Andy Greene, of Flow, shares his three top tips for navigating the waves of requests to collaborate and not be swept away by them.
Our collaboration has always changed. The Industrial Revolution saw the rise of large-scale businesses and factories, which required new roles. Multi-divisional structure and global ambitions fueled the growth of company size and complexity.
A Brief History of Company Communication
Email revolutionized intra-company communications in the 1990s, before Yammer brought social networking into business in 2008. In 2012, a former Cisco WebEx employee founded the video-conferencing platform Zoom. A year later, Slack was the first of a new generation in collaboration tools. Microsoft has credited the impact of the pandemic to the rapid adoption of Teams as we moved towards remote working.
This brief history lesson was created to highlight the dramatic changes in work that have occurred over the past 15 years. In global companies, where colleagues can be contacted instantly, there is a constant flow of requests and collaborative inputs. Many tasks require simultaneous attention. It can feel as if we are always pressed for time.
Workload and workflow
It’s not just that we can’t manage our workload. Today, the workflow is completely different. Technology has created a flow of work that many people are not trained to manage.
Workflows are the way we plan and assign work to others, communicate and coordinate about it, and review it. We often find ourselves in firefighting mode when workload and workflow are not given enough attention.
Use the Head Heart Hand to regain control.
1. Head: Prioritise your schedule by looking ahead
Tim Ferriss: “If you lack time, then you do not have priorities.” We give ourselves way too much work in collaborative cultures where you can do so many things. The antidote is:
- Assess your capacity to manage your workload by comparing your collaborative requests with your workload.
- Due to the planning error and observation that the work expands in order to fill the available time consider bringing all your tasks to your calendar to determine whether you have enough focus blocks each week to progress with strategic work, and how to best batch routine work around these block. This technique of timing will help you to understand what you want to accomplish and when.
- Consider the week beyond. When do you expect to receive certain requests for collaboration? What is the impact of this on your efforts to act sooner?
- Filter requests aggressively against your team and personal goals
You should plan ahead and commit to daily planning.
2. Heart Invest in your network’s health
We all know the prize for the winner of the pie eating contest. Yes, you heard me right. More pie. As the saying goes, “If you want to get something done, then ask someone busy.” But the collaborative superstars learned an important lesson. They invested in building an operational network with key relationships outside their immediate team. In practice, it requires:
- Discuss mutual interests and priorities. (No one has time to just chitchat).
- Learn about the passions, expertise, and work that your colleagues enjoy.
The bonding also enhances collaboration between teams
Your investment will identify who is better suited to handle a collaborative request. You’ll build your ability to manage workflows over time rather than having the entire effort on your shoulders.
3. Hand: Before you touch anything, please remove your hands.
Dan Charnas introduces the concept of hands-off work vs. hand-on in Clean Work.
Work that is done without your involvement: Tasks for which others rely on you to provide input. You may have a colleague waiting on you to give some feedback. The team will be blocked until you give it.
Work in the field: Time to focus on a task with critical thinking. This strategic work will be overtaken by urgent or routine work without your careful attention.
Charnas says that you should prioritise hands-off tasks as fast as possible to keep collaborative workflows flowing. Good collaborative citizens timebox hands-off tasks before getting hands-on.
Summary – Focus on your own personal fitness
As almost all of our work involves collaboration, it is important to take a close look at your own productivity habits in order to be able to play a reliable and effective role as a team member.
The ‘Head Heart Hand” is a great reminder of how good fitness can be achieved through collaboration.
- Head protects against collaboration bloat
- “Heart” increases your ability to deliver
- Hand keeps everything moving.
This is the third and final part in a series of three on Collaborating Right. Part One is about better collaboration in your company, and Part Two is about better collaboration between teams.
