COLLABORATION BETWEEN TEAMS
Is collaboration between your teams not as effective as it could be?
So how can we solve this? Start by inviting everyone involved to a workshop held in a large room. Then, in a controlled and structured way, enable people across team boundaries to interview one another about their jobs. Assemble smaller groups across team boundaries to discuss issues related to their collaboration. Ensure that people can see with their own eyes that their suggestions are being taken seriously by the management team.
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You might think this suggestion is too simplistic. However, the issue here is not the content, it is how you manage the process. The most important factors for success are meticulous detailed planning and establishing buy-in prior to execution, as well as careful process facilitation during execution. Afterwards, you need to communicate successful implementation on an ongoing basis.
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When ensuring this, the likelihood of collaboration between teams being more effective will increase tangibly. Would you like to know more?
Maybe you have thought about tackling this issue but do not know where to start. Before discussing how to go about it, I would like to state a basic assumption of mine; namely that most people want to contribute in the workplace. If they seem not to, it is because something is restraining them. What could those restraints be? Research into relational coordination gives us some clues:
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Insufficient personal relationships between teams is a starting point. There may also be a lack of insight into what goals neighbouring teams are striving toward, or a failure to realise there may even be common goals between teams.
Each of these phenomena in isolation complicates collaboration across team boundaries. When combined, the effect is multiplied, resulting in lack of communication and coordination across team boundaries.
The final nail in the coffin is hammered in by management neglecting to create formal processes for collaboration between teams.
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