Tracy Kennedy brings decades of leadership & team development experience to light with optimism and practical strategies.
Are we sick of the word collaboration yet? Maybe. Collaboration has long been a subject of discussion, yet it continues to arise as one of the most relevant issues I hear as a leadership and team development coach and consultant. It’s no wonder why. Quality collaboration is at the heart of any successful organization, team and relationship.
I’ve spent more than 20 years working with top leaders, from small tech startups to large corporate companies, helping leaders and teams collaborate more effectively. I’ve witnessed firsthand the impact that a dedicated focus on collaboration has on organizational dynamics and the bottom line. But leaders can't simply tell their team to “Be more collaborative!” They must dedicate time and intentionality to making it happen.
Below, I’ve outlined my findings for building and maintaining a truly collaborative workplace, alongside clear, actionable how-tos. If each of these strategies seems relatively basic on its own, great. Leaders need to get back to the basics to create a solid foundation on which to build a culture of collaboration. Let’s go.
1. Clarify your definition.
The word “collaboration” is thrown about so often that it can feel like a meaningless corporate buzzword. When leaders talk about the need to improve collaboration, there's often a misalignment of expectations. What one person thinks when they hear collaboration differs from another. And when people aren’t clear, they either do nothing or waste time guessing.
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Collaboration In Action: Be explicit about what improved collaboration looks like and what you are asking team members to do.
• Do you want teammates to leverage each other’s talents? Engage in conversations about what talents each person has to offer.
• Do you want people to share opinions and feedback more openly? Find out why that isn’t happening.
• Do you want them to proactively seek out opinions and input? How are you modeling or encouraging this practice?
• Do you want teams to brainstorm more? Are you providing an environment for innovation and broad thinking?
2. Define the purpose.
If people don’t know why they are collaborating and don’t fully understand the business impact and benefits, they likely won’t engage.
Collaboration In Action: Identify the tangible and intangible business reasons to collaborate. What are you trying to achieve with increased collaboration? Communicate these reasons clearly and often.
• Tangible reasons include increased innovation, process improvement, speed to market, increased sales, decreased risk and employee engagement.
• Intangible reasons include connection, improved communication, fostering trust and opportunities for personal growth.
3. Get to know your team.
The best leaders I know take time and initiative to get to know their team at a deeper level. Provide opportunities for teammates to get to know each other and actively learn how they prefer to collaborate.
Building team connection and rapport is essential. When team members see each other as human beings—not just colleagues—it creates vulnerability, trust and openness. It makes it easier to open up, ask for help, celebrate wins and collaborate at the highest level.
Collaboration In Action: Create time for people to get to know each other. Identify team-building activities, social events, icebreakers or facilitated discussions that are authentic for your corporate culture and foster strong interpersonal relationships. Even two hours (happy hour, volunteering, brainstorming sessions) can be a game changer.
4. Leverage diverse strengths.
Great leaders actively seek out, recognize and leverage diverse talents, backgrounds and perspectives. When like minds think together, you may get harmony, flow and efficiency. However, true innovation and a culture of progress only happen when diverse thinking and perspectives exist.
Intellectual friction—while potentially uncomfortable at first—triggers a creative spark to solve problems, develop innovative ideas and make change. But for this to happen, you must recognize and value different opinions, backgrounds and perspectives. Even more critically, people must feel a sense of safety and belonging to share.
Collaboration In Action: Identify and highlight unique skill sets, thinking, perspectives, talents and experiences. Invest in a team-building session, outside facilitator or profiling tool. Recognizing individuals for all of who they are and providing opportunities to leverage their strengths can increase psychological safety, a sense of belonging, engagement and collaboration.
5. Don’t overuse technology.
Many teams I work with spend much time distracted by collaboration technologies: Slack, Zoom, Miro, Monday, Teams ... In my experience, if not used wisely, these tools can hinder progress and cause additional stress.
Collaboration In Action: Identify the best collaboration methods for your team and remove any unnecessary channels that take up employee time, energy or mental bandwidth. And remember, however helpful these tools may be, technology cannot replace the magic that ensues from human interaction.
6. Provide time and space.
Employees often feel overwhelmed, struggle to do more with less and feel they can’t fit a nebulous corporate “collaboration initiative” on their already overflowing plates. As a leader, you need to help carve out time and space.
I recently worked with a VP at a Fortune 500 tech company who wanted to drive greater collaboration. She needed two of her teams—led by headstrong leaders—to drive an important initiative. They identified that the best solution was to get more time together with the intention of brainstorming, blue-sky thinking and sharing suggestions and challenges.
However, when I asked them when they could make time for these “collaboration meetings,” they casually responded they could get together in three months! Leaders must prioritize these non-urgent—but important—times for strategy and brainstorming.
Collaboration In Action: Intentionally create time and space dedicated to collaboration, idea sharing and discussion (not tactical updates). Strategy offsites, brainstorming sessions and working meetings are all great options.
Now, it’s your turn.
I have witnessed firsthand the impact a dedicated focus on collaboration can have on teams and organizations and strongly encourage you to take a step back, reflect and identify which strategies you feel will significantly impact your team and workplace. Which are you currently using? Which will help your team collaborate more? Get started today.
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