col·lab·o·ra·tion – kəˌlabəˈrāSH(ə)n / noun / the action of working with someone to produce or create something
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to get through a business day without hearing the word transformation. Let’s face it; its everywhere; in our personal lives, our professional lives and even the lives of our children. Everyone and everything is changing and requires our adaptation in order to survive and thrive.
At a personal level I have lived through many transformations; moving away from home, getting married and most recently raising children. In my professional life I have both been part of companies that have dramatically transformed and helped numerous clients around the world to transform their respective businesses.
All this being said what is often mentioned but rarely talked about is how essential collaboration is when undertaking any transformational project. We tend to focus a lot of energy of the process and technology associated with the change but when it comes to transforming the people and teams driving the change sometimes we fall short.
Here are few of the reminders that I use to help foster tighter collaboration across my teams –
- Trust – At the foundational level the people who are driving the change need to trust each other. Above all else they need to know that their is no potential for harm to themselves before they can truly focus on driving change. For established teams trust may already exist but for new teams it cannot be underestimated
- Speed – We need to recognize that different personality types and traits can drive different speeds of execution. For some, speed of execution is the key goal even it comes at the expense of more change later. For others, making the right decision is more important than being quick. Teams must acknowledge their internal “speedometers” and agree early on on how to adjust to a common speed where all parties can feel comfortable
- Communication Styles – In today’s global world its rare for us to all be in the same place at the same time. Conference calls and webinars have replaced traditional face-to-face communication. With this we need to especially careful that we don’t lose our ability to get insights from all members of the team. We need to embrace those that may not dominate the live conversation and give everyone a chance to easily drive input into the process outside of the scheduled meeting
- Sense of Purpose – In order for every individual to feel excited about the change they need to be clear on their purpose on the team and why they are an essential part of the team. Its never enough for everyone do be rallied around the organizational purpose, their must be a personal connection to the goal
- Rewards – We tend to put rewards for major transformational projects at the finish line but neglect celebrating success along the way. Its important to recognize what has been accomplished and the benefits that have been driven at every major milestone.
We live in exciting times and together we can work more effectively to drive change with impact!
ShawnRosemarin.com 