Collaboration

Conversation between a project manager (PM) and a new team member, Debbie.

PM: "I am so glad you are on our team. Please let me know if you need anything, and you can reach out to any team member if you need help or support. It's a highly collaborative team, and we help each other succeed."

Debbie: "Whoa! I love the team already. I can't wait to meet other team members and get started. I look forward to collaborating with everyone."

Little did Debbie know she would meet the most collaborative team in her career.

Debbie met her team members, and as the PM noted, they were amiable, professional, supportive, energetic, and 'highly collaborative'; she couldn't have wished for a better team. With excitement and determination, Debbie settled into her new role, laser-focused on introducing new initiatives as a subject matter expert while adding value and meeting project goals. Within weeks of starting the role, Debbie soon discovered that collaboration in this team meant that all team members had their perspectives on what should be included in her deliverables, what was essential, and how it should be prioritized. She began to think she was hired to document and convey everyone's perspective of her responsibilities.

Context: Debbie, in her previous roles, worked on teams with clearly defined roles, tasks, and responsibilities. Collaboration in those teams meant having sounding boards to bounce ideas off, brainstorming sessions, and peer reviews. She was able to assume responsibility for her initiatives and deliverables.

The approach to collaboration in her new role was different; it felt almost like an interference and was starting to affect her productivity and sense of worth. She realized she needed a paradigm shift to excel in her new role, so she adopted the new collaborative approach.

Her perspective on collaboration broadened to include the following:

·       Collaboration is a blend of stakeholders' ideas to determine the most effective solution for a given task.

·       Collaboration is not individuality. It's quite the opposite. Have you heard of the tale of the many cooks? In this case, the many cooks made the broth outstanding.

·       Collaboration allows for diversity and inclusivity, thus increasing productivity and inspiring creativity.

·       Collaboration helps solidify team bonding.

·       Collaboration supports an organization's culture of engaging and learning.

Collaboration is good. However, if not adequately deployed, it may drown the expert's perspectives, be used to push personal agendas, and sometimes create inefficiencies.

 Like every tool, collaboration has its benefits and drawbacks. While the benefits may outweigh the disadvantages, team leaders and members should know the possible drawbacks and implement guiding principles to get the best value from collaboration.

Well, who needs a subject matter expert with AI…

What are your thoughts on collaboration? What’s your collaboration story?