OUGD505: Ways Proven to Help Collaboration

• Improve/Help Work Ethic

  Good work habits are essential to effective collaboration. Individuals need to be able to direct themselves to accomplish their responsibilities and teams must collectively do the same. Flexibility becomes important as the mission of the team progresses: individuals need to easily adjust between independent work and collaborative work as conditions warrant. A team that is consistently on schedule and reaching or exceeding objectives is a characteristic of effective collaboration. Each member should have a sense of responsibility for the profit and loss of the team's effort and the team should share responsibility for its profit and loss to the organization. When teams are struggling in these areas or where teams are being supported by just a few productive members, the collaboration methods employed are ineffective.

• Introduce Organizational Culture

  Many organizations have attitudes toward collaboration that suggest that they think people can be programmed to work together. That's why collaborative initiatives often begin and end with the installation of a software program. A characteristic of effective collaboration is a culture that gives more than lip service to the ideal. Traditional management practices that foster competition between individuals, micromanagement, and exploitation are incompatible with collaboration. Effective collaboration methods create an environment where team members feel secure sharing their opinions, skills, and knowledge without fear of becoming marginalized. Efforts by one team member to sabotage another through behind-the-scenes interactions with management will only stifle collaboration. Team members also need to know that their input to the team is valued and that the outcomes of collaboration will be utilized in practice. In short, leadership with the organization is needed to demonstrate that its commitment to collaboration goes beyond words.