"Stop, Collaborate and Listen"

Okay, so some of you might recognize my homage to late ‘80s hip hop music in the title of this post. But believe it or not, those words are more than just cheesy lyrics from a Vanilla Ice song. Do you dare read on?

Recently, the word “collaborate” seems to have made its way to the forefront of the employee engagement lexicon. Of course the concept of fostering employee collaboration in the workplace is not new, but it seems to be a hot topic right now among businesses searching for the golden answer about how to do more with less. The Harvard Business Review even dedicated an entire issue recently to collaboration, with its cover boldly stating, “Build a Culture of Trust and Innovation. Collaborate” (July—August 2011).

With all the talk in business about collaboration (and it’s not lost on me that I’ve already used the word five times in this post), I thought it would be interesting to explore a bit about what the word actually means, both literally and in the context of a business environment.

Dictionary.com defines “collaborate” in two simple ways:
1. to work, one with another; cooperate, as on a literary work
2. to cooperate, usually willingly, with an enemy nation, especially with an enemy occupying one's country

Both of these definitions are pretty basic. However, the second one did raise my eyebrow. It made me think about how organizations, especially those with more competitive cultures, go about fostering collaboration among employees with different priorities, opinions, approaches and working styles. It would be too strong to refer to competing factions within companies as “enemy nations,” but it’s not a stretch to say it’s often a challenge for companies to unite their people around a singular mission, strategy for success and way of operating – in other words, to collaborate.

In a business context, collaboration takes on a whole set of more specific meanings – exchanging ideas, managing knowledge, streamlining processes, etc. – all with the end of goal of improving outcomes. And while many companies are looking for quick-fix solutions to improving collaboration within their walls, I would argue that such a thing does not exist. Collaboration must be woven into the fabric of an organization’s culture, which takes commitment, time, energy and skill.

The Harvard Business Review framed it well by outlining four skills necessary for organizations looking to build a collaborative culture:
• Define and build a shared purpose
• Cultivate an ethic of contribution
• Develop scalable processes for coordinating people’s efforts
• Create an infrastructure in which collaboration is valued and rewarded

Do you agree? What are your thoughts about collaboration?

Dan Shaw
dan.shaw@edelman.com