Collaboration

What is Collaboration? 

Today, we understand collaboration usually entails a social element of decision making and activity.  Collaboration amongst peers on a project at work suggests that they worked 'in-concert' to a collective goal.  This is the case throughout many forms of social structure both professionally and at home.  My wife and I collaborate on dinner most evenings.  We collectively pursue the goal by organizing our resources and planning the meal.  We then decide roles and agree upon activities that will bring us closer to our ultimate objective of eating and being nourished.  We then begin the preparation, work the process and arrive at our intended outcome.  Doing something together like preparing a meal or working on a project is always a more rewarding experience and usually always results in better quality results.  Speed is often accelerated but sometimes it's sacrificed for quality through more brainpower and working through team conflict.

There's a lack of value placed on practicing collaboration in most organizations and institutions.  The claims of achieving collaboration are often a 'half-way' attempt to build the scaffolding or pitch the tent but often not rooted in a deep foundation of value around active and consistent collaboration across all teams and people in a company.  We like teams and teamwork and believe they are more effective, yet we still hire individuals and reward people based upon each person's role, objectives and performance.  Now is the time to completely reform the process to encourage active collaboration and accountability from the team.