Andy Greene, Flow, shares in part one of a series of three articles, Getting Collaboration Right, three ways that have been proven to unlock collaboration across companies.
Many of us rely on effective collaboration with our colleagues from other departments, geographical areas, and business units to complete our tasks. We collaborate with other teams in order to gain their input and work together on solving problems.
It becomes more difficult to communicate effectively and maintain relationships with colleagues as companies grow. Our first instinct is to concentrate on building relationships and trust within our immediate team. Nobody is managing coordination and collaboration across teams. The result is:
- People feel overwhelmed by requests for their input
- The workload of teams is less predictable; they are not in control.
- Too many dependencies slow down progress
- They don’t know where the expertise and experience is in their company, and what other teams do
It is easy for colleagues to start feeling lost in their own company, unsure of the larger picture and unsure if they are making a real difference. Collaboration does happen, but the kind of collaboration that crushes motivation and autonomy is not what we want.
Three ways to improve cross-company cooperation
Use these three proven methods to improve collaboration, productivity, and engagement across the company:
1. Priorities visible for your business
Problem: Too many projects with conflicting priorities
Solution Turn your map into a living artifact
employees often forget or leaders don’t agree with the priorities of their company. A roadmap is a better way to communicate your strategy than a Powerpoint presentation that gets lost in the shared drive. A roadmap is much easier to understand than a complex Gannt chart.
- Visually connects different programmes so that teams can see the flow of work, the priority and the importance.
- It makes it clear where the work is now, next and what will be done in the near future
- Eliminating low-value work, reducing dependency and overwhelming from too many initiatives.
- Teamwork improves when teams are working towards a shared agenda and defined team goals
- Teams are given autonomy on ‘how’ to deliver the service.
Visual data is processed and absorbed better than other types of data. A good road map improves engagement, motivation and clarity while removing any confusion.
2. Made decisions visible
Problem: People do not know when and where decisions are taken
Solution Use an operating system for meetings to show links between decisions
Meetings are where most decisions and choices made by a business tend to be made. Employees can benefit from understanding the links between meetings and decisions, whether they are about strategy decisions to guide the business direction over the long term or daily decisions regarding individual programmes.
The visual layout of annual, quarterly, and monthly meetings by a meeting operating system allows colleagues to understand how their work is used and represented to drive business.
It is usually built on an audit of existing meetings that examines the effectiveness/need of each meeting. The second step is to think about the optimal dependencies of different teams within the roadmap. You can take the best parts of a current situation and add new connections that will help you achieve your goals.
Complement this visualisation of the nested meeting with a record of all decisions taken in each forum. This will promote accountability and transparency, as well as help employees to track progress on the roadmap.
3. Team contributions should be visible
Problem: Employees do not know what other teams are doing
Solution Team maps to improve collaboration between teams
You may have been confused when someone at a party told you what they did for a living. If you apply this to your workplace, the truth is we often miss out on opportunities to collaborate with others because we don’t know their expertise and experience. We tend to work in small, rigid networks. The move to hybrid work tends to reinforce silos, making it harder for newcomers to join.
Consider creating team maps to help people find new partners and expand their network. Here’s the virtual location to visit:
- Each team’s role in executing the roadmap
- Current initiatives
- What they offer to other teams/internal stakeholder
- What to do when you are working with a team?
- The key methods and tools that they use
- What they look like
Team maps can help you to identify team strengths and abilities, and develop solutions that are more effective and efficient.
Summary: Connecting dots for individuals and teams
The potential of teamwork is limited when we ignore how different teams interact. This can also demotivate individual colleagues, who are unable to understand the impact of their actions or how they might be collaborating with other teams more effectively. The use of roadmaps, meeting operating system and team maps can increase productivity and engagement by helping colleagues connect the dots and identify opportunities for smarter work.
Collaboration is a part of almost everything we do in the workplace. This is the first part of a series on ‘Getting Collaboration Right’. The second part focuses on improving collaboration within teams, and the third part explores how individuals are able to master their personal workflows in order to succeed at a collaborative workplace.
