergies that occur in networks of people. Collaborative organizations are characterized by intentional efforts to create structures and culture from us, and practices that reinforce collaboration. Designing the strategies, structures, processes, and culture enables improved flow of information and other resources across boundaries.
Collaboration is mainly a communicative process, one that includes non-verbal, experimental and emotional communication. Collaboration is not something that can be mandated, programmed on formulized according to our demand and need. Effective collaboration depends upon effective communication. Trust is another factor that is also very important for collaboration. In fact collaboration flourishes in a climate of trust. Good communication and trust can be termed as the backbone of effective collaboration. A climate of trust fasters collaboration and team work in the following way:
1) Trust allows team members stay problem focused-The absence of trust diverts the mental concentration and energy of a team away from its performance objective, and onto other issues. The team become politicized. Communication becomes guarded and distorted. On the other hand trust help the members to stay focused on their common problem or goal.
2) Trust promotes more efficient communication and coordination-Trust not only allows people to stay problem focused. It promotes a more efficient use of time and energy devoted to the problem. Surely team problem solving rides on the unhampered exchange of information and communication that is born of trust.
3) Trust improves the quality of collaborative outcomes-Trust improves the quality of collaborative efforts, because with it, decisions are more in tune with what is in fact happening. Problems are raised and dealt with instead of hidden until they become disastrous. People are willing to try something and take a risk, because there is a
chance that it might work rather than remain inactive because of their fear of failure. And if something internal to the team itself is interfering with the teams success, then the problem is more likely to be confronted and resolved.
4) Trust leads to compensating and compensating builds confidence.When a team is clear about its goal and unified in its effort, and at the same time no one fears being left on one's own without support, then the team is capable of reaching new heights and arriving at the goal as an intact team. In the realm of collaborative efforts, those trumps occur much more frequently when team members are compensating for each other. (Team Work Carl.E Larson)
In a rapidly changing, fiercely competitive, global business environment, limited use and development of employees results in a "dumbing down" of the organization and competitive advantage is lost.
The goal of the collaborative organization is to remove inappropriate barriers among these groups and individuals and to create opportunities to work seamlessly. Unfortunately, it seems that barrier building is more common and more natural than productive collaborative exchanges. An assessment of most people and most organizations would provide a low score on collaborative abilities. Creating the knowledge, skills, attitudes, culture, and support systems necessary to create the collaborative organization produces impressive results, including: The team becomes the more common unit of responsibility; People collaborate more seamlessly, that is, fewer hiccups occur; The organization functions as a more intelligent system because information and knowledge are shared more quickly and completely. Non-productive competition between people and systems drops off and is replaced by a preference for cooperation; Ideas and information are not dropped into the chasms between silos; and People adapt more quickly to changes in products and services, changes in customer requirements, changes in work processes, and changes in the competitive environment;
The Collaborative organization is designed for effective coordination, shared decision-making, and decision implementation. The emphasis in on a collaborative approach, because that provides an opportunity to utilize multiple perspectives and generate synergies and commitment. The collaboration occurs across both vertical and horizontal boundaries, so flow of information, people, coordination, and material escape the constraints of silos. The collaboration rests on a culture of shared responsibility, authority, and accountability for results.
There can be three levels of collaborative work systems: work teams, team-based organizations, and the collaborative organization. Each level aims at increasing the organization's capacity to serve its customers, employees, and owners with an increase in investment and results moving from left to right. Each design advocates changes intended in order to:
1. Increase both the ability and propensity of members to collaborate within and across levels of the organization.
2. Increase the organization's capacity to identify and respond to relevant changes in its environment;
3. Decrease the influence of position power and increase the influence of expertise in decision-making;
4. Promote learning and the sharing of learning across the organization; and
5. Make decision-making processes more public and more disciplined;
6. Increase employee ownership of, and involvement in, the organization and the accomplishment of its goals.
In fact collaboration helps in building up a relationship of mutuality and recognizing the strength of each other. Supplementing and complementing each other to achieve the pinnacle of success. Collaborative relationship helps the organization and the individuals to develop respect for each other, and accept each other in a working situation. As collaboration is based on mutual understanding, so there is always scope of getting immediate feedback from the collaborating partners which promotes vitality in the activity.
In a collaborative atmosphere, many people work together as a team, which stimulate members of the group to think differently to think in a more creative way. Collaboration give scope to think about alternative approaches and solutions, from which the best one can be picked. As the collaboration is the multiplication of creative talents. So the solutions and ideas that will come up from them, will surely be better than what will come up from a single creative thinking.
A collaborative culture includes:
Shared leadership where all members take initiative;
Commitment to the success of other members, rather than just one's own;
Valuing of diverse perspectives;
Trust and respect in everyday interactions;
Power based on expertise and accountability;
Valuing of truth and truth telling;
Positive attitudes among members at all ranks;
Commitment to continuous improvement of the whole organization. So, it is evident that the greatest advantage of collaboration is that of individuals go beyond their own limitation. Their lack of expertise in some fields does not come in the way of achieving certain task. Different individuals have different strengths and while working together, they pool the various available expertise to build a collaborative organization.
The question remains are we working towards building a collaborative organization .. or just its another rat race towards the corner office ...does the corner office really mean so much .. at times we need to introspect ... fruit for thought ...
Signing off
Dr. Siddhartha Pandey
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