Collaboration blah blah blah!

Collaboration blah blah blah!

The business world has been talking about the need to address ‘silo mentality’ since Adam and Eve were in nappies!

‘Collaboration’ is the modern day buzzword for this. Organisations are awash with well meaning initiatives to improve collaboration and remove the silo mentality.

However when people say they want to collaborate, many are unconsciously coming from a mindset of wanting or needing something from the person or department they want to collaborate with. This unconscious conditioning goes right back to the days of our ancestors on the savannah, when survival and looking after ourselves was paramount.

However, this is not collaboration.

Collaboration requires a mindset of giving. Sure there needs to be something in it for us, however we also need to ask:

✅ What does the other party need that I can help them with?
✅ How does this potential ‘collaboration’ help them?
✅ What am I prepared to give up to make this ‘collaboration’ work?

The key is to spend time with the people you want to collaborate with….
🔦 Understand their issues and challenges.
🔦 Find out what works and what doesn’t work in the way you currently work together?
🔦 What is important to them?
🔦 What do they struggle with?
🔦 How you or your department make life tough for them and how you could make it easier?

It’s not hard, just takes the will and the recognition of its importance. However true collaboration doesn’t happen without it.