Set the stage
For better collaboration, create the right conditions
Think about the last time you worked with other people. Maybe it was a project at your job, or service in your community. How did it go? Did everyone do their share? Would they want to work together again?
As you ask yourself these questions, you may be thinking about each team member's strengths and capabilities. Not a bad thing to consider. But what if there were another way to think about working together? What if in addition to "Have we assembled the right people?" we were to ask, "Have we set the right conditions for a successful collaboration?"
According to Gilbert Steil, a strategic planning consultant and the author of The Collaboration Response, "our species is capable of making a deep commitment to work with others — so deep that we are willing to give up self-interest for the greater good." In his work with NGOs, governments, schools, communities, and businesses for more than a quarter century, Steil has come to see collaboration as a natural response: "Our hunter-gatherer ancestors survived due to their ability to collaborate."
Collaboration, he says, is natural and instinctive, just like our fight-or-flight response. When we're frightened or threatened, our body and brain react automatically, either for battle or retreat. Similarly, certain conditions can compel us to bond with one another. What are those conditions? Steil offers eight maxims.
Eight maxims for collaboration
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Get the whole social system in the room. Everyone involved should know the project’s full scope, not just their own piece of the puzzle.
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Explore the historical and current context. When Steil and his associates start a new project, they bring the participants together and spend four hours looking at the context, describing the issues, and discussing the impact on the system. Not three hours, not five. In his experience, four hours is what’s needed.
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Get everyone actively engaged and require them to speak. This is different from a team of executives working with consultants and then running around trying to get buy-in. In a successful collaboration, every stakeholder must be involved.
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Encourage self-management. Steil breaks down the participants into groups of no more than eight. There’s no need for executives to facilitate discussions. Instead, a discussion leader is chosen by the group, the way a jury selects a foreperson.
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State the purpose. Keep it simple, says Steil. Aim for “a tangible purpose that is narrow and transparent — no broader than it needs to be.” It’s critical for collaborators to make sure there is just one issue before them. The discussion leader may need to rein in conversations that veer off-topic.
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Give everyone equal standing. Steil says that at the beginning of the meeting, CEOs can make a statement about the purpose. After that, the CEO is just another collaborator, expected to speak no more or less than anyone else.
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Acknowledge the organization’s issues and problems. Steil helps clients create a vision of “a desirable future” and then work backward. “In order to achieve this future, what steps must we take?”
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Look for common ground. Once the group articulates the desirable future, “we ask them for some elements of the future, then we ask which elements are things that everybody can support,” says Steil. “That becomes common ground.”
Creative Collaboration
Adrienne Campbell-Holt is the founder and artistic director of Colt Coeur, an off-Broadway company that creates world premieres from scratch. Unlike Gilbert Steil, she gets to select her collaborators from a roster of trained artists. When trying to create the conditions that trigger collaboration, her methods are often — but not always — similar to Steil’s.
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86% of employees and executives attribute workplace failures to a lack of collaboration or ineffective communication.
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About 75% of employers rate teamwork and collaboration as “very important,” but only 18 percent of employees are evaluated on their communication skills at performance reviews.
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39% of employees say there is not enough collaboration in their organizations.
Source: bit.ai
Understand the vision. Before rehearsals begin, Campbell-Holt shares music, documentaries, and books with the group in order to "tweak people's inspiration and understanding in as many ways as possible." She asks that cast members do the same.
Schedule enough time. When creative collaborators are balancing multiple projects, their day jobs, and personal obligations, they can be pulled in too many directions. Campbell-Holt says participants must devote enough time to the work. Steil's four hours? "It depends on the size of the group and how many are new to each other," Campbell-Holt says. "But four is a great number!"
Get playful and remain playful. Creative collaboration is triggered in an environment where collaborators feel relaxed, confident, and safe to take risks. To ensure that, Campbell-Holt says, "we play games like charades and celebrity, we encourage vulnerability and fearlessness, and we try to foster a sense of play and laughter."
• This story originally appeared in the April 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.
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